#20- Jimmy Page

James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE (born January 9, 1944) is an English guitarist and producer. He was the founding member of English rock band Led Zeppelin. Prior to that Page was a member of The Yardbirds from late 1966 to 1968. Page began his career as a studio session guitarist in London.

In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #9 in "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Page has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame two times as a member of both The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin.

Page is credited as a forefather of Heavy Metal by not only turning up the accepted volume of the electric guitar but also with his memorable riffs and studio production. As a producer Jimmy Page is widely considered to be the first person to truly create the "heavy" sound of rock music with the combination of new drum recording methods and revolutionary room miking.

Noted guitar historian Robert Lynch made this comment about Jimmy Page:

"In the relatively short history of the electric guitar in rock music, there have been few who can be labeled as 'Iconic'. Mr. Page is one of those select few. His eclectic stylings, his compositional prowess, his studio mastery and innovation, and his stage presentation were all areas where he excelled like no other and foreshadowed many who have followed in his wake."

Page was born in the west London suburb of Heston, which today forms part of the London Borough of Hounslow. His father was an industrial personnel manager and his mother was a doctor's secretary. In 1952 they moved to Miles Road, Epsom. Jimmy Page first picked up the guitar when he was 12 years old, and although he took a few lessons in nearby Kingston, was largely self-taught. His early influences were rockabilly guitarists Scotty Moore and James Burton, who both played on recordings made by Elvis Presley, and Johnny Day, who played guitar for The Everly Brothers. The Presley song "Baby Let's Play House" was an early favourite on one of his first electric guitars, a second hand 1949 Futurama Grazioso. Page's musical tastes however also encompassed acoustic folk playing, particularly that of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, and the blues sounds of Elmore James and B.B. King. At the age of 14, Page appeared on Huw Wheldon's All Your Own talent quest programme in a skiffle band, a popular English music genre of the time. Page said in an interview with Guitar Player magazine, "There was a lot of busking in the early days, but as I say, I had to come to grips with it, and it was a good schooling."

Page left school at age 17 to pursue music, and after brief stints backing Beat poet Royston Ellis and singer Red E. Lewis, Page was asked by singer Neil Christian to join his band The Crusaders. Page toured with Christian for approximately two years and later played on several of Christian's records, including the November 1962 single, "The Road to Love".

During his stint with Christian, Page fell seriously ill with glandular fever and couldn't continue touring. While recovering, Page decided to put his musical career on the shelf and concentrate on his other love, painting. He enrolled at Sutton Art College in Surrey.

Session player
While still a student, Page would often jam on stage at The Marquee with bands such as the Cyril Davis All Stars, Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated and with guitarists like Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. He was spotted one night by John Gibb of The Silhouettes, who asked him to help record a number of singles for EMI, including "The Worrying Kind". It wasn't until an offer from Mike Leander of Decca Records that Page was to receive regular studio work. His first session for the label was the recording "Diamonds" by Jet Harris & Tony Meehan which went to Number 1 on the singles chart in early 1963.

After brief stints with Carter-Lewis and the Southerners, Mike Hurst's group, and Mickey Finn and the Blue Men, Page committed himself to full-time session work. As a session guitarist he was known as 'Little Jim' so there was no confusion with Big Jim Sullivan i.e. 'Big Jim'. Little Jim's studio output in 1964 included Marianne Faithfull's "As Tears Go By", The Nashville Teens' "Tobacco Road", The Rolling Stones' "Heart of Stone" (alternate version), Van Morrison & Them's "Baby Please Don't Go" and "Here Comes The Night", Dave Berry's "The Crying Game" and "My Baby Left Me", and Brenda Lee's "Is It True". Under the auspices of producer Shel Talmy, Page contributed to The Kinks' 1964 debut album (although, despite rumours to the contrary, he did not play any of the guitar solos); and he sat in on the sessions for The Who's first single "I Can't Explain" (although his guitar parts may not appear on the final mix), but he played on the B-side "Bald Headed Woman". In 1965, Page was hired by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham to act as house producer and A&R man for the newly-formed Immediate Records label, which also allowed him to play on and/or produce tracks by John Mayall, Nico, Chris Farlowe and Eric Clapton. Page also formed a brief songwriting partnership with then romantic interest, Jackie DeShannon. He worked as session musician on the Al Stewart album "Love Chronicles" from 1969. He also played guitar on four tracks of Joe Cocker's debut album, "With A Little Help From My Friends".

Although Jimmy Page has recorded with many now famous musicians, many of his early recordings are unfortunately only available through bootlegged copies, many of which were released by the Led Zeppelin fan club in the late 1960s and 1970s. The records released by the fan club include many otherwise unreleased live Led Zeppelin recordings. One of the rarest of these is the early jam session featuring Jimmy Page playing with Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, featuring a cover of "Little Queen of Spades" by the late blues legend Robert Johnson.

The Yardbirds

In late 1964 Page was approached about the possibility of replacing Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds, but Page, still worried about his health under touring conditions, turned down the offer. In February 1965 Clapton quit the Yardbirds, and Page was formally offered Clapton's spot, but because he was unwilling to give up his lucrative career as a session musician, he suggested his friend, Jeff Beck, fill the position. On May 16, 1966, drummer Keith Moon, bass player John Paul Jones, keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, Jeff Beck and Page recorded "Beck's Bolero" in London's IBC Studios. The experience gave Page an idea to form a new supergroup featuring Beck, along with The Who's John Entwistle on bass and Keith Moon on drums, however the lack of a quality vocalist and contractual problems brought the project to a halt.

Within weeks, Page was again offered a spot in the Yardbirds and at first played bass guitar with the group after the departure of Paul Samwell-Smith, before finally switching to twin lead guitar with Beck when Chris Dreja moved to bass. The musical potential of the line-up however was scuttled by interpersonal conflicts caused by constant touring and a lack of commercial success. (While Page and Jeff Beck played together in The Yardbirds, the trio of Page, Beck and Eric Clapton never played in the original group all at the same time. The three guitarists did appear on stage together at the ARMS charity concerts in 1983.)

After Beck's departure, the Yardbirds remained a quartet. They recorded one album with Page on lead guitar, "Little Games". The album received indifferent reviews and was not a commercial success, peaking at only number 80 on the Billboard Music Charts.

Despite the departure of Keith Relf and Jim McCarty in 1968, Page wished to continue the group with a new line-up to fulfil unfinished tour dates in Scandinavia. He recruited vocalist Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham, and was contacted by John Paul Jones who asked to join, to which Page agreed. During the Scandinavain tour the new group appeared as The New Yardbirds, but Keith Moon of The Who proclaimed that the band would go down 'like a lead zeppelin'. Peter Grant, the band's eventual manager, later modified the name to "Led Zeppelin" so people wouldn't pronounce it "leed".

Another version of the (perhaps apocryphal) "naming of Led Zeppelin tale" has John Entwistle and Keith Moon of The Who threatening to leave the band to form a new group and during a drinking session coming up with the name Led Zeppelin. According to Moon, the chauffeur of The Who overheard the discussion and later went to work for Jimmy Page and suggested the name for Page's new group.

LED ZEPPELIN

Page's past experiences both in the studio and with the Yardbirds were very influential in the success of Led Zeppelin in the 1970s. As a producer, composer, and guitarist for the band, he was one of the major driving forces behind the rock sound of that era, with his trademark Gibson Les Paul guitar and Marshall amplification. In the studio however, Page often used a Supro amplifier and a Telecaster guitar. His use of distorted fuzz guitar ("Whole Lotta Love"), slide guitar ("You Shook Me", "Dancing Days", "In My Time of Dying"), pedal steel guitar ("Your Time is Gonna Come", "Tangerine", "That's The Way"), acoustic guitar ("Gallows Pole", "Ramble On") and recording techniques made Led Zeppelin a prototype for many future rock bands. His landmark guitar solo from the song "Heartbreaker" has been credited by Eddie Van Halen as the inspiration for his trademark two-hand tapping technique after he saw Led Zeppelin perform at the LA Forum in 1972. (Page's solo contains the hammer on/pull off technique.) Page also put to use the bowed playing technique he developed during his session days (though Eddie Phillips of Creation - also produced by Shel Talmy - was the first guitarist to use a violin bow) in songs such as "Dazed and Confused" and "How Many More Times", and experimented with feedback devices and a theremin. Page used a Wah-wah pedal but not in the traditional way of rocking it back and forth as done by Jimi Hendrix and other contemporaries; instead, he put it fully forward in the treble position to get a sharper tone. His solo in the famous epic "Stairway to Heaven" has been voted by readers of various guitar magazines, including Guitar World and Total Guitar as the greatest guitar solo of all time.

Post-Led Zeppelin career

Led Zeppelin disbanded in 1980 following the death of drummer John Bonham. He made a successful return to the stage with the A.R.M.S.. (Action Research for Multiple Sclerosis) charity series of concerts in 1983 which honoured Small Faces bass player Ronnie Lane, who suffered from the disease. A 1984 video of a London A.R.M.S. concert was released featuring two songs from Page's work on the Death Wish II soundtrack, featuring Steve Winwood on vocals, and an onstage jam of "Layla" reunited Page with Yardbirds guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. During the tour Page looked extremely thin and frail. According to the book Hammer of the Gods, Page reportedly told friends that he'd just given up heroin after seven years of use. In a 1988 interview with Musician magazine, Page took offense when the interviewer noted that heroin had been associated with his name, and insisted that "I'm not, thank you very much."

Page next linked up with Roy Harper for an album (Whatever Happened to Jugula?) and occasional concerts, performing a predominantly acoustic set at folk festivals under various guises such as the MacGregors, and Themselves. In 1984, Page recorded with, former Zeppelin vocalist, Robert Plant as The Honeydrippers. He also teamed up with Paul Rodgers of Bad Company and Free fame to record two albums under the name The Firm. The first album was the self-titled "The Firm", followed by "Mean Business" in 1986. Popular songs included the commercially successful "Radioactive", and "Closer", which employs a horn section to subtle effect. The cover version of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" featured vocals by Paul Rodgers but was never released as a single. The album peaked at #17 on the Billboard's Pop Albums chart. Various other projects soon followed such as session work for Graham Nash, "Box of Frogs", and Robert Plant, a solo album "Outrider", a collaboration with David Coverdale in "Coverdale-Page", and a live album and tour with The Black Crowes. In addition, he also collaborated with director Michael Winner to record the Death Wish II and subsequent Death Wish 3 soundtrack, released in 1982 and 1985.

The surviving members of Led Zeppelin re-formed in 1985 for the Live Aid concert with both Phil Collins and Tony Thompson filling drum duties. However, the band considered their performance to be sub-standard, and were one of the few Live Aid acts to refuse permission for their segment to be included in the 20th anniversary DVD release of the concert. In 1986, Page reunited temporarily with his Yardbirds bandmates to play on several tracks of the "Box of Frogs" album "Strange Land". The band also re-formed for the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary show on 14 May, 1988. Page, Plant and Jones, as well as John Bonham's son Jason Bonham closed the 12-hour show. The band have also played together at various private family functions.

In 1994, Page reunited with Plant for the penultimate performance in MTV's "Unplugged" series. The 90-minute special, dubbed Unledded premiered to the highest ratings in MTV's history. The session was released in 1995 as the CD "No Quarter": Jimmy Page and Robert Plant "Unledded", and in 2004 as the DVD "No Quarter Unledded". Following a highly successful 1995 tour, to support "No Quarter", Page and Plant recorded "Walking into Clarksdale", their first new album together since 1979. Page has been one member of Led Zeppelin who has always left open the option for a group reunion.

Famed producer Glyn Johns, who was bitter over the limited credit he thought he deserved for producing an album with Page, once went to a Page concert just so he could go backstage before it began and tell Page what an insufferable jerk everyone thought he was. In typical Page fashion, it has been rumoured that Jimmy forgave Johns for the insult and immediately tried to patch things up. Johns refused and threw a tantrum. Jimmy called security and had Johns escorted out of the building. The two have a very difficult relationship to this day.

Since 1990, Page has been heavily involved in remastering the entire Led Zeppelin back catalogue and is currently participating in various charity concerts and charity work, particularly the Action for Brazil's Children Trust (ABC Trust), founded by his wife Jimena Gomez-Paratcha in 1998. In the same year, Page played guitar for rap singer/producer Sean "Puffy" Combs song "Come With Me," which heavily samples Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" and was included in the soundtrack of Godzilla. The two later performed the song on Saturday Night Live. In 2005, Page was awarded the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his Brazilian charity work, and was also made an honorary citizen of Rio de Janeiro later that year.

On 6th January, 2007, Jimmy was featured at #19 on Channel 4's The Ultimate Hellraiser, a countdown of music's top 25 who "lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle". The show's reason for featuring Page was almost exclusively attributed to the groupies who toured with Led Zeppelin, however there was not one mention of Jimmy's heroin use in the late '70s to early '80s, which could be considered related to the show's subject. In additon, many of John Bonham's less 'civilised' antics (for example driving a motorcycle down a hotel corridor) were blamed on Page.

New Album
In 2006, Page attended the induction of Led Zeppelin to the UK Music Hall of Fame. During an interview for the BBC for said event, he expressed plans to record new material in 2007, saying "It's an album that I need to get out of my system... there's a good album in there and it's ready to come out" and "Also there will be some Zeppelin things on the horizon".

Personal life

• Jimmy Page is a respected expert on the life and work of William Burges and contributed to a new book about the influential architect. In 1972 Page bought the home which Burges designed for himself in London, The Tower House. "I had an interest going back to my teens in the pre-Raphaelite movement and the architecture of Burges," he said. "What a wonderful world to discover." The reputation of William Burges (1827-1881) rests on his extravagant designs and his contribution to the Gothic revival in architecture in the nineteenth century.
• From the mid 1970s to 2004 Jimmy owned 'The Mill House', Mill Lane, Windsor, UK - formerly the home of actor Michael Caine. Fellow Led Zeppelin band member John Bonham died at the house in 1980.
• Page has dated a number of famous groupies, such as Pamela Des Barres and Bebe Buell.
• Page appreciates "Weird Al" Yankovic. Although refusing to let Yankovic create a polka with all Led Zeppelin songs in it, he did allow Weird Al to use the solo from Black Dog in his song Trapped in the Drive-Thru. Weird Al has also performed a straight cover of "Whole Lotta Love" at many live shows.
• Page is a fan of Chelsea FC.
• Page's daughter, Scarlet Page, is a respected photographer.

Occult Connections
Page had a fascination with the poet, novelist, artist, occultist and founder of Thelema, Aleister Crowley. He bought Crowley's rural retreat, Boleskine House, which is on the banks of Loch Ness in Scotland, though he no longer owns the property having sold it to hoteliers in the late 1980s. Page's collection of Crowleyana is considered to be the most significant in private hands: paintings by Crowley from Page's collection were displayed at a critically acclaimed exhibition at the October Gallery, London, in 1998.

In the early 1970s, Jimmy Page owned an occult bookshop and publishing house, "The Equinox Booksellers and Publishers" in Kensington High Street, London, eventually closing it as the increasing success of Led Zeppelin resulted in his having insufficient time to devote to it. The company published a facsimile of Crowley's 1904 edition of "The Goetia". The seriousness of Page's intent was demonstrated by the dustwrapper being printed on the notoriously fragile camel hair paper of the original.

What made people particularly curious about Page's connection with the occult was the appearance of four symbols on the jacket of Led Zeppelin's fourth album. It was generally accepted that the four symbols represented each member of the band. During tours and performances after the release of "Led Zeppelin IV", he often had zodiac symbols embroidered on his clothes (referred to as his "Dragon Suit", it included the signs for Capricorn, Scorpio and Cancer which are Page's Sun, Ascendant and Moon signs, respectively) along with the so-called "ZoSo" symbol. This fuelled the curiosity of many fans who went to great lengths to find out what the symbols meant. The source of the ZoSo symbol itself is no longer a mystery but the meaning of it still is; it originated in 'Ars Magica Arteficii' (1557) by J Cardan, an old alchemical grimoire, where it has been identified as a sigil consisting of zodiac signs. The sigil is reproduced in "Dictionary of Occult, Hermetic and Alchemical Sigils" by Fred Gettings, published in 1982 by Routledge & Kegan Paul. It had previously been conjectured that the symbol was derived from various occult and mystical sources, most notably The Kabbalah, a stylised "666" from Aleister Crowley's Equinox publication or from Austin Osman Spare's "Zos Speaks"' but these are now considered to be probably incorrect. It has also been alleged that the symbol is merely a doodle that Page scribbled while on the telephone. Page will still not comment on the symbol's meaning.

The artwork inside the album cover of "Led Zeppelin IV" is from the traditional Rider/Waite Tarot card design for the card called "The Hermit". Page transforms into this character during his segment of the movie "The Song Remains the Same".

Original pressings of "Led Zeppelin III" included the phrases "Do What Thou Wilt" and "So Mote Be It", inscribed on the record itself. This phrase is derived from an important tenet of Crowley's philosphy of Thelema: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Love is the law, love under will."

The artwork for the Swan Song Records label, which was a record label launched by Led Zeppelin on May 10, 1974, as a vehicle for the band to promote its own products. The Swan Song company logo, depicting a writhing winged man (sans genitalia) in the sky, was based on Evening, Fall of Day (1869) by painter William Rimmer, featuring a picture of the mythological Greek god of light and reason, Apollo, although often it is misinterpreted as the classical Greek hero Icarus, who flew too close to the Sun, or Lucifer, a fallen angel who was cast out of heaven and then became Satan.

During the time of the PMRC hearing of the 1980s there were some accusations claiming the song "Stairway To Heaven" had satanic reverse-audio messages (known at the time as "backwards masking") in the verse that starts with the line 'If there's a bustle in your hedgerow'.

Page was commissioned to write the soundtrack music for the film Lucifer Rising by another occultist and Crowley admirer, underground movie director Kenneth Anger. Page even allowed Anger to film a portion of this movie in the basement of Tower House (Page's London residence). In the end Page only produced 23 minutes of music which Anger felt were useless. Anger claimed Page took three years to deliver the music, and the final product was only 23 minutes of droning. On top of that, the director slammed the guitarist in the press by calling him a "dabbler" in the occult and an addict. Anger accused Page of "having an affair with the White Lady" and being too strung out on drugs to complete the project. Page countered claiming he had fulfilled all his obligations, even going so far as to lend Anger his own film editing equipment to help him finish the project. Page's music was dumped eventually and replaced by a version completed in 1980 from prison by Bobby Beausoleil, a Charles Manson family member and convicted murderer. Bootlegs of Page's soundtrack for the project exist and were highly prized by Page's fans until an album also titled "Lucifer Rising" was released by Boleskine House Records on June 19, 1987. The blue vinyl disc contains all 23 minutes of the soundtrack music that Page provided for the movie. The introduction to Led Zeppelin's song "In the Evening" is said to be taken from the unfinished soundtrack, most of which was recorded by running a guitar through a synthesiser.

Tributes

• He was voted London's greatest guitarist in Total Guitar magazine's poll of the greatest 12 British guitarists.
• In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine named him number 9 on their list of the "100 greatest guitarists of all time".
• Page's solo in "Stairway To Heaven" was voted the greatest guitar solo of all time in a Guitar World magazine readers' poll.
• Page was the subject of a Mindless Self Indulgence song entitled "I Hate Jimmy Page".
• Clive Winston, a character in the PS2 game Guitar Hero II, plays guitar solos with a violin bow when Star Power is activated, in a tribute to Jimmy Page.
  

Source: Wikipedia

TOP

Copyright © 2007-2010 guitarontheedge.co.uk