Review by Hugh Jones
Robert Godwin's latest book is a detailed examination of Led Zeppelin's fourth album, reportedly the fourth biggest selling album of all time and in many fan's eyes, the band's crowning achievement.
Billed as a "Compact Book" and presumably the first in a series of these, "The Making Of. . ." is the exact same size as a compact disc, and even comes shrink-wrapped in a jewel box-a clever if somewhat confusing marketing ploy. While the format is a bit inconvenient, for a short book like this (72 pages) it works fairly well. Unlike your average CD booklet, the type size is big enough to read easily and the illustrations and photos are also of reasonable size and reproduction.
It's an interesting concept: take a classic album and examine it from all aspects-artwork, music, press, live renditions and collectibles related to it. The book starts with an exhaustive look at the four symbols, their origins and what they mean (something that I find a bit tedious but many others are fascinated with), then a look at the cover art, its meaning and the various renditions of it on different editions of the album. Of particular interest are the quotes describing the band's battle with Atlantic to keep their name off the cover.
Next comes a look at the various singles and promotional items the album spawned, then a fascinating section on the actual recording processes used at the sessions, including the famous drum sound on "When The Levee Breaks." There are photos of Headly Grange and even a shot of the stairwell where the drums on that song were recorded, very cool!
Press reaction and concert performances of the album's songs are also discussed, and finally there is a song-by-song rundown of the record with full data on each track and illuminating quotes from Page, Plant, Bonham and Jones-undoubtedly the most interesting portion of the book. While "The Making Of. . ." contains little content that is actually new to the seasoned Zeppelin fan, it does an excellent job compiling and organizing all the information, quotes and data there is to be found on this particular album. The quotes from various interviews are especially nice to see all in one place, and it is in reading these that one truly gets a feel for how the album came together, and of course how the band members felt about it at the time.
While it seems like such an in-depth study of an album might constitute the ultimate in esoterica (or trainspotting, as the Brits would say) for Zeppelin fans this book is undeniably engrossing, and Godwin has done his usual excellent job in putting it all together. There is a minimum of editorialzing here, more or less just the facts, and I found no mistakes and no mythology that was not clearly presented as such, an admirable feature in itself for any book of this type. It would be interesting to see a continuing series of these, covering the other nine Led Zeppelin albums in equal detail.
Reasonably priced around $8.00 in the USA, there's no question that this little volume deserves a home on every Proximity reader's shelf. Available from Hot Wacks Press and Merit Adventures, if you can't find it at your local book or record store.
Note from the Webmaster: You can reach Rob Godwin's "Making of......" Web site HERE
Write Hugh Jones, Proximity Editor:
mrprox@mindspring.com