Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga: The Ultimate Rock and Roll Chronicle with Electrifying Detail, Dive Deep into the Legend of Led Zeppelin Paperback – April 8, 2008

After recently reading the book by Duff on Guns and Roses I was told it didn't hold a candle to this book of Led Zeppelin. Well, I disagree. In fact, told from a first person's perspective, I found it to be much better. That's not to say this isn't an excellent biography of Led Zeppelin. It is quite good and I definitely enjoyed it.This book doesn't just start with Led Zeppelin but gives full background particularly starting with Jimmy Page who had the earlier Yardbirds. What becomes evident from reading this book is how the chemistry of the members made the band what it was. I knew Led Zeppelin but really didn't follow their music in depth. This book really fills in the holes and shows what they created which they probably never have received full credit for. Hey, they're not the Beatles or Stones. But what they did in their genre and how they worked so hard and stayed together without much in-fighting to create this magic is well represented in this book.They book does cover the groupie debauchery with which I had some familiarity from previously reading Pamela des Barres' book "I'm With the Band". But I didn't find it to be covered in total depth, more in rumor. Also, their black magic fetish is really not clear but without a question Jimmy Page particularly is a weird dude.As is typical, drugs and alcohol eventually take their toll but to the credit of the group, when a member is lost, the group doesn't try to weather on and steal money. How these guys survived this to live normal productive lives is probably as interesting as anything.Overall, a very good read on an epic musical influence that I strongly recommend.

Good book I had it once so I'm glad I bought it again. Good read flows nice. But it seems to leave John Paul out. And he's one of my favourite musicians. It's more about Jimmy Robert and touring with heroin. I'm not sure if it's all true but I bet it is. Because a lot of things in this book I've read in others. It's a cool book to have if you're a zep music fan.cheers🙏🏻🎸🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

apologies if this seems to be repeated - i swore i did everything right and entered this review yesterday......... This is a good book(Zep members would call it fiction) I read this when it first came out in 1986 (that may have been the "added chapter including Live Aid") twice in between then more recently, my original copy had yellowed, worn down or was just 1/3 highlighted. I find it strange that people put down this book - while its listed in bibliographies of the GOOD Led Zep books. Although i cant comment on the fact the main source was from someone LZ had fired -no names -Richard Cole - the book at times seems to focus on the antics drugs, boozing, groupies, violence. However, the History of the band is accurate! At the time there were less than 5 books on Zep- but two were available in England (those by Ritchie Yorke - authorized by the band, and Chris Welch MM writer and friend of Pages first then the band.) Not everyone in the US could access them - face it kids we didn't have Internet. (what we did have was specialty record stores, fanzines and fans long distant calling each other or just cassette trading.) I myself enjoyed reading "hammer" , Mr Davis traces the roots of Zep, analyzes the music does his research and is a good writer. If this book is such trash as some fans call it -why did it make the Best Seller list? OK maybe in the book Mr Davis crosses the line about the so called events of the band, but it is a good telling of LZ history (This is the only book to my knowledge where he mentions Page and Roy Harper wrote songs together during Zep days and Plant read about it in a farming magazine - what gives?) I like this book and therefore give it 5 stars, send your hate mail to .(LOL) David Terralavoro

This is a well written book and an easy read. I have read many other rock n roll bio's and this one stacks up as follows:Drugs: Cocaine, some heroin. Anecdotes are the best- no real withdrawl or scoring stories, minimal arrest tales.Sex: Some teenage type perversity, nothing really sick. Some pedophila suggested. Groupie talk is OK, but nothing really shocking.Rock n Roll: The best part of the book. Learning about the professional history of the band and some personal history. Great to know the origins of some of the songs and the relationship (if any) between the band members and crew. Manager Peter Grant would probably write a better book on his own (if he didn't write this one). Not sure why they thought the Vanilla Fudge was so big.Not a children of divorce story (Cobain, Motley Crue) or a livin the Blues story (Stones, Gram Parsons) or tragic end to hard life story (Patsy Cline, Marvin Gaye). A real 'take the money and run' story...the music business ain't what it used to be.They made a lot of money, sold a lot of records and love to brag about it. I wish there was more stuff on the satanism dabblings, but that is a leit motif of the story in this book anyway. I know first hand they were un-reliable in concert. I am a huge fan so it was an enjoyable if quick read.

Great book about a great band!!!!!! They are legendary and always will be!!!!!! They were amazing to see in concert and I was lucky enough to see them live in 75.

Fair warning. You’ll be listening to nothing but Zeppelin for the next two weeks after reading this.I thought I knew a fair amount about them but this is required reading for any Zeppelin fan!