BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN Covers the Formative Years of One of Rock’s greatest Bands!

BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN is directed by Bernard MacMahon. The film features new interview footage with John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and archival audio from John Bonham, as well as other archival footage, much of which was previously unreleased.

Led Zeppelin is known around the world as one of the greatest and most influential rock bands of all time. BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN is a newly-released documentary that has been in the works for years combining rare footage from the band in their early years with additional archival materials and new interviews to tell the story of the band’s genesis, from the childhoods and early lives of band members right up to the immediate aftermath of their sophomore album, LED ZEPPELIN II.

Is there anyone in the civilized world who doesn’t know who Led Zeppelin is? Even those who aren’t rock music fans are at least aware of the group and could probably name at least one song. Any time any new Led Zeppelin content comes out, I’m certainly curious, being the rock fan that I am. Many members of the local Las Vegas music community congregated for the showing of the film in the IMAX room at AMC Town Square on a Thursday night, to a surprisingly packed house. I’ve included some images in this article of some of the local musicians, industry personnel, and fans who came out to take in the documentary on this evening. There was no critics’ screening for this one, so it’s the first time I ventured out and paid for a movie ticket in a while (and yes, that did mean having to sit through previews before the movie began!)

So, how is BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN? One must keep in mind coming into this documentary that it only covers up to about the year 1970, and therefore nothing past the first two albums. It lives up to the BECOMING part of its title in this sense, but manages to pack in a ton of rare footage and some great archival clips and new interviews. At times you’ll wish there was a bit more information and that the whole thing was perhaps a bit more focused, but fans won’t be disappointed. It revives the band’s early days and tells the story brilliantly.

New interviews are assembled here from the three surviving members of the band: John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, and Jimmy Page. Seeing their reactions to some of the long-lost archival footage is truly priceless, and it certainly adds something to the experience. But the real highlight here is new audio-only archival interview footage from John Bonham, who the film even states rarely participated in interviews. His audio clips superimposed over vintage footage of himself gives a whole new perspective, which is a revelation unto itself, and one of the true highlights of BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN. The surviving band members have plenty of insights, all well worth listening to.

The footage itself is another highlight. The filmmakers clearly dug deep into the vault to find rare vintage footage of the band members, both in their youths and their early days of Led Zeppelin. This includes some lengthy performances of songs in various concert venues, festivals, and television appearances. There are tons of tidbits about the band members’ histories that may be surprising to newbies and die-hard fans alike (did you know Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones played on the title song to the James Bond movie GOLDFINGER?) Exactly how much of this footage is unreleased/unseen/rare is debatable, but I saw plenty I was unfamiliar with. While much of the audience I saw the movie with was enthusiastic, right down to cheering after the musical performances, many of them did express that they had seen much of the footage before. How much mileage someone will get out of the footage in BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN will vary from person to person.

While I did love this documentary, there are some minor shortcomings that keep it from perfection. One of the biggest issues is that there are times where live performances are overemphasized over information and facts. Don’t get me wrong; the live stuff is amazing and revelatory (and it certainly demands to be seen on the biggest screen with the best sound system possible), but there are things in the band’s history that weren’t stated or missed entirely (I was disappointed to hear nothing about how the band deliberately put the wrong running time for “How Many More Times” to trick radio stations into playing the song), and it does feel like we could be getting more of the story. The film DOES end in 1970 as far as how much of the band’s career it covers, but this makes me hopeful that there could be a sequel or sequels on the way with an emphasis on the band’s later career. I’m definitely hoping for more in the future that goes beyond the first two albums, though this is a damn good look at where and how the band began.

BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN delivers what it promises. It’s a comprehensive look at the band’s origins and early years together as a group, though goes no further in time than that. The archival footage, new interviews, and musical performances are all top tier. At times it is somewhat lacking in information and overemphasizing concert moments, though fortunately all that stuff is good as well. Strongly recommended for all rock fans!

PHOTO CREDITS:

All Live Photos Courtesy of Taylor T Carlson – Becoming Led Zeppelin Promo Photo from Sony Classics.