He stands on the darkened stage. The spotlight picks him out. He stands, tall and slight, with long hair and fetching androgynous looks. His violin bow is held high. He is dressed in black with striking gold dragons emblazoned on his trousers.
The bow is brought crashing down onto his electric guitar to bring forth the most ear-shattering, eerie sounds. He is the master of his craft; a magician in control of the audience. It is a virtuoso performance by Jimmy Page, a man who has single-handedly carved out a piece of music history for himself.
The scene described comes from the film 1976 film ‘The Song Remains the Same’, recorded at Madison Square Gardens in New York in 1973, but it could have been any huge rock arena where Led Zeppelin played during that decade.
Showman, composer, producer and performer, Jimmy Page was the driving force behind Led Zeppelin (1968-1980). While the other three members (John Paul Jones, Robert Plant and John Bonham) undoubtedly brought their unique talents to the studio, it was ultimately Page’s band.
I recall as a 16 year old listening to Led Zeppelin’s second album for the first time. The first track was ‘Whole Lotta Love’. I don’t think there had or has ever been such a thumping, extreme stellar track to open an album. And after that song things didn’t let up.
The music pulsated, throttled and thrusted for 45 minutes. It was sheer carnage. That was my introduction to Jimmy Page. I was instantly hooked: Robert Plant’s high pitched wails, John Bonham’s exploding drums, John Paul Jones cementing everything together and Jimmy Page’s screeching, weeping, lilting riffs and chords.
It was music that parents loved to hate and mine were no different. This type of sexually provocative and overtly aggressive stuff came directly from the devil. And these guys had attitude and long hair. It was great! Even now, decades later, I put on those old albums and the music still hits the spot; although back in the 70s it seemed tailor-made for frustrated teenage boys.
Jimmy Page’s music drew from many genres, including American blues and English folk, often fused with Indian influences. The tabla can be heard on Led Zeppelin’s first album alongside a guitar simulated to sound like a sitar, and the influence of the subcontinent is often heard throughout the music that followed.
Their third album exhibits Eastern influences and Page and Plant performed a few songs from it with the Bombay Symphony Orchestra in 1972, during their trip to India. Throughout the band’s music there are elements of pop, Celtic, Indian, Arabic, reggae, folk, and 20th century classical music.
In the studio, Page often used a Supro amplifier and a Telecaster guitar. His use of distorted fuzz guitar, slide guitar, pedal steel guitar, acoustic guitar and innovative recording techniques made Led Zeppelin quite unique in range and a prototype for many future rock bands. Page also put to use the bowed playing technique he developed during his time as Britain's foremost session musician in the mid-60s.
Led Zeppelin is often accused of plagiarising old blues songs and not giving due credit to the original composers.
For example, Willie Dixon successfully brought a suit against the band. However, even when Page “borrowed” from other musicians, he often transformed the songs, or embedded parts of them, into compositions that were almost unrecognisable from the original. Many bands often had an extra member in the form of a record producer, who took the raw material of a band and breathed a special brand of magic into the sound to make the recorded article quite unique.
‘Queen’, for instance, had Roy Thomas Baker and ‘The Beatles’ had George Martin. Zeppelin had Jimmy Page. That is what makes Page so special. He wasn’t just a guitar wizard with an eye for pulling out memorable compositions, he gave the band its sound on record.
In many ways Jimmy Page was the quintessential English rock musician of the 70s. Owner of a stately home or two, indulging in lifestyle excess, mysticism and the occult, and creating an aura of mystery and suspense around himself and his band. I guess to American youth in particular those kinds of things seemed very exotic. But to huge swathes of western youth in general Jimmy Page was a rock god.
Page turns 64 in January but his legacy, and that of his band’s, seem set to continue well into this century. Their fan base is still huge as indicated by the the ticket request site for the reunion gig receiving one billion page impressions, with one million people registering for fewer than 20,000 available tickets. In 2005, the band were given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award. Early in 2007, Page and the two other surviving members of the band (Robert Plant and John Paul Jones) received the Polar Music Prize from the King of Sweden.
I often wonder if Jimmy Page will eventually go down in history as the Beethoven or Bach of the latter 20th century. Who can say? But, given what he has achieved, he should.
