Read the original “Becoming Led Zeppelin” post here.
Welcome to OPE!, the ranch dressing of music blogs, by writer and music journalist Brady Gerber (me). This essay, originally published in my newsletter, is free for all subscribers. Paying subscribers also gain access to the top music news of the week and my favorite songs and links. All typos are intentional.
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Well, hello there. How are you?
Programming note: No OPE! next week. I’m getting surgery this Monday and I’m taking next week off to recover. Assuming everything goes well, OPE! will be back in early March.
For paying subscribers: This week, I break down this year’s nominees for the 2025 Rock Hall. The nominees went live the morning I sent out last week’s newsletter, so forgive me if it already feels like ancient news. Overall, it’s a boring year that’s 95% filled with my comfort foods. So, a wash?
In the meantime, I wanted to share my latest New York Magazine feature: my break of the new Led Zeppelin IMAX documentary.
You can read it here: https://www.vulture.com/article/becoming-led-zeppelin-isnt-trying-to-tell-the-whole-story.html
Overall, despite its many eye-rolling “everything we did was smart and correct and everyone else was wrong to disagree with us” moments, I do recommend checking out this documentary, especially if you’re a casual Zeppelin fan and don’t know the band’s early history, even if that early history isn’t as interesting as all the myths surrounding them, some of which I try to break down in my features (including mudshark, which, yikes). I’m serious when I say this is the best Led Zeppelin has ever sounded in a theater. I smiled like an idiot when “Whole Lotta Love” started blasting on the IMAX speakers.
Crazy thought: Led Zeppelin is pretty great.
With love and all the other good things,
-b
Original OPE! logo by Claire Kuang. Words and cartoons by yours truly. My views don’t reflect my clients or the publications and brands I work with. All typos are intentional.