Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga

After recently reading the book by Duff on Guns and Roses I was told it didn't hold a candle to this book of Led Zeppelin. Well, I disagree. In fact, told from a first person's perspective, I found it to be much better. That's not to say this isn't an excellent biography of Led Zeppelin. It is quite good and I definitely enjoyed it.This book doesn't just start with Led Zeppelin but gives full background particularly starting with Jimmy Page who had the earlier Yardbirds. What becomes evident from reading this book is how the chemistry of the members made the band what it was. I knew Led Zeppelin but really didn't follow their music in depth. This book really fills in the holes and shows what they created which they probably never have received full credit for. Hey, they're not the Beatles or Stones. But what they did in their genre and how they worked so hard and stayed together without much in-fighting to create this magic is well represented in this book.They book does cover the groupie debauchery with which I had some familiarity from previously reading Pamela des Barres' book "I'm With the Band". But I didn't find it to be covered in total depth, more in rumor. Also, their black magic fetish is really not clear but without a question Jimmy Page particularly is a weird dude.As is typical, drugs and alcohol eventually take their toll but to the credit of the group, when a member is lost, the group doesn't try to weather on and steal money. How these guys survived this to live normal productive lives is probably as interesting as anything.Overall, a very good read on an epic musical influence that I strongly recommend.

A great read about a great band. Not sure how Davis got so much detailed information, but it does bring me to my only objection. Davis claims to be an expert, and he describes in detail various aspects of the music. And yet he refers to a Frank Zappa song that he calls, "Mudsharks." The song is called, "The Mud Shark." How could an expert miss that? Plus: the book was written in the 80s. Back then, publishers still employed editors and fact-checkers. How could they miss that? The shark episode was pretty significant to the Zeppelin legacy, and the Zappa song was pretty famous on its own. It may seem like a minor point, at least to non-Zappa fans, but it makes me question the accuracy of anything in this book. Another review referred to pederasty. There was pedophilia, but pederasty is a subset of pedophilia that did not occur. Also: I don't think Lori Maddox ever complained anyway... except that she wished Jimmy had defiled her more often. Remember kids: heroin will mess you up so bad that you want even want to defile a willing teenage beauty.

Good book I had it once so I'm glad I bought it again. Good read flows nice. But it seems to leave John Paul out. And he's one of my favourite musicians. It's more about Jimmy Robert and touring with heroin. I'm not sure if it's all true but I bet it is. Because a lot of things in this book I've read in others. It's a cool book to have if you're a zep music fan.cheers🙏🏻🎸🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

I've read this book several times. I had to order a new copy. The print is crooked, faded and looks photocopied on many pages. I purposely didn't get the mass market paperback because quality can be kinda sketch. The book is super rad! The condition of the book sucks.

apologies if this seems to be repeated - i swore i did everything right and entered this review yesterday......... This is a good book(Zep members would call it fiction) I read this when it first came out in 1986 (that may have been the "added chapter including Live Aid") twice in between then more recently, my original copy had yellowed, worn down or was just 1/3 highlighted. I find it strange that people put down this book - while its listed in bibliographies of the GOOD Led Zep books. Although i cant comment on the fact the main source was from someone LZ had fired -no names -Richard Cole - the book at times seems to focus on the antics drugs, boozing, groupies, violence. However, the History of the band is accurate! At the time there were less than 5 books on Zep- but two were available in England (those by Ritchie Yorke - authorized by the band, and Chris Welch MM writer and friend of Pages first then the band.) Not everyone in the US could access them - face it kids we didn't have Internet. (what we did have was specialty record stores, fanzines and fans long distant calling each other or just cassette trading.) I myself enjoyed reading "hammer" , Mr Davis traces the roots of Zep, analyzes the music does his research and is a good writer. If this book is such trash as some fans call it -why did it make the Best Seller list? OK maybe in the book Mr Davis crosses the line about the so called events of the band, but it is a good telling of LZ history (This is the only book to my knowledge where he mentions Page and Roy Harper wrote songs together during Zep days and Plant read about it in a farming magazine - what gives?) I like this book and therefore give it 5 stars, send your hate mail to .(LOL) David Terralavoro

Received in New condition at a Used price

I loved this book! I read When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zepplin by Mick Wall before reading this book. This book, although sometimes descending to a kind of tabloid fodder, was much more interesting and straight forward. I enjoyed it exceptionally.

Good book for Zeppelin fans.This book can serve as biography, music as well as history book.

Thought it to be an OK book - I know there has been much criticism of it from surviving band members and others, maybe because of how it portrays them - which I don't think is that bad, they were just rock and roll stars living the life of excess. Given how close Zeppelin were as a unit, running a very tight ship so to speak, it would be surprising if they didn't object to a lot of stuff in there - I mean, who does that stuff these days...respectability comes knocking when you get older and have kids and grandkids. Who really knows what happened. That said, the infamous mud shark episode, referred to by Zappa in one of his songs, and also referred to by Carmine Appice, (who was present at the time) providing a lot of detail in a video documentary some may have seen, suggests that at least that story is true - someone is supposed to have a video of it. Anyway, stuff of legends - I liked it.

I am very happy with my purchase. The book was hard to put down. I will heartily recommend it.

I am enjoying this book very much. I am awaiting the arrival of the book Led Zeppelin, which is due to come out in Oct. But this book (Hammer of the Gods) is very interesting!!