Arts & Culture

Becoming Led Zeppelin
Where: In theatres
What: Movie, 121 mins.
When: Fri., Feb. 7
Genre: Rockumentary
Rating: NNNNN (out of 5)
Why you should watch: Intimately shows the creation and evolution of one of the greatest rock and roll bands in history with stunning archival performance footage.

IMAGINE A ROCKUMENTARY without a Dave Grohl talking head. Becoming Led Zeppelin is such a film where the only talking heads are the surviving members of Zeppelin, along with some amazing old audio of John Bonham discussing his life in the band.

Becoming Led Zeppelin, sanctioned by Zep, really is the origin story of one of the greatest rock bands of all time as Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones are all extremely articulate and open about the musical development of the band as well as their personal stories in becoming part of it.

While rock and roll excess is only hinted at, we get frank thoughts about what it meant to join the band as well as riveting insights into the creation of the music itself. Jones proves especially articulate and charming as he shares details of a childhood following his music hall-performing parents around on tour and his rapid rise as a session musician and arranger starting at age 16.

Page was similarly impetuous, also a teen session man with the two musicians often crossing paths as they worked with legendary artists on iconic tracks including Goldfinger — that trademark bass line is Jones! — as well as sessions with The Kinks, The Who, Rolling Stones and more. They also worked on the British equivalent of Muzak.

The musical mastery that Jones and Page experienced before joining Zeppelin are only some of the juicy details Becoming Led Zeppelin has to offer. The Jones family were initially horrified that he’d leave his secure day job to take a chance on Zep. And Bonham’s wife begged, even insisted, he never join a band with Plant.

Fans will salivate as Page explains his efforts to sabotage his label’s attempts to control the band’s output. The guitarist refused to let Zep be a “singles” band as he pioneered an album rock approach, and he goes into massive, delicious detail about sequencing and sound on the tracks.

At one point, Jones chuckles, “Radio would play one side of the album, stop and play an ad, and then play the entire second side.”

A major highlight of the film is stunning archival footage of the earliest stages of Led Zeppelin, including their appearances on Swedish television when the band toured Scandinavia before the first album was released, still sometimes referred to as Page’s old band, The Yardbirds. These performances are shown complete, giving a fantastic taste of the band at the earliest stages, their simmering, monumental power already bubbling to the surface. See it now in IMAX and get full value of the clean sound and time-travel footage.

As an origin story, we are limited to going inside the creation of the band as well as their first two albums and American tours along with their U.K. debut. But with so much rich information and stunning performance footage, Becoming Led Zeppelin is a satisfying, rocking and roaring look at one of the world’s greatest rock and roll bands ever. Highly recommended.