When Giants Walked the Earth

A Biography of Led Zeppelin

By: Mick Wall

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Led Zeppelin rose to become one of the biggest-selling rock bands of all time. Mick Wall, respected rock writer and former confidant of band members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, unflinchingly tells the story of the band that wrote the rulebook for on-the-road excess and eventually paid the price for it, with disaster, drug addiction, and death.

Wall also recounts, in a series of flashbacks, the life stories of the five individuals that made the dream a reality: Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, John Bonham, and their infamous manager, Peter Grant.

Finally, the full, shocking story is told from the inside.

©2009 Mick Wall (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"So this is the big one: a fat, juicy biography of the biggest band ever....Mick Wall, the veteran rock journalist, lays it all bare in a book that can only be described as definitive." ( Daily Telegraph)
"That Wall can add so much fresh detail to the Led Zep story is in itself an extraordinary achievement. That he manages to humanize these planet-striding giants while doing so puts this book into the 'definitive' category." ( Classic Rock magazine)

"Wall painstakingly traces Zeppelin's development and musical pedigree. His access and attention to detail make this a definitive work….an essential source for anyone eager to learn about the era when rock stars ruled the world." ( Publishers Weekly)

One great book, great naration.

I had had this book in my wish list for about a year before I decided that it was time to listen to it. I grew up in the era of Led Zeppelin, and one of my life's biggest regrets is that I never saw them live, but that being said, I was never a hug fan. I recognized that they were the biggest band of that era, and that they had something that no other band had, that certain mystique, that certain quality that held them up as rock gods, thus the title of the book is appropriate. My rock god was Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio, but that is nether here nor there.

This was one of my favorite audio books, and I listen to a lot of them, I knew a little of the story, but this gave a very in depth portrait of the players in the story, the band and back players. By the end of the book I was feeling a bit sorry for Jimmy Page, who seemed to never be able to let Led Zeppelin go, and Page who was just sick of it. They had climbed the mountain, unlike anyone else, they had reached the very top, and then, for several of them, life was no longer fun. Life at the top is not all that it is cracked up to be. Drugs, booze, death all took their tole.

Simon Vances narration is perfect for this book. I do agree that if you do not like off color language, as one reviewer said, this is not the book for you, but in the context used her, it is just as I would think the players would talk, and the use of first person narration, Vance changes his voice, ever so slightly and for me it was brilliantly used to brake up the normal flow of the book. all in all, a great read,. I was sorry to come to the end of it and will listen to it again sometime.

A Whole Lotta Overloaded LOVE!!!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

If You wanna know every fact about Zeppelin then this is the book to listen to.This author did so much research down to every date, time and crazy antics of what the coming of life in rock history this band is even today.
I grew up and own almost every Led Zeppelin album as they were released so it was fun to listen in and revisit those times back in the late 60's and early 70's. Some of the book became a bit cumbersome with facts but I feel this author wanted to give his perspective as best he could on what he believes really happened.
Some of the material I am not too sure about and he did seem to give a sort of negative spin on Jimmy Page but all in all it is a good book.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Bonzo

What about Simon Vance’s performance did you like?

He did a great job and this book needed a British accent to help out with the full vision of this band

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No there is no way you can listen to this in one sitting, Too many facts and information, details.

Any additional comments?

Led Zeppelin will go down in history as one of the greatest bands of all time 100 years from now.
This was a time where there were no computers mixing the sound and what they endured to get the music to the level they did is almost amazing today (with all the technology that is used now in the recording industry).
It is also becoming more rare to find bands that write their own songs, play their own instruments, and sing and perform it and stay together as long as they did.
If you want to know what music of the real rock and roll era then this is the audio for you. After you listen to this you will have to go listen to their music because you will even further appreciate what they went thru to get it to the level they did from such a meager beginning.
Peace~and A Whole Lotta Love~

phenomenal

I could not wait til I left for work and got off work so I could listen to another hour. I dearly love led zep music but hate to now know about the occult influences. and the drugs oh my! The devil finds his way into everything. But he won't beat me on the this... ill continue to see Jesus instead. The random
talking to un named people was jacked up. Wth????? I hated when the writer did that. maybe I'm not smart enough for this guy.

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entertaining as expected

If your a zeppelin fan this is worth the read. Simon Vance is wonderful, as he always is. I especially like the flashback scenes which I thought was an interesting approch to the story, despite it not coming from the artists themselves. regardless it's great, well researched and addictive. Get it....now.

Could ha e been half as long

Absolutely hated the flashback scenes. But loved the glimpse into the reality of what it was like behind the scenes as a touring rock band. Makes me glad I'm not them, really. If you don't read about this kind of thing you get this false idea of how great it would be, but in reality it's a waste of life.

great

it was hard to follow the flashbacks at times but it was very enthralling. definitely compelling

Excellent

Loved it. The audio version is especially awesome for an American, I tried reading the book but it was slower since some is written in the voice of the British members of the band.

Incredible read for fans

This book was on my must read list forever. I adore Led Zeppelin but I had no clue about how the legacy of "sex, drugs, and rock and roll" with Zeppelin started. There's nothing spared from this book. It taught me about the music business and the legacy that these four rock stars made more than any documentary ever could. I highly regard this book for teaching me about my favorite band and I must recommend this to any fan of Zeppelin. The narrator is a favorite of mine as well. Overall I give this book a perfect score but I'm biased.

As Good As Can Be

The problem is that no Led Zeppelin bio can ever live up to the greatness of it's subject. Entertaining, interesting, well researched it is. I would like to read more personal accounts of Zeppelin shows, what that experience was like. This book is long on journalism, short on subjective accounts. Still well worth hearing. Recommended.

Good solid 3rd source bio

I’m gonna make this short. I really did enjoy this story, but I much prefer when a bio is written by the artist him or herself or a least in collaboration with. By all means this is still great but not 5 Star great.