A new clip gives a glimpse into the first officially licensed Led Zeppelin documentary, which finds Jimmy Page and company recounting their “devastating” first jam together.
Produced by Sony Pictures Classics/Sony Pictures U.K., Becoming Led Zeppelin features all-new interviews with surviving band members Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, as it charts the group's meteoric rise over a whirlwind first 365 days together.
Spearheaded by Emmy- and BAFTA-nominated director Bernard MacMahon, the docu-concert film pieces together a kaleidoscope of unseen performance footage to offer a unique insight into the band's earliest tours, with the trailer taking things back to the very beginning.
“I said the first number that I want to do is 'The Train Kept A-Rollin,'” Page says in the preview, shown below. “We just kept playing it, doing little solo breaks and all the rest of it and Robert's improvising.”
Plant's voice was akin to nothing that bass player Jones had heard before. “I was expecting some cool soul singer, and there's this screaming maniac with this fantastic voice and fantastic range," he says. "I was, like, 'What are you doing up there? You'll hurt yourself, man.'"
“It was devastating,” Plant adds, “because it seemed like that is what I had been waiting for.”
Bonham, who passed away in 1980, is also featured via archival footage “I was pretty shy," he recounted, "and the best thing to do when you're in a situation like that is not to say much and soldier along and suss it all out.”
Led Zeppelin came together in the wake of Page's spell in the Yardbirds, which included a brief dual lead guitar sojourn with Jeff Beck in the summer of '66. Tiny Bradshaw's "Train Kept A-Rollin' "and Jake Holmes' "Dazed and Confused," which Zeppelin would later reconfigure in their image, were staples of their live set.
As Yardbirds' lineup morphed from into the New Yardbirds, Page pursued a heavier blues sound. His preferred vocalist of choice, Terry Reid, had declined to join, but he recommended Band of Joy singer Plant for the spot. Page in turn brought Bonham with him. (Bonham's son, Jason, would fill the vacant drum throne for Zeppelin's 2007 reunion shows. He spent much of last year on tour with Sammy Hagar and Joe Satriani as part of the Best of All Worlds tour.)
Jones was the last piece of the puzzle, arriving after putting himself forward for a role originally intended for Yardbirds' bassist Chris Dreja.
The teasing documentary clip homes in on the process of the four band members feeling one another out as Page looked for musicians to go above and beyond the competition.
“I didn't want to have a band with just the guitarist and the other guys are bit players,” he says. “There was a lot of bands like that. I wanted each and every musician in it to be equally as strong. I believe that the first album, the musicians had never played at that level of intensity. But it all joins together into something really special. And that never stops.”
The arrival of Becoming Led Zeppelin is notable for the fact that it was nearly sidelined due to a lack of early footage of the band.
“We spent five years flying back and forth across the Atlantic scouring attics and basements in pursuit of rare and unseen film footage, photographs, and music recordings,” writer/producer Allison McGourty reveals.
The film is set for a cinematic release on February 7.
Page's "Number 1” 1959 Gibson Les Paul would prove a pivotal part of the band's sound, having bought it at the insistence of Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, first using it on Led Zeppelin II. He’d recorded their debut LP on a Fender Telecaster.
Meanwhile, the guitarist, recently honored with a brand new signature Gibson SJ-200 acoustic, has discussed the player he admires the most and underscored the word he hates when a certain word is used to describe rock guitar players.
