← Behind The Song: Classic Rock Chronicles
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- [00:00]
Janda
97.1Fm the drive presents the behind the Song podcast, taking you deeper into classic rock's most timeless tunes. Here's your host, Janda.
- [00:11]
Christian
Good times, bad times. You know, I share. I am Janda, and I'm here for this bonus episode of the behind the Song podcast to talk about the movie that is on the lips of every Led Zeppelin fan the world over. Becoming Led Zeppelin the Documentary. I'm here with Christian.
- [00:29]
Janda
Good morning, or good evening, if you're listening in the evening.
- [00:35]
Christian
So I have to note that this movie, Becoming Led Zeppelin was the biggest music documentary that was ever first released on imax. And it's no wonder that so many people flocked to see it because it was the first of its kind ever, the first documentary that Led Zeppelin ever allowed to be made about them, period.
- [00:57]
Janda
Yeah, I mean, you know, everybody that knows about Zeppelin in any way knows that they're very. They keep everything real tight. They keep everything real close to the chest. To me, they seem pretty private, you know, as. As individuals, they seem like for some of the biggest rock stars of all time, they're relatively private dudes. And, yeah, for them to sort of open up the vaults, if you will, to the filmmakers and do this, that alone was a big deal. The fact that it delivered is a big deal, too. And I think that that's what a lot of people are responding to. So I have to say, right off the top, musician. So a lot of documentaries fall flat for me because I know about the history. Usually when the band cooperates, I don't know if I want to bother because it's almost just like a PR job. They probably have a greatest hits thing coming out or they're going to do a reunion tour. This, while it wasn't salacious, it felt revelatory. I think the way it was made, it felt revelatory. They used actual isolated tracks from the original recordings to show you how songs, some of them, a couple of them came together and things like that made it so a musician like me could really dig it, you know? And I think it's just. It was made with such care, and I think that's a lot of what people are responding to.
- [02:27]
Christian
Yeah, that's a really good point. I think a lot of care was put into this Becoming Led Zeppelin documentary because the filmmakers knew good and well that the three remaining members of the band were not going to be interested in much of what anybody had to offer. I mean, they are famous for turning down interview requests, much less making a whole documentary about, you know, any part of Their career, it's just not done.
- [02:54]
Janda
I was just reading actually the page said that he's been pitched over and over for documentaries through the years, just constantly. And it's just cringy because a lot.
- [03:05]
Christian
Of, I think a lot of filmmakers, when you take a band like Led Zeppelin, you know that they became the biggest band in the world starting in America. And we know, you know, all of the sort of sordid stories, you know, the Hyatt House, the Riot House in Los Angeles and the Crazy Times, Alistair Crowley, Aleister Crowley and all that stuff. This does not focus on that. And by the way, if you haven't seen Becoming Led Zeppelin yet, there will be some spoilers here. So just be forewarned, they do become Led Zeppelin, but I felt I had to say that. So, yeah, it doesn't focus on that stuff. It doesn't focus on the girls, the women, the sex, drugs and rock and roll. It focuses on those beginning years when Jimmy Page left the Yardbirds and picked up fellow session musician John Paul Jones. So here's these two guys in, in London, London based crack players, you know, session guys who were highly sought after, played on all kinds of soundtracks and other recordings. They were the hired guns that everybody wanted. And then you had these other two, John Bonham and Robert Plant, these sort of like mystical country guys, you know, they were not Londoners. They were.
- [04:26]
Janda
And they were jobbers. They were, they were, they. They worked in bars as opposed to working studio sessions. You know, they.
- [04:34]
Christian
Exactly.
- [04:34]
Janda
Completely different.
- [04:35]
Christian
The coming together of these four individuals is kind of amazing. It's. It. It was an amazing thing to, to see happen.
- [04:44]
Janda
One thing that they pointed out wonderfully in the beginning, in the, the opening montage with Good Times Bad Times playing was that they were all war babies. They were all children that came up while World War II was still happening. They weren't even baby boom. They were like pre, just pre baby boom. They came up with rationing, they came up with their playing in rubble because it had been bombed out. So they had this shared experience of that. And I was thinking about these guys going through that. And there's such a class of rock stars that are that age. And I was thinking about the rationing and everything. And like those kids never wanted to go through that again. They were going to make something happen, but doing it the way their parents did was not going to get them out of this scene. They had to go for it. You feel that in, in all of the documentary footage or the biographical footage of their youth, you get that sense of we need to get out of here, we need to overcome, we need to surpass. And I think that drive existed in all of them. But I have never seen a more confident young man than, than Jimmy Page. Like the footage of him playing on TV when he was 12 or 11, right? 11, right. No problem, no problem. Just getting up there playing, singing, doing his thing. Just looked like he was born to do it. And at every step he had, he just willed stuff to happen. Those guys weren't ready for sessions. 35 year old men were playing sessions. Those, those two, JPJ and Paige were teenagers and they flagged, as you would say in England, they blagged their way into it, but they proved to be good enough and they were going to make it happen. It's great, it's crazy to me. They just. Teenagers. Yes. We will play on Shirley Bassey, Goldfinger, right. Will happen, right?
- [06:45]
Christian
Which is one of the, one of the, you know, studio sessions that they were, they were locked in on and hired to perform on. The fact that they were teenagers is a very good point. You know, with Jimmy Page, he's like, I'm up here, I've got this opportunity, I'm going to make this happen. And that was that. And I think that that was pretty much his M.O. you do see it in this film. You see him as a young man of confidence, you know, in his younger years and how he just carried that through once he had a little bit of cachet with, you know, the Yardbirds. Forget about it, forget about it. He was, he was, that was what he was going to do and he was going to do it big and he was going to get and assemble, you know, the best players that he could possibly find. And what magic when the four of them did come together, magic.
- [07:38]
Janda
There's a really wonderful bit of silent footage just pre Yardbirds walking up to Abbey Road with his guitar. And he is so chuffed to be walking up to Abbey Road, but he looks like, yeah, I'm supposed to be here. To me, that's part of becoming Led Zeppelin is the drive of Jimmy Page.
- [08:02]
Christian
One of the unique things about how it was done is that the story is told through the band members own perspective. This isn't a bunch of, you know, hangers on or people that were in their orbit talking about the experience. This is the three remaining members of Led Zeppelin, plus some audio footage from John Bonham that the filmmakers were able to get to give him a voice. So it's all really from their perspective, period. And you do sense that from Jimmy Page. That the drive to make this happen was immense. And I also got kind of, for the first time in my life, a lifelong Led Zeppelin fan is how charmingly squirrely Robert Plant is. A side of him that I hadn't seen because there just isn't a whole lot of footage outside of him performing available. So you get this sense that he was this kind of sprightly guy who landed where he would land, but also was confident in himself, too, as a singer. Because you can't sing like Robert Plant unless you are that confident. Because it's. It's been. It's been tried, tried again and again and again. People that try to sound like Robert Plant when they sing, it's just not the same thing.
- [09:26]
Janda
You certainly, if you were to hear somebody covering them, it's painful. When you hear those metal guys that try and get in that range, it's just. Nobody sounds like him. And it's not as real, it's not as authentic, because I. I don't know. As a singer, I will tell you this. You have to push a lot of air to get up in that range. You have to belt, you know, and if you're not sure about what you're doing, you're not. Your instinct is not to belt. It's to kind of keep it quiet and to kind of be like, oh, maybe nobody will hear me. I'll just be back here. Or whatever the case, he just got up there and let it rip. And to Jimmy Page's credit, he heard that voice and was like, oh, that's it. That's the. That's the missing piece for my band. And nobody had heard that voice yet. Nobody was doing that voice. So for him to hear that and say, that's the missing piece. Again, Jimmy. Jimmy Page, bit of a genius, I'll tell you this.
- [10:22]
Christian
Robert Plant is the one and only guy that could ever wear sandals on stage in a performance as he did and we saw in this documentary and still look, still look cool. I mean, it's just. I just. I don't know how he did that. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. You're not supposed to be able to wear, like brown thong sandals on stage and look cool. But he's. He's sure did.
- [10:49]
Janda
And they were rocking so hard in that particular bit of footage. And like, Paige is doing the duck walk. I mean, it's the full on Led Zeppelin thing. And then the camera goes down and he's wearing sandals. But it didn't matter.
- [11:03]
Christian
Robert Plant broke the mold in terms of, you know, frontman for A band in many ways. Of course, there are other, you know, excellent frontmen in the classic rock bubble there. Freddie Mercury, obviously, and so many others. But Robert Plant was special and every little yip that that he did in those songs and in those recordings were so important. And I just can't see the songs ever being that impactful otherwise without him in particular as a singer. Then you got Jimmy Page over there doing, you know, the violin bow on the guitar, you know, then you've got John Paul Jones on bass, totally locking in with the powerhouse John Bonham. I mean, they were so special. And then their music hit the press and it's amazing to believe that now in 2025 when we're, we're talking about this, that when Led Zeppelin debuted and when they came out, the press hated them.
- [12:06]
Janda
Rolling Stone was monolithically powerful at that time and hated Led Zeppelin. I think it probably did break their hearts a little bit, but they got over it real quick.
- [12:18]
Christian
Oh yeah. In 1969, when Led Zeppelin debuted, the English press hated them too. They were written about as if they were just aping American roots and blues music. But if you look at the concert footage that's in the films and you get a load of what was actually happening on the stage, they were thrashing loud hard rock. They were coming at you like a lead balloon, you know, I mean, there was nothing really like that at the time. I mean, on that note, I gotta mention, it was confirmed in this documentary that Keith Moon did name the band because he literally said the phrase that I just mentioned that'll go. Your music will go over like a lead balloon. And it ended up having a double edged meaning. Because when Led Zeppelin played, it must have been something so sort of transcendent to. To see. Even if you had seen the who at the time, which was probably their, their nearest contemporary.
- [13:16]
Janda
I was going to say the who. The Kinks, maybe on a smaller level. But the who would be the. The only other antecedent. I would say Yardbirds, sure. Only because Led Zeppelin's first gig, as we learned in this documentary, was as the Yardbirds. Because it was booked as a Yardbirds.
- [13:37]
Christian
Yeah, that's right.
- [13:38]
Janda
And they had to go do it as the Yardbirds. That would be the closest. Also the English press was looking at it like, this is just the guy that was the last guitar player in the Yardbirds. It's his new band. It's nothing more than that, you know, so the expectations were low. You know, you already had like Eric Clapton was already around. So they were like oh well, if it's not Eric Clapton doing the blues, it's probably not good. You know, that kind of.
- [14:04]
Christian
That's a good point. You had John Mayall and the Blues breakers and you know, all of, all of those guitar playing, you know, songwriters and guitar fronted bands that did take from, you know, the roots of American music. So they already had that as a precedent.
- [14:20]
Janda
So that was a precedent. But Zeppelin blew it up. Like I keep, I keep coming back to this thing. You know. Peter Grant, like I said, was a little bit, bit underserved in the documentary, but his wrestling background, and I think of it again like Led Zeppelin blew up the blues in almost the WWF style. Like color and vibrancy big and costumes, you know, later. But like we just have this thing thinking about Led Zeppelin as me anyways, like a Godzilla that just kind of rolled through everything but to a very indifferent England at the start.
- [15:00]
Christian
Right.
- [15:01]
Janda
You know, I mean they had to. So many bands have gone to England to make it. Like American band Jimi Hendrix being the prime example. Somebody who couldn't buy a record deal over here and then went to England and Everybody loved him. McCartney right away going the other way. It doesn't, rarely happens. I can't really think of any other situation. Led Zeppelin actually blew up in America first.
- [15:26]
Christian
Right.
- [15:27]
Janda
And maybe didn't have the good press, but they had the, the reviews of the shows that you couldn't deny were big, sold out, something you'd never seen before. So yeah, it took a while in their, in their home. But again, it seems to me like there's a lot of will happening in Led Zeppelin and Jimmy Page's will is something you can never underestimate probably to this day, I would imagine.
- [15:55]
Christian
Yeah, at the end of the day the story of Led Zeppelin will be a story of willing it to happen. Will to power. Will to power. I also think, yeah, the Peter Grant part of the Led Zeppelin story is very important. Peter Grant, the super manager. And like you said, he did have a wrestling background and he does make an appearance in the documentary. But you cannot overstate his importance to Led Zeppelin becoming Led Zeppelin. He was tough, he was feared, he was wily and smart and he was all about Led Zeppelin. And you did, you did not mess with Peter Grant and you did not mess with Led Zeppelin. And that's, that's probably a one big reason why. Unlike a lot of bands, especially in the late 60s and early 70s, Led Zeppelin were never a singles band. They didn't release singles, they didn't put out a single. See how it went. Put out another one and then do the album. No, they put out their debut album. They went on tour. While they were on tour, they recorded their second album. So their first and second albums were released, you know, months apart. Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin 1 and 2. And all the while, Peter Grant is back there making sure that they had the best billing on tour. Making sure that the album was going to be released as a whole, which is what Jimmy Page envisioned for. For the music that they created. Not a single, but a complete album. And making sure that nobody messed with his band.
- [17:30]
Janda
One thing that really struck me when we left the screening and I think I said this to you was, you know, Jimmy Page is definitely a genius. I think a musical genius. I think also Peter Grant might be some kind of genius.
- [17:44]
Christian
Definitely.
- [17:45]
Janda
He managed the Yardbirds. And like I said, Jimmy Page was just. He was the last guitar player for the Yardbirds after Clapton and Mail. And Peter Grant stuck with him and was like, no, this is the guy. I'm gonna stick with him. The Yardbirds break up, he stays with Jimmy Page, says, put together whatever band you want. Spinal Tap. I have to just say something. Okay, we know, we know in Spinal Tap, it's. It's all a parody. Everything is heightened. The manager carries a cricket bat and threatens people with a cricket bat. And of course, this seems like a great, you know, mockumentary bit. Sir Peter Grant carried a cricket bat in real life. That real. They got that from Peter Grant, genuinely going into promoters offices with a cricket bat. And he was like six, four, six, five, big guy, very intimidating. He famously, you know, as far as ticket sales, bands were getting robbed back in the 60s. They just were so robbed. Put on package tours where 10 bands would play. You'd each get 20 minutes and, you know, you'd make a weekly salary or whatever. Peter Grant changed all of that. They got 90% of the tickets sales. They were the only band to do that right. Got the highest royalty rate that had ever been given to a rock band by Atlantic Records. It was all Peter Grant strong arming these people, basically. I mean, you have to have a good product if you're going to be successful. Obviously these things work in concert. But yeah, man, Peter Grant, you're right. Without Peter Grant, I don't know. We're not going to have the monolith that we have, that is Led Zeppelin.
- [19:33]
Christian
And without the band, you're not gonna have all those amazing songs. Good times, bad Times, everything on the first two albums, all the music that we heard in the documentary off of you know, the early stuff from Led Zeppelin just totally reinforced my love for this band and how completely unique they are among all other, you know, blues influenced rock bands. Whether you're from England or from here, there was some kind of equality, you know, when these four individuals got together and played music together that I don't think has ever been recreated in any way, in any meaningful way.
- [20:13]
Janda
That catalog is so vast and it has so much to offer from acoustic, folk, rockabilly, blues, hard rock, blues. Obviously it's so varied, but it's all done so well. And yeah, it's, it's the songs, it's just the songs that we'll keep coming back to. I would recommend to anyone who can still see it in a theater, do you should really see this movie Loud? We were lucky enough to see it in a great little theater that had it cranked. And I just.
- [20:48]
Christian
Chills.
- [20:49]
Janda
Last words. Before the light went down, I said to Janda, I just hope it's Loud. And when Good Times, Bad Times kicks in again, spoiler alert. It will blow your head off.
- [21:01]
Christian
It will blow your head off.
- [21:03]
Janda
So awesome.
- [21:03]
Christian
I mean, we sound like a couple of fans because that's what we are, you know. And on that note, I will say that I did see that it looks like the physical release will be coming in spring on Blu Ray and dvd, so people can have it. And then it looks like Becoming Led Zeppelin will hit streaming services this summer, like June, July. I know people are curious to see this who haven't. And like me, I would watch it again right now if I could.
- [21:33]
Janda
Right now.
- [21:33]
Christian
I'm so thankful to the filmmakers, you know, I'm thankful to them for the work that they put in making American Epic, which was, you know, their calling card to their entree into doing this. Because I guess, you know, the remaining members of the band figured if they could spend 10 years digging up stories about, you know, roots music and blues music in America and go all around the Deep south and everything like that, then they wouldn't have any problem, you know, you know, chasing around all the best footage with Led Zeppelin's blessing, which is, which is what they did. So, you know, the whole story all in with the band and this, this film even being a reality is a story about, you know, having a good product and sticking with it and having the will to see it all succeed. So, you know, that's kind of the story of Led Zeppelin and of this movie.
- [22:28]
Janda
I talked about the execution of the records. They were just executed perfectly. And Zeppelin has kept up an amazing quality control. Their whole career, they've never associated with anything uncool or, you know, or anything that fell out of fashion then later. And the movie was made with that same kind of execution and. And care about the details and about, you know, quality control. And so, yeah, you're right. I mean, they did a great job. And I too, am thankful for that because again, as a musician, you never know. You never know these things. And this one, it'll blow you away. It'll knock your socks off.
- [23:14]
Christian
Absolutely. I mean, and that's the other part of, I think this whole story in wrapping up here is that once, you know, you got a good product, take care of it.
- [23:24]
Janda
Definitely bubble wrap it.
- [23:26]
Christian
Bubble wrap it if you got the goods. Words to live by. All right, I think we should probably wrap it up here now. Thank you, Christian, for dropping in on this bonus chat and for providing your musical insight site. That's always appreciated.
- [23:40]
Janda
You're very welcome. It's a fun chat.
- [23:42]
Christian
All right. And on the way, much more classic rock and roll.