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When the Levee Breaks: The Making of Led Zeppelin IV
Presents the story of the writing and recording of one of the most influential albums, Led Zeppelin IV. This book explains how Led Zeppelin, recognised as the first true rock gods with three platinum albums in quick succession, had been shrouded in intrigue, with legendary tales of debauched excesses, orgies, black magic, and satanic pacts.
- GenresMusicNonfiction
208 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 25, 2019
So I stumbled across this book called “When the Levee Breaks: The Making of Led Zeppelin IV” at the bookstore a few years ago and read it and then kind of put it aside without really thinking too much about it. I remember it being okay, but nothing too great. Then I recently acquired a new turntable so that I could play my vinyl collection more often, and what was the first thing I pulled out to spin? Yup. Zep IV. ZOSO. The Hermit. Whatever you want to call it. Doesn’t really matter. But listening to those majestic grooves made me dig out that little book by Andy Fyfe so that I could get a little bit better of a handle on it. Love it or hate it, it really is of no concern, but here is the plain and simple fact: Led Zeppelin IV is absolutely one of the greatest rock records ever made. Stop there. Don’t argue with me, you will lose, and lose horribly. And look, it’s not even my personal favorite in the Zeppelin canon. Again, doesn’t matter. Personal tastes are of no consequence in this discussion.
But this book...this book….jeez. Now I have to support my statements above. Which I will do. Just relax. And I guess I have to review this book, too. Which is difficult, because I could have written the damn thing better. For one, I don’t think much of the author’s street cred. Okay, I guess he worked for New Musical Express for eight years, but I’m having a difficult time thinking of him as a solid Led Zep historian. The book itself is nice. French flaps. Quality paper. Smart font. Part of the problem here is that it hasn’t aged well, as it was published in 2003. A lot has happened in the Zeppelin world since then, and this short book is really only covering one small part of the whole.
FIRST OBSERVATION: And this is one thing that the author unequivocally gets right, Led Zeppelin was ABSOLUTELY a heavy metal band by the common conventions of the phrase at that given point in music history. Genre historians will continue to argue this for ages to come, but fuckitall, I was THERE, man!!! Yeah, yeah….Black Sabbath. I get that, but hear me out. Led Zeppelin II hit stores months before Sabbath’s debut dropped, and as such it is the first TRUE “heavy metal” album of all time. That stomp, that crunch….that SWAGGER…..fucking METAL, man!! FURTHERMORE, Led Zeppelin IV had at least as much to do with metal’s obsession with things dark and Lords of the Ringy Thingies and all that mystical, sexual, black magic voodoo thing as anything Ozzy and the boys would ever put out. Any other conclusion is just poorly conceived revisionism. FIGHT ME!!!
SECOND OBSERVATION: “Heavy metal” as a descriptive phrase back in those days could have been and WAS used to describe bands as diverse as ZZ Top, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and Mountain. Judas Priest was largely responsible for the second-generation rethink of what defined heavy rock, but we’re not there yet. It’s freaking 1971, man, and Led Zeppelin could be and often was as heavy as rock music could rationally get. Look, go find a copy of the superior live set “How the West Was Won” and listen to it and then tell me that isn’t a heavy metal band you’re hearing. Do it. I double Black Dog dare you.
THIRD OBSERVATION: Led Zeppelin IV might be as famous and influential for its graphics as it is for its music. The lack of a set title, the imagery, the hidden symbolism…..all of it added up to a masterpiece of cohesive media fusion at a time when vinyl records and the packaging that was presented to the public was all calculated to be as uniformly interesting and engaging as possible. I’m happy that vinyl is making a comeback in this era, but I’m sad that so many people over the decades lost out on the experience of the long-play album as an ART FORM. Back then bands like Led Zeppelin saw the LP as a challenge in songwriting and sequencing, and Led Zeppelin IV is a masterpiece because the music and the presentation matched so perfectly.
FOURTH OBSERVATION: Andy Fyfe knows next to nothing about Aleister Crowley. And it’s a shame because Crowley WAS an influence on Led Zeppelin IV, as Jimmy Page was at the height of his fascination with the British occultist at that point in time. But Fyfe didn’t make the effort to research Crowley well and it shows. I’m docking an entire star from the book for that reason alone. It’s just shoddy journalism.
FIFTH OBSERVATION: I could easily live the rest of my days without ever hearing “Stairway to Heaven” again. Yes, it is a classic, beautiful song that virtually defined and codified the idea of what a power ballad could be for every rock band that would ever come in Zeppelin’s wake, but it is also the most overplayed piece of music in rock history, followed only by Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird.” Don’t get me wrong, I loved “Stairway to Heaven” the first two or three hundred thousand times that I heard it, but it’s kinda over now for me. But listen, no other band in the rock pantheon has ever understood the soft-hard-soft-hard dynamic as well as Led Zeppelin did, and this song is the proof in the pudding for that statement. This is also the characteristic that has always set Zeppelin apart from run of the mill metal bands…..the hard stuff hits all that much harder BECAUSE of all of the folksy Lord of the Ringy Thingy folk interludes. Dave Grohl knows that shit inside out, and that’s why the Foo Fighters are the only mainstream rock band in decades to be able to make yo’ Mama’s hips move in such a way as to make yo’ Daddy sweat and groove.
SIXTH OBSERVATION: Fyfe does a smart thing and analyzes each song on Led Zeppelin IV twice, once in pre-production, and once in post-production in final album form. This wisely gives both the inspiration and eventual interpretation of each individual track. It also keeps the book squarely on focus, as it isn’t meant to be nor is it a comprehensive history of the band.
SEVENTH SON OF A SEVENTH SON: No, silly me, that’s an Iron Maiden reference from out of nowhere and for no real reason.
THE REAL SEVENTH OBSERVATION: Fyfe also correctly recognizes that the second most important track on IV is “When the Levee Breaks,” as you might have gleaned from the title of the book. This is ostensibly because of the outsized influence of John Bonham’s immortal sex-on-a-swing backbeat that has become one of the most recognizable and sampled beats of all time. I have heard countless bands try to cover this song and no one ever gets it right…..it’s the drums, stupid….the DRUMS!!!! Without that, you got nothin’......NOTHIN’!!!
EIGHTH OBSERVATION: Led Zeppelin IV is one of those immortal rock recordings that truly does warrant its own dedicated book. I just wish that it had been a better one than this, though I’ll still give Andy Fyfe credit for attempting such a massive task. In true hammer of the gods fashion this is a bit of a Sisyphean feat, the rock destined to roll down the hill just as fast as Fyfe pushes it back up. It’s a decent enough addition to my rock history collection that I don’t want to let it go, but I probably won’t use it as a reference work very often, either. Somebody, someday will write the definitive history of Led Zeppelin IV. Until then I guess this will have to suffice.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST: I have a love/hate relationship with rock music criticism and journalism. I can debate this stuff for hours and I’ll do so at the drop of a beer, but a lot of it can just be tedious and boring. Here is my true advice, and it really doesn’t matter how old you are. Get a record player of some kind, preferably vintage, but at the very least with a decent set of speakers. Search out Led Zeppelin IV on vinyl. Put that platter on and open the record sleeve up so you can enjoy the cardboard as much as you do the music. Make certain that it’s on Side One. Turn that shit UP. Wait for that amplifier to warm up and off you go…….that’ll tell you more about this record than either I or Andy Fyfe can. And you’re welcome.
But this book...this book….jeez. Now I have to support my statements above. Which I will do. Just relax. And I guess I have to review this book, too. Which is difficult, because I could have written the damn thing better. For one, I don’t think much of the author’s street cred. Okay, I guess he worked for New Musical Express for eight years, but I’m having a difficult time thinking of him as a solid Led Zep historian. The book itself is nice. French flaps. Quality paper. Smart font. Part of the problem here is that it hasn’t aged well, as it was published in 2003. A lot has happened in the Zeppelin world since then, and this short book is really only covering one small part of the whole.
FIRST OBSERVATION: And this is one thing that the author unequivocally gets right, Led Zeppelin was ABSOLUTELY a heavy metal band by the common conventions of the phrase at that given point in music history. Genre historians will continue to argue this for ages to come, but fuckitall, I was THERE, man!!! Yeah, yeah….Black Sabbath. I get that, but hear me out. Led Zeppelin II hit stores months before Sabbath’s debut dropped, and as such it is the first TRUE “heavy metal” album of all time. That stomp, that crunch….that SWAGGER…..fucking METAL, man!! FURTHERMORE, Led Zeppelin IV had at least as much to do with metal’s obsession with things dark and Lords of the Ringy Thingies and all that mystical, sexual, black magic voodoo thing as anything Ozzy and the boys would ever put out. Any other conclusion is just poorly conceived revisionism. FIGHT ME!!!
SECOND OBSERVATION: “Heavy metal” as a descriptive phrase back in those days could have been and WAS used to describe bands as diverse as ZZ Top, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and Mountain. Judas Priest was largely responsible for the second-generation rethink of what defined heavy rock, but we’re not there yet. It’s freaking 1971, man, and Led Zeppelin could be and often was as heavy as rock music could rationally get. Look, go find a copy of the superior live set “How the West Was Won” and listen to it and then tell me that isn’t a heavy metal band you’re hearing. Do it. I double Black Dog dare you.
THIRD OBSERVATION: Led Zeppelin IV might be as famous and influential for its graphics as it is for its music. The lack of a set title, the imagery, the hidden symbolism…..all of it added up to a masterpiece of cohesive media fusion at a time when vinyl records and the packaging that was presented to the public was all calculated to be as uniformly interesting and engaging as possible. I’m happy that vinyl is making a comeback in this era, but I’m sad that so many people over the decades lost out on the experience of the long-play album as an ART FORM. Back then bands like Led Zeppelin saw the LP as a challenge in songwriting and sequencing, and Led Zeppelin IV is a masterpiece because the music and the presentation matched so perfectly.
FOURTH OBSERVATION: Andy Fyfe knows next to nothing about Aleister Crowley. And it’s a shame because Crowley WAS an influence on Led Zeppelin IV, as Jimmy Page was at the height of his fascination with the British occultist at that point in time. But Fyfe didn’t make the effort to research Crowley well and it shows. I’m docking an entire star from the book for that reason alone. It’s just shoddy journalism.
FIFTH OBSERVATION: I could easily live the rest of my days without ever hearing “Stairway to Heaven” again. Yes, it is a classic, beautiful song that virtually defined and codified the idea of what a power ballad could be for every rock band that would ever come in Zeppelin’s wake, but it is also the most overplayed piece of music in rock history, followed only by Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird.” Don’t get me wrong, I loved “Stairway to Heaven” the first two or three hundred thousand times that I heard it, but it’s kinda over now for me. But listen, no other band in the rock pantheon has ever understood the soft-hard-soft-hard dynamic as well as Led Zeppelin did, and this song is the proof in the pudding for that statement. This is also the characteristic that has always set Zeppelin apart from run of the mill metal bands…..the hard stuff hits all that much harder BECAUSE of all of the folksy Lord of the Ringy Thingy folk interludes. Dave Grohl knows that shit inside out, and that’s why the Foo Fighters are the only mainstream rock band in decades to be able to make yo’ Mama’s hips move in such a way as to make yo’ Daddy sweat and groove.
SIXTH OBSERVATION: Fyfe does a smart thing and analyzes each song on Led Zeppelin IV twice, once in pre-production, and once in post-production in final album form. This wisely gives both the inspiration and eventual interpretation of each individual track. It also keeps the book squarely on focus, as it isn’t meant to be nor is it a comprehensive history of the band.
SEVENTH SON OF A SEVENTH SON: No, silly me, that’s an Iron Maiden reference from out of nowhere and for no real reason.
THE REAL SEVENTH OBSERVATION: Fyfe also correctly recognizes that the second most important track on IV is “When the Levee Breaks,” as you might have gleaned from the title of the book. This is ostensibly because of the outsized influence of John Bonham’s immortal sex-on-a-swing backbeat that has become one of the most recognizable and sampled beats of all time. I have heard countless bands try to cover this song and no one ever gets it right…..it’s the drums, stupid….the DRUMS!!!! Without that, you got nothin’......NOTHIN’!!!
EIGHTH OBSERVATION: Led Zeppelin IV is one of those immortal rock recordings that truly does warrant its own dedicated book. I just wish that it had been a better one than this, though I’ll still give Andy Fyfe credit for attempting such a massive task. In true hammer of the gods fashion this is a bit of a Sisyphean feat, the rock destined to roll down the hill just as fast as Fyfe pushes it back up. It’s a decent enough addition to my rock history collection that I don’t want to let it go, but I probably won’t use it as a reference work very often, either. Somebody, someday will write the definitive history of Led Zeppelin IV. Until then I guess this will have to suffice.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST: I have a love/hate relationship with rock music criticism and journalism. I can debate this stuff for hours and I’ll do so at the drop of a beer, but a lot of it can just be tedious and boring. Here is my true advice, and it really doesn’t matter how old you are. Get a record player of some kind, preferably vintage, but at the very least with a decent set of speakers. Search out Led Zeppelin IV on vinyl. Put that platter on and open the record sleeve up so you can enjoy the cardboard as much as you do the music. Make certain that it’s on Side One. Turn that shit UP. Wait for that amplifier to warm up and off you go…….that’ll tell you more about this record than either I or Andy Fyfe can. And you’re welcome.
August 7, 2017
Utterly inadequate effort that's barely worth the one star I have given it.
The discussion of the tracks are adequate but really add nothing - I could easily have written these myself.
But the book is riddled with factual errors and ridiculous statements from suggesting that Zeppelin were unable to get a booking in the UK before LZIV to the assertion that Deep Purple started out as a folk-rock band. The main reason for me reading this to the end was as much to do with spotting these - the Purple one made that effort worthwhile.
One particular annoyance was the author's continual whinge about critics having a go at Zeppelin for ripping off blues artists. He made a point of comparing Zeppelin to the much loved Allman Brothers Band. A quick check of ABB's writing credits will show the original writers duly credited. We know this was not the case for Zeppelin.
The discussion of the tracks are adequate but really add nothing - I could easily have written these myself.
But the book is riddled with factual errors and ridiculous statements from suggesting that Zeppelin were unable to get a booking in the UK before LZIV to the assertion that Deep Purple started out as a folk-rock band. The main reason for me reading this to the end was as much to do with spotting these - the Purple one made that effort worthwhile.
One particular annoyance was the author's continual whinge about critics having a go at Zeppelin for ripping off blues artists. He made a point of comparing Zeppelin to the much loved Allman Brothers Band. A quick check of ABB's writing credits will show the original writers duly credited. We know this was not the case for Zeppelin.
December 31, 2023
this album and this band mean a great deal to me. upon discovering them nearly 20 years ago, I developed an obsession with music that has lasted until this day. it was an absolute pleasure to live through the making of this album with all its tumult and glory.
February 16, 2025
⭐ 3.2
First part was interesting, but once the cover of the album was discussed
Everything after it seemed repetitive and uninteresting
Maybe the author got bored and was just filling the pages
First part was interesting, but once the cover of the album was discussed
Everything after it seemed repetitive and uninteresting
Maybe the author got bored and was just filling the pages
March 29, 2014
In-depth book about the making of Led Zeppelin's classic fourth album. The book covers familiar ground, but goes deeper than Barney Hoskyn's "IV". The analysis of the music is rather thorough for a book about rock music, and reading Fyfe's inspired prose made me want to play (and re-play) the album. I do not agree that the roots of heavy metal lies in this album, but the birth of the power-ballad dominance surely does....
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews