Jimmy Page: Difference between revisions

Template:Guitarist infobox James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE (born January 9, 1944) is an English guitarist and producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds, from late 1966 to 1968, before founding English rock band 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 anthemic riffs and meticulous studio production. Page is widely considered to be the first producer to truly create the "heavy" sound of rock music with the combination of new drum recording methods and revolutionary room. ^{[citation needed]}

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." ^{[This quote needs a citation]}

In 2003,

Page was born in the west London suburb of

Page left school at age 15 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 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

In late 1964 Page was approached about the possibility of replacing Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds, but Page declined the offer out of loyalty to his friend, Clapton. 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, and because he was still worried about his health under touring conditions, 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, although they released one single, "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago". (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,

".

Despite the departure of Keith Relf and Jim McCarty in 1968, Page wished to continue the group with a new line-up to fulfill 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 Scandinavian tour the new group appeared as "The New Yardbirds", but Peter Grant, the band's eventual manager, later modified the name to "Led Zeppelin"

Led Zeppelin

Main article: Led Zeppelin

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Page's past experiences both in the studio and with the Yardbirds were very influential in the success of Led Zeppelin in the

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. Jimmy Page was named 'Guitarist of the Year' five years straight during the 1970s by Creem

magazine.

Page is also widely credited for the innovations in sound recording he brought to the studio. Up until the late 1960s, most music producers placed microphones directly in front of the amplifiers. For the recording of the band's debut album, Page developed the idea of placing an additional microphone some distance from the amplifier (as much as twenty feet) and then recording the balance between the two - a method he called 'distance in depth'. By adopting this technique, Page became one of the first producers to record a band's "ambient sound" - the distance of a note's time-lag from one end of the room to the other.

Page has stated that, as producer, he deliberately changed the audio engineers on Led Zeppelin albums, from Glyn Johns for the first album, to Eddie Kramer for Led Zeppelin II, to Andy Johns for Led Zeppelin III and later albums. He explained that "I consciously kept changing engineers because I didn't want people to think that they were responsible for our sound. I wanted people to know it was me."^[5]

Page's drug use during his time with Led Zeppelin has, over the years, been a controversial subject. Page himself has admitted to heavy use of drugs throughout the 1970s. In an interview he gave with Guitar World magazine in 2003, he stated that:

"I can't speak for the [other members of the band], but for me drugs were an integral part of the whole thing, right from the beginning, right to the end.^[6]

From 1976, Page was beginning to dabble in heroin, a fact attributed to tour manager Richard Cole, who stated that Page (as well as himself) were taking the drug during the recording sessions of the album Presence in that year, and that Page admitted to him shortly afterwards that he was addicted to the drug.^[7]

It is considered by many that, by

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 1990, a Knebworth Concert to aid the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre and the British School for Performing Arts and Technology. saw Plant unexpectedly joined by Page to perform

In

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

In 2005, Page was awarded the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his Brazilian charity work^[11], made an honourary citizen of Rio de Janeiro later that year, and was awarded a Grammy award.^[12]

On

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 really 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". [1].

Personal life

Jimmy Page is a respected expert on the life and work of

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

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 riff of "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

Page's daughter, Scarlet Page, is a respected photographer. Her mother, Charlotte Martin, is an ex-girlfriend of Eric Clapton. Martin introduced Clapton to artist Martin Sharp, and the pair wrote the popular Cream hit "Tales of Brave Ulysses," as well as "Anyone For Tennis?."

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

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