Led Zeppelin by Bob Spitz

Led Zeppelin by Bob Spitz

Author:Bob Spitz [Spitz, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2021-11-09T00:00:00+00:00


[3]

While Led Zeppelin was recording at Headley Grange, Peter Grant was laying the groundwork for the band’s new record label. He officially opened the office on the King’s Road in London but wanted to establish a presence in New York, where the operation was being combined with Steve Weiss’s law office. In any case, G’s management responsibilities were steep enough. Neither he nor Zeppelin’s principals had any intention of spending time on the day-to-day drudgery of running a record company. Someone else was needed to do the donkeywork. Phil Carson would have been a perfect fit; it still smarted that he’d turned the job down. So, too, had Mark London, with whom G comanaged Maggie Bell. “I thanked him,” London recalled, “but said I didn’t think I could do the job well enough.” Clive Coulson, G’s partner on Bad Company, lacked the necessary polish.

In desperation, Peter summoned Danny Goldberg, the band’s publicist, to London. He and the guys had grown fond of Goldberg, whom they called “Goldilocks,” and felt he was plugged in to the scene in a way that complemented the band’s hip quotient. The offer Grant made Danny was vague. “I’d like you to be my ambassador in the States,” Peter said. “You’ll still oversee press but liaise with Atlantic’s sales and promotion departments and even handle aspects of the tours.” In exchange, Danny talked G into giving him the title of vice president of the label, which still was without a name. Until they came up with something, he’d be employed by a holding company called Culderstead Ltd.

Danny moved into Steve Weiss’s suite of offices on Madison Avenue in New York City. Weiss’s law practice was in a state of flux. His elderly, old-line partners had left the firm, which was given over almost entirely to a rock ’n roll clientele. In addition to Led Zeppelin, Weiss represented Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, Herman’s Hermits, Dusty Springfield, and an outlier named Jim Henson, who was shopping around an idea he called the Muppets. The former law conference room was reconverted into a music pad, with studio-quality stereo equipment handpicked by John Bonham. The walls, formerly covered in plush rosewood panels, were papered over with purple velvet, and in the center of the room stood a round purple-and-orange couch. Steve had also undergone a makeover of his own. Gone were the pinstriped suits and close-cropped haircuts. He now dressed almost exclusively in sparkly numbers custom made at Nudie’s in Texas. At Led Zeppelin’s most recent Madison Square Garden concert, Steve had shown up in a lime-green paisley suit over a flowered shirt. He’d let his hair grow long, weirdly long, and he had a girlfriend, Marie Ivey, in tow in place of his wife, Joan, who’d remained behind at their Great Neck estate. He’d even painted his 1957 Rolls-Royce forest green and tan.

According to Danny Goldberg, Steve Weiss took some getting used to. “I never really knew what to make of him,” Danny says. “He was a tough guy



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