Led Zeppelin's legendary untitled fourth album (
Led Zeppelin IV) — is author
Bob Spitz's new book on the band, titled
Led Zeppelin: The Biography. Spitz is best known for his critical acclaimed 2005 biography,
The Beatles.
According to the book's official announcement:
Bob Spitz takes the music seriously, and brings the band’s artistic journey to full and vivid life. The music is only part of the legend, however: Led Zeppelin is also the story of how the 60’s became the 70’s, of how playing in clubs became playing in stadiums and flying your own jet, of how innocence became decadence.
Led Zeppelin may not have invented the groupie, and they weren’t the first rock band to let loose on the road, but they took it to an entirely new level, as with everything else. Not all the legends are true, but in Bob Spitz’s careful accounting, what is true is astonishing, and sometimes disturbing.