Book Review: No Quarter is a book I started reading in the library on a whim (a 700 page whim), and kept reading just from curiosity. The book is meticulously researched: if you want to know about every recording date, concert date, and record release in Page's life, this is the book for you; if you're curious which precise guitar Page played on every recording and in every concert, Power will tell you; if you need the biographies of every musician, manager, and promoter Page ever worked with, they're here (needless to say an excellent Appendix and Index). But if you want to hear about Page the person, his thoughts and emotions, his family, his friends, the "whys" of his life, that's all in short supply (as a novice musician, I'm always looking for the secret of how the greats got great). Very good for what it is, but I might distinguish between a biography where the reader gets to know the subject as a human being, and a history, which is a record of events. No Quarter seems a bit more like a history. There's no gossip, no juicy tales, myths, and rumors, no salacious details, no backstage dirt. This is not an updated Hammer of the Gods (by Stephen Davis). Despite the detail about Page's early career as a session musician and with British Invasion beat group The Yardbirds, this book is really a history of Led Zeppelin, a group that has been a soundtrack for Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials alike. No Quarter is solid, but not much is revealing or exciting. [3★]
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