Led Zeppelin, II, III, IV, Houses of the Holy, Physical Graffiti, Presence, In Through the Out Door and Coda… these are the sacred texts written and expertly executed by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham that made Led Zeppelin one of the most revered—and commercially massive—bands of all time.
In Led Zeppelin A Visual Biography, Martin Popoff, author of Led Zeppelin: All the Albums, All the Songs and Robert Plant: Album by Album, delivers one of his meticulous and detailed reference-styled timelines, charting the history of this esteemed UK institution, from its inception to the band’s posthumous last album, the Coda compilation, issued in 1982.
But of course, the chronological history is just the start. The main driving force behind the project is housed within the titling. In that spirit, what this elegant coffee table book proposes to do is chart the explosive live stage history of the band, along with the iconic albums and their attendant pioneering cover arts. Tour posters, backstage passes, 45 sleeves and enigmatic record ads combine to complete this symphony of design and colour, turning the book into a visual feast that coexists with Popoff’s scholarly marking of the band’s many milestones.
Author Martin Popoff remarks on this project, “My previous Led Zeppelin book is one of my personal favorites from the books I’ve done, because I got to write long reviews of every song. But what I appreciate about this project is that across the array of Zeppelin books I have in my library, there are none that explode with this much photography of both the band live and of memorabilia. As well, despite various scholarly approaches taken to the study of the band, I’ve not see anything akin to my handy-dandy timeline reference approach. So it’s these two things that are both essentially new to Zeppelin scholarship, and new to me as well despite having tackled the band before.”
Hardback 192 pages colour throughout.
