Finding Zoso: Discovering the Music of Jimmy Page

Robert Plant: Live at the Chateau Ste. Michelle

2013-07-09T15:38:00.002-07:00

I know it's been a looooong time since I've updated this site, but I wanted to share with you my review of Robert Plant's show with the Sensational Space Shifters at the Chateau Ste. Michelle on Saturday, June 6th 2013.

Here is the link to the article in the Seattle Weekly:

Robet Plant Sensational at Chateau Ste Michelle on Saturday Night

Jimmy Page Rumored to Replace Joe Bonamassa in Black Country Communion

2013-02-26T18:33:00.001-08:00

Below is from a Brazilian music publication. The veracity of the below story should be taken with a major major grain of salt, however the prospect is quite intriguing and of course, stranger things have happened.

http://www.collectorsroom.com.br/2013/02/jimmy-page-pode-ser-o-novo-guitarrista.html

Sharing with you a rumor that has been gaining more and more strength: Glenn Hughes invited Jimmy Page would be the new guitarist for Black Country Communion's Joe Bonamassa in place, and the mastermind behind Led Zeppelin would be one step closer to accepting the invitation .

Let the facts: the relationship soured between Bonamassa and Hughes at the time of release of the third album of BCC, Afterglow. The reason was the refusal of Joe on touring to promote the album, focusing all his efforts on his solo career. Mercadologicamente, Bonamassa's decision makes sense because it alone sells more records than the BCC. However, it is also understandable Glenn's complaint, after a band release a new job and do shows to promote it is at least strange.

There are two points that should be taken into consideration in this history of the BCC Page. The first is that Black Country Communion was formed around Joe Bonamassa, with active participation of producer Kevin Shirley. So it would be strange guitarist stay out of a possible second incarnation of the ensemble.

And the second point is that one of the partners in Page's recent appearances Zeppelin Jason Bonham, the drummer is BCC, which would help, and a lot at the entrance to the Jimmy banda. Remember also that even Shirley already has a lasting working relationship with Page and Led Zeppelin, working on the new version of Live The Song Remains the Same and triple How the West Was Won, and Led Zeppelin DVD's multiplatinum. Shirley also produced Live at the Greek, written by Jimmy beside the Black Crowes, and No Quarter - Unledded, Page & Plant.

To repeat: there is no confirmation on any of this yet, but rumors are taking increasing proportions in recent weeks, so I decided to share with you all. Personally, as a huge fan of Led,'m rooting for it to happen and that Jimmy Page return to active, showing his brilliance in another band besides Zeppelin.

Fingers crossed!

JimmyPage.com Announcements Coming Soon

2013-02-21T12:42:00.001-08:00

Possibly exciting news came out yesterday when Jimmy Page's friend Peter Makowski recently posted this exciting tidbit on his Facebook page:

"Don't forget to check out Jimmy Page official website-@jimmypage.com .I'll be back working on it next week with Matt'the wonder boy' and promise you there will be some exciting new posts and announcements..."

No word on what this could mean, but speculation has run rampant for quite some time that Jimmy has been working on a new album. Could this tidbit be the forerunner to something even bigger?

Supermodel: Jimmy Page

2013-01-22T20:06:00.004-08:00

Among Jimmy Page's extensive creative credits are guitarist, producer, arranger, actor and now supermodel. Jimmy has joined fellow musicians Paul Weller, Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop and Slash as a model for designer John Varvatos. "Jimmy Page has been a music and fashion icon of mine since 1970. He has been a major influence and I am honored to call Jimmy a friend," says Varvatos.

In the new ads titled 'The Master & The Young Guitar Slinger', Page is pictured and filmed with the hot rising guitar player on the scene Gary Clark Jr. "[He's] is the real deal," Varvatos claims, "amazing guitar player, singer, songwriter and friend." The series of photographs as well as a short fim were shot by Danny Clinch in London's Rivoli Ballroom.

Jimmy Page Turns 69 Today

2013-01-09T11:01:00.003-08:00

Finding Zoso would like to take a moment to wish Jimmy Page a very happy 69th birthday and hope that his 2013 is even more fulfilling and prosperous as the previous year has been.

Jimmy Page "In Conversation" Video

2012-12-26T22:40:00.002-08:00

Jimmy Page "In Conversation" on BBC News Christmas Day

2012-12-24T12:53:00.002-08:00

Jimmy Page is due to make an appearance on BBC News Christmas Day with Kirsty Lang beside the fireplace to talk about his life, career, his past and his present.

Jimmy Page In Conversation BBC News

Led Zeppelin Interview with Charlie Rose

2012-12-21T15:19:00.001-08:00

During the course of the interview lead singer Robert Plant had some rather pointed remarks when talked to turned to the possibility of Led Zeppelin taking off again.

“You have to be creative and imaginative and move on,” he told Rose with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones on each side of him. “And I think the great essence of Led Zeppelin is the creativity and imagination that developed with each project. And a project is a project, it’s not just going back and revisiting the past, it’s moving forward. I don’t see us being a stadium act … going round and round making everyone feel great playing the hits.”

Video of Led Zeppelin's Appearance on CBS Sunday Morning

2012-12-16T16:21:00.000-08:00

For your viewing pleasure.

Led Zeppelin to Appear on CBS News Sunday Morning

2012-12-15T16:16:00.000-08:00

Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Robert Plant are set to appear on CBS News Sunday Morning

tomorrow (December 16th) at 9 am to discuss their career, their reunion in 2007 and address the ongoing commentary about doing it all over again.

Jimmy Page Plans to Tour in 2013

2012-12-11T11:43:00.002-08:00

It appears that the prospects of seeing Jimmy Page live in a town near you are growing by the day. In the latest affirmation from Page that he intends to either tour or release new music next year, the guitarist stated to Guitar World Magazine, "“This time last year I intended to be actually playing by now in a live outfit, so that will have to be postponed now into sort of next year, tail end of next year. But I definitely want to be doing that.”

Of course as Guitar World Editor in Chief and author of Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page had previously pointed out in his interview with Finding Zoso when asked about Page's plans for the future, "I’ve seen the process a couple of different times and every time he’s sort of really gets on a roll putting something together, some sort of Led Zeppelin business comes up and derails him. That’s happened a couple of times, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you see something come out next year. I know he’s been working on some new things for a while and the ideas are really cool and I know he’s gone quite a bit of way to realize them. I think we may see something next year and it will be really cool. It will surprise you."

Tolinski also added when asked about a presumptive Jimmy Page tour, "I would imagine that he would. I know that he loves to play live and that he loves to tour so I would think that he would. He’s certainly playing very well, anyone who has seen Celebration Day can see that he’s playing as well as he has in years and years and years."

With the release of Celebration Day and the near completion of the remastering process for the Led Zeppelin discography, one can only hope that Jimmy will now be able to turn his attention toward the thing he does best; making and playing music.

Led Zeppelin on David Letterman

2012-12-04T18:13:00.002-08:00

Here for your viewing pleasure is the entirety of Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Robert Plant's appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman

Ken Scott Interview

2012-12-03T23:10:00.000-08:00

Ken Scott will readily admit to being a man beyond luck. He began his career in the music industry working in the illustrious EMI studios later known as Abbey Road at the tender age of fifteen. His first engineering sessions were for The Beatles whom he'd work with extensively over the next few years. Later he'd go on to engineer albums with Jeff Beck and Elton John and co-produce alongside David Bowie during his Ziggy Stardust period. Recently Ken has gotten around to telling his full story in the new book "Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust: Off the Record with The Beatles, Bowie, Elton and So Much More. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Ken and talk extensively about his life and career including his reminisces of working on sessions with a young Jimmy Page.

FZ: What made you decide to write this book?

KS: The timing just seemed right I guess. For the longest time I didn’t like to look back on my past it was always the next project, then the next project. Then through doing the 5.1 surround sound of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars then working with George [Harrison] again somehow my past had sort of caught up with me. At the same time I was approached by a publisher and thought, ‘well, why the hell not?’

FZ: Do you think you can express how you felt when you first got the job to work at EMI and what that meant to you?

KS: I think I was just numb! I could have just gone through the interview, been told no, and still thought it was amazing. Just seeing a place like that, which most people didn’t know about it was phenomenal. Then of course a couple of weeks later holding a master tape of The Beatles next single and seeing them walk down the corridor…it was unbelievable. There are no words to describe it.

FZ: The way you described it in your book it seemed as though working at EMI was a form of continued education and then when you worked on The Beatles “White Album” it almost felt like grad school, is that how it felt to you?

KS: Absolutely. What I wanted to do, my passion you couldn’t learn in school. There weren’t the kind of schools for music that there are now. Being put in the position with some of the most amazing engineers around at the time, yeah, it was certainly a continuing of my education. It was my trade school. Then being able to learn hands on all the time with The Beatles who liked to experiment…I couldn’t have possibly been trained better really or had a better experience learning.

FZ: One of the revelations to me anyway that I really enjoyed reading about in your book was the importance of in-studio monitors with EMI’s somewhat shoddy Altec and the monitors in Jamaica that had a lot of low end, then the monitors used to record disco groups that carried a lot of high end. Could you describe the importance of monitors in helping to really define the sound of entire genres in some cases?

KS: If you go into any studio, or even into your home you have to know what you’re listening to. If what you’re listening to is wrong, it’s going to sound wrong everywhere and if it’s right the thing you’re listening to well then hopefully it will sound right in most places. You can work with the crappiest gear and as long as you know what you’re hearing is correct you can eventually get a really good sound. Conversely, you can have the best gear in the world and terrible monitors and much like it turned out initially with “Hey Jude” it sounded amazing in the control room but it wasn’t real. It wasn’t the way it sounded everywhere else. So even with the best gear if the monitors are wrong you don’t know what you’re getting so what’s the point?

FZ: Would you care to take me through the recording of The White Album? You have stated in your book that it wasn’t anywhere near as contentious it has been portrayed elsewhere. Did it really feel like recording four solo albums?

KS: No. I mean there were times when the writer of the song would take over and it would just be the writer of the song doing everything but there were also great periods of time when they were cutting the basic tracks and everything when they would spend days and days and days together in the studio. I think in Anthology one or two of them say that once Ringo came back into the band it felt more like it used to, it was the band [Ringo Starr quit The Beatles during the White Album sessions only to return two weeks later after receiving entreaties from the rest of the group]. I mean, Sgt. Pepper was almost like Paul McCartney’s solo album, that’s the kind of control he’d had over it. I think the others wanted their own control, which is why [The White Album] feels a little disjointed. They were playing together like mad though. It was incredible just watching them.

FZ: If you don’t mind I’d like to rattle off a few songs from The White Album and was wondering if you might provide a bit more background on what it was like to record them?

KS: As long as I can remember I’ll tell you.

FZ: “Happiness is a Warm Gun”

KS: I love that track. That to me was John’s homage to The Beach Boys with the three completely separate parts and the background vocals and everything. It was just amazing to put that all back together.

FZ: “Back in the U.S.S.R.”

KS: That was recorded when Ringo had left the band for a brief period. By the way he didn’t leave because he was angry or anything like that, he left because he felt unloved. The Beatles had gotten so used to each other that they weren’t passing compliments all around and that kind of thing. There was none of the ‘Hey Ringo it’s great to be playing with you tonight mate!’ They just turned up to the studio and played. He just felt unneeded and unloved so he decided they don’t need me so I’m not going to be in the band anymore. Once they realized what was going on and told him how much they loved him, how much they needed him and how talented he was he came back and suddenly it was the band. I think they were all going through that as well at the same time.

Anyway, “Back in the U.S.S.R.”, so Ringo had left at this particular point so we needed a drummer. Paul put down the first drum track and it wasn’t quite good enough, we needed a bit more, so then both John and George went down and we overdubbed them playing things as well which became the finished drum track.

FZ: “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”…I know you’ve said you don’t recall Eric Clapton being there…

KS: I don’t, not at all. I have tried and tried, I even went into regression therapy for the book primarily for that one story because it is one I have been asked so often. I don’t remember it, I’ve spoken to people who were around and they don’t remember it…it just didn’t mean that much at the time. We had no idea of its historical value eventually or that we’d still be talking about it fifty bloody years later [laughs].

FZ: “Yer Blues”

KS: The recording of that came from a joke I had made to Mr. Lennon; you always had to be careful of what you said. We were doing vocals on one of George’s songs called “Not Guilty” and George just wasn’t feeling it. We were trying all these different things to get into the feeling of the song and after one of the stranger tries at the vocal I happened to turn to John and said ‘My God, the way you guys are going you’re going to want to record in there next’ and I pointed to this really tiny room by the side of the Studio Two control room which used to house one of the four-tracks. He just looked at me and didn’t say anything then a while later when it was time to record a new song he said, “I’ve got a new song, it’s called “Yer Blues” and I want to record in there,” and he pointed to the room I had joked about.

So then we had to set them up in there and for the band it was actually quite dangerous. It was so small and so cramped that if one of them suddenly swung round they would have hit one of the other members in the head with their guitar. Consequently, it’s almost entirely live even a majority of the vocal is live; it had to be live because of all the leakage onto the other tracks. It turned out though that John had made an error when he was putting down the vocal on it. He sang some wrong lyrics so then we had to go in and re-cut some of the vocal but what happened then was the sound completely changed because suddenly we didn’t have all the pickup from the other guitars and the drum and all that. Typical of John though where if he’s going to change then let’s go nuts on it which is why in the middle of the song it changes so drastically. It was because it had to and he just took it much further.

FZ: When it comes to “Helter Skelter” I’ve heard that that song was Paul’s attempt to out rock and roll John. I’m not sure if that’s true, but that sure is a hard rocking track.

KS: It is, but it had nothing to do with trying to out-do John. There was a band that had just come out and claimed that they had recorded the loudest song in the world or something like that. It may have been The Who but I can’t remember. Anyway, Paul sort of took that comment and said ‘we’re going to out-do them’. He just wanted to record the dirtiest thing he possibly could.

FZ: What are some of the tracks that stand out to you that you are especially proud of from that album?

KS: Well, it comes down to not necessarily being proud of them but rather enjoying them; you’ve already covered the ones that I really loved. Let’s see, “Mother Nature’s Son” was really nice to work on with Paul with some of the strange bits on that between him and the acoustic guitar, then the brass section, which I believe Chris Thomas did the arrangement for. Then there are some strange drums on it where we recorded Paul at the bottom of a staircase at the end of the corridor from Studio Number Two control room. It’s pieces like that that I really love hearing again because it just reminds me ‘oh yeah, we did it that way.’

FZ: What sorts of things did you learn from George Martin as a producer?

KS: The one thing these days that I’m fully aware of is to hold back and allow the talent to do what they’re supposed to do and that’s to create. George and subsequently me aren’t the kind to just sort of jump in there and are like ‘it’s gonna be our record, it’s gonna be this way or the highway’. Talent should be signed to a label to create, make art, and hopefully that art will sell. As a producer you always know that if they need help you can go down and help them. If they start to veer off too far you can always say, ‘Hey guys it’s not as good as it was, let’s move back to where it was really happening and continue from there.’ You always have that kind of control, but you have to allow them to find the road for themselves.

FZ: What was it like to work with John Lennon on a creative level? Did he ever come up to you for your thoughts about an idea or did ha have ideas that he would leave up to you to figure out how to implement?

KS: Ideas were just flowing from everyone really…more often than not from a joke like on “Yer Blues” [laughs]. I don't honestly remember him coming up and saying how do we do this, or wouldn’t it be great if we could do this. It just happened. There would be times when we wanted something different and they wanted something different so then we’d go look into the microphone closet and they’d pick out a couple of mics that they wanted to try purely by the look. They had no idea what they would sound like, but boy, these mics look cool we gotta use ‘em. There were no rules. Interestingly, the only thing that I can remember staying constant was how the mics were set up in the studio. That was the only thing that didn’t really move around that much.

FZ: One of the things that seemed especially revealing about John Lennon from your book is when you wrote that you often get asked whether John would use auto tune today and your response is that he’d maybe try it once then he’d try something else.

KS: I think to a point that’s the same with all of them. They were always pushing and would do it in different ways like Paul with “Yesterday” and using the orchestra on it. No band does that kind of thing. A lot of it sonically comes from Norman Smith the band’s original engineer. Within the guidelines of what he could do in the confines of Abbey Road he really tried to change the sound on each album and I think they’d learned very quickly how he was doing that. Once Norman wasn’t around anymore they were already experimenting with different instruments trying to push the sound even further.

FZ: Throughout the book it seems that you had a special relationship with George Harrison, what did that relationship mean to you?

KS: First and foremost to me, after seeing what surrounded The Beatles, there is no human being who could go through what they went through and come out the other side of it completely normal. George was the one who came through it the closest to normal in my opinion. He was still very down to earth even after all of that. He really didn’t want to live off of The Beatles name. The number of times I’d hear him say, ‘Look, The Beatles were six years of my life, what about the rest of it?’ All the times you ever heard about him it’d always be, George Harrison: Ex-Beatle. He had the biggest selling solo album of any of them with “All Things Must Pass”. He was so much more than The Beatles.

As a guitarist he eventually got his own unique sound when you could always tell it was him. There are very few guitarists that can say that. You can hear a blues guitarist and it could be any number of guitarists; their styles are very similar. With George, he was just completely different from anyone else.

FZ: Let’s go forward in time a bit to talk about Elton John. What was it like to work in the studio as the engineer capturing his sound?

KS: I got to work with Elton because the engineer that had started working with him, Robin Cable, got into a very bad car accident. So they had recorded Madman Across the Water and suddenly they needed someone to mix it. I had worked with the producer Gus Dudgeon before at Abbey Road and he and I knew each other very well so I was put into mix Madman and it seemed to go well. Elton really wanted a change in sound from his earlier recordings. He wanted to record with his road-band, which he’d never done before and to record in a totally different place so it kind of made sense my working on it. And, because Gus and I knew each other so well, he knew my sound, so I was just left to get the sound and go on from there.

As far as Elton goes, he didn’t like being in the studio. He was in the studio only when he had to participate and anything else, any overdubs he wasn’t there. Once he’d put down his keyboard part and his vocals that was it, we wouldn’t see him in the studio again.

FZ: The first album you were actually in the booth recording Elton was Honky Chateau named for the French residence where the music was recorded. What was it like to record in the Chateau?

KS: It was fun; it was different than driving up to London everyday to Trident so I enjoyed it for that reason. The studio worked well, the monitors were good, the desk was a little outdated and seemed a little strange, like a homemade job, or if not homemade then certainly custom made. It wasn’t really all that much time. You have to remember back then we were recording albums in two weeks. With Elton, I think I was there a bit longer because I got there for pre-production, which gave me the opportunity to see him write “Rocket Man” in ten minutes, which was astounding. It really wasn’t all that much time though, we’d spend a couple of days going back and overdubbing a couple of things, orchestra sometimes, percussion with Ray Cooper and then it would be straight into mixing. We didn’t really sort of hang out a lot and all that kind of thing. We had fun, but it was business.

FZ: You touched on the subject of the musical partnership between Elton and Bernie Taupin, would you care to expand a bit more on that partnership?

KS: Remakable! The way it would happen on the two albums I saw put together, Honky Chateau and Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only The Piano Player, Bernie would go up to his bedroom at the Chateau around eight o’clock in the evening, then come down the next day with a stack of papers, give them to Elton whilst we were all sitting around the table eating breakfast. Elton would then go through all these pieces of paper throwing a lot aside, keeping a small pile of others. Once he finished breakfast he’d go over to the piano and go through the small pile, and then he’d pull one out and put it up and start working on it. That’s how he’d come up with “Rocket Man” in ten minutes. He loved Bernie’s lyrics and just put it up there then boom, boom, boom, ‘yeah, that’s a song, we got it’.

FZ: One of my favorite Elton John songs is Daniel, could you provide a bit more background information about that song and how it was recorded?

KS: The general recording was just the same as any of the other songs. The arrangement was worked out, we put it down and recorded it but then when we came to mix that’s when it became slightly more interesting, especially to me. Davy Johnstone had put down some mandolin parts and the solo section on the song was going to be one of these mandolin parts but it just wasn’t strong enough. It was exactly the same as the parts he’d done underneath all the choruses of the song. It didn’t really stand out and we had none of the band around so what the hell do we do? Trident at that point had an Arp Synthesizer in the mix room, which I had spent a good deal of time messing around on, so I turned to Gus and said ‘Why don’t we beef it up with that?’ He said, ‘How do you mean?’ I said, ‘Maybe you or I could play the part?’ He said, ‘Give it a try.’ So I got a sound he liked it so he said, ‘Play it.’ It took me ages to get it together [laughs]. It was the first time I appeared as an artist on what turned out to be a number one single.

FZ: That’s a pretty amazing debut!

KS: Yeah, exactly.

FZ: Later on, you ended up working with David Bowie, your first time in the producer’s chair in fact. It was amazing to me reading about how you felt the project wouldn’t amount to all that much the Hunky Dory comes out of it. What exactly were your expectations for that album and did it shock you on how good the material actually was once it was previewed for you?

KS: When David first spoke to me about co-producing I had no expectations whatsoever. I had worked with him on two albums before as an engineer and I thought, he’s a really nice guy and he’s obviously somewhat talented as a writer, but I could never see him becoming a superstar. You have to remember that around that time I had been working with the biggest band in the world so my expectations starting off were very elevated. So he asked me to co-produce and I thought, perfect, I finally get the chance to do something that’s not going to be listened to by millions of people and I don’t have to worry about making mistakes. He came around a couple of days later to start playing me the new material and at that point I realized he’s a hell of a lot more talented than I thought. At that point I thought, oh my God this could actually do something so suddenly I was on the edge of my seat again.

On reflection, Tony Visconti, who was his previous producer, was also a member of the band. He was the bass player. Tony controlled a lot of the music; he was also the arranger, musical director, whatever you want to call him so David’s input was purely on the vocal side of things. So you really didn’t, or I didn’t really get to see David’s ideas at all. How he saw songs progressing and coming about. I think ultimately that’s why he left Tony. If he was going to fail or succeed, he wanted to do it on his own terms and the only way he could do that was to break away from the person who was controlling the music and take more control for himself. That’s why he wanted to work with me, that’s not my area of expertise. I don’t go down there and say ‘Play a C sharp minor here as opposed to…’ I let the talent create and he knew that. That gave him freedom, and once he had it, I started to hear how talented he was realized that this could become successful.

FZ: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars is obviously a monster album would you mind if I rattled off a couple of songs and get your take on them?

KS: Sure.

FZ: “Rock and Roll Suicide”

KS: I co-produced four albums with David and ninety-five percent of the vocals on those four albums were first takes from beginning to end. “Rock and Roll Suicide” was one of the ones that wasn’t a complete take. It ended up being two takes. The reason for that is because it starts off with him singing not particularly loud so I had to get the level for that. We got so far then we he started to belt it a little more and we had to stop, I reset everything and we continued from there. The two sections themselves are first takes but they had to be broken up into two sections. That song is to me is one of the great examples of Mick Ronson’s arrangements. I really love the brass on it. Ronno was so necessary to the success of David at that point both as a guitarist and as an arranger. He didn’t think like most people did about orchestras and that really comes across.

FZ: How about “Suffragette City”?

KS: The most boring song in the bloody world! [laughs] I’ve heard it so many times, that and “Changes”. I wouldn't mind if I never heard either one of them again. The big misconception about “Suffragette City” is the sax section. David has actually stated during at least one radio interview that I know of but I think there have been several others that he played the sax’s on that track. I don’t know if it’s failed memory or if he just likes to take credit for it where it’s not necessarily due [laughs]. There aren’t actually any saxophones on that one, it’s the Arp synthesizer. We came to the end of recording “Suffragette City” and it needed something so once again my suggestion was lets bring down the Arp and see what we can do. I programmed the sound and Ronno played it. That’s the ‘sax section’.

FZ: And “Starman”?

KS: That was the strange track because so many people picked on that one as being the mainstay if you like of the ‘concept album’. “Starman” was really added on at the last minute as a single. We had recorded the album and there was a track on it called “Round and Round” a cover of an old Chuck Berry song and when RCA heard it, they didn’t hear a single. We had to go back into the studio and David came up with “Starman” so we dumped “Round and Round” and replaced it with that track. The whole idea of a concept album, especially based around that song is so rubbish, it’s ridiculous.

FZ: You wound up working with David for almost the entirety of his Ziggy Stardust period and I’m curious to know how much of David became the persona? Was he still a normal guy to you?

KS: Absolutely. I don’t know that he necessarily became Ziggy because Ziggy was always a part of him. I would say that the Ziggy part of him took over more and more. He was always flamboyant which certainly increased as the Ziggy persona took over but he was still the same guy all the way through. He was still in the studio, totally professional and there were never any drugs in the studio. The worst it got was that Ronno might have brought in a couple of beers. Everything we did was completely straight and David was totally bored throughout his time in the studio. He couldn’t wait to get out. That ended up being great for me because when it came time for the mixing process he was never around. It was just me and a second engineer hoping that he would like it. The funny thing is I never got any comment from him whether he liked it or not. I guess by allowing me to do the next album he did like what I did [laughs].

FZ: You worked with Jeff Beck on a number of occasions throughout the years and have witnessed his evolution personally, professionally and as a guitar player. Could you describe that evolution? It almost defies reason how he just keeps getting better and better as the years wear on.

KS: Why, it’s just more and more practice. They say practice makes perfect right? [Laughs]. The evolution as a person that I saw began with the first Jeff Beck Group album Truth. Just a bunch of guys, none of them were particularly known all that well, I mean they were known on the club scene because of The Yardbirds and all that but they weren’t major stars. They came in we recorded the entire album; had a great time it was a lot of fun. The whole thing was over and done with rather quickly. Then the album came out and they went over and toured the States and they came back to record the next album this time because of what occurred with the tour they all had egos like you wouldn’t believe! Within the first session it became apparent that it just wasn’t going to work so they cancelled the rest of the time they had we ended up not working together on that.

I did bits of work with him after that like he’d recorded at Motown and for whatever reason he came to Trident and I started to mix some of that with him but it never saw the light of day unfortunately. The next real time I can recall working with him was when I was working with Stanley Clarke. He’d come in and he’d guest on one track on each of the albums I did with Stanley and now he was back to that normal guy that I knew when we had done the Truth album. He was a sweetheart; he was really nice and just wanted to get what was best for the track.

Then he had a lot of success with his solo career and I got called in to finish an album he’d started called There and Back. We were doing it in England at Abbey Road and it was a completely different situation. Now he’s playing with Simon Phillips on drums, and Mo Foster on bass and it was the complete opposite; he didn’t feel good enough. He had lost all confidence and I discovered at that point that it’s easier to try and tone down a musician like, ‘Oh yeah you’re great, but don’t play as much.’ That’s easier than having to be like, ‘Come on Jeff you can do it, you’re really good.’ I had to try and pull performance out of him because he didn’t feel up to it. It was strange.

I’ve seen him since and he’s back to the normal guy [laughs].

FZ: Truth really is an incredible album especially when you begin to consider the time period around which it was released. The fact that it was only recorded in a week and a half is astounding to me personally. What were those sessions like?

KS: They were fun. There were some madcap times like when Keith Moon the drummer of The Who came in to play timpani on “Ol’ Man River. Nicky Hopkins was on piano and the regular band was there of course and that turned out to be a little madcap. I think the first time I ever recorded bagpipes was on that album…actually first and only time luckily! [Laughs]. One of the interesting things to me was that Mickie Most who was credited as the producer was only there for the mixes. He wasn’t there for any of the recording. His partner Peter Grant was the one who was there for all of the recording sessions who of course is well known for later becoming the manager of Led Zeppelin.

FZ: I was actually going to ask you about Peter Grant. What was he like personally and how much input did he impart during the recording of Truth?

KS: I think he was just there to make sure that the band didn’t get out of hand. They were working as hard as they could and I don’t remember him trying to act as the producer or anything like that. His role was mainly to make sure that they had everything that they needed and to make sure we were all working.

FZ: With Mickie Most being absent, how much of the guidance role in the studio fell on to your shoulders?

KS: I mean, they knew what they were doing. A lot of it was just what they had rehearsed and then done live. I remember that Rod Stewart liked to sing live with the band and the best mic that he liked to sing into had to be covered in all of this foam and everything so that he could hold it. So much of it was cut live and they instinctively knew what they were doing.

FZ: In the book you described working on a session with songstress Jackie DeShannon featuring Jimmy Page on guitar. What was that session like and what was Jimmy like in those famous session days?

KS: He was a session musician and that was it. I found out subsequently that he was going to art school at the time so many of the sessions had to be worked around when he was available if you wanted to use him. He did so many sessions along with John Paul Jones who I did a lot of sessions with. I knew John from lots of sessions; I knew him better than I did Jimmy. Anyway, that whole Jackie DeShannon thing happened, I was the second engineer and it just stuck in my mind for whatever reason because I had never seen a session have to be broken for a tea break whilst the artist taught the guitarist how to play the part. Subsequently with Jimmy’s success with Led Zeppelin I thought to myself, hang on, this guy had to be taught by Jackie DeShannon!

The great thing about doing the book for me was taking other people’s points of view about situations and finally finding out what the true story was. So for me being sixteen years old…maybe seventeen and completely new to recording it stood out that the artist had to teach a session musician how to play a part. Many years later I was invited to go see a movie and I saw on this list that Jackie was going to be there so I said to Bob Owsinski my co-writer, we have to go there, we have to corner her and find out if she remembers that. She actually remembered it very well if not slightly differently than me. After that it was like, okay we’ll put both sides of it in the book. It just so happened that a few months later that I was in England at an event and Jimmy was there so I had the opportunity to go up and say okay, ‘I’m writing this book, I got this story, do you remember the situation?’ He remembered it perfectly and he sort of brought together my side of it and Jackie’s side of it.

Essentially what happened was that he wasn’t a very good reader of music. Of course as a session music you’re given a sheet of music and are expected to play it. Well he was playing it as written but just wasn’t really feeling it. Turns out it wasn’t the notes she was teaching him, but rather the feel because it was a very rhythmic part. Quite often it’s very difficult to draw feeling from a piece of paper.

Jimmy Page and Jackie DeShannon

FZ: While reading your book, one of the themes that I picked up on is your immense appreciation for the opportunities you’ve been given. Looking back on your extensive career, how do you feel about all of the things you’ve done?

KS: My life has been absolutely, one hundred percent blessed. I have to put it that way because I don’t believe in luck. If I believed in luck that much I’d be a billionaire living in Vegas at the moment! Firstly, number one, I get a job at what turns out to be the most famous recording studio. I got fed up with school and nine days later I’m working there; that in itself is astounding. Then the first session I’m ever second engineer on is The Beatles; that’s astounding. The first session I ever engineer is the Beatles; that’s astounding. It’s unbelievable all these firsts, I mean there just isn’t that amount of luck.

Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust

President Obama's Remarks on Led Zeppelin at The Kennedy Center Honors

2012-12-02T20:30:00.002-08:00

Led Zeppelin To Be Honored at Kennedy Center Tonight

2012-12-02T11:32:00.001-08:00

Led Zeppelin is being honored today and tonight for a lifetime of achievement at the Kennedy Center. The band will be recognized alongside such luminaries as talk show host David Letterman, bluesman Buddy Guy, actor Dustin Hoffman and ballerina Natalia Makarova. The group spent a better part of this morning at a reception at the U.S. State Department receiving hosted by former President of the United States Bill Clinton and his wife Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

It has been reported that the Led Zepplin Tribute will feature an introduction by Jack Black followed by performances from Lenny Kravitz who will sing "Whole Lotta Love", Foo Fighters who are to sing "Black Dog" & "Rock-n-Roll", Kid Rock who is to sing "Baby I'm Gonna Leave You" then closed out by Heart who are reportedly going to sing "Stairway to Heaven.

Below are some pictures from the reception.

Led Zeppelin to Appear on David Letterman

2012-11-30T17:10:00.001-08:00

It has been revealed that Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones will appear together on The Late Show with David Letterman on December 3rd. The show will be broadcast that evening from Washington D.C. the day after both Letterman and Led Zeppelin are due to be awarded for their lifetime of achievement at the Kennedy Center Honors alongside Buddy Guy, Dustin Hoffman and Natalia Makarova.

No word on whether or not the band will perform but the prospect seems unlikely.

Jimmy on the Cover of The Rolling Stone: Talks about Post-Reunion Work

2012-11-21T14:16:00.004-08:00

The new issue of Rolling Stone Magazine hits newsstands on Friday and the cover story is an interview with Jimmy Page conducted by David Fricke. Here is a portion of that piece:

From Rolling Stone

With Plant out of the picture, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and drummer Jason Bonham continued rehearsing together in early 2008. "We didn't do any professional recording," says Page. "We just had a little digital recorder. I thought it was good. I wasn't going to walk away from it. But the weakness came up again. It was, 'We gotta have a singer.'"

The idea of a tour was batted around, but Page refuses to divulge the full list of singers who jammed with the group. Alter Bridge frontman Myles Kennedy has publicly acknowledged rehearsing with the group, and Page doesn't deny that. "It sounded premature," he says. "I could see what way it was going. Various people thought we should go on tour. I thought we needed a good, credible album, not do something that sounded like we were trying to milk the O2."

Steven Tyler has also said he flew to England to jam with the band. "The timing wasn't the best," says Page. "We had put so much toward the O2. And the three of us were catching up with stuff. It was very good, seriously promising. But there was this other thing going on. [Pauses] And that's it."

had no interest in carrying on. "He was busy," says Page. "He was doing his Alison Krauss project. I wasn't fully aware it was going to be launched at the same time. So what do you do in a situation like that? I'd been working with the other two guys for the percentage of the rehearsals at the O2. We were connecting well. The weakness was that none of us sang."

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/jimmy-page-led-zeppelin-reunion-tour-never-happened-because-robert-plant-was-busy-20121121#ixzz2CtjfUGcy
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

Ultimately, Robert Plant had no interest in carrying on. "He was busy," says Page. "He was doing his Alison Krauss project. I wasn't fully aware it was going to be launched at the same time. So what do you do in a situation like that? I'd been working with the other two guys for the percentage of the rehearsals at the O2. We were connecting well. The weakness was that none of us sang."
The 40 Greatest Led Zeppelin Songs of All Time
With Plant out of the picture, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and drummer Jason Bonham continued rehearsing together in early 2008. "We didn't do any professional recording," says Page. "We just had a little digital recorder. I thought it was good. I wasn't going to walk away from it. But the weakness came up again. It was, 'We gotta have a singer.'"
The idea of a tour was batted around, but Page refuses to divulge the full list of singers who jammed with the group. Alter Bridge frontman Myles Kennedy has publicly acknowledged rehearsing with the group, and Page doesn't deny that. "It sounded premature," he says. "I could see what way it was going. Various people thought we should go on tour. I thought we needed a good, credible album, not do something that sounded like we were trying to milk the O2."
Steven Tyler has also said he flew to England to jam with the band. "The timing wasn't the best," says Page. "We had put so much toward the O2. And the three of us were catching up with stuff. It was very good, seriously promising. But there was this other thing going on. [Pauses] And that's it."

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/jimmy-page-led-zeppelin-reunion-tour-never-happened-because-robert-plant-was-busy-20121121#ixzz2CtjPxKNj
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

New Led Zeppelin Songbooks From Alfred Music Publishing

2012-11-19T12:12:00.003-08:00

Alfred Music has announced that they are releasing four new entries into their line of Led Zeppelin music books. The first is a songbook presenting authentic guitar TAB transcriptions of the 16 classic songs that made up the set for the band's 2007 reunion gig released as Celebration Day based on the original studio recordings. Titles: Good Times Bad Times * Ramble On * Black Dog * In My Time of Dying * For Your Life * Trampled Under Foot * Nobody's Fault but Mine * No Quarter * Since I've Been Loving You * Dazed and Confused * Stairway to Heaven * The Song Remains the Same * Misty Mountain Hop * Kashmir * Whole Lotta Love * Rock and Roll.

The second two musicbooks are the next entries in Alfred's Platinum Album Editions line, guitar TAB transcriptions of each song off the albums Physical Grafitti and Presence. Both books include a forward written by Guitar World Editor in Chief and author of Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page, Brad Tolinski. These two new offerings join Alfred's lineup of full Led Zeppelin guitar TAB songbooks including Led Zeppelin I, II, III, Untitled, and Houses of the Holy. For pianists, the Led Zeppelin: Piano Sheet Music Anthology contains 20 arrangements from seven of the band’s albums. Among the arrangements are a variety of songs that are particularly well-suited to be played on keyboard instruments, such as “All My Love,” “No Quarter,” “Stairway to Heaven,” “Your Time Is Gonna Come”.

These new Led Zeppelin music songbooks are now available for $22.99-$24.99 at music retail stores and at alfred.com.

Page on the Road: Led Zeppelin's 1969 North American Spring Tour

2012-11-17T02:53:00.001-08:00

Concert Poster from the Band's Show at the Fillmore West

A mere two months after Led Zeppelin's first tour of the America, the band found themselves back in the U.S. for a whole new slew of dates around the country including a few shows in Canada thrown in for good measure. The tour itself lasted from April 24th until May 31st and as opposed to their last jaunt across the pond, Led Zeppelin found themselves entrenched as bonafide headliners with acts such as Julie Driscoll, Delaney & Bonnie and Three Dog Night supporting them on the bill. In addition to their heightened profile, the band was also making roughly four times the amount per show they had made on their previous tour.

A Typical Tour Setlist

"Train Kept A-Rollin' "

"I Can't Quit You Baby"

"As Long As I Have You"

"Dazed and Confused"

"You Shook Me"

"How Many More Times"

"Communication Breakdown"

"White Summer"/"Black Mountain Side"

"Killing Floor"

"Babe I'm Gonna Leave You"

"Sitting and Thinking"

"Pat's Delight"

"Whole Lotta Love"

One exception the band made to their headline billing was for a show on March 25th when Led Zeppelin's manager Peter Grant agreed to allow the band to open for The Who at the Merriweather Post Pavillion in Maryland. This would be the only time that Led Zeppelin and The Who played alongside eachother.


Bill from Led Zeppelin and The Who's date in Maryland

In addition to playing live dates, the band also made use of their downtime to begin recording their follow-up album to their massively succesful debut. The band made stops at Quantum, Sunset, Mirror Sound and Mystic Studios in Los Angeles, California; Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee; A&R, Juggy Sound, Groove and Mayfair Studios in New York City; and even made a stop at a "hut" in Vancouver, B.C. to lay down a harmonica track.

Their second trip to America proved to be a massive success and helped to solidify the group's reputation as a must see live act. At the conclusion of the tour the band kept up their punishing schedule playing a slew of dates in the U.K. before returning back to America for a whole new summer tour just over a month after they had departed.

Jimmy Playing the Band's Last Date of the Tour at the Fillmore East

Tour Dates

April 24, 1969

San Francisco / United States / Fillmore West

April 25, 1969

San Francisco / United States / Winterland

April 26, 1969

San Francisco / United States / Winterland

April 27, 1969

San Francisco / United States / Fillmore West

May 1, 1969

Irvine / United States / Crawford Hall

May 2, 1969

Pasadena / United States / Rose Palace

May 3, 1969

Pasadena / United States / Rose Palace

May 4, 1969

Santa Monica / United States / Civic Center (Santa Monica)

May 5, 1969

Santa Monica / United States / Civic Center (Santa Monica)

May 9, 1969

Edmonton / Canada / Edmonton Garden

May 10, 1969

Vancouver / Canada / PNE Agrodome

May 11, 1969

Seattle / United States / Greenlake Aquatheater

May 13, 1969

Honolulu / United States / Civic Auditorium (Honolulu)

May 16, 1969

Detroit / United States / The Grande Ballroom

May 17, 1969

Athens / United States / O. U. Convocation Center

May 18, 1969

Minneapolis / United States / Tyrone Guthrie Theater

May 23, 1969

Chicago / United States / Kinetic Playground

May 24, 1969

Chicago / United States / Kinetic Playground

May 25, 1969

Columbia / United States / Merriweather Post Pavillion

May 27, 1969

Boston / United States / Boston Tea Party

May 28, 1969

Boston / United States / Boston Tea Party

May 29, 1969

Boston / United States / Boston Tea Party

May 30, 1969

New York / United States / Fillmore East

May 31, 1969

New York / United States / Fillmore East

Jimmy Page Appears on BBC2's Later...With Jools Holland

2012-11-15T19:36:00.003-08:00

Jimmy Page recently made an appearance on BBC2's Later...With Jools Holland where he fielded some questions about Led Zeppelin's latest release "Celebration Day" including quite naturally the dreaded reunion question.

Interview: Brad Tolinski

2012-11-13T10:07:00.000-08:00

Brad Tolinski is the Editor in Chief of three of the most successful music publications in the world, Guitar World Magazine, Revolver and Guitar Aficianado. His latest effort is the new book titled Light & Shade: Conversation with Jimmy Page, a semi-oral biography of the notoriously media shy Led Zeppelin guitarist. Tolinski has had the opportunity to interview and interact with Page on a number of occasions over the years and has used the content from those interviews as well as his own personal insights to compile a fantastic work that comes closer than anything else out there to revealing the man behind the mystique. I recently had the privilege of speaking with Mr. Tolinksi about the book, his own thoughts about his subject and the ever-changing landscape of music journalism.

CR: You’ve interviewed a number of great musicians and guitarist over the years in your capacity as editor in chief of Guitar World Magazine, what made you choose Jimmy Page as the subject for your latest book?

BT: I think when it comes to Led Zeppelin and Jimmy’s work in particular you find that there’s a disservice to it in the music journalism community. It seems that all of the focus has been on the exploits of the band and the more sensational aspects of their life. I mean, Led Zeppelin is the second largest rock band of all time in terms of sales, only behind The Beatles, and it really bothered me that no one was paying attention to how important and how interesting the music was. I don’t want to be a spoil-sport or anything, I think that telling a good rock story is fun and it’s interesting, but I think that there needed to be some sort of balance in the marketplace where you had a book that talked about the serious musical contribution of someone like Jimmy Page.

CR: What has Jimmy Page meant to you personally as both a fan of music and as a guitar player?

BT: Gee, that’s a complicated question but it’s a good question…nobody has really asked me that. I think what impresses me about Jimmy is that he does everything well. When you look at somebody like Eddie Van Halen, who you see a person who is an incredibly accomplished guitar player and very innovative which of course Jimmy Page is as well, however he’s also a lot more. Jimmy is a really great producer, his compositions are incredibly interesting and complex and as a performer and as somebody who went down to the details of taking care of what the band would look like visually and artistically, I don’t think there has ever been a more well rounded guitar player in rock history than Jimmy.

CR: What made you decide to structure the book in the way you did with narrative text and interviews and how difficult was it to strike a balance between the two?

BT: I definitely wanted the book to be in Jimmy’s words as much as possible because I really see this as a historical document. Hopefully fifty years from now when people are listening to Led Zeppelin and enter this music they are going to wonder how it was made and how it was created and I felt that they wouldn’t want to read a journalist’s analysis when the real thing was available. On the other hand, I tend to find some of these oral histories a bit boring and one-dimensional and I really wanted to keep the book lively so I decided to introduce different voices. On top of that for as much as Jimmy has revealed to me, which is quite a bit, he tends to play his cards close to his chest so I thought it was important to get some other flavors.

CR: How many conversations have you had with Jimmy Page over the years?

BT: I don’t know the exact number, somewhere between twelve or fifteen different occasions over the years. We’ve also seen each other and chatted outside of the book a number of times as well.

CR: Can you take us through the process of interviewing Jimmy Page, what its actually like to be in the room with him and trying to pull information out of him?

BT: Well the way to Jimmy’s heart, if you’re a journalist anyway, is through the music. If you get your facts wrong and your research wrong he turns off in a second so it’s a real trick and you really have to do your homework; he really holds your toes to the fire. He also hates open-ended questions; he really wants you to ask specific things, which of course makes it a little harder on the interviewer, but in the end it yields very rich material. He never ducks a question if they are ambiguous, he may say no sometimes [laughs], but if the question is well formed and well defined he’s great. Jimmy has always treated interviews in a really professional sort of way, but afterwards he can be cool with you and genuinely warm. We’ve hung out a few times, had a couple drinks and talked music and girls all that stuff.

CR: I have to ask, what is it like to just hang out with Jimmy Page? He just seems like such a stratospheric figure.

BT: It’s gotten better over the years, but you’re right it is a little complicated. When you talk to him you tend to wonder whether your own life is exciting enough to interest him [laughs]. There’s always a little of that feeling in the back of your mind, but through the years we’ve broken down a lot of barriers and he’s capable of great warmth. When it comes to the interviews themselves however, he takes them very seriously. I think he’s grown to trust that I’m going to convey his ideas clearly as well.

CR: Was there ever an urge when asking him more technical questions about the guitar or the music to just say, hey how about you plug in that ’59 Les Paul and show me what you mean?

BT: That actually did happen once in one of the interviews that I did with him. I didn’t include it in the book because it just got too deep into guitar nerd territory and I thought it might just put off a general reader. Anyway, at first I pulled out a guitar and said, ‘Why don’t you show me how to play such and such?’ and at first he was like, ‘No, I’m not going to do that.’ So then I said to him, ‘Don’t you play “The Rain Song” like this?’ and he saw that I was doing it wrong [laughs] and he got so mad that he grabbed it and said ‘No! This is the way it goes.’ I’ve found that the best way to get Jimmy to show you how to do things is to just play it wrong and then invite him to show you the right way to do it.

CR: Speaking of his guitars, were you ever able to examine them up close? Number One of the double-neck for instance?

BT: Here’s a funny story for you actually. A couple years ago I did a pretty lengthy interview with him that appears in the book about the recording of Led Zeppelin III and he brought along his Harmony acoustic guitar that he used on the album and is featured on “Stairway to Heaven” and a lot of the other acoustic Led Zeppelin songs. So there it is, the famous “Stairway to Heaven” Harmony guitar so I asked him, ‘Jimmy, would you mind if I were to strum out a few chords, maybe play on it a little bit?’ and he was like, ‘Oh yeah, go ahead’. Of course the temptation was to play the opening riff to “Stairway to Heaven”, I mean how great is that? You could dine out on that story forever! In the end though I just couldn’t bring myself to do it, I could just imagine that he would roll his eyes or something like that. I will say though, it really is a very nice sounding guitar.

CR: Jimmy Page is notoriously press shy, how were you able to gain so much access to him?

BT: As a child of the seventies I grew up with Page’s work with The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin and it became deeply embedded in my DNA and I’ve always admired his innovations as a guitarist, a composer and as an arranger. As a producer I thought he ranked right up there alongside Phil Spector and George Martin, those types of people. So as a journalist I had always wondered why no one had ever asked him about that stuff and I discovered that Jimmy had been wondering the same thing. That’s what I wanted to read about and that’s what I wanted to write about so Light and Shade is an extension of that. Essentially I got to Jimmy by talking to him specifically about the music and I was able to have that discussion in a relatively sophisticated way. As a guy who felt like he’d been misunderstood, I think he found it liberating that he could talk to somebody and tell them what he was up to creatively and they would get it. So through that, through the music, we were able to touch on some of the more sensational aspects of what he was doing, or what had been going on in his life, or what was going on in the band.

CR: In the book you quote Francis Bacon saying, “the job of the artist is to always deepen the mystery”. Jimmy is clearly a master of that concept but in your opinion how much of that aura of mystery is a conscious choice, how much of that is resentment toward the media, and how much is just outright shyness?

BT: Well a magician never reveals his tricks [laughs]. I don't think he’s shy, I don’t see that, but he’s very particular and with most of my interviews I’d have to almost approach the situation like a trial lawyer. I think he’s just a guy who likes things a certain way and I’ve had several people say, ‘Come on tell me about the real Jimmy Page, is he just a regular guy?’ The truth though is that he really isn’t. He’s an eccentric; he’s an artist on the highest level so why would you expect him to respond like an average guy? But none of us really wants that, none of us want him to be an average guy.

CR: It seems as if Led Zeppelin are as, if not more popular today as they were in their heyday, what would you attribute that to?

BT: There are a lot of reasons for that, and again…see here’s the problem, the music critical community tends to focus on lyrics; I sort of believe this, which is why in my opinion people like Dylan or Neil Young are so revered and understood. So with Led Zeppelin it really is a sound and if you are not a musician you probably don’t really understand the depths of the music to some degree. This of course won’t prevent you from enjoying it, but you might not understand it. There is just a ton of depth in the music of Led Zeppelin. I mean I still like to listen to Houses of the Holy and to this day I will hear something that I hadn’t heard before in spite of the fact that I’ve listened to that record a zillion times. It’s that kind of depth that keeps people coming back year after year. Then of course you have to look at the way it was recorded and Jimmy’s production techniques, which I think still sound modern and different even today. In the end, the question you are asking is the question I am trying to answer with this book, like, why do we care? And the reason we care isn’t just because they had sex with groupies and threw televisions out the window it’s because of the genius of the musicians involved and the lengths that they went to capture what was in their mind.

CR: Jimmy has stated that he would never release a full on autobiography in his lifetime leaving your book pretty much the closest thing to something like that. Do you have any thoughts about that, and what that means to you?

BT: You know about ten years ago when I had already interviewed Jimmy a few times, I started realizing what I had. With that realization in mind I went about the business of every time I engaged him to try and pull out another level because I did start seeing that what I had was different from anything anyone else had. Not only that, I felt that what I had carried historical value. We tend in our society to have a hard time to really pat our rock gods on the back to some degree because rock and roll sort of dissuades you from taking things too seriously; it’s sort of built into its definition. I think it is really time to start looking at some of these musicians and treat them in the same way that they might treat Muddy Waters, Duke Ellington or any of these other people that we celebrate. I began to understand what I feel is the historical importance of the discussions I’ve had with Jimmy and I knew that due to his nature that he would probably never write an autobiography and it has meant a lot to me to write this book. I really really hope that this book does sort of stand as a record of music that I think is very important.

CR: Jimmy has been promising to deliver new material for quite some time, and has stated that we might see something next year, what is your take on this, should fans be hopeful?

BT: Yes I do think that they should be hopeful. It’s funny because I’ve seen the process a couple of different times and every time he’s sort of really gets on a roll putting something together, some sort of Led Zeppelin business comes up and derails him. That’s happened a couple of times, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you see something come out next year. I know he’s been working on some new things for a while and the ideas are really cool and I know he’s gone quite a bit of way to realize them. I think we may see something next year and it will be really cool. It will surprise you.

CR: Can we maybe expect to see him on the road touring? He has mentioned several times that he’d like to tour as well?

BT: I don’t know, I would imagine that he would. I know that he loves to play live and that he loves to tour so I would think that he would. He’s certainly playing very well, anyone who has seen Celebration Day can see that he’s playing as well as he has in years and years and years.

CR: What did you think of the film Celebration Day and the reunion gig itself?

BT: Well I was at the reunion gig so I saw the actual show, and I’ve seen the movie a few times at different theaters and I thought it was great. I think that the performance itself is probably more focused than the one on The Song Remains the Same. I thought the movie was very good, maybe cut a little too fast for my taste; I wish they would have lingered a little bit more and focused on the chemistry within the band.

CR: Going back to your book, if readers were only able to take one thing away from Light and Shade, one idea or one facet of Jimmy Page, what would you like them to know about him?

BT: Well you know there’s a quote from Jimmy in the book after I had asked him how he’d like to be remembered and he said, ‘Many people just think of me as a riff guitarist, but I think of myself in broader terms. As a musician, I think my greatest achievement has been to create unexpected melodies and harmonies within a rock and roll framework. And as a producer, I would like to be remembered as someone who was able to sustain a band of unquestionable individual talent and push it to the forefront during its working career. I think I really captured the best of our output, growth, change and maturity on tape – the multifaceted gem that is Led Zeppelin.’ I think that that sort of says it all. I’m sort of hoping to get people to think of Jimmy not so much as a cartoon character but rather as a true musical genius who affected the course of music in the 20th century as much as someone like Louis Armstrong or Charlie Parker did.

CR: As the Editor in Chief of Guitar World, Revolver and Guitar Aficionado Magazine I think its safe to say that you’ve reached the pinnacle of music journalism universe, what advice would you give to young up and coming music journalist out there trying to break into the field?

BT: Well the landscape is changing radically, I mean even I’m having a hard time keeping up with the world. My publisher for this book even told me while I was writing it that in a couple more years you’ll have to think about this entire process in a completely different way. So if I were starting out from scratch right now it certainly wouldn’t be print that I’d be pursuing. I would try to analyze the potential of eBooks and I would consider creating video components to go along with my writing. I think there are a lot of great opportunities out there and the great thing about doing it online is that you don’t have the same costs that you would if you were doing it in print.

I think if I were Jann Wenner (Editor in Chief of Rolling Stone Magazine) or Brad Tolinski twenty years ago I would gather a group of likeminded technicians, photographers and writers and I would try and put together a sort of Huffington Post for rock music journalism. I know none of that sounds particularly easy, it’s much nicer if an editor comes along and says, ‘hey go out and interview so and so and bring it back to me,’ but you know that's going to become more and more rare. It’s harder for me dealing with our budgets and everything to give more work to anybody really. That being said I think that rather than mourning the death of print, its better if you were a child of the sixties you would say, ‘Fuck the establishment, I’m going to do my own thing and go my own way.’

CR: Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me today. It’s been a real pleasure speaking with you today.

BT: No problem, thank you.

Book Review: Light & Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page (Brad Tolinksi)

2012-11-08T23:30:00.000-08:00

Whether by design, shyness or just a a general disdain for the media Jimmy Page is, and has remained throughout his extensive career, one of the most mysterious and hard to decipher public figures out there. Over the years many people have tried to breakthrough his hard veneer and get him to open up to no avail. Page for his part has gone on record as stating that he has no intention of ever writing a classic narrative autobiography in his lifetime which is what makes Brad Tolinksi's latest book Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page such a valuable new resource for Page's many fans and admirers.

Brad Tolinksi is the Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World, Guitar Afficianado, and Revolver magazines and in this capacity has had the opportunity to interview Jimmy Page many times over the years; indeed, Tolinski has conducted more extensive interviews with Page than any other journalist out there. It is these interviews (nearly fifty hours worth) that make up a majority of the content of this latest book. Light and Shade tells the story of the iconic guitarist using his own words and thoughts. In between the excerpted interviews is a sustaining narrative written by Tolinski that provides the reader with context and background, as well as interludes with other figures such as Page's bandmate John Paul Jones and fashion icon John Varvtos to name a few.

Light and Shade is quite an apt title for this effort; on one hand the reader comes away with a greater knowledge, appreciation and understanding of the iconic music that Jimmy Page created and performed over his career. On the the other hand the man himself remains a mystery, a shadowy figure who remains both frustrating elusive and inexplicably magnetic. If you want to know about the creative process of a true genius of rock and roll music and the evolution of one of the most talented guitar players of all time, Light and Shade will prove to be an invaluable resource that will keep you enthralled throughout its 300 pages. If you are looking for inside stories of mud sharks, drugs, groupies, and destroyed hotel rooms, look elsewhere.

Ultimately this book offers readers something that no other book, or for that matter, no other author is capable of delivering, an examination of the life and career of James Patrick Page through his own words. If for no other reason than that, you should definitely give it a read, but in the capable hands of Brad Tolinski, we are afforded the rare chance to accompany Jimmy Page through his long and illustrative musical journey and gain an as-before unattainable fresh insight into this elusive figure.

Celebration Day Headed Back to Theaters (One Night Only)

2012-11-07T17:38:00.002-08:00

After the successful screening of the Led Zeppelin concert film Celebration Day last month which netted $2,000,000 in ticket sales, the band have decided to stage a second screening on November 13th. The decision to hold an encore is no doubt attributable to great public interest and pressure the band has encountered on the heels of the announcement of the reunion film. The official Led Zeppelin website has been averaging 1.7 million hits per day, with 46,000 searches for local show times and 4,000 requests for another round of movie theater screenings.

For more information on tickets and where the screenings will be held visit the band's official website here.

Pageia Obscura: A&R Man Immediate Records

2012-11-05T14:09:00.003-08:00

Immediate Records was started in 1965 by The Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog-Oldham and promoter Tony Calder; the two men had met two years previously when both were working drumming up press and publicity for The Beatles and their manager Brian Epstein. Both men had an affinity for the blues and soul music and decided to branch out from their normal standard duties working for the big record labels around London and start their own for a better artistic and financial control over their artist roster. The label was modestly successful and managed to sign a number of the hotter acts working the capital city music scene at the time.

Immediate Records first signing was Loog-Oldham's biggest client, The Rolling Stones, who were then followed by a succession of artists including Small Faces, Nico, Les Fleur-de-Lys, Billy Nicholls, Chris Farlowe, The Mockingbirds, P.P. Arnold, The Poets, The McCoys, Amen Corner, The Nice, Humble Pie, Rod Stewart, Mike D’Abo, Twice As Much, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, The Aranbee Pop Symphony Orchestra, Golden Apples of the Sun, Masterminds, Barbara Lynn, The Australian Playboys, The Strangeloves, Fleetwood Mac, Nicky Scott, Tony Rivers and the Castaways, Duncan Browne, London Waits, and Mark Murphy.

Andrew Loog-Oldham and Mick Jagger

The label had a modest level of success in the singles charts with songs like P.P. Arnold's "The First Cut is the Deepest" and Chris Farlowe's "Out of Time", but for the most part encountered a level of difficulty in competing with their larger and more entrenched counterparts like Decca and EMI. One of the hallmarks of Immediate was the use of in-house hired talent to produce, scout and write for their roster of artists including The Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, as well as future Led Zeppelin bandmates Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones.

Jimmy Page was hired by Oldham as an A&R man for his label as well as a producer but in reality he did much much more. Page produced sessions for future member of the Velvet Underground, Nico, Chris Farlowe and John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. In addition Jimmy Page's one and only completely solo single prior to his years after Led Zeppelin, a number titled "She Just Satisfies" was released on Immediate. Jimmy would later run into a bit of hot water with his friend Jeff Beck when Immediate heard that the duo had recorded a series of jams together. The label pointed out that Page was a salaried employee and thus any recordings he made under his name were the property of the company. Page dutifully handed over the tapes and to the consternation of both Page and Beck they were later released on a compilation disc under the title Blues Anytime in 1968

Ultimately, Immediate Records folded up and called it quits in 1970 leaving quite a financial mess, nearly £1,000,000 of debt, not only for the management but also for their artist roster. One of their most successful acts, The Small Faces didn't receive any form of payment for their work on the label despite their being released and re-released numerous times through the years until they finally decided to take legal action in the early 2000's. Though Immediate Records might not have attained the success that they had set out to achieve their legacy is surely intact as a breeding ground for the next generation of artists who would take the music industry by storm in the upcoming years.

It is also important to note that Immediate Records was the place where Jimmy Page was first able to stretch his wings in the studio and assume of level of artistic control that he had never before experienced. There were many lessons that Page would learn at Immediate that he would take with him to his next venture, a group called The Yardbirds, then ultimately of course to Led Zeppelin.

If you would like to read and learn more about Immediate Records you should check out the book, Immediate Records: Labels Unlimited

Jimmy in the Upcoming Film "A Life in the Death of Joe Meek"

2012-11-01T13:19:00.001-07:00

Here is a quick video excerpt of Jimmy Page in the upcoming documentary about the 1960's British record producer Joe Meek.

You can find more out about this film and the life of Joe Meek here:

http://joemeekdoc.com/