Jimmy Page: The Definitive Biography Paperback – 26 July 2018

I was sorry to get to the last page of this book. That’s always the best sign of a story enjoyed.I’ve discovered Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin later in life. As a teenager in the late 70s I was more into pop - David Cassidy, Marc Bolan, The Monkees and chart music. (Ironically I’d have been the right age for JP then!) All the boys I knew - and it was mainly boys - loved not just Led Zeppelin but were obsessed with Aleister Crowley. Now I think about it - my two best girlfriends were pretty obsessed too. But the music went over my head and I hated the way we’d all huddle round listening to the albums in someone’s bedroom - passing round a bottle of cough medicine which was the nearest thing to drugs in the 1970s in ‘troubled’ Northern Ireland. It was useful as the joss sticks burning used to set off my asthma. I do recall liking Stairway though.This all changed a few months ago when I read ‘Hammer of the Gods’ and I started re listening to the music. I was blown away as I suddenly ‘got’ Led Zeppelin - sexy, loud and exciting. Supremely talented and led by this beautiful man who always seemed to turn his guitar out to the audience so they could see just how clever he was. And I wanted to know more about him.This book has a huge amount of detail about his career - touching on his private life - but I suppose I probably want to know more of the private stuff. His eyes still twinkle and he is still a good -looking man. Does he still play the guitar as well as he did? Does it diminish with age? But I do know he loves cats, likes the name Scarlet(t) and refers to his old friend Robert Plant as a c word. He believes or believed in the occult and keeps himself to himself on tour. He’s also very clever and sadly was addicted to heroin - but luckily got off it before tragedy.This book takes you through his early life, his slightly precocious beginnings and the way he put the band together. Incredible really as who’d have known that 4 brilliant men could make such a sound!? Poor old John Paul Jones - slightly rejected by his band mates ‘after’ - while Plant and Page battled for top dog status, after the band had split. I think Plant is right to want to move on. Only the Stones can successfully still strut their stuff on stage at their ages - and that’s because they never stopped. I just can’t see Robert Plant in those skin tight jeans making those incredible sounds again. And do we really want to see LZ performing whilst sitting on stools - are you reading this The Eagles?) - but an acoustic LZ? Maybe.Anyway the book has it all - detail, (lots of it) insight and a degree of speculation. I think if I want more information on this fascinating man, I’d have to meet him!One correction - Plant’s birthday is referred to as 19th August - it’s the 20th same as mine!All in all the definitive documentary - oh hang on - one last thing to say. There was almost nothing said about watching Ann and Nancy Wilson play Stairway to Heaven? During their amazing performance - Jimmy Page looked absolutely delighted and all but nudged Robert Plant throughout. Was Plant crying with relief he wasn’t singing it? Was Jimmy Page wanting to leap up and rock out? What exactly was going through their heads at that stellar performance - of their song!? All this and more - I’d like to know!All I need now is to assemble those old friends, crack open the cough bottle and admire the candlewick bedspread (I have some flared jeans).

Great book about a guitar icon. Comprehensive and well researched.

Really good in depth biography of his life in music romance and the occult.

I enjoy the tales of Zep debauchery, it's part of the legend. But I'd give this book - and I've read most of them - at best 3/5. It got weaker as it went on. Pre-Zep era, pretty good and a lot of stuff I hadn't read before. Zep era, OK-ish - the David Bowie rivalry episodes were new to me. Post-Zep, poor and very rushed. The 2012 Kennedy Centre Honours, for example, don't even get a mention. A mixed bag of a book. For Led Zep completists and badge-holders only...

A good biography on the whole but there are so many names and references to other bands and people doing other things in the intial few chapters that it definitely requires a bit of dedication so that one doesn't lose the plot so to speak.

A bit of a tome of a book but full of the musical backdrop and also the groupies too. It's a great book and one for the bookcase.

I grew up listening to Led Zeppelin and was always intrigued by Jimmy Page.. it’s not the best book I have ever read but it’s a great and easy book to readgiven the reader an inside to a living musical icon and one of musics biggest rock groups

Fantastic , love any zeppelin :)