Review: 'Led Zeppelin from a Whisper to a Scream'

Dave Lewis has written a half-dozen books about Led Zeppelin and has been curating the Zep ‘zine Tight but Loose since 1978. So who am I to refute the “UK’s foremost expert on Led Zeppelin” claim on the cover of his latest book? Well, I don’t doubt that Dave knows his stuff, but after reading the mere four or five books I’ve read about his favorite band, I already knew most of what he had to say in Led Zeppelin from a Whisper to a Scream. I would have loved to see Lewis put his expertise to work a bit more while discussing Led Zeppelin’s discography song by song—more insight, more analysis, more trivia! Instead, we get a skinny volume of less than 150 pages with two timelines that don’t just repeat each other’s information; they repeat information found elsewhere in the book. Lewis should have gone all out with a Revolution in the Head-style study. Led Zeppelin certainly warrants one. As a primer for the Zeppelin newcomer, From a Whisper to a Scream gets the job done. It’s well written and fairly well reasoned (though Lewis evaluates the band’s work with a super fan’s forgiveness), and it covers all the bases from Zeppelin’s official LPs to their reissues and bootlegs, taking us right up to date with the recent 02 Arena concert. Nevertheless, this book is an hors d’oeuvre when I’m pretty sure the hardcore Zep freak is going to want a decadent ten-course banquet.