We’re getting to a point where most of the great 1960s and 1970s rock and rollers are done touring and enjoying quiet lives at home. Which is why documentaries like Becoming Led Zeppelin are so important. Allison McGourty’s straightforward, uncomplicated doc gives us the movie time capsule of Led Zeppelin, for future generations to be 1) either confused as to why the Hindenburg was still around in the 1960s or 2) hopefully, inspired by what they just saw, and maybe pickup that guitar, or bass, or drums, or…high pitched screamo sound? Sorry Bobby Plant.
McGourty’s movie gives us the formation and rise of Led Zeppelin. Luckily, all 3 living members: Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Robert Plant, are here to provide their insights to the story. We even get the rare unliving voice cameo from drummer John Bonham, used to help add further context to how the s “quad” grew up, found each other, and figured out their progressive, sound amalgam that made them such a big hit post Beatlemania, starting in the late 1960s.
The key word in the title is not the band name, but the “Becoming.” This means we’re not beholden to tell the WHOLE story, merely just the rise to success. Frankly, for bands as truly brilliant and uncomplicated like Led Zeppelin, who had the traditional rise and fall music arc, this is the best approach. Meaning, the documentary is really more a greatest hits concert album, but a little bigger. McGourty’s lasers in on the band’s unique sound and how it came to be, using the interviews to guide everyone eventually to the big hits like Whole Lotta Love. To get there, we’ve gotta get through Muddy Waters, Little Richard, Scottish Folk. From there, we dip into the series of random bands one or two of the members were in: Page’s Yardbirds, Jones’s chamber music, Band of Joy where Bonham and Plant met. Then it’s a piece by piece build from 1968 to 1970, where we see the band fiddle with their influences and find who they are in the middle of the album sessions. Most docs would have the most important minute of a song we’d hear then move onto another. Not so here, we’re spending all 5:34 with Whole Lotta Love, or 6:26 with Dazed and Confused, as we see how all that information before found its way into Led Zeppelin’s voice.
Without having to deal with the standard conflict arc most bands have, Becoming Led Zeppelin instead spends more time with each band member, explaining how they found each other. Because of that, all of their arcs are totally different by the time they teamed up. Jimmy Page comes off like the real genius here: he was already doing work with Jeff Beck and various famous musicians and was ready to do his own thing, including having smart business negotiations to maintain the band’s musical integrity. Conversely, Robert Plant is basically at rock bottom, couch surfing and struggling in mediocre bands in the midlands before Page and producer Peter Grant come calling. John Paul Jones was the guy doing TV jingles and orchestra work, pushed by his dad to make an “honest living,” and John Bonham almost ironically of all, had just had a kid and been married a few years, and found himself in a bit of a rut. In each other, we see they find their true purpose in life; Plant finds out he’s sneakily a great songwriter, thanks to Page’s support and push for example. Yes Becoming Led Zeppelin at times comes of as hagiography, but when it’s for the most popular band in the world from 1970 to 1975, featuring maybe 2-3 of the greatest musicians of all time, I’m ok not looking for conflict and just enjoying the show.
So sit back, head bang, and get the led out in your comfortable theater chair. Also, look around at the various couples in your theater, as the husband, probably 45 or older, negotiated this movie as part of the compromise to try the new flower arrangement class as the 2nd half of the Valentine’s Day double header date. Props to you dads, enjoy reliving the glory days of one of the great bands ever, having a cocktail, and passing out an hour into the movie. You deserve it.