As a proud little baby hippie, back in the late '60s during the waning days of both the Nixon administration and the age of Aquarius, I was a passionate lover of loud rock and roll and I have the tinnitus to prove it. So when our good friend Drumstick asked if we wanted to go see the new documentary, Becoming Led Zeppelin, my answer was an enthusiastic "OH HELL YEAH".
And that's how you would have found Drumstick, Hotfoot and me downtown, after dark, for a very amusing evening, helped in no small part by the excellent Mexican food we had for dinner beforehand. The movie was pretty darn entertaining, even if it did lean sort of towards hagiography. But I suppose if you want the Led Zeppelin seal of approval, you have to kiss a little Led Zeppelin ass. The timeline of the film is pretty fine-grained; it's more than 2 hours long and it only covers between when they first meet as a band in 1968 and when when they become the number one group in the world in 1970. There were times when I felt like we were watching those 18 months in real time.
The only speaking roles are the three surviving members of the band (drummer John Bonham died in 1980). They're photographed seated in sort of throne-like chairs, beaming and nodding, modest and genial as all get out as befits the elder sages of rock and roll. Nobody actually calls themselves "genius" but it's pretty clearly understood. Movies about bands like this typically would examine the "sex and drugs and rock 'n roll" triumvirate, but if that's what you're looking for, you can just take your sordid little business elsewhere. The words "heroin" and "cocaine" are never mentioned, and groupies are thoroughly ignored. This is all about the Music.
I suppose that's the way it should be, and certainly the presentation of the music is outstanding. Instead of just clips of different songs to illustrate the points being made, entire songs are presented from various concerts. The first two albums they put out, which are what the movie covers, have some great songs in them, like Dazed and Confused and Ramble On, so the producers couldn't really miss. Like the title says, this is the Becoming part of their story. Probably the biggest problem I had was there's no sense of struggle; the boys meet each other, they're geniuses, and everything falls in place. But man, do they ever have great hair. All four of them consistently looked like they have just escaped from a shampoo commercial.
Maybe I am just not whom this was made for. I was a fan of the band, but really more of their stuff from the mid-70s like Immigrant Song or Kashmir, and even then, I was always more of a Bowie/Pink Floyd/the Who fan. Certainly, I was never the kind of Led head as most of the crowd in the theater was.
Drumstick and I had disagreed about what the audience would be like, I predicted it would be an Old Hippie Festival. Once again, I was right, of course. I always am. Drumstick is only in his early 50s so he wasn't even born during the period the movie covers. But I was a teenager in that era and remember it vividly, as did most of the rest of the audience. When I looked out over that crowd in the dim lights, the gray hair was gleaming everywhere. It looked like an outing from every old folks home in town. The crowd was very enthusiastic, clapping and singing and just a-hootin' and a-hollerin' in general. Yuck. Calm down, pappy. If they have to stop this movie for your coronary, I'm going to be mad.
Boys who put the sex in sex, drugs, and rock and roll:
I think everyone’s music list from their teenage years will be the best music ever written. I was 16 when the Beatles landed at JKF in NYC to do the Ed Sullivan Show. For the next 8 years I followed every band who hit the charts and got air play. From my point of view that’s when music peaked. In 1972 I turned the radio off. A few people made it into my music consciousness but not like my golden period of Rock.
ReplyDeleteAt my aunt’s retirement village those old folks in their 70’s and 80’s don’t listen to Lawrence Welk or Guy Lombardo like old folks did back in the day, instead they listen to The Doors, Credence Clear Water Revival, Cream, Led Zeppelin, The Moody Blues, Sly and the Family Stone, Spanky and Our Gang, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Tommy James and the Shondells, The Tremeloes, The Grass Roots, Gary Pucket and the Union Gap, The Four Tops, Classics IV, The Troggs, Steppenwolf, Vanilla Fudge, The Box Tops etc, etc. It’s like the late 1960’s over there, and all that music brings back for them fond memories of times long passed and missed. I was born in 1963 so I remember that music myself, don’t ever think little kids of the 1960’s don’t remember, we most certainly do. Something about music stays with you, especially from that time, the golden age of rock music 1955-1975. -Rj
ReplyDeleteBecoming led Zeppelin is very much nostalgic for that end of that era. As the concert footage panned the audience, I would see some fresh-faced hippie chick and think "I bet she is the hit of the Alzheimer's Ward now."
DeleteA willing sailor to suck and two sweet assed blondie boys to fuck.
ReplyDeleteGreat collection of hot men and recollection of good music & times.
-CA jock
Thanks, I like them too
DeleteYes! to Kashmir.
ReplyDeleteAdding the documentary to the "to look for" list. I bet nowadays the subject of groupies gets pushed to the back, even further than the drugs. I often say _those were different times_.
ReplyDeleteGreat collection of men, as well!