Becoming Led Zeppelin, Bernard MacMahon, documentaries, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Led Zeppelin, movies, music, reviews, Robert Plant
February 6, 2025
by Carla Hay
Culture Representation: The documentary film “Becoming Led Zeppelin” features the three surviving members of British hard rock band Led Zeppelin talking about the band’s origins and the band’s history through 1970, for Led Zeppelin’s first two albums.
Culture Clash: Led Zeppelin was popular with audiences but was disliked by many music critics in the early years of the band’s career.
Culture Audience: Besides appealing to the obvious target audience of Led Zeppelin fans, “Becoming Led Zeppelin” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in documentaries about rock music from the late 1960s.
“Becoming Led Zeppelin” is worth watching for its previously unreleased archival material and exclusive interviews. However, this documentary is limited to Led Zeppelin’s history for the band’s origins and first two albums up to 1970. This two-hour movie seems like the first two episodes of what should have been a series with at least six episodes.
Directed by Bernard MacMahon, “Becoming Led Zeppelin” had its world premiere at the 2021 Venice International Film Festival, where it was shown as a work in progress. The British rock band Led Zeppelin formed in 1968, and burst onto the music scene in 1969, with a distinctive brand of blues-influnced hard rock. Led Zeppelin became one of the most popular music acts in the world, with a string of hit albums and blockbuster tours.
Long before the Internet existed and during a time when several mainstream media outlets ignored or dismissed Led Zeppelin, the band built a fan base through touring and word of mouth. Led Zeppelin broke up after the 1980 death of drummer John Bonham, who died from choking on his own vomit while intoxicated. He was 32.
Since the breakup of Led Zeppelin, the surviving members of the band—lead singer Robert Plant, lead guitarist Jimmy Page and bass player/keyboardist John Paul Jones—have gone on to solo careers and various other projects. Plant, Page and Jones have reunited on four occasions for a rare live performance together, the most recent being the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert at the O2 Arena in London, on December 10, 2007. John Bonham’s son Jason Bonham was the drummer for that concert, which was released in 2012 as Led Zeppelin’s “Celebration Day” concert film and album.
Plant, Page and Jones also participate in official Led Zeppelin retrospective projects, such as Led Zeppelin’s first official memoir book, titled “Led Zeppelin,” published in 2018. “Becoming Led Zeppelin” is the first time that Plant, Page and Jones have participated in a Led Zeppelin documentary. They are the only people interviewed for the movie. Considering the narrow time period that’s covered in the documentary, there didn’t really need to be anyone else interviewed. Many of the other key people responsible for Led Zeppelin’s success are now deceased.
The two-hour “Becoming Led Zeppelin” spends the first 30 minutes on the childhoods of the band members (who were all born in the mid-to-late 1940s) and earliest influences. Plant names Little Richard and Sonny Boy Williamson as his biggest influences, while Page names British skiffle musician Lonnie Donegan as his biggest musical influence. Jones says his earliest experiences as a paid organist in church helped his improvisational skills as a musician and helped pay for his first bass guitar, which is the instrument he said he really wanted to play.
The documentary includes a previously unreleased audio interview with John Bonham, who rarely did interviews. In the interview (whose source is not mentioned), he says Johnny Kidd and the Pirates were strong influences on him when he first started to play the drums. John Bonham also talks about how James Brown’s music was also a big influence because “the drum sound was amazing.” (Clyde Stubblefield and John “Jabo” Starks were Brown’s best-known drummers.)
What comes through loud and clear (especially with Plant) is that African American artists were the biggest influences on Led Zeppelin. Plant repeatedly says that he has had a long fascination with African Amercian music and America, which he thought of as the Promised Land from a very young age. “America was my dream because it was a totally different world than what we were living in,” comments Plant. Led Zeppelin has gotten criticism in the past for not properly acknowledging how much they were influenced by or borrowed from African American artists, but this documentary seems like an attempt to correct some of those perceived wrongs.
The band’s interest in mystical fantasy stories (such as J.R.R. Tolkein’s “The Lord of the Rings” books) can also be heard in Led Zeppelin lyrics. “The Lord of the Rings” location Mordor and the villain Gollum are name-checked in Led Zeppelin’s hit “Ramble On” from “Led Zeppelin II.” Plant, who was Led Zeppelin’s chief lyricist, says in the documentary that mystical references in Led Zeppelin’s music were influenced by not only these types of stories in literature but also the castle-filled places in England that his parents would take him to as a child for tourist visits.
During their teenage years, the future members of Led Zeppelin had varying degrees of parental support in pursuit of musical career. Page says his parents (especially his mother) were supportive of his music career. Page still speaks fondly of his earliest memories of learning how to play guitar and says he and his guitar were “inseparable.” He comments on discovering the art of playing guitar as a showman through Donegan: “It was like a portal. It gave access to a kind of freedom you hadn’t witnessed in England.”
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Plant (who describes his childhood as “sheltered”) says his parents didn’t approve of his choice to not become an accountant and become a musician instead. Plant dropped out of school, moved to London, and says he was semi-estranged from his parents until he found out that he was going to be a father and wanted to introduce his future wife Maureen to his parents. Plant says his parents approved of his career choice only after Led Zeppelin became a success.
Jones grew up in a showbiz family: His parents were semi-famous vaudeville entertainers Marjorie Castle and Joe Brown. Jones says that his parents encouraged him to be a musician, but his father advised him that the saxophone, not bass guitar, would be a better instrument to play if Jones wanted steady employment as a musician. Jones chuckles that his father was wrong.
Die-hard Led Zeppelin fans already know the story about how the band was formed. Page and Jones were established London-based session musicians, having worked with artists such as Donovan (“Sunshine Superman”), Shirley Bassey (“Goldfinger”) and Lulu (“To Sir With Love”). Plant and John Bonham, who used to be in Band of Joy together, had already known each other in the local rock music scene in England’s suburban West Midlands.
For their public personas, Page and Jones were the quieter, more introverted members of the band. Plant and John Bonham were the rowdier extroverts. However, that doesn’t mean that Page and Jones didn’t indulge in the debauchery that was associated with Led Zeppelin during the band’s fame. Some members of the band were just more private about their hedonistic activities than others, according to many unauthorized books about Led Zeppelin.
It was Page’s idea to form Led Zeppelin after his previous band (The Yardbirds) broke up. Page became Led Zeppelin’s producer for all of the band’s albums. Led Zeppelin’s first rehearsals were at Page’s waterfront home at the time. (The documentary shows Page going back to the house but only lookng at it from the outside.) And although all four band members shared songwriting credit on almost all of Led Zeppelin’s songs, Plant was the primary lyricist, while Page often came up with the riffs that were the basis of the songs’ music.
Led Zeppelin was originally named the New Yardbirds. The documentary includes footage of the band (then known as the New Yardbirds) performing “Communication Breakdown” in the band’s first live show. The concert took place at Gladsaxe Teen Club at the Egegård School Festive Hall, in Gladsaxe, Denmark, on September 7, 1968. Some people in the audience don’t look impressed, with some covering their ears. Other audience members are politely attentive but don’t seem very engaged in the performance, which is slightly off-key and very loud with some speaker equipment feedback.
A well-known story is that the name Led Zeppelin was inspired by The Who members Keith Moon (drums) and John Entwhistle joking to Page that this New Yardbirds band idea would be as popular as a lead balloon, so they should call the band Lead Balloon. Page then changed the name to Led Zeppelin. However, in “Becoming Led Zeppelin,” Page says that Led Zeppelin’s manager Peter Grant was actually the one who suggested the name for the band.
Individually, the members of Led Zeppelin were often considered masters of their craft, although music critics who disliked Led Zeppelin often insulted the band for being too bombastic. Plant had a strutting, hair-tossing persona on stage and was known for his stunning vocal range of howls and high notes. Page, who is considered to be a guitar legend, is somewhat soft-spoken and intensely focused on his vision for the band. During Led Zeppelin’s heyday, he often played his guitar with a violin bow on stage and liked to do experimental jamming in performances.
Bonham was a powerhouse on the drums and is often ranked as one of the top rock drummers of all time. Jones was the steady workman of the group and the least likely to get involved in the outrageous rock star antics that Led Zeppelin became known for in the band’s heyday. This documentary doesn’t have those decadent stories, but Plant makes a reference to how the band’s first tours of America were eye-opening experiences that he enjoyed, in terms of the easy availability of drugs and women.
Under the management of Grant (who had a reputation for being very tough), Led Zeppelin didn’t have any long struggles in getting a record deal. Within a year of forming, Led Zeppelin signed a lucrative deal with Atlantic Records, which was led at the time by Ahmet Ertegun. The band’s first two albums—”Led Zeppelin” and “Led Zeppelin II,” both released in 1969—were smash hits. Unlike many other artists, Led Zeppelin got to own the band’s music catalog.
Page, Plant and Jones don’t say anything too revealing in their interviews that hasn’t already been covered by the numerous books and articles about Led Zeppelin. They mostly talk about the music that they made together and the camaraderie they had. The documentary includes photos of the band members when they were children and teenagers, as well as family photos of their parents and spouses. (Plant, Jones and John Bonham got married to their respective wives shortly before Led Zeppelin became famous. Page was an unmarried bachelor during Led Zeppelin’s existence. He got married and divorced twice, much later in his life.)
Plant is the most forthright about any behind-the-scenes conflicts, by saying that John Bonham’s wife Pat was vehemently against John working with Plant, whom she thought was a troublemaker. (The documentary includes pre-Led Zeppelin photos of Plant featured in a newspaper article about hippies doing protest marches in London to make marijuana legal.) Plant also talks about his struggles to find the right band before Led Zeppelin and how he refused to join Led Zeppelin unless John Bonham was the drummer.
Multiple scenes in the documentary show Plant, Page and Jones looking back on photos and film footage of themselves and making comments. The documentary also shows their reactions to hearing John Bonham’s rare audio interview. Plant, who knew Bonham the longest out of all the band members, gets a little misty-eyed when hearing Bonham describe how all the band members got to know each other better while on tour.
Page gives some insight to musical experimentation that he wanted for the recording of “Whole Lotta Love,” the band’s biggest hit (from “Led Zeppelin II”) during the time period that’s covered in the documentary. Plant gets candid about being homeless at the time he was chosen to be in Led Zeppelin. Page, Plant and Jones all say that Led Zeppelin took over their lives for years, especially when they toured and were away from their families.
The movie’s biggest strengths are in the archival material, such as rare live performances of “Dazed and Confused” and “Communication Breakdown.” Audio performances include Led Zeppelin’s 1969 concert at The Fillmore in San Francsico and the 1969 Bath Festival of Blues in England. The documentary also includes the complete performance of “How Many More Times” from a 1969 televised Danmarks Radio appearance, which is footage that was previously released. And, of course, the band’s original studio recordings can be heard in the documentary, such as the aforementioned songs, as well as “Good Times Bad Times,” “Your Time Is Gonna Come,” “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” and “What Is and What Should Never Be.”
The documentary doesn’t include “Stairway to Heaven” (Led Zeppelin’s most famous song) because “Stairway to Heaven” was on Led Zeppelin’s 1971 untitled fourth album, which is often described as “Led Zeppelin IV.” “Becoming Led Zeppelin” strictly sticks to the timeline of stopping in the year 1970. Considering that many people think Led Zeppelin’s best album is either the band’s fourth album or 1975’s “Physical Graffiti” (Led Zeppelin’s sixth album), there’s a lot of important Led Zeppelin history omitted from the documentary, which is why the movie feels like it ends on a “to be continued” note.
One thing that “Becoming Led Zeppelin” doesn’t mention is that even though the members of Led Zeppelin had a fascination with America and wanted to have massive success in America, the band rarely courted American TV media. That’s why you won’t find old footage of Led Zeppelin performing on American TV shows. Considering how many bad reviews the first Led Zeppelin album got, the band members were selective about which print media outlets got to do interviews with them. Most of the print media coverage shown in the documentary are clippings of news articles or music reviews, not Led Zeppelin interviews.
The mass medium that Led Zeppelin seemed most comfortable with was radio, where the band was extremely popular. Led Zeppelin still remains one of most-played artists on classic rock radio. The documentary includes some semi-amusing recordings of a 1969 interview that Plant did with American radio DJ Wolfman Jack, who took live questions from callers. One unidentified female fan, who is in awe of Plant, says breathlessly that she’s having a heart attack because she’s talking to him. Plant quips that she should be talking to a doctor instead.
The film editing for “Becoming Led Zeppelin” is a mixed bag. Some of the performances are skillfully edited, while others look like an audio track that’s put over grainy footage shown on repeat, with the audio not completely in sync with the video. News clips of various world events are edited into the movie to give context to what was happening during the time period described in the interviews. (Expect to see footage of turmoil over the Vietnam War and civil rights, as well as news footage of Apollo 11’s historic “first men on the moon” voyage.)
“Becoming Led Zeppelin” spends a little too much time in the beginning talking about the band members’ early influences. Most viewers want to hear more behind-the-scenes stories about Led Zeppelin, not see some old footage of Donovan hanging out on a grassy field with his producer Mickie Most. “Becoming Led Zeppelin” is most definitely a very squeaky-clean version of the band’s story, which is not surprising because Led Zeppelin was never a “tell-all confessional” type of band.
“Becoming Led Zeppelin” will not satisfy viewers who are looking for a complete and comprehensive biography of the band. The documentary is just an introduction to how Led Zeppelin became one of the biggest rock bands in history. The movie doesn’t have much discussion about the band’s personal lives, other than Plant, Page and Jones talking about their childhoods and brief mentions of parents and wives. However, this documentary is good enough for anyone interested in Led Zeppelin’s earliest years, including some rare footage with exclusive commentary from Page, Plant and Jones.
Sony Pictures Classics will release “Becoming Led Zeppelin” in U.S. cinemas (exclusively on IMAX screens) on February 7, 2025, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on February 14, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on February 5, 2025.