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List Price: $10.95 | | Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group
Salesrank: 342541
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| Our Price: $5.99 |
| Used Price: $5.69 |
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
In this wickedly entertaining and thoroughly informed homage to one of rock music’s towering pinnacles, Erik Davis investigates the magic—black or otherwise—that surrounds this album. Carefully peeling the layers from each song, Davis reveals their dark and often mystical roots—and leaves the reader to decide whether [FOUR SYMBOLS] is some form of occult induction or just an inspired, brilliantly played rock album.
Led Zeppelin's Led Zeppelin IV (33 1/3) Reviews:
Does it all have to do with the occult? 
2007-09-12 - Well, whether it does or not, Erik Davis takes a heavy duty occult perspective into this book about Zeppelin's fourth disc. And it works because no matter some of the odd observations, no matter how he twists them to fit into his occult mindset, no matter whether it all gels with me, he's smart enough to get heavy-handed, and then pull back and let the reader know that, well, that's one take, you make your own. Either way, this book is entertaining and involving and one of the best of this series.
JCS
33 1/3 Led Zeppelin 4
2007-01-21 - I love everthing about this book.I love the mystery behind the music , the myth's associated with the band and the way the writer presented each item and infused them together.A treat for all Zeppelin fans.Would buy it again just to have 2 copies.1 for the bedroom and 1 for the office.
Pretty solid 
2006-10-02 - While not my favorite book that I've read in the 33 1/3 series, Davis's book on IV does a nice job of exploring some of Zeppelin's influences and does what this series is so great at--it brings the album back to life. Sure the book may be a bit flawed--of course it's far better for most of what passes for music criticism these days (33 1/3 is, by the way, consistently better than most, especially in terms of exploring historical and social contexts)--but it made me bust out a record that I thought I'd listened to death and fall in love with it all over again with brand new ears. I could write similar reviews for every book in this series that I've read, but I just happened to check out the page here and thought I'd weigh in with my opinion.
The Red Pill Of Rock
2005-08-05 - Neither a tome, nor a grimoire --not quite a cultural critique-- nor a mere record review. Perhaps it's an elfen rune, or recipe book for the imaginal mediascapes of nostalgia. Maybe it's a long bong-hit's rant in a Linklater film. In fact, it's almost the inverse of Jorge Luis Borges' longwinded tales of hypothetical texts, because it's about an alien implant embedded deep within our psyches: Led Zep's fourth record.
It's got no gossip. It's just a wildly entertaining and jawdroppingly smart ride through every level of the subject: as an object, as a spell, as a pop phenomenon, as a myth, as sound, as legend, as a money making music machine. It's more about the mythology of the music makers than it is about the band as real people. The idea of the artist folds into the artist as magician, and Led Zepplin is the perfect vehicle.
Erik Davis takes the entire idea of a record review and rather than going gonzo like Lester Bangs, he goes meta. And the way you walk through the matrix may never be the same afterwards.
More Mystical BS Than Music 
2005-08-01 - Mr. Davis is clearly a fan of rock music and Led Zeppelin in particular. But I feel the editors of this series have again let readers down by choosing him to write this book. I've found the most interesting books in this series to be written by music journalists or rock musicians -- the one's written by academics, musical or otherwise tend to leave something to be desired.
Mr. Davis has a detailed knowledge of the occult (his area of expertise) and even a casual Zep fan will know that Jimmy Page has a strong affinity for Alistair Crowley and the occult.
But framing this album, almost completely in the terms of a mystical journey is too give in too much to the fabricated aura of mystery surrounding the band and to ignore the powerful music and revolutionary production.
Plus, there is almost no new material here -- it comes off as a social science student writing an essay for a musicology elective term paper. Well written enough, but ultimately brining little new info to the table.
Finally, I wish writers in this series would spend more time on the album at hand and less time giving us an intro of the importance of the LP and the evolution of recorded music -- that's a different book you didn't sign up to write.
