Led Zeppelin, page 68
“There was a lot of opposition”: RP, quoted in Lewis, Led Zeppelin: Celebration II, p. 26.
“The record company was in shock”: Phil Carson, interview with the author, July 2, 2019.
“I had to go in personally”: JP, quoted in Wall, When Giants Walked the Earth, p. 261.
“the fans were going”: Phil Carson interview.
“It didn’t matter what was”: Nick Maria, interview with the author, October 14, 2019.
Chapter Eleven: Just Boys Having Fun
“Melody Maker and all that lot”: Peter Grant, quoted in Lewis, Led Zeppelin: Celebration II, p. 92.
“[Jimmy] brought the tapes back”: RP, quoted in Caroline Boucher, “Robert Plant Interview,” Disc, 1972.
“We’re going to restrict prices”: Peter Grant, quoted in Chris Welch, “Zeppelin to Tour,” MM, January 25, 1971.
“The audiences were becoming bigger”: JP, quoted in Keith Altham, “Jimmy Page: Zep Come to the People,” Record Mirror, February 27, 1971.
“The situation’s gotten very bloody”: JP, quoted in Arthur Levy, “Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page: A Heavy Blimp That Gives No Quarter,” Zoo World, July 19, 1973.
“It was frightening”: Henry Smith, interview with the author, October 22, 2019.
“Just hours before our concert”: Cole, Stairway to Heaven, p. 168.
“a petrol tanker was hijacked”: Welch, Led Zeppelin: Dazed and Confused, p. 63.
But he remembered seeing: “Earl Hooker played the first one I saw . . . but you just couldn’t get them.” JP, quoted in Nick Kent, “Jimmy Page: Guitars I Have Known,” NME, October 12, 1974.
In truth, however, it was: Janine Safer Whitney, email to the author.
“All you’ve got to do”: Peter Grant, quoted in Lewis, Led Zeppelin: Celebration II, p. 94.
“I quaked in my hotel bedroom”: Welch, Led Zeppelin: Dazed and Confused, p. 65. “There was a punch-up between Bonzo and Robert.” Phil Carson, interview with the author, July 2, 2019.
“Once you’ve played”: JP, quoted in Cole, Stairway to Heaven, p. 172.
“In a place like the Marquee”: Chris Charlesworth, interview with the author, May 13, 2019.
“We just didn’t have time”: JP, quoted in Lewis and Tremaglio, Evenings with Led Zeppelin, p. 265.
“knew what a dodgy place”: Peter Grant, quoted in Lewis, Led Zeppelin: Celebration II, p. 92.
“We could see the riot police”: JP, quoted in Tobler and Grundy, Guitar Greats, p. 104.
“If all concerts were”: Cole, Stairway to Heaven, p. 180.
“Then we suddenly twigged”: JP, quoted in Yorke, Led Zep, p. 105.
“Blow this!”: JP, quoted in Ritchie Yorke, “Zeppelin Hit by Tear Gas as Troops Charge Crowd,” NME, July 10, 1971.
“Everyone was running”: “The kids came running over the stage.” Rick McGrath, “Robert Plant Interview,” Georgia Straight, August 27, 1971.
“It was just pandemonium”: JP, quoted in Tobler and Grundy, Guitar Greats, p. 105.
“I barricaded the door”: RP, quoted in Nigel Williamson, “Good Times, Bad Times,” Uncut, May 2005, p. 58.
“It was such a shock”: JP, quoted in Wall, When Giants Walked the Earth, p. 253.
“I can’t do any more”: “So I bopped him [Bonzo].” RP, quoted in Wall, When Giants Walked the Earth, p. 254.
“It was just boys having fun”: Phil Carson interview.
“For example, there was a night”: JP, quoted in Tolinski, Light & Shade, p. 169.
overnight train to Osaka: “I just shit in the handbag!” JB, quoted in Cole, Stairway to Heaven, p. 192.
“Night after night after night”: “In retrospect, our Japanese hosts were probably completely horrified, but they were so polite, they just kept bowing to us.” JP, quoted in Tolinski, Light & Shade, p. 169.
“But even lectures”: “I cannot let you stay in this hotel ever again.” Richard Cole, quoted in Tolinski, Light & Shade, p. 192.
“At this point, cocaine started”: Phil Carson interview.
“were an integral part”: JP, quoted in Tolinski, Light & Shade, p. 169.
“Drugs for the band”: Cole, Stairway to Heaven, p. 6.
“Led Zeppelin was a musician’s dream”: JP, quoted in Blake, Bring It On Home, p. 123.
“There was a new aristocracy”: Michel Des Barres, interview with the author, February 20, 2019.
“messing around with that song”: JP, quoted in Wall, When Giants Walked the Earth, p. 244.
“AM radio was insisting”: Jerry Greenberg, interview with the author, January 10, 2019.
“On a tour with”: Peter Grant, quoted in Blake, Bring It On Home, pp. 108–9.
Bill Graham prided himself: Don Law, interview with the author, November 8, 2018.
“We hired a promoter”: Steve Weiss, blind-quoted in Hoskyns, Trampled, p. 194.
“We’d been doing ten-percent”: Bill Curbishley, interview with the author, May 16, 2018.
“Fuck those promoters!”: Peter Grant to Sam Aizer, quoted in Blake, Bring It On Home, p. 110.
“You don’t have to promote”: Mickie Most, quoting Peter Grant in Welch, Peter Grant, p. 84.
“We never liked it”: Don Law interview.
“I’d take ten percent”: Peter Grant, quoted in Danny Goldberg, Bumping into Geniuses (New York: Gotham Books, 2008), p. 64.
“It was probably more painful”: JP, quoted in Salewicz, Jimmy Page, p. 261.
“My main goal”: JP, quoted in Tolinski, Light & Shade, p. 159.
with Jimmy installing himself: “Jimmy had Jagger’s bedroom.” Eddie Kramer, quoted in Mick Wall, “Eddie Kramer’s Guide to Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy,” Classic Rock, March 28, 2017, www.loudersound.com/features/eddie-kramers-guide-to-led-zeppelins-houses-of-the-holy .
“bits of taped ideas”: JP, quoted in Tolinski, Light & Shade, p. 204.
“It’s time that people heard”: RP, blind-quoted in Wall, “Eddie Kramer’s Guide.”
“in all four of us”: JP, quoted in James Johnson, “Jimmy Page, the Mild Barbarian,” NME, April 21, 1973.
“There is no place”: RP, quoted in Hoskyns, Trampled, p. 190.
“There were Jamaicans all over”: Kevyn Gammond, interview with the author, May 7, 2019.
“a cross between reggae”: JP, quoted in Dave Schulps, Trouser Press interview, Part 3, p. 20.
“just a giggle”: JP, quoted in Johnson, “Jimmy Page, the Mild Barbarian.”
“like bombs going off”: Eddie Kramer, quoted in Wall, “Eddie Kramer’s Guide.”
Robert explained how: “Bonzo and I were just going to go to the studio and talk Black Country through the whole thing.” RP, quoted in Yorke, Led Zep, p. 124.
“The rhythm section on that”: JPJ, quoted in Toby Manning, “Broad Church,” Q Special Edition: Led Zeppelin, March 2003, p. 60.
“I remember putting a Fender amp”: Eddie Kramer, quoted in Wall, “Eddie Kramer’s Guide.”
“The sound in the place”: JP, quoted in Yorke, Led Zep, p. 118.
“Everything would be sorted”: Phil Carlo, interview with the author, May 12, 2019.
“Everybody was now doing it”: Phil Carson interview.
Les Harvey grabbed the mic: Roger St. Pierre, “Stone the Crows: Les Harvey—a Rock Tragedy,” NME, May 13, 1972.
“Peter went to pieces”: Maggie Bell, interview with the author, May 8, 2019.
“perhaps a kilo”: Author interview with Benji LeFevre, May 19, 2019.
“the Bionic Hooter”: Janine Safer Whitney, interview with the author, April 2, 2019.
“Whether you snort it”: Pete Townshend, quoted in Connor McKnight and John Tobler, “Chatting with Pete Townshend,” ZigZag, March 1972.
At Nassau Coliseum it was reported: Stephen Davis, Hammer of the Gods (New York: Ballantine Books, 1985), p. 167; Lewis and Tremaglio, Evenings with Led Zeppelin, p. 323 (illustration).
“still hard to take them seriously”: Robert Hilburn, “Led Zeppelin at the Forum,” Los Angeles Times, June 27, 1972.
“It’s the Stones this”: JB, quoted in Lewis, Led Zeppelin: From a Whisper to a Scream, p. 59.
“they were a long way”: RP, quoted in Williamson, “Good Times, Bad Times,” p. 56.
“Who wants to know”: JP, blind-quoted from NME in Wall, When Giants Walked the Earth, p. 270.
“so authoritative”: “I mean, if it’s not your taste in music, then leave it well alone and let someone else do the reviews.” JP, quoted in Pete Frame, “Talking with Jimmy Page,” ZigZag, December 1972 and February 1973.
“They were too busy”: JP, quoted in Levy, “Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page.”
“There were all sorts of scenes”: Eddie Kramer, quoted in Hoskyns, Trampled, p. 190.
Chapter Twelve: A Law unto Themselves
“We happened to be sharing a flat”: Aubrey Powell, interview with the author, May 15, 2019.
“It’s a sort of dawn and dusk”: JP, quoted in Rob Mackie, “Jimmy Page,” Sounds, April 21, 1973.
“The sky started to look”: JP, quoted in Rob Mackie, “Jimmy Page.”
“You would not be happy”: Aubrey Powell interview.
sales of the first four: Goldberg, Bumping into Geniuses, p. 61.
“Maybe you could attack”: JP, quoted in James Johnson, “Jimmy Page, the Mild Barbarian,” NME, April 21, 1973.
“There was a lot of imagination”: RP, quoted in Carlton Fuerte, “My Favorite Led Zeppelin Album,” High Times, April 1991.
“a limp blimp”: Gordon Fletcher, “Houses of the Holy,” Rolling Stone, June 7, 1973.
“a clunker”: “The most glaring flaw is simply weak material.” Steven Rosen, “Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy,” Music World, June 1973.
The review in Phonograph Record: “The whole problem throughout Houses of the Holy is that the music just doesn’t go anywhere.” Metal Mike Saunders, “Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy,” Phonograph Record, May 1973.
“an album of the highest quality”: Roy Carr, “Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy (Atlantic),” NME, March 31, 1973.
“Unlike the previous Zep albums”: Jonh Ingham, “Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy,” Let It Rock, June 1973.
“People still have”: JP, blind-quoted in Power, No Quarter, p. 291.
“How they should approach”: JP, quoted in Johnson, “Jimmy Page, the Mild Barbarian.”
“ ‘Whole Lotta Love’ ”: “They start with a chorus of ‘Whole Lotta Love,’ ‘Whole Lotta Love’ before [we’re] through with the second number.” JP, quoted in Arthur Levy, “Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page: A Heavy Blimp That Gives No Quarter,” Zoo World, July 19, 1973.
BP Fallon, last seen masterminding,: “I never remember him even sitting down with a journalist.” Gyl Corrigan-Devlin, quoted in Hoskyns, Trampled, p. 200.
“the entertainment manager”: BP Fallon, quoted in Hoskyns, Trampled, p. 200.
“Led Zeppelin was not only not cool”: Goldberg, Bumping into Geniuses, p. 62.
“Yeah, of course, they’re big”: Danny Goldberg, interview with the author, August 28, 2018.
To keep the band entertained: “Just good clean fun.” Davis, Hammer of the Gods, p. 186.
house pet Chris Welch: “I remember Jimmy pissing and moaning about Chris Welch’s review [of Houses of the Holy] in Melody Maker.” Lisa Robinson, quoted in Hoskyns, Trampled, p. 203.
“Look, we were very young”: RP, quoted in Goldberg, Bumping into Geniuses, p. 66.
“When you put the spotlights”: RP, quoted in Yorke, Led Zep, p. 123.
“It was a big box”: “It looked pretty cool for that time.” Benji Le Fevre, interview with the author, May 19, 2019.
“We decided that the denim trip”: RP, quoted in Yorke, Led Zep, p. 123.
“Sparkly clothes became available”: JPJ, quoted in Hoskyns, Trampled, p. 210.
“Please don’t ask me”: Lillian Roxon, quoted in Danny Goldberg interview.
The band picked up the cost: “I could fly writers down. Not a problem.” Danny Goldberg interview.
“a very well-meant gesture”: RP, quoted in Barney Hoskyns, “Mountain Man: Robert Plant Goes Back to His Welsh Roots,” Tracks, Fall 2003.
“We felt quite warm vibes”: RP, quoted in Lisa Robinson, “Whole Lotta Led in the Deep South,” Disc and Music Echo, June 9, 1973.
“a teenage boy’s jaw literally drop”: Goldberg, Bumping into Geniuses, p. 67.
A headline proclaimed: Cathy Yarbrough and Barry Henderson, “Stadium Rocks,” Atlanta Constitution, May 4, 1973, p. 1.
“This is Atlanta”: Peter Grant, quoted in Danny Goldberg interview.
“The majority of the crowd”: Rick Norcross, “Led Zeppelin No Lead Balloon in Tampa,” Tampa Times, May 7, 1973.
Robert could feel it: “The only thing they could pick up on was the complete vibe of what music was being done.” RP, quoted in Mary Campbell, “Led Zeppelin in Tampa: Biggest Crowd Ever,” Associated Press, May 6, 1973.
“I had heard that”: Lisa Robinson, “Led Right from the Start,” Disc, May 19, 1973.
“his guitar-playing is so”: Lisa Robinson, “It’s Only May, but It’s the Year’s Best,” Disc, June 2, 1973.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch considered: Dick Richmond, “Unusual, Maddening Performance by the Led Zeppelin at Arena,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 11, 1973.
“the band just isn’t inventive enough”: Lee Moore, “Led Zeppelin Concert Too Heavy for 3 Hours,” Mobile Press-Register, May 14, 1973.
“has become a showcase”: Terry Kliewer, “Individualism Seems to Be Invading Zeppelin,” Dallas Morning News, May 22, 1973.
“a show one could take”: “In concert, Led Zeppelin is relatively contained—not much showmanship at all.” “ ‘Zepplin’ [sic] Group Hits S.A.,” San Antonio Gazette, May 23, 1973.
“the thunderous opening notes”: Cameron Crowe, “Zeppelin Alchemy: Transmuting Led into Gold,” Los Angeles Times, October 7, 1973.
“like Sodom and Gomorrah”: “Those really were the days of pure hedonism.” JP, quoted in Tolinski, Light & Shade, p. 161.
“It was the feeling”: JP, blind-quoted but attributed to an interview with Steven Rosen of Guitar World in Power, No Quarter, p. 309.
“Everyone knows what”: JP, quoted in Sander, Trips, p. 114.
“He was like the Pied Piper”: Michael Des Barres, interview with the author, February 20, 2019.
“wicked sexual side”: “Jimmy had a wicked sexual side that made him a transcendent lover.” Pamela Miller, quoted in Uncut, 2009.
“Pamela loved Jimmy”: Michael Des Barres interview.
“It is written that the time”: “Your Very Own Superfox,” Star, June 1973.
“We were cutting school”: Lori Mattix, interview with the author, January 21, 2019.
“Sable’s morality was something”: Michael Des Barres interview.
“Why would I not”: BP Fallon, quoted in Salewicz, Jimmy Page, p. 282.
“She’s magnificent”: JP, quoted in Cole, Stairway to Heaven, p. 217.
“outrageously gorgeous, draped over”: Michael Des Barres interview.
“They came out of the woodwork”: Vanessa Gilbert, interview with the author, January 31, 2019.
“It was a glitter cathedral”: Rodney Bingenheimer, interview with the author, January 23, 2019.
“These guys were party animals”: Rodney Bingenheimer, quoted in Steven Rosen, “Rodney B.’s Endless Party,” Guitar World, July 1986.
“If you went to a disco”: Danny Goldberg, quoted in Steven Rosen, “Danny Goldberg’s Hideaway,” Guitar World, July 1986.
“The girls would scratch”: Rodney Bingenheimer, quoted in Hoskyns, Trampled, p. 231.
“we’ll have your fucking head”: “All of a sudden, I was in this limousine by myself in the parking lot of the Rainbow.” Richard Cole, quoted in Lori Mattix interview.
She’d even accompanied: “Lori’s mother brought Lori and Sable to my suite.” Michael Des Barres interview.
When he was told $150: Yorke, Led Zep, p. 130; incident confirmed in Phil Carson, interview with the author, July 2, 2019.
“He took a picture”: “Then we all jumped into a limousine and went to a party at Cher’s in Silver Lake.” Lori Mattix interview.
There was another incident: “They grabbed my friend Ronnie Romano and held him by his heels over the balcony.” Rodney Bingenheimer interview; Rodney Bingenheimer, quoted in Hoskyns, Trampled, pp. 233–34.
“He treated Mick badly”: Benji Le Fevre interview.
“He’s twenty-one [sic] today”: RP, quoted in Bonzo’s Birthday Party (bootleg recording of concert).
“easy to get along with”: Vanessa Gilbert interview.
The party line was that Jimmy: “Jimmy didn’t get thrown in the pool because he had the coke.” Vanessa Gilbert interview.
“It got wedged between two”: Peter Grant, quoted in Blake, Bring It On Home, p. 124.
“I am the golden god”: “I was at the top of a palm tree on the night of Bonzo’s birthday.” RP, quoted in Hoskyns, Trampled, p. 216.
Chapter Thirteen: The Land of Mondo Bizarro
“There was the intensity”: JP, quoted in Wall, When Giants Walked the Earth, pp. 287–88.
“Everything is done for you”: JPJ, quoted in Mat Snow, “Led Zeppelin,” Q, December 1990.
It was a disappointing performance: “The sound throughout the entire concert was painfully thin and hollow. . . . Plant’s voice was almost gone.” Steven Rosen, “Steel Driven Led,” Sounds, June 23, 1973.
“Jimmy called me and said”: “I think Jimmy knew it couldn’t be bought.” Aubrey Powell, interview with the author, May 15, 2019.
Peter Grant bragged: Financial Times, blind-quoted in Davis, Hammer of the Gods, p. 191.
