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Mick Wall

When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin Paperback – Illustrated, November 9, 2010

by Mick Wall (Author)

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The first significant fresh reporting on the legendary band in twenty years, built on interviews with all surviving band members and revealing a never-before-seen side of the genius and debauchery that defined their heyday.

Veteran rock journalist Mick Wall unflinchingly tells the story of the band that pushed the envelope on both creativity and excess, even by rock ‘n' roll standards. Led Zeppelin was the last great band of the 1960s and the first great band of the 1970s―and When Giants Walked the Earth is the full, enthralling story of Zep from the inside, written by a former confidante of both Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Rich and revealing, it bores into not only the disaster, addiction and death that haunted the band but also into the real relationship between Page and Plant, including how it was influenced by Page's interest in the occult. Comprehensive and yet intimately detailed, When Giants Walked the Earth literally gets into the principals' heads to bring to life both an unforgettable band and an unrepeatable slice of rock history.

Print length

554 pages
Language

English
Publisher

St. Martin's Griffin
Publication date

November 9, 2010
Dimensions

5.47 x 1.41 x 8.26 inches
ISBN-10

0312590393
ISBN-13

978-0312590390
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Sensational.” ―New York Times

“Entertaining, thoughtful.” ―Los Angeles Times

“His access and attention to detail make this a definitive work...an essential source for anyone eager to learn about the era when rock stars ruled the world.” ―Publishers Weekly

“Wall does well to shine light on the myths and music magic of Led Zep--rendering what could have been cartoonish real and sincere.” ―TimeOut Chicago

“[T]hat Wall can add so much fresh detail to the Led Zep story is in itself an extraordinary achievement…(and) he manages to humanize these planet-striding giants while doing so…” ―Classic Rock Magazine

“It deftly strikes the balance between lofty authority and finding a way to get inside the heads of its subjects.” ―The Guardian (UK)

“[T]his is the big one: a fat, juicy biography of the biggest band ever.” ―Daily Telegraph (UK)

About the Author

MICK WALL is one of England’s best known music journalists: his work has appeared in Classic Rock, Mojo, the London Times and a variety of other publications, and his books include the rock ‘n’ roll biographies When Giants Walked the Earth and Enter Night. He has also served as a trusted on-camera source for a number of BBC-TV music documentaries. He lives in England.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (November 9, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 554 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0312590393
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312590390
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.47 x 1.41 x 8.26 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #211,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #238 in Popular Music (Books)
- #450 in Music History & Criticism (Books)
- #632 in Rock Band Biographies

Customer Reviews:
575 ratings

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5 star		61%
4 star		23%
3 star		9%
2 star		3%
1 star		4%

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Mark S.

Solid biography mired by lengthy tangential occult sections

Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2016

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The good: One of the only well researched complete biographies on the band. The author had band access and in particular spoke a lot with Jimmy Page. The crazy stories are there as well as good details of recording and touring. Overall it is a very entertaining book in some ways. Unfortunately for me it has one deep very odd flaw.

The bad: The author appears to take the occult very seriously. Not just a handful of pages but rather over fifty are dedicated to Page and the occult. Long sections are presented on Aleister Crowley well beyond what is necessary or desired. The author also gave far too much time to occultic fringe associates of Page, who in retrospect may have influenced Page's private life, but had nothing to do with the band. Not a single hint of scepticism is applied to the occult sections. Other books including Case's bio of Page demonstrates that since the 1970's Page has pretty much disowned occult practices and likely views his past belief in the occult and magic with at minimum great skepticism. I tend to think think that Wall's possible personal sympathies towards the occult may have caused him to make it seem more important for Zeppelin than it ever was.

Overall a decent book but one flawed by an unequal over length treatment of the occult in relation to Jimmy Page. Wall unfortunately takes something tangential to the story and makes it far more central than necessary. Still at $9.99 on kindle it is worth a read for a fan.

31 people found this helpful

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Billy B.

Finally a New Perspective

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2017

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I have a pretty extensive Zeppelin library of books and most of them are rehashes of the same old story. Not to say this book doesn't cover some of the same stories, history is history, no escaping that. With that said I couldn't put this book down and was sorry for it to end. One thing unique about this book is the italicized sections, which were likened to a movie taking liberties on a true story. Mick Wall never went into fantasyland, the sections were interspersed with enough facts to keep them real, and interesting. The book was well researched and Mr. Wall took just the right amount from other sources to make it not read like a rehash. He also includes the right amount of mud sharks, Crowley, occult, etc. without sensationalizing those events. Lastly Mr. Wall calls a spade a spade, if he's a fan you would never know it ... he calls it the way he feels it and is able to back his feelings up with common sense and facts. Another thing I came away with is a new sense of Robert Plant's perspective in the whole story. Good read, I highly recommend it.

7 people found this helpful

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Howard Schulman

A relatively shallow overview of the band and its members

Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2017

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Can't say I absolutely loved this bio about Led Zeppelin, but it more or less did the trick in terms of getting me familiar with the band. I thought a lot more could have been written about who each band member was before forming Led Zeppelin, but once the author gets into following the hype of the band while it was performing, I felt better about reading this book. Additionally, the author does a good job following what happens to the members after the break up, up till about 2009.
On a deeper level, Page was clearly the genius of the group and unfortunately is very reserved and evasive, but I would have appreciated more of an attempt to understand him, but the author only goes with what's already known about him. I feel that I have little understanding of what makes him tick. Plant seems a little more available, and Jones, even more so, but not much there, either.
I'm not sure if there is a better book about the band out there, or will be, but, as I mentioned, the book does convey the basics.
It read easily, which helps.

5 people found this helpful

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Arch57

Dazed but no longer confused

Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2015

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From when I first heard Whole Lotta love when I was 12 using the 6" detachable stereo speakers from our families fold up record player placing them on the floor between my ears I was blown away by the power and the amazing soundscapes. I never had the chance to see them in concert as they never came close enough and truthfully by 1976 I found the albums after IV not compelling enough as I moved on to British Progressive artist like EL&P, King Crimson, Genesis and Yes. However, the tunes of Zep where always present on FM radio, at parties, etc. and they still speak to me today. The book filled in a lot about the band and I liked how the author went to autobiographical sections in italics that added to where the members heads were at..
It was very sad at the end for Jimmy Page as it seemed he had more music left in his brain yet without the "magick" of the others he was left frustrated, waiting for Plant to join him. I enjoyed the background between Raising Sand and efforts to get Zep back on tour. Personally I downloaded Raising Sand and Robert's follow on albums and really dig the musical directions he is tackling. I also had the pleasure to see him live in 2013 and yes when he played a few Zep hits, I got the rush and goose bumps and they were the highlights of the show, showing the power of the tunes 40 years later.

6 people found this helpful

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E. Sedgwick

Rather appalled

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 6, 2020

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I was a great fan of Led Zeppelin as a teenager and I was keen to read the biography. However, although some of the book is really interesting, I am finding myself quite appalled by the fact that in many instances the members of the group were actually sexually abusing minors, and in reality they should have been prosecuted and spent time in prison. It's all very well to say that they were different times and drugs were rife, bla bla bla, but the sordid truth is that members of the band behaved in ways which are not only deplorable but are also in fact against the law. I appreciate that many groupies are putting themselves willingly into vulnerable situations, but that doesn't excuse things that happened.
Apart from this which is honestly dominating my reading of the book, there are other things which I don't like much. If you're not a big music buff, you probably won't have heard of the constant references to obsure blues artists who influenced Jimmy Page et al... I know I hadn't. The other thing that has irritated me is the constant speculation about Jimmy Page's obsession with the occult. I suppose it has to have some mention in relation to Jimmy Page, but I didn't appreciate SO much information about Aleister Crowely and occult rituals ect... as frankly I don't believe in it, I also couldn't care less the reasons behind his Zoso or whatever it is Symbol, and think it may just have been him being a bit pretentious …
I haven't finished the book yet, and I know that John Bonham has a tragic untimely death, but what about all the people he beat up, kicked , punched ( just for smiling at him) threatened with guns, I fail to find him a very sympathetic character.
I almost wish I hadn't read this book, as I would have preferred to carry on loving the music without finding out that I actually quite dislike all the musicians.

19 people found this helpful

Fletch

Bonzo, Jimmy, John and Bob - contains spoiler

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 1, 2018

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Really engrossing book, takes you back to a wonderful era of excess and success. Sometimes too much opinion and unnecessary detail about track listings but generally a great read that kept me engrossed, even more so than Hammer Of The Gods. I don't want to spoil the nearly ending but was very moving when Bonzo walked the stairway. Good read, well researched with some original touches, i.e. breaking into first person vernacular of the era.

4 people found this helpful

Montrose

Leaden Zep

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 18, 2019

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A curate’s egg of a book. Enjoyed reading about the rise of the individual group members and how they came to together as Zeppelin to rise and rise and prove the critics wrong. Add to this to the band riding the crest of the wave and then their downfall interspersed with some good personal “on the road” stories, good, bad and shocking, and you get a good read.

However, which would have been even better had it not be skewed in favour of Jimmy Page. We even get a long winded, off tangent section about his interest in the occult which after a few pages I simply skipped over. Counter this with the way the rest of the band are portrayed Robert Plant an awkward killjoy not wishing to jeopardise the progress of his solo career by turning back time, and increasing his bank balance, by joining up with the rest of the band and reform Zeppelin. John Bonham is branded a drunken bully and John Paul Jones as an aloof “Mr Dull”. Peter Grant, the band’s manager, is often portrayed as thuggish.

Wall tries to break away from the traditional start to finish documentation by slotting in italicised flash backs to the early days of the band members and manager. It is a nice idea and they are informative however they are written as if they are personal recollections by the band in a style that doesn’t convince.

2 people found this helpful

Dr. John Carter

Rock Gods: Led Zeppeling

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 27, 2015

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Mick Wall’s ‘When giants walked the earth’ is a forensic analysis of the rise of Led Zeppelin that displays an intimate knowledge of the music. More importantly the book tackles the dark side of the band, their legendary excess while on the road, Jimmy Page’s obsession with the occult as well discussing the volatile internal politics of the band complete with Peter Grant whose physical and psychological presence looms large throughout their story.

Neither does the book shy away from analysing the band’s gradual decline and fall from grace with the corresponding rise of punk and new wave music which coincided with John Bonham’s death. Equally their subsequent rehabilitation in recent years is also discussed along with Robert Plant’s reluctance to reignite the Led Zeppelin flame.

If you want to understand what made Led Zeppelin a behemoth in the 1970s and afterthought in the early 1980s and now bona fide rock gods, this book reveals the whole story without fear or favour, a must for any Zeppelin fan.

12 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Good times, bad times you know I've had my share

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 21, 2013

Verified Purchase

Just finished the book and I wanted to put down my thoughts on the piece. Apologies that it is subjective in terms of my opinion, but hope that I present a balanced case.

(WARNING: This review contains SPOILERS and uses an inference to a swear word that appears in the book, but is for reference to the actual writing only and not the opinion of the reviewer).

The book (on the whole) is very well written. It has a relaxed style and the language is accessible for the narrative pieces of the historical information. I thought the early days to about 1978 were very detailed and clear. The pace was quick without being too glib. Unfortunately from 1980 onward the historical information gave way to a more subjective style and really missed out major chunks of the solo careers of members. That said there is a lot of focus on Robert Plants 'Raising Sand' project and after-all it is a book about Zeppelin and not their solo careers.

The information regarding the career of Led Zeppelin is very good and doesn't stray too far away from the subject material and if it does it is only to support the historical markers and why certain decisions were made at certain times. However, there are three aspects of the book that I personally found deeply frustrating.

Firstly, the first person pieces that appear from time to time that attempt to put you in the mind a particular person during their early days: In the beginning I found these quite endearing, although I thought it was shame that in order to portray Peter Grant it was felt that using the word C*** over and over was justified. But as the book wore on, the dropping out of narrative in order to put these pieces in just become tedious and sometimes irrelevant, to the point that the last entry for John Bonham made me feel very frustrated. Especially when you're reading about the band say in 1977 one minute and you're thrown back to 1968 by the first person sections. There is also the aspect that it took a while to work out who actually is talking from time to time, which I felt detracted from what is other wise a very well paced book.

(SPOILER ALERT!! - Actual reference to two of the sections is cited here)

Secondly, some of the writing is so utterly subjective that it made me swear out loud sometimes with frustration. For example, the authors inference that it was the band who stole the money from the hotel after the gig is purely subjective and is written more from a headline grabbing attitude than an actual historically founded position. Another example was the review of the 2007 come back gig, where the author decries the event as basically awful and low energy, (when it is pretty much universally acknowledged that it was a complete triumph and success, but that in itself is very subjective. My apologies). Here I think it would have been better just to state the facts, rather than paint a unnecessarily negative picture of the decline of the band in order to play-out the 'rise and fall' nature of the story. It almost came across sometimes that where the author didn't have solid information that he made up a headline grabbing opinion just add spice to the mix, (an accusation he throws at the book 'Hammer of the Gods'), which in honesty he really didn't need to do when the rest of his content is so very well written and researched.

My final gripe was the portrayal of the members of the band, which I personally feel came across as exaggerated in order to make the book again more spicy. (Again SPOILER ALERT!!!). Jimmy Page is depicted initially as a tyrannical dictator who descends into being an emasculated hermit, with no life direction or purpose, which is very unfair and also untrue. His solo work is reasonably glossed over and there is no mention of his charity work in Brazil. Robert Plant on the other hand is the complete opposite, starting out as a weak willed figure who is bossed around by Page and then develops into this evil figure of a man who is selfish; dictatorial when it comes to the come back show and who will do anything to smash the hopes and dreams of Page. Completely over the top! Where he does get it right is the role of John Paul Jones in the band, but again there is little development of him from 1980 onwards.

But, I want to be absolutely fair to Mick Wall because in terms of a biography of Led Zeppelin it scores hands down over Hammer of the Gods and Stairway to Heaven (the Richard Coal biography), in that it avoids the lurid sensationalism of these other two works and really has a lot of excellent detail. (However, I personally feel that "Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man" by George Case is a far superior work in terms of the life if JP when compared to all three).

In conclusion, if you are a well read fan of Zeppelin lore, this makes a worth while read. But if you are using this as your very first entry into the world of Zeppelin history, then do check out other works for a contrasting view point. Especially Magus Musician Man. Jimmy Page: Magus Musician Man

11 people found this helpful

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