Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga by Stephen Davis

Author:Stephen Davis [Davis, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Music, Genres & Styles, Rock, Led Zeppelin (Musical group), Rock musicians
ISBN: 9780061473081
Google: Q3o3AQAAIAAJ
Amazon: 0061473081
Barnesnoble: 0061473081
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2008-04-07T15:00:00+00:00

8 AN ANGEL WITH A BROKEN WING

Technique doesn't come into it. I deal in emotions.

—JIMMY PAGE

Led Zeppelin's original five-year contract with Atlantic Records had expired at the end of 1973, and the price of renewal would be high for Atlantic. After an all-night negotiating session between Peter Grant and Ahmet Ertegun, the normally poised Turkish diplomat's son staggered out of the room muttering, "Peter, you're taking me to the cleaners." In January 1974 the two held a joint press conference in London to announce the launch of Led Zeppelin's as-yet-unnamed record company, to be distributed by Atlantic. Most artist-operated labels, like the Rolling Stones', were basically vanity operations catering to its stars. But Led Zeppelin's label was planned as an active company run by Peter Grant with an eye to breaking new acts. The endless capital would come from Led Zeppelin's bottomless pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, located somewhere in the American Midwest. There was already talk of who would be on the label besides Led Zeppelin; Maggie Bell, trying to launch a solo career under Grant's direction, already had an album (with Jimmy on two tracks) in the can. A new group called Bad Company was fronted by Paul Rodgers, the great young rock singer from the band Free, and guitarist Mick Ralphs from Mott the Hoople. Bad Company played compact, terse, hard rock and Grant was convinced they would be very big. Jimmy and Robert were also keen to sign Roy Harper and the Pretty Things, which had been one of the main London R&B bands of the early sixties, along with the Stones and the Yardbirds, and had now regrouped under original member Phil May. Robert was particularly keen on the Pretties. "We're going to work with people we've known and we've liked," Robert said. "It's an outlet for people we admire and want to help.. . people like Roy Harper, who is so good and whose records haven't even been put out in America. People there have yet to discover the genius of the man who set fire to the pavilion at the Blackpool Cricket Ground. Roy is not too happy at the thought of approaching stardom." So unhappy, in fact, that he set many strange preconditions and was never signed to the label.

In New York Danny Goldberg received a phone call summoning him to meet with Peter Grant in England. The young publicist caught a plane to Heathrow and was met by a limousine, which took him to Grant's ancient moated country house. Danny was shown up to the bedroom, where Grant received him in an enormous bed, clad in nightgown and sleeping cap. "Jimmy likes you," Peter said, which was his way of stroking people. He told Danny that the new label needed "an ambassador" to America and asked if he wanted the job. Danny said he'd think it over. Back in New York, he debated his move. "I agonized over it because of their bad reputation," he says. But it felt right.

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