MARTIN POPOFF Led Zeppelin - All The Albums, All The Songs

Released September 2017 (Voyageur Press)

Despite being of the “vintage” of having my teen years fall smack dab in the mid-seventies when Zeppelin mania was at its height, can’t say that the English heavyweights were high on this headbanger’s list of bands. Sure, Physical Graffiti and 4 were in the record collection, but you were far more likely to hear the sounds of Sabbath, Priest, Nazareth, Nugent and Aerosmith blasting from the turntable of this already music-addicted young lad. However, obvious respect must be bestowed on this legendary band, so reading this latest book from Professor Popoff was a no-brainer.

In this case, Popoff veers slightly from his traditional approach of reviewing album-by-album and instead attacks his subject song-by-song within each album in chronological order. Result? There’s gold in them thar hills I tells ya ! Love the level of detail that this new format provides. It allows the author to go into detail about the lyrics, music, instruments used and history surrounding each track, bringing each piece of music to life in words. Damned if I didn’t run to my computer to re-read a review while listening to the track in question on a number of occasions. It also made me realise that I was more of Zep fan than I knew. I guess those years of my oldest brother blasting their albums throughout the house seeped deeper into my subconscious than realized. And damned if Houses Of The Holy ain’t a phenomenal release. Who knew? Here’s hoping that Popoff utilizes this song-by-song format in his future writings.

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