Led Zeppelin by Led Zeppelin

First off I am a Led Zeppelin enthusiast - between owned all their material on different formats, different books, magazines et cetera I saw this promoted on Facebook Ads and I pre-ordered right away.I unfortunately was traveling before I got back home to see the book but I read the reviews because I was excited and saw the negative reviews and positive reviews.I want to talk about my thoughts and for those on the fence buying it because you read through some bad reviews I want to take the opportunity to express my opinion.My Thoughts:My initial impressions on fulfillment by Amazon were amazing the book was shrink wrapped and bubble wrapped in a well sealed box. This was appreciated greatly as I was abroad.Once I got the box out of the shrink wrap the book looks absolutely gorgeous with a canvas feeling (not sure what it is called so best describing it) with gold engraved Led Zeppelin. Aesthetically it is appealing because it is simple, clean and with the canvas style book you don't feel you will finger print it up with clean hands. The stock used is a high quality and the colors used on each page are vibrant of very high quality. The book is coffee table grade and well put together.As advertised (more on that in a bit) this illustrated history is thorough with classic images of the band as well as never before seen. I don't know how much the band had influence on the arrangement of photos through the pages but whomever did an amazing job on presentation.I also appreciated they did them chronologically and not a potpourri where one page you have photos from all eras. As you flip through you will find some annotations about the photo from the band and in the back there is a college of notes about each photo. The book also presents how the album art was conceptualized and that was entertaining.Notes about criticisms you will read about:As you read reviews here and abroad you will see some of the following:"It is all pictures"I mentioned above and used the words "As Advertised" when the book was promoted and described as the official illustrated history. What peeves me is when I read both in good reviews and bad reviews that it is all pictures and no text.An illustrated book is a book that takes you on a journey through images.One reviewer thought this was going to be "The Beatles Anthology" and was disappointed - at what point was that even promised?Look if you want a good recommendation for the history of Zeppelin - I always like Keith Shadwick's piece on Zeppelin. Maybe that would be in my mind the ideal companion to this book. One for the story, one for the images."I have seen that picture before" OR "If you have the Internet you have this book"I have an extensive Zeppelin collection of print materials ranging from NME, Melody Maker, Creem, Guitar World, Rolling Stone, Mojo, Q Magazine, issues on Led Zeppelin, Live Dreams (book), Neal Preston's book, and so on - there is no doubt there will be images in this book from those sources. I will also say there is a good bit of photos I haven't seen before - I don't have the rough numbers but I didn't get the feel I will inundated with regurgitated material.I also appreciate the mixture of classic photos with never before seen.I will also mention I noticed with classic shots more times than not there was some annotation or story behind the image and to me that is what makes this refreshing."Clearing out the vault"The band really hasn't done much since Bonzo's death, there are only so many images of them that exist. I appreciate this volume because the collection put together means something to the band. To me, between there mega releases of each album and this, they are clearing out the vault. Even with doing that, I don't see it as a negative connotation, I see it more as closure for the band. They are putting everything out there, if you want it you can consume it.Final Words:Overall I think this is well put together. As a diehard, I find many great things with this illustrated (KEY WORD) history of the band. When I leaf through the pages, I see an image from a show and I go to my Zeppelin bootlegs and say that is from this show. Very nostalgic. I find the book a great way to have a definitive concise illustrated (KEY WORD) history of the band. If you were to pick a book you wanted to visually represent the band this is it.If you are hoping for a narrative in text, in the prose of the band, this is not it for you and there are plenty of other releases out there that will fulfill that request.

Great book !

Excelente libro, gran edición, alta calidad en los detalles.

No words will describe this. It is Zeppelin!

Led Zeppelin by Led Zeppelin is worth every penny. High quality. The book is broken down by eras and has fantastic photos. He was happy to get this gift. And it's not easy buying for my 23 year old son.I grew up in the 70's listening to my Led Zep albums. My son got hooked too. Last summer we saw Plant & Krauss in Charlotte, NC. Magical evening.Buy this book for yourself or another Zep fan!

Led Zeppelin were never about extensive liner notes and press tours and magazine interviews. This is one of the many things that made them seem so outside and above ordinary rock bands: they remained mysterious others, and anything Zeppelin did seemed like some kind of mythic visitation. By 1977 or so the world had shifted and what had once seemed vast and magical felt "unapproachable" or whatever, but at their peak, they were the absolute pinnacle of the 70s rock band, a gigantic, sweeping, violent force through culture.This book is just a glimpse into that myth, but it couldn't be anything other than what it is and represent Zeppelin fairly. Others are complaining that there isn't enough text, but any more and it just wouldn't be Zeppelin. Zeppelin were never, ever about explaining themselves, or going "behind the music," or justifying what they did in any way at all. They just did it, and you either got it or not, but they weren't going to present any arguments other than the music they made and the image they offered via their album art and performances. If you want some kind of detailed text-heavy post-mortem on Zeppelin, you never really got Zeppelin.But if you can accept that Zeppelin is best left largely unexplained and that great art deserves to keep some of its mystery intact, this book will absolutely give you something valuable. I mean, c'mon, It's almost 400 pages of photos from the breadth of their career. And yes, if you've been a Zeppelin fan since the 70s like me, you've probably seen some of them before, but very many you probably haven't, and seeing them all in the same place creates something that feels appropriately monumental.So no, you're not going to get a "rock bio," and this is a GOOD thing. Rock bios probably obscure more than they illuminate anyway, and art as otherworldly and mysterious as Led Zeppelin's deserves to be untouched by that. Accept that there is no "true story of..." when it comes to Led Zeppelin apart from your experience of how they move you and you will be very happy to have this book.

I’ve been a fan of Lef Zepplin since I was 10 years old. I won’t say how long ago that is. Zeppelin is the bedrock of rock and roll. They integrated the blues into rock and roll like no other band could. It’s magical to listen to them from the beginning too the end.