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When Giants Walked the Earth

A Biography of Led Zeppelin

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When Giants Walked the Earth

By: Mick Wall
Narrated by: Jeff Harding
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Over ten years after WHEN GIANTS WALKED THE EARTH, Mick Wall's seminal biography of the band, comes this major and extensively researched revision, which provides an unflinching look at life inside one of the biggest-selling rock bands of all time, and presents the definitive, final word on Led Zeppelin.

They were 'the last great band of the sixties; the first great band of the seventies'; they rose, somewhat unpromisingly, from the ashes of the Yardbirds to become one of the biggest-selling rock bands of all time. Mick Wall, respected rock writer and former confidant of both Page and Plant, unflinchingly tells the story of the band that wrote the rulebook for on-the-road excess - and eventually paid the price for it, with disaster, drug addiction and death.

WHEN GIANTS WALKED THE EARTH reveals for the first time the true extent of band leader Jimmy Page's longstanding interest in the occult, and goes behind the scenes to expose the truth behind their much-hyped yet spectacularly contrived comeback at London's O2 arena in 2007, and how Jimmy Page plans to bring the band back permanently - if only his former protégé, now part-time nemesis, Robert Plant will allow him to. Wall also recounts, in a series of flashbacks, the life stories of the five individuals that made the dream of Led Zeppelin into an even more incredible and hard-to-swallow reality: Page, Plant, John Paul Jones, John Bonham, and their infamous manager, Peter Grant.©2008 Mick Wall Entertainment & Celebrities Music Biography
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Critic reviews

So this is the big one: a fat, juicy biography of the biggest band ever...Mick Wall, the veteran rock journalist, lays it all bare in a book that can only be described as definitive
As well as being the most complete account yet of a great British rock band, When Giants Walked the Earth is, as its name implies, a document of a bygone age....Wall has done his subject proud
It deftly strikes the balance between lofty authority and finding a way to get inside the heads of its subjects
This fantastic account of Led Zeppelin's wild and decadent heyday is as detailed and definitive as music biographies get
The definitive account of rock legends Led Zeppelin
A fascinating and diligently researched account of rock'n'roll excess
The definitive book about Led Zeppelin... Mick Wall has done a fine job here and certainly knows his stuff
That Wall can add so much fresh detail to the Led Zep story is in itself an extraordinary achievement. That he manages to humanise these planet-striding giants while doing so puts this book into the "definitive" category
We've read about the booze, drugs, devil worship and deviant sex... Mick Wall delves a lot deeper into the dark stuff
All stars
Most relevant
I'm not a massive fan of Led Zep, but the overall story described gives a great overview of the band and their place in broader music history from the 60s to the published date. Wall pivots between great research and personal interviews with band members. I think, personally, the way Jason Bonham is presented is a highlight, but the book overall is fantastic.

Another amazing Mick Wall band biography

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what I liked:
the author clearly done his homework.
the new information not in the original edition.
the new information surrounding the '07 reunion was great.

what I disliked:
a major gripe (& the only negative) was having an american narrator on this edition.
it really grates when he starts using english slang with an american accent, a major minus.
I don't know why there was an additional english-speaking narrator required.
Americans know zeppelin are a quintessential english band with an iconic english manager etc, so probably would be happy enough with the only narration to be an english bloke.
Apparently there is another audio version of the book with an English narrator, which would have sufficed to all in english-speaking countries

A very comprehensive updated edition of a great book

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The journalism and research is fantastic. THE definitive Zep biography. Let down by dreadful narration. Pity Mick Wall, the author, didn’t narrate it himself. That would have been awesome..

Incredible biography, woeful narration

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Really enjoyable listen though I have to say, a story written by and Englishman about a band of Englishmen with an English manager, parts of which are told in the first person, picking a heavily accented American to narrate is very odd. The slang and English writing and speaking massively misses the mark due to this. Mick would’ve been better reading it himself

Great story, bad choice of narrator

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Mick Wall is one of the finest writers on classic rock the UK has ever turned out and this is his masterwork. There are other Zep biographies but this is the one that will be on the reading list for undergraduate students of classic late twentieth century music in a hundred years time. He combines deep knowledge of his subject, extensive research and an imaginative approach gererally absent from most rock or pop biographies. The book goes well beyond the band's demise in '79 right up to their one-off Celebration Day gig at the O2 in 2007 and beyond, almost to the 2020's. There's some first-hand interview material with Page and Jones but not much, which is fine given the entire band's propensity for*ahem* "self-mythologising". I can't recommend this book highly enough, although there is one thing that some might find a bit of an issue, this being the narrator. I recognised Jeff Harding's voice immediately, being a massive Lee Child fan and my first thought was "this is a peculiar choice." For those who don't know Jeff is from the US and has a very idiosyncratic narration style. It's perfect for Jack Reacher stories, (I almost find myself reading the Reacher books in his voice in my head), but how is this going to work when it concerns a band of Englishmen, two of whom are Brummies? Well, it "kind of" works; I made it to the end and when he's reading the author's words it's quite a good fit, Wall having a similar descriptive style and economy with words to Lee Child. it takes a bit of a suspension of disbelief when it comes to quotes from, well anyone at all, but especially the British contributors not just because of the accent but also the WAY Harding reads... look, if you know, you know, and if you don't, you'll find out when you listen. I got past it pretty quick because it was like having an old friend read the book to me but i won't deny that the narration is, as I said, idosyncratic.

The Best Led Zep Biography by a Country Mile

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