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Led Zeppelin: The Oral History of the World’s Greatest Rock Band

by Barney Hoskyns


Deep Purple vocalist Glenn Hughes had been “partying pretty strong with Mick Jagger at the Plaza” after having an ounce of cocaine flown in from Los Angeles. At one point during this 1975 stay, he called Jagger’s room to invite him up for more, but unbeknownst to him, the switchboard mistakenly put him through to Mick Hinton, a much-abused roadie for Led Zeppelin drummer John “Bonzo” Bonham, who was staying at the same hotel.

Hinton — dressed in the white jumpsuit and bowler-hat uniform from “A Clockwork Orange,” since Bonham had decided to dress that way for his band’s entire tour and forced his roadie to do the same — accepted the invitation meant for Jagger and arrived at Hughes’ door.

“I’m completely off my tree, shaking, sweating, completely paranoid. The last thing I want to see is Bonzo’s evil-twin ‘Clockwork Orange’ brother, frothing at the mouth,” recalls Hughes in this astounding new oral history from British rock journalist Hoskyns.

“Mick goes, ‘I know what to do with you, f- - - ing Hughesy!’ And he pulls out a f - - - ing syringe and says, ‘I’ll f - - - in’ stab you with this.’ Obviously, it was heroin or something, so I was convinced I was going to die. Fortunately, there was a guy in the room who got him out of there. Hinton scared the s - - - out of me.”

Led Zeppelin has become an institution. They were presented with a Kennedy Center honor last week, with the president noting that “a generation . . . survived teenage angst with a pair of headphones and a Zeppelin album.”

But as Hoskyns shows, through interviews with pretty much everyone associated with the group, the drug use, sex and violence loomed as large as any of their epic songs. Led Zeppelin may have been the most debaucherous band in rock ’n’ roll.

Zeppelin was an immediate sensation upon the release of its 1969 debut album, and as they became the world’s most popular rock band, temptation rose as quickly as fame.

Before the mood curdled, though, the spirit surrounding Led Zeppelin was more one of slightly debauched playfulness.

A friend of the band named Vanessa Gilbert recalls a visit to a cottage in the woods where they used to stay and record, where she once found bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones face down in a plate of spaghetti, “talking real slow” after taking Mandrax (a form of Quaaludes). A band publicist who went by the moniker BP — they called him Beep — was there as well.

“Beep, who’d probably also taken a couple of Mandrax, went to sleep in a little bedroom,” Gilbert said, “and the guys went outside into the garden with the sheep and herded them into Beep’s room. Like, ‘How many farm animals can we get into this room?’ Poor Beep.”


cont. onlink

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinio...pvXcSLJtWdIL?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Books
 
Mich signed a right to work law today. Jimmy Hoffa says this will bring on a civil war. I have to post a comment I read.

"Union fighting a civil war? LOL. Can just see it now, "OK guys, we're going to fight a war. Now don't fight too hard, or get up too early. And also, staging a protest in January or Feb is just too cold, so go watch NFL at home....."

:D
 
This "fiscal cliff" thing.
I don't quite understand how tall it is.
I mean, is it like as tall as Dwight Howard, or the Empire State building, or Pikes Peak, or what?

For example, if you threw your mother-in-law over this "fiscal cliff", would she survive?
I seem to be as confused as Boner and Obamer on this deal.
If we go over the "fiscal cliff", will we still be able to post on ET?
 
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