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Jimmy Page: The Definitive Biography

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Jimmy Page: The Definitive Biography

By: Chris Salewicz
Narrated by: Tom McGairl
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About this listen

Founder of one of the most influential and successful rock bands of all time, legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page has nevertheless remained an enigma. In this definitive and comprehensive biography of his life so far, Chris Salewicz draws on his own interviews with Page and those closest around him to unravel the man behind the mystery.

Having sold over 300 million copies worldwide, Led Zeppelin was the biggest band of the ’70s and has been loved by the legions ever since. From his own conversations with Jimmy, the rest of Led Zeppelin, old girlfriends, tour managers and session musicians to name but a few, Salewicz reveals the many trials and tribulations which transformed the middle class boy from the Surrey suburbs into one of rock’s most enigmatic frontmen.

Detailed, thrilling and expertly researched, Salewicz discovers a man who was prepared to die for his art; who justified heroin use so he could harness its narcotic focus whilst making albums, and who overcame numerous death threats during this time. A warrior magician, Salewicz delves into the many skeletons and eccentricities in Page’s closet, contextualising him against a background of London gangsters, deaths, and power struggles which Page has continued to rail against to this day, even within his own band.

As entertaining as it is insightful, and from a writer who experienced first-hand the Led Zeppelin furore, this promises to be as close to a Jimmy Page autobiography as fans can get.

©2018 Chris Salewicz (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Entertainment & Celebrities Music Celebrity Inspiring Suspenseful Guitar Magic Users
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Critic reviews

‘[An] ever-readable tome… Anyone intrigued by how a soft-spoken boy from the west London suburbs became one of the world’s most famous musicians won’t be disappointed.’
The Times

‘A hard-riffing new book that reveals how Jimmy Page became the dark heart of Led Zeppelin’
The Mail on Sunday

‘[Salewicz] lovingly records all the highs and bathetic lows of the rock-star afterlife’
The Sunday Times

What listeners say about Jimmy Page: The Definitive Biography

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A hagiography, badly told.

The author is too kind to JP by half here. What’s worse is the poor reading of the story, with weird intonations and words ‘carried over pages’ to the point where it sometimes feels it’s being read by a speech synthesis program.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Woeful narration

Reasonable account of early life but rather lame in the later years. As others, the narrator is terrible

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Do I know anything about Jimmy Page I didn’t know before?

One thing.
He knew Dave Berry from Sheffield and so do I.
Quite the most disappointing biography I’ve heard or read.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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Pretty Good

I saw some criticism of this book before I listened to it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. There was certainly a lot of stuff that I didn’t know before. Some people were particularly harsh about the narrator, and although he wasn’t the best I’ve ever heard, I thought he was fine.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Awful narration

If you’re relating the life of a rock behemoth, at least learn the names of people who’d appear. Who could remember your mum’s favourite Perry Combo or jazzer Tal Farrel? Distracting.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Underwhelming

Had great expectations of this, but it's written in a fanzine style, people 'shag' and lead 'hedonistic lifestyles' the music is full of 'carnality' and 'sex', and so a bit superficial. It is also quite repetitive which gives the impression of careless cut-and-paste. The book is okay as an audio timeline of Page's career, but best listened to while doing something else.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Poor

Ok, I am going to echo what a number of others have said - the narration is awful It is littered with errors and mis-pronounced words. Quite frankly, the producer should have picked these up. Audiobook 101.
As for the book itself, it is what you would expect of a biography written without the subject's co-operation - patchy, lacking any real insight with most of the information coming from public sources. Some of the early years of his career, as retold by some of those that were there, was entertaining, but this is not really maintained throughout.
Salewicz is a talented journalist, despite having been part of the snide, too clever by three-quarters brigade at the NME. Sadly, he is not a great author.
Personally, i would avoid this tome. There are far better rock biographies and autobiographies out there.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Thorough but.......

The Definitive Biography Of Jimmy Page is recommended to any Zep fans be they hard core or casual but beware the narrator, his erroneous pronunciation of many many words finally gets on your nerves and he clearly has little or no knowledge of his subject matter, I mean to boldly claim that Alison Krauss as an example of a Blues Grass musician!!!wtf???

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

The Way he lived his life, shocking

it's mind blowing how this man is still alive after consuming the amount of drugs he did!

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A rock god

A true legend jimmy page he was a great session man and guitarist in Led Zeppelin

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