Susan Fast - In the Houses of the Holy. Led Zeppelin and the Power of Rock Music [2001] [A]

This volume examines the powerful ways in which identity can be shaped by rock music. Through the music, imagery and discourse surrounding one of the most innovative and commercially successful rock bands ever, Susan Fast probes such issues as constructions of gender and sexuality, the creation of myth and the use of ritual, the appropriation of Eastern musics and the blues, the physicality of the music, and the use of the body in performance. The band's influence is examined through socially-situated musical analysis, as well as an ethnographic study of Led Zeppelin fans. Fast draws on academic and journalistic writing as well as a new interview with band member John Paul Jones. Specific pieces examined include "Dazed and Confused," "Kashmir," "Stairway to Heaven," and "Whole Lotta Love."

Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Documentation rather than biography is the raison d'etre of new books on aging rock superstars. Fast plumbs Led Zeppelin's depths, and though she overuses the dubious critical strategy of describing instrumental riffs in words ("Just under the surface of the melodic and rhythmic squareness is a harmonic and formal openness and irregularity that is highly significant in terms of the semiotics of the piece"), she offers entertaining and rewarding reading. For deconstruction of rock music, Fast has relatively much to work with in the Zep oeuvre, and "Stairway to Heaven," a familiar hit with pretensions to meaning, proves particularly rich. One of Fast's primary sources is Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, who hasn't been party to most of former bandmates Robert Plant and Jimmy Page's recent undertakings. He adds insight, but as ex-Rolling Stone Bill Wyman might about Mick and Keith's music. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author
Susan Fast is a professor at McMaster University.