Chris Welch (1) (1941–)

If you’re going to subtitle a biographical book “a life in pictures,” you better make a concerted effort to design the narrative carefully around the pictorial illustrations. Unfortunately, Chris Welch’s efforts to meet his titular mandate were mediocre at best, and at no point did I feel like I was on a visual journey through the life of David Bowie… Bowie is an artist who rose to stardom with a carefully curated (and extremely well documented) visual image that made him into an show more icon as much, if not more so, than his music did, so it should have been exceedingly simple to narrate his life alongside a selection of photographs showing his life’s personas. While the book does contain some lovely photographs throughout, Welch’s accompanying text is lack lustre and rarely pairs well with the visual story - and forget about any sort of concerted effort towards a graphic design sensibility to blend the two storytelling mediums. The photographs appear haphazardly throughout the chapters, contain little in terms of captioning or credits, and are far from revelatory, so reading the book (in any sense of the form) quickly became a fool’s errand. The only reason that I’m going to keep the book in my collection (for now, at least) is because a few of the images are worth saving, since the print quality is decent, but if I find a better composed pictorial biography this one may get relegated to the scrapbook/printwall. show less

Don’t be fooled by the cheesy cover, because this is a great book. Rock journalist Chris Welch chronicles Led Zeppelin’s career from his vantage point of multiple personal conversations with the band members over the years. Writing for Melody Maker, he was THERE when it was all happening. He was invited on tour with Led Zeppelin, and attended many shows on his own. The book includes a lot of anecdotes and facts not present in the glut of other Led Zeppelin books. This is one of the few show more Zep books out there that don’t rely on dubious sources, recycled myths, or hearsay. This book is for those who care about the music. show less

I discovered this little gem of a book back when I was in high school. I had only been listening (really listening) to Genesis for about a year, and this guide was my first introduction to a more critical view of their work.

Author Chris Welch, a professional music critic for the past 50 years, reviews nearly every officially released Genesis song from 1969 to the mid-1990's, and reading his analysis of obscure songs like "Wot Gorilla?" (from their 1976 album Wind & Wuthering) tells me Welch show more is a true fan. Also he doesn't hold back when highlighting where the music falls short, like the celebrated composition "Supper's Ready" and much of the beloved Lamb Lies Down on Broadway album.

Genesis is my favorite band of all-time, and perhaps always will be. It's not often that I meet others (or read books) willing to discuss this group at depth. show less

This wasn't horrible, but it wasn't really good.

Nothing is learned here that better books haven't already taught me. And the unbelievably fawning manner the author takes for all things Zep gets rather grating toward the end.

There's also a substantial amount of repetition through the book, where the author takes you through a very high level history of the band, with side trips through the four members' histories, and also takes on the studio album output of the band up to Unledded (though, show more weirdly, leaves out Walking to Clarksdale). He doesn't detail the album so much as to a fast run through the songs...then follows it up with a song-by-song review. Hence much of the repetition.

Not really worth a fan's time, but if you're just getting into Zeppelin, maybe. show less