Proto Reads Plant and Hendrix

Plant's bio seems more focused on the externals of Robert Plant's life, perhaps mirroring the man himself.  This was not overly focused on the sordid details of Led Zeppelin such as Hammer of the Gods, which I read 20 years ago.  It didn't take long before it was clear that this was still not an authorized biography, as Plant (and Zeppelin for that matter) are not always discussed in the most flattering of ways.  I enjoyed leaning more from Plant's side about the toxic juggernaut that Zeppelinn tours evolved into, his anitpathy towards Led Zeppelin reunions and others' experience of working with him musically.  He comes across as kind, frequently narcissistic, a seroius womanizer and prone to casually disposing of band members (in his solo career) whom he got tired of.  At the same time he seems to show a great deal of loyalty to his childhood roots and a strong interest in exploring new territory, from delta blues, to Morroccan, to bluegrass, etc and how much he gets out of this.  A good read for any musical historian.  It also gave quite a different take on Jimmy page as compared to his own bio and is not nearly so technical or music centred.

Hendrix's 'autobiography' in that it is an attempt to organize Hendrix' life in his own words, using journals, interviews, letter,  television, etc. from a multiplicity of sources and trying to create a degree of narrative flow out of this.  To me, this *felt* like a successful process as the voice of the book was of a dreamy, introverted, often stoned, uneducated kid who knew music as probably his first language.  Unfortunately, Jimi is not very articulate, nor self aware and I got the feeling that others could have expressed this better for him.  What really stood out was his extreme dislike of repeating what he had done in the past, a sense of thinking musically and struggling to make this real.  He came across in this book as a man who truly had a progressive musical spirit and it is sad that this did not come to fruition.  I don't really know Hendrix well, beyond his hits really, and am now inspired to explore some of his lesser know later material, something I'm sure many PA members have already done!

Anyways, both are recommended for amateur musical historians!

I can tell that this book is one of those that requires re-reading as there's a lot that's hidden in the text. I will give you all a more complete overview when I've finished that's excellent work.

holy crap!!