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The Man Who Led ZeppelinThe recent announcement of Led Zeppelin's new live CDs and DVDs is a reminder of just how powerful a force the band was in their 12 years of existence (1968 to 1980). One secret of their success was Peter Grant, their manager (1935--1995), and "fifth member", a man who makes words such as "burly" and "volatile" seem like distinct understatement. Grant was a street-smart man, who with a minimum of formal education, but big dreams, and surprisingly high ideals to his clients, made them the most powerful force in rock music in the 1970s, and then almost destroyed them in a single act of violence and mayhem at the end of what would be their last American tour.
In 2002, Omnibus Press published Chris Welch's Peter Grant: The Man Who Led Zeppelin. Welch has been writing about Led Zeppelin since the late 1960s, when he originally covered the group for England's Melody Maker magazine. He makes, one would assume, at least a reasonable living, writing and releasing on a regular basis numerous books on the band since at least the early 1980s. For his biography of Grant, Welch uses his own experiences traveling with the band, interviews with several of Grant's associates and his son, and a previously unpublished interview of Grant by fellow-Zep fan/author Dave Lewis. For Fans of Lurid Rock Star Excess For anyone who's read Stephen Davis's mid-1980s tell-all, The Hammer of the Gods, there's not much here about Zeppelin that will be all that new, although Zep completests, newcomers to the group's history, and fans of lurid rock star excess will enjoy the book, particularly its best sections, where Welch does a thorough job explaining how Led Zeppelin's concert film, and the brawl that ended their 1977 tour, came to be. Grant's checkered career prior to Zeppelin's formation is also fun-think Spinal Tap, but with shorter hair cuts full of Vitalis, as the enormous Grant was a road manager for many American acts touring England in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry, and Gene Vincent, who, in a preview of some of Zeppelin's later concerts, frequently played in such a state of advanced inebriation that promoters wouldn't pay until Vincent actually showed up on stage: Welch quotes from fellow British rock journalist Keith Altham "The curtains were drawn and the compere came out and said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, all the way from America, the king of rock 'n' roll, Mr. Gene Vincent!'"Eventually Grant became manager of the Yardbirds, where he befriended Jimmy Page, the last of their three superstar guitarists. After the Yardbirds split up in 1968, Grant was driving Jimmy Page through London and asked him the fateful question, "What are you going to do. Do you want to go back to [being a session guitarist], or what?": And he said, 'Well, I've got some ideas.' He didn't mention anybody. So I said, 'What about a producer?' He said, 'I'd like to do that too, if you can get a deal.' He seemed keen to form a new band, so I thought, great, let's do it. We took the name New Yardbirds to get some gigs.The New Yardbirds of course, eventually became Led Zeppelin, after Grant dropped the "a" from Lead, so as not to confuse the dullards in the States with how to pronounce the band's name. Zeppelin would dominate the US album charts and FM radio in the 1970s. They would make their fortunes by Grant's insisting on 90/10 splits at the concert gate. He would arrange all aspects of promotion and set-up, and the hall's owner would be assured of a guaranteed ten percent of Zeppelin's earnings. Zeppelin would use these profits to hire their own private plane to tour America, which they would use to fly out to gigs each night from extended stays in a single US city's hotel. Godzilla Meets King Kong In Oakland Cooped up inside hotels, Zeppelin's excess-orgies, drugs, booze, violence by their roadies (not to mention drunken, drug-fueled violent orgies, and drug-fueled, drunken orgies of violence) became legendary, until everything built to a head at the end of their 1977 tour, when the King Kong and Godzilla of rock, Bill Graham and Peter Grant tangled in an ugly fight outside of Zeppelin's dressing rooms at the Oakland Coliseum in California. This fight, which began with an altercation involving Grant's preteen son and an employee of Graham's, ended with that employee getting violently thrashed by Grant, his roadies, Richard Cole, who was Zeppelin's road manager, and even John Bonham, Zeppelin's drummer, dubbed "La Bete", or "The Beast" by the band themselves. So crucial to understanding the excesses of Zeppelin on the road is this story, that Welch tells it twice-first from the perspective of the band, with frequent quotes from Richard Cole, and then from Graham's perspective, liberally quoting from Graham's 1992 biography, Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock and Out. Zeppelin didn't know it at the time, but that would their last concert in America. And to add an insult of the worst kind to injury, as if the Oakland incident wasn't enough, Robert Plant received a phone call a few days later telling him that his five-year old son was dead by a strange viral infection. Coda These two back-to-back incidents immediately put Zeppelin on hiatus, but they reformed for what would be a brief coda: they released 1979's In Through The Outdoor, then played two mammoth outdoor concerts in Knebworth, England, in front of several hundred thousand fans, and then began plans for a tour of America in 1980, but, as the band was rehearsing at Jimmy Page's home in England, Bonham died after a mammoth (even by Zeppelin standards) vodka-fueled bender, and the band quickly broke up. While the surviving members of his band would have solo careers of varying success in the 1980s, which he helped to launch, only to see each former band member hire different management, Grant became a hermit, grossly overweight, addicted to a variety of drugs, and spending his days a virtual shut-in his home in Horselunges, his baronial English mansion. Eventually he would re-emerge, drug-free, and slimmed down, to become something of an elder statesman of rock, in the early 1990s. But in November of 1995, he died of a heart attack. Grant changed the rules of touring in the 1970s, and Zeppelin patented rock star excess. They also influenced hard rock to such a degree that there were numerous bands that aped their sound, and sold millions of records of their own in the process. With the exception of the ugly Oakland incident, most of Grant's toughness was just bluster. With a weight easily tipping the scales at 300 pounds, and with his Genghis Kahn-like appearance, he could bully his weigh through almost any situation. Indeed, Welch describes several incidents where guns were waved at Grant, and he either simply brushed them with his bulk, or simply laughed in their owner's face and bellowed "Go ahead and shoot, you c***!" But curiously, white music in the 1980s saw the rise of dull accountant-like managers and simultaneously, black music saw the birth of "gangta" rap, where people really did live out their violent Godfather and Superfly mobster fantasies to a degree unimaginable even to people like Grant. For better or worse, rock and roll music hasn't been the same since Zeppelin called it a day, and I suspect touring has gotten far less colorful without mammoth figures like Grant prowling behind the curtains, as well. Click here for more fine Blogcritics.org reading, or scroll down to see comments on this story and add one of your own. Support Blogcritics.org by shopping at Amazon.com from this page.
Comments & Trackbacks"Comments? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?" (10 comments & pings so far)
One of my favourite "what if" scenarios is to imagine what the careers of some other bands might have been like if they'd been managed by Peter Grant. I'm sure the history of, say, Deep Purple might have been very different, to give just one example. Would Led Zep have been as good, or as successful, if they'd been managed by someone like Gerry Bron? Tim, Obviously, anytime a band is wildly successful, a lot of elements, not the least of which is luck, have to come together in an unusual fashion. The two elements that Grant provided was the 90/10 split, which made them quite wealthy, and a hands-off attitude towards their music. Welch quotes John Paul Jones who said that the band gave Grant an "executive producer" title on their records, largely because he got out their way in the studios, and let them do whatever they wanted. One way a direct comparsion between managers is possible is comparing Grant with Mickie Most, who produced the Yardbirds, as well as Jeff Beck's early albums. As Welch notes, for several years, both before and during Zeppelin's launch, Grant was a partner with Mickie Most. The two couldn't have had different management styles: for Most, the single was everything, and albums were merely a throwaway, which is one of the reasons why Beck's Truth has some great playing, but sounds thin, whimpy and dashed off. In contrast, Led Zeppelin I's production still holds up sonically today. For Grant and Zeppelin, singles were almost entirely unneccessary, and the album was the key to success. Regards, Ed I hated Led Zeppelin when I was a kid, and listening to them now, I must report that my youthful judgement was spot on. What a load of bombastic crap that stuff is. One of my fondest rock and roll memories is of happening to be in New York after John Bonham died and finding at a punky village record shop a bumper sticker that read: "Dead Zeppelin: One Down, Three to Go." I put it on the refrigerator at home to piss off my LedHead siblings. Then I played the Clash's London Calling at full blast over and over again to torment them even further. I was such a cruel child. I remember the Clash as a sonic blast clearing away all that 70s Zeppelinish sludge. Even the skies looked sharper every Friday as I returned home from the local punk club and proceeded to throw up all over my sister. Ah, youth...... Mike, it's much easier to hate the concept of Led Zeppelin than the actual music. I didn't listen to them for years after burning out in my teens, but when iwent back with relatively fresh ears (impossible with some songs - "Stairway") there is just too much great stuff covering a vast musical spectrum: beauty, immense power, riffs, delicacy, tunes, amazing guitar, real blues. You can reject the bombast and the silly vague lyrics, but don't throw the anvil out with the gods. Eric and Mike, My review above is strictly about their manager--it has little or nothing to do with their music, since as I said to Tim, Grant was pretty much hand's off when it came to his band's albums. That being said, my biggest beef with Led Zeppelin are the lyrics--Plant's lyrics didn't seem too bad on Presence and In Through The Out Door, but the early stuff is either waaaaay too hippy dippy trippy silly flower power stuff, or raunchy "hey baby, let's do it right now" over the top macho posing. But the arrangements underneath those lyrics are consistently interesting. For a hard rock group, there's some great arranging going on those albums: fitting in the lead guitar fills on LZ II, the stop time stuff on LZ IV or Presence, all of the overdubbed guitars on Houses of the Holy and Physical Graffiti, and the interaction between the keyboards and guitar on In Through the Out Door. Lyrically, I'd rather listen to Pete Townshend's words in the 1970s. But musically, there's much to savor on Zep's albums during that period. (But I like several Clash songs as well, Mike. Sorry if my choice of review subjects left you feeling slightly perturbed.) Regards, Ed I mentioned Deep Purple, because I felt they were a band that didn't really achieve their full potential in the 1970s; one of the reasons was their recording contract demanding two albums a year, and excessive touring that burned them out too fast. Perhaps someone like Grant might have been able to keep a lid on the ego problems that blew the band apart. And I'm sure they wouldn't have done weaker albums like "Who Do We Think We Are" if they'd had the luxury of a one album a year contract like Zep did. I remember that tour in '77 - they were going to play Chicago, and my friends and I (we had just graduated HS) had tickets; then Plant's son died, and the tour got cancelled. We were MAJORLY bummed. This was my one chance, and it didn't happen. Ed, I agree with you re: dumb lyrics on the early albums, but that the music itself is nearly perfect, and remains to this day one-of-a-kind. That was some genius, right there. After that idiotic flip out scene at Bill G's in 1977 (which is quite unpleasant just to have read and heard about at the time, violence and piggery being what it is) ... I remember an immensely talented parody of Led Zep that was broadcast throughout the Bay Area on what was the vestigial remains of "underground" radio in 1978. A true parody, the subject was a mock of media favorites who have achieved massive and sometimes questionable popularity. This was a crossed version: The "Theme to Gilligan's Island" performed in the style of "Stairway to Heaven", but not merely imitative or sound-alike. Led Zep's legal squad inexplicably exploded on the scene, out to (somewhat inconceivably) collect all copies of the tapes. They apparently interrogated the radio station personnel in order to uncover the source, to find and punish the parodists as well. They apparently implied they were out to search and destroy, sending out threats and warnings. Well, those tactics were ineffectual in the long run as they predictably always are. But that seems fairly typical of Led Zep vibes. At the time, I doubted they could even so much as comprehend the cultural complexity of the parody.
Ribbing on Led Zeppelin, particularly Robert Plant's lyrics for being to hippy, dippy...first of all - all of them weren't hippy-dippy and so what if they were! Everyone back then had hippy dippy lyrics - Everyone ! Dude that was the time frame it was in...LMFAO ! Context is everything. They were avante garde-musically - you have to understand that. The Devil is here you sorry cunts(not you,JohnB,your alright.I'll spare your life.)and I'm a goin'to set all you fucking pathetic turds straight,because I'm the motherfucking Devil,evil omnipotent,omniscient ruler of the universe!Oh where should i start with this ensemble of wasted human flesh?Tim,do you really sit around thinking about Deep Purple?I'm going to kill you first by chopping you up into pieces,then feeding those pieces,lightly marinated with my urine,to your mother as i fuck her in the ass with my huge Devil cock!Mike,I'm going to torture your extremely worthless ass for your blasphemous comments regarding the mighty Zeppelin,you no taste,male ass licking,cock blowing,"I was once a sorry punk who pierced my scrotum and let fat old men fuck my ass for candy" shitstain,poster boy for abortion!Ed is just a frustrated homosexual who would like to make it with ole'Townshend,but ole'Pete prefers little boys.I'm going to cut your head off,gouge out your eyes,and laugh hysterically as your whore mother shoves those eyeballs up her ass as she attempts to suck on my enormous evil cock!And as for bflaska,after I sodomize you with my gargantuan evil tool,and force you to lick my cock clean of your shit,I'm going to restrain you to some railroad tracks and whisper sweet nothings in your ear until the 5:15 comes along and rids the world of your putrid existence!I'm the motherfucking devil you walking pieces of excement,and I will lay your souls to waste!Everyone of you combined possess an IQ well into the red!I'm the Devil,the baddest,smartest,wisest,best looking,well hung,great cook,marvelous conversationalist,most powerful,downright witty,superior to all mortals that inhabit this world(until I waste 'em,of course).All of you combined are unworthy of licking my ass clean!I will kill you all,and have my way with selected family members.This little group makes the rest of the worthless human population(Jones,Page,and Plant notwithstanding)look useful for something other than maiming,torturing,raping,hunting,skinning,dismembering,eating,burning,crucifying,well,I think even you shitstain morons get the point.Well,I'm off for now.I have a bake sale to attend at the neighborhood church,and my world famous brownies must be attended to.Bye now,and I'll see everyone of you miserable cunts in your nightmares!HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!! Post a comment(Or ping: http://www.blogcritics.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/3727) | |||||||||
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In the world of popular music, you can count the number of managers who are close to being household names on the fingers of one of Homer Simpson's hands: Elvis's Col. Tom Parker, Brian Epstein, the man behind the Beatles, and Led Zeppelin's Peter Grant. 
