Hard Work: The Greta Van Fleet Story

by Marc Shapiro

Hard Work is its own reward. Nobody knows that better than the heavy rock band Greta Van Fleet who in a matter of years have raced from obscurity as teens growing up in the tiny Michigan town of Frankenmuth to the top of the international hard rock mountain. Hard The Greta Van Fleet Story by New York Times Bestselling Author Marc Shapiro takes you along for this high wire ride to the top. Equal parts biography and inspirational story, Hard The Greta Van Fleet Story takes the band on an often surreal and edge-of-your seat journey. At a time when popular music had become predictable, pre-fab and the process of making it had been diluted by the likes of American Idol and America’s Got Talent, Greta Van Fleet brought their brand of guitar heavy, very Led Zeppelin-like heavy metal to the public in the trenches. These underage musicians made their bones playing very adult biker parties, dive bars where they often were not allowed inside except to play and spending countless hours driving in cramped vans to the middle of nowhere to play for an audience of 10. But persistence would ultimately pay off. They signed with Lava Records and put out a series of albums that captured the fantasy with music that paid homage to hard rock’s past and pointed the way to a joyous rocking future. This book includes • Exclusive interviews with local club owners from Greta Van Fleet's early days; • Complete Greta Van Fleet discography, including outtakes from recording sessions, live garage recordings, concert recordings and recordings of unreleased original songs • The real story behind Greta Van Fleet's controversial Saturday Night Live appearance. • Greta Van Fleet's literary and musical influences--beyond Led Zeppelin! • And the real story of life on the road! “This book is biography but it is also a blueprint to anybody that wants to make real, believable music,” said author Marc Shapiro. “Greta Van Fleet slugged it out in the rock and roll trenches and their reward is that they are currently one of the biggest bands on the planet. If you follow their lead, you can get there too.” One of Greta Van Fleet’s major influences, Led Zeppelin postulated in their song Rock and Roll the lyric ‘It’s been a long time since I rock and rolled.” Hard The Greta Van Fleet Story indicates that the return of true, passionate straight-ahead rock is now.

206 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 10, 2019

About the author

Marc Shapiro is the author of the New York Times bestselling biography, J.K. Rowling: The Wizard behind Harry Potter, and more than a dozen other celebrity biographies. He has been a freelance entertainment journalist for more than twenty-five years, covering film, television, and music for a number of national and international newspapers and magazines.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/marcsh...

Reviews

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard work equals awesome results

I enjoyed this book a lot even though I had previously read or watched the original interviews when they were first published. I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Greta Van Fleet however if you are looking for new information about the band this is not going to be the place to find it.

[Nessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great introduction for new Greta Van Fleet fans. This is a great source of information for the band's earlier days. Since this book came out, the band has grown exponentially. This book only covers up to the album Anthem of the Peaceful Army. While I found probably not read this again, it was useful when I was first starting to listen to the band.

[𓊈Eຮte͢͢͢r𓊉 And Her 𓊈฿øøks𓊉 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quest’anno mi sono imbattuta in un video con quattro ragazzi che ho poi scoperto chiamarsi Jake, Josh (i quali ho poi scoperto essere gemelli identici), Sam (l’altro fratello) e Danny (l’amico d’infanzia, anche lui un fratello). Adesso non sono più ragazzi, non performano più nel loro garage dopo scuola. No, adesso sono 4 uomini che sono arrivati al Madison Square Garden proprio di recente. Per loro ho deciso di affrontare la mia paura di andare ai concerti e di vederli live, nel loro elemento naturale, dove sono nati per essere: su un palco. Loro hanno riportato in auge il vecchio rock e il profondo blues. Nei testi delle loro canzoni troverete la loro visione del mondo, inni alla natura e all’amore, ambientazioni mistiche e trascendentali e soprattutto la libertà senza neanche dovervi muovere. Ascoltarli non è solo ascoltare della musica, è viaggiare, compiere un’esperienza ed arrivare alla crescita del vostro io come parte integrante dell’universo. Io non mi considero una critica di musica, ma come essere umano posso affermare che la loro storia e la loro musica hanno raggiunto la mia anima e per me meritano di essere ascoltati. Questo libro percorre tutte le tappe della loro carriera ed ho deciso di leggerlo in questi due giorni proprio perché oggi ci sarà il concerto in Italia al quale participerò. Non credo che questo libro esista in edizione italiana ma a mio parere, se vi intriga la band, merita di essere letto.

[Cherri · Rating 3 out of 5]

things i didn't like:
- switching between dan/danny. his name is danny, and just stick to one name. (maybe a editor's fault, though?)
- this wasn't a firsthand biography, all quotes were from interviews that were taken off websites, which i guess it's why it's unauthorized
- the bits about groupies and "sex drugs & rock n roll" like come on

things i liked:
- how passionate greta van fleet are
- it started off irritating (i don't care if they sound like led zeppelin!) but deeper into it the writing got much better and tolerable

anyway, it's a decent read if you want to know about the band

[Swayva Hagen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Greta Van Fleet