When the Levee Breaks: The Making of Led Zeppelin IV (The Vinyl Frontier series) [Paperback]

Andy Fyfe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2003 | Series: The Vinyl Frontier series

This compelling story of the writing and recording of Led Zeppelin IV is full of passionate insights into the mayhem, madness, and creative processes behind one of the most influential albums of all time. This book explains how Led Zeppelin, recognized as the first true rock gods with three platinum albums in quick succession, had been shrouded in intrigue, with legendary tales of debauched excesses, orgies, black magic, and satanic pacts. Included are details on how a clever studio deal afforded the band total artistic freedom to create an explosive and massive new sound with a heavy sex groove that would redefine rock music and create an entirely new genre: heavy metal. The exhaustive track-by-track analysis includes commentary on "Stairway to Heaven," "Black Dog," and "Rock and Roll."

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Fyfe dissects the development of Led Zeppelin's fourth album, officially untitled but variously known as "Led Zeppelin IV," "Zoso," "Untitled," and "Four Symbols/Four Runes" but most comprehensibly identified to nonfans as "The Stairway Album" (for its big hit, "Stairway to Heaven") with astonishing enthusiasm. Long ago and far away, the godfathers of heavy metal's musical peers and the press pooh-poohed them, "even though they had managed to turn rock music on its head." At rope's end, they responded with "a blueprint of such far-reaching consequence that it would inform all R & B-based music to follow," a phenomenally salesworthy platter that, besides the song rockers fanatically love or hate (i.e., the aforementioned "Stairway"), contains Cadillac's current ad jingle, "Rock and Roll." Readers who revel in the Zep will almost certainly love Fyfe's maniacally detailed celebration. The less enthusiastic may be entertained by its unintentionally Spinal-Tap pish vignettes. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"A thoroughly researched retelling of a good story, with no hypothesizing waffle and all of the good anecdotes." -- Blender

"A track-by-track breakdown and a look at the madness and people involved in producing it." -- Goldmine

"Chicago Review Press’s Vinyl Frontier series sure beats VH1’s ‘Behind the Music.’" -- Chicago Sun–Times

"Entertaining . . . Spellbinding." -- The Village Voice

"Thoroughly researched." -- Richieunterberger.com

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556525087
• ISBN-13: 978-1556525087
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,193,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother, August 23, 2006

By 

ABQChris (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When the Levee Breaks: The Making of Led Zeppelin IV (The Vinyl Frontier series) (Paperback)

Nothing new or the slightest bit insightful can be found within these pages. Anyone who's read a decent book or two about Led Zeppelin (not counting the terrible Hammer of the Gods or Richard Cole's travesty) already knows everything supposedly "revealed" here. There's a lot left out, and Fyfe seems to attribute every good idea the band had to drugs. He keeps calling them "hippies," and has the nerve to claim that they never went on to release an album on par with the fourth. Excuse me?

He also mentions the ridiculous "deal with the devil" rubbish far too many times, giving the '70s media hacks more attention than they deserve and actually claiming that Zeppelin cared about what critics thought, designing their fourth album around media "respectability." He has the audacity to try defending the press's treatment of the band during the '70s, and says mean things like how Jimmy "ate his words" when he agreed to play with Plant again. This kind of unwarranted criticism can be found throughout the book.

One gets the idea that Fyfe was never much of a Zeppelin fan, but read a few books and stole their best bits for this assignment. His wording's often identical to that in other works. His grammar's not very good; it's full of run-on sentences and annoying word repetition.

There's so much good information left out from dozens of great interviews over the years, regarding the making of the fourth album alone (which is what this book's supposedly about, although you get a condensed bio of nearly everyone mentioned on the fringes of the band, which is unnecessary and tedious), that the book is unacceptably incomplete.

There's also a lot of erroneous information. For instance, Fyfe quotes John Paul Jones as stating that "Going to California" was recorded outside in the garden, and that a plane can be heard flying over. He's actually talking about "Black Country Woman," which is on an entirely different album! Fyfe quotes "In the Evening" by claiming that Robert sings "I'm in pain" (no, he doesn't) and says that hip-hop as we know it wouldn't exist without the Beastie Boys ripping off Bonzo (very wrong).

He also contradicts himself constantly -- stating, for instance, that Page and Plant arrived at Headley Grange with "Battle of Evermore" worked out, but then later telling the story we already know: Page picked up Jones' mandolin while staying at Grange and began writing the song based on his experiments with the instrument.

The book's full of things like this. Save your money.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars NOT PARTICULARLY ESSENTIAL, April 15, 2004

By 

G. YEO "gyeo" (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When the Levee Breaks: The Making of Led Zeppelin IV (The Vinyl Frontier series) (Paperback)

The book isn't only about Led Zep IV - it provides a general history of the band and many of the author's own interpretations. It's arguable - very arguable - if anyone would agree that the title of the book "When the Levee Breaks" is the most essential rock track ever recorded after Stairway to Heaven...highly debatable! If you've read "Hammer of the Gods" or other Zep texts - this will seem somewhat superfluous. No real new observations. The portion on the making of Zep IV is good - but really wouldn't fill up a book. More like an article...

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book for LZ fans, January 19, 2004

By 

James T. Knapp (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When the Levee Breaks: The Making of Led Zeppelin IV (The Vinyl Frontier series) (Paperback)

Loads of trivia packed in this lil' book.
Gives complete bio's of the players and reviews each song on the record in detail. Covers the ways and means of each recording as well. No footnotes but has a bibliography.
Made me break out that cd one more time.