For the passing listener, Bernard MacMahon’s documentary on the rise and rise of Led Zeppelin will be delightful. Those who may have listened through the band’s discography but not dug that little bit deeper as they have with other artists are in for a treat. Such is the point of Being Led Zeppelin and music documentaries of a similar ilk. The necessity of a guiding hand through a rich period of music history that is what MacMahon hopes to provide with this tightly made feature release, which also has plenty for the hardcore fan. Archival interviews, fresh words from the mouths of those responsible for Immigrant Song and Good Times Bad Times. A lengthy music video, yet it is also a chance to see what influenced the Jimmy Page and Robert Plant-featuring band. From Keith Moon’s band name suggestion to the alleged Devil worship when playing the songs backwards, those oddities are to be avoided.
Becoming Led Zeppelin offers plenty of interesting anecdotes and skips over the interjections from this expert or that critic. It goes straight to the heart of the band. The after-effects of the Second World War are mused on from word go, and where it may have been an obvious connotation given the blimp, Becoming Led Zeppelin does a hell of a job at cementing what may be there in the unconscious mind. It brings to light what we may just assume, although along the way it stops off, more than too many times, for instrumental breaks and montage moments which are built on a throwaway line. Would a straight-shooting documentary of Plant and the gang talking about their early years be more interesting than the vignette-like appearance of the world at the times? Yes, absolutely it would have been. Early influences are logged, and thanks to Page and Plant, we get through the wonderful story.
Plenty of detail, but not enough time spent on it. These are flash-in-the-pan musings which are there to serve the archival material. There are sweet moments, of Page watching early recordings of himself from school for instance, but it always feels like a pale comparison to It Might Get Loud. The origins are charted, the hitmaking moments too, and soon Becoming Led Zeppelin spirals out of control. Space missions, the real world which surrounds the group and the happenstance of major cultural moments being on the same day as band achievements are prophesised rather than accepted as the coincidence they are. Becoming Led Zeppelin has trouble with separating the reality and idealised past.
Even then, it is a fun watch. An interesting blur of the times and the triumphs of the band, built on the honest reflection of those at the heart of it. Beautiful music, incredible archive footage, which will no doubt please the hardcore fans, but it serves little purpose other than looking phenomenal. Get Back from Peter Jackson set the benchmark, and documentaries, be it on Elton John or Pharrell Williams, fail to live up to the creative route through moments of surprising candidness or live magic. Becoming Led Zeppelin is both a concert film and a documentary, though the layering used is more to please the old heads, those who want to bask in the days they believe produced proper music, rather than learn of the band they already love. Cool it may be to see and hear the band perform, its place in the documentary over the recollections and myth-busting heard occasionally is overwhelming. It casts a shadow over what is a very tight and likely last opportunity to hear these stories from the band.
BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN – AVAILABLE TO BUY ON DIGITAL NOW
