Becoming Led Zeppelin

Did I ever tell you about that time in my 8th grade art class?  We were discussing Led Zeppelin and even though I was a big fan, I told this guy named Frank that I thought they sucked.  Just to mess with him.  Bad move as Frank was tougher than me and an even bigger fan.  He proceeded to get me in a headlock.  Took a minute to escape.  The instructor, an elderly fella who may well have been deep into an upright nap, didn't react.   

I became a convert to the music of vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page. bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham a year or so before, when I was twelve.  They were always all over FM radio, but when my friend Eric lent me their untitled album - Led Zeppelin IV, of course - I dropped the needle probably enough times to necessitate me buying him a new copy.  Think of all the pennies Boomers and Gen Xers carefully stacked on styluses the world over to "get the Led out".

I also fondly remember seeing Zeppelin laser shows at my local science museum back in the mid '80s.  I'll never forget hearing "Bring It On Home" at top volume while multicolor lasers danced on the walls and ceiling of the planetarium in time with it.  My buds and I slumped down on the cushions, drinking it in.  Possibly as transcendent as the Pink Floyd shows we saw there.  I've never done hallucinogens but I'll bet this was close.  Wild stuff.

Unsurprisingly, director Bernard MacMahon's 2025 documentary BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN is unmissable for fans of the English quartet.  Unlike many other music docs, I think this one might even persuade the Zep agnostics to make that leap.  The performance footage is fantastic; it must've been spectacular in IMAX.  "What is and What Should Never Be" is played in full.  Watching Page bring down that bow is pure cinema.  We also hear "Ramble On" in its entirety on the soundtrack.  What a great tune, one of my Zep Top 5.  Plant explains how Tolkien figured into the lyrics.  Two great things together, a real bonus.

There is plenty of rare footage and photographs from the early days.  The film follows the band up through 1970, when they toured in support of Led Zeppelin II.  The surviving members are seen in present day, reminiscing.  Any dark clouds are ignored; if you're looking for controversy or dirt, look elsewhere, love.  Bonham, who passed in 1980, is heard from parts of an interview he did that year.  You may know how I feel about the "talking head" style of documentary filmmaking, but here it works well enough.  The lads are ingratiating.  Their memories really build the story, dating back well before they began as "The New Yardbirds".  More importantly, their appearances do not interrupt the performance clips.  

It would've been cool if MacMahon took the approach used in the Who doc THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT - just archival clips.  A certain energy and flow occurs naturally.  Latter day interviews, interesting as they may be, tend to impede that rhythm, as it were.  Rock docs should burn.  But I wanted to cheer as Page, who was quite the studio wizard, repeatedly championed full album appreciation.  He was not interested in merely releasing singles.  Cheers!

P.S. I certainly wouldn't mind a sequel, a next part in the Zeppelin timeline.  Maybe call it REMAINING LED ZEPPELIN?