Stairway to Zeppelin knowledge

Looking back, Ralph Hulett wishes he had seen them play more, but he remembers the first time he saw Led Zeppelin in 1969.

He was with his girlfriend for his birthday in Pasadena. The band was still new, but the show was amazing.

“They just got the whole audience moving like an ocean current,” he said.

Fast forward four decades later, and the Costa Mesa resident has two books on the band with co-author Jerry Prochnicky. The newest book “Led Zeppelin: Good Times, Bad Times” is a visual biography of the individual lives of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham.

The book chronicles the band from its infancy as the Yardbirds, to its rise to megabandom, to its last show in London in 2007. The book has 200 photographs of the band members at home and in the public eye, including never-seen-before photos, and commentary.

Hulett signed copies of the book Tuesday at the Rock and Roll Emporium in Huntington Beach.

“I’m just glad there’s still an interest in good music,” he said.

To prepare for the book, Hulett researched the subject, but it wasn’t the average research project.

“I drew from past experiences, people that knew the band or hung out with the band,” he said.

Hulett also used books, looked at magazines and read critical reviews of the band.

“I had to try to paint a picture — tell a story,” Hulett said.

The book isn’t just about a band for Hulett. Zeppelin’s music influenced musicians for years to come, he said. Hulett said he can trace music from Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith and Van Halen back to Zeppelin.

“They had their own musical scope that no other band had at the time,” he said.

Its music is still relevant and widely listened to today. Hulett’s MySpace showcases the band’s wide variety of fans. Sharon Hulett, his wife, said he has teenaged to senior-aged friends on MySpace who “live, eat, sleep” Led Zeppelin.

“[It has] a fan base that encompasses years and years of people,” Sharon Hulett said.

The idea for both books came from Prochnicky, whom Hulett met in the 1970s, but it was 20 years later that they started working on their first book “Whole Lotta Led: Our Flight with Led Zeppelin.”

Hulett said he is thinking about writing another book about music in the ’70s or ’80s, but doesn’t want to focus on a specific band.

Writing has always been a part of his life, whether he was working on pieces on bands during college or song lyrics on anti-smoking.

Hulett said he wrote “weird, folky, space-age songs” for a hobby about his experiences driving a taxi and the people who would tell him all their problems.

In addition to writing, Hulett teaches seventh-grade history in Santa Ana. His experiences with music and knowledge of rock and roll give Hulett a connection with his students.

“Everybody likes music,” he said, “and it shows another side of me that they wouldn’t normally know.”

Lovin’ Led?

Buy: “Led Zeppelin: Good Times, Bad times”

What: A visual biography of Led Zeppelin from its first show to its last.

Why: The book has commentary and 200 pictures including some never-seen-before ones.

Cost: $35