The Led Zeppelin In-Frequently Mumured Trivia List v1.1
Details
Written by Jeff Strawman
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THE
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|_|N- |_| REQUENTLY |_| |_|URMURED |_|RIVIA |____|IST
V1.1
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0.0 - Table Of Contents
0 Administrivia
0.0 Table Of Contents
0.1 Disclaimer & Distribution Information
0.2 Introduction
0.3 Credits
0.4 Dedication
1 The Music
1.1 Pink Carnations, Pickup Trucks And Other Lifts
1.2 Hats Off To Strange Song Titles
1.3 What About The Studio Chatter? Nah, leave it, yeah.
1.4 Will Someone Answer That Phone!
1.5 Intuitive Interpretations
1.6 Miscellaneous Song Trivia
1.7 Record Store Rock
1.8 Favourite Songs, Albums
2 The Band
2.1 The Golden God : Robert Plant
2.2 The Sorceror's Apprentice : Jimmy Page
2.3 The Omnipresent Force : John Paul Jones
2.4 The Engine Room : John Bonham
3 Other Trivial Pursuits
3.01 The Trivia Remains The Same
3.02 Electric Green Tennis Courts And Other Cover Art
3.03 Plantations And Other Onstage Musings
3.04 Trivia Of Illegitimate Origin
3.05 Meet The Press
3.06 Zeppelin Miscellania
3.07 Shaking The Tree
3.08 Coverdale/Plant
3.09 Like Father Like Son
3.10 The Led And How To Get It Out
3.11 Jimmy And The Beast
3.12 Zeppelin Mediawatch
3.13 Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
3.14 Pezed Pellni Anagrams
3.15 Nevaeh Ot yawriatS
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0.1 - Disclaimer & Distribution Information
Please read the following carefully.
DISCLAIMER
The information contained within this file is not claimed to be
certified, unquestionably, literal truth. The compiler of the
document cannot be held responsible for any innaccuracies or any
damage incurred through the misuse of this information. Do not
eat this document, you may do yourself serious harm. This file
is not claimed to be the original work of the compiler, it has
been compiled from a variety of sources, which where known have
been noted.
DISTRIBUTION GUIDELINES
This file is not to be archived in any way shape or form without
the express permission of the author. It is not to be posted,
in whole or excerpted, on the news without the express
permission of the author. It is also not to be circulated by
any Internet service provider as part of its services for any
fee, no matter how small. This document is envisioned as being
mainly for personal amusement, and while you can go ahead and
print yourself out a copy, you are not permitted to repackage,
reformat or circulate this document in any way which would
derive profit, be it monetary, or otherwise, in any way
whatsoever. If unavailable, a duly appointed representative of
the author can grant exemptions to these guidelines as he or
she sees fit. However, in all cases the decisions of the
compiler regarding what is done with this document are to be
adhered to rigidly, and to the letter.
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0.2 - Introduction
A few quick points to begin with:
1) This is an obscure Led Zeppelin trivia file. :-)
2) It is not meant to replace the FAQL, supercede, or in
any way degrade it. This is purely a companion document,
and the FAQL should be your first reference point for
certified information with established accuracy.
3) This document is flexible, if you have more information on
any topic here, or a suggestion for an addition, or more
importantly, and please raise these, a correction, it will
be acted on. New sections are already being put together,
so look out for future updates. Information will be
removed from this file if it is felt to be inappropriate
by the compiler or a substantial body of opinion.
4) The compiler can be contacted at the following email
address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., valid until the
end of 1995 at least.
Welcome to the Led Zeppelin Infrequently Murmured Trivia List!
This list has been compiled by Steven Wheeler, who began this
most ardous of tasks in May 1994, before presenting the first
version in October 1995. The compiler spent many, many man
hours on this, so flames are NOT appreciated, but on the other
hand, constructive criticism, suggestions, additions,
corrections, etc. are more than welcome.
This document seeks to draw together all the interesting,
amusing, perplexing, or just plain anecdotal information that
has arisen on the topic of Led Zeppelin. At the time that
the compilation process began, there was no storage place for
these often quite useful pieces of information. So, to fill
that need this document was created. I hope you find something
of interest here.
There are a lot of people that I need to thank for their
help in compiling this, and I have probably lost the names of
a lot of you, so please if you see something here of yours, let
me know so I can credit you. The ones I have remembered are
listed in the Credits section.
Most of all, I view this as me putting something back
into a Mailing List from which I have dervied a lot of fun and
enjoyment during my involement. Thanks y'all!
Steven Wheeler
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Launceston, Tasmania, 30/04/95.
Last Updated : 06/11/95.
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0.3 - Credits
As mentioned above, there are a lot of people I have to thank
for assisting me in putting this file together. My primary
source was the Digital Graffiti mailing list, so the first
thankyou goes to everyone who been associated with that over
the years.
This is a list of people who have either provided me with
information directly, or who are authors of files at the ftp
site I utilised, or who posted notable contributions to the
list from which I was able to glean useful information.
Thor Iverson, Kingston Arthur, Hugh Jones, David S.
Koukourou, Maurice Maes, Matt Hill, Steve Portigal,
Steve Kilpatrick, Ville Silltanen, Risto 'Rise' Pohjonen,
J.D. Falk, Brian Sagar, Brett Noris, Chris Milazzo,
Michael Chilton, Matt McGrath, Larry Ratner, Colin Irwin,
Phil Humphreys, Michael Gallagher, Theresa
Regli, Michael Ayoob, Dave Wright, Scott Miller, Bryan
Durall, K.T. Scott, Aaron W. Proulx, Timothy Lindsey,
J.D. Considine, Percy, Glenn M. Saunders, Stephen Minnoch,
Mark S. Nyhus, Buster Harvey, Rich Kellerman & Cliff
Weaver, Scott Swanson, Duncan Watson, and Bill O'Neill.
In addition to this, my primary resource for cross-checking
various pieces of information was Dave Lewis's excellent "Led
Zeppelin: A Celebration". Highly recommended for any Zeppelin
fan, an unparallelled Zeppelin reference work. Additionally,
Dave Lewis's "Complete Guide To The Music Of Led Zeppelin" also
proved rather useful, and again, highly recommended. Many
magazines provided sources for ideas and information as well.
Among them: Mojo, Rolling Stone, Guitar World, Q, Vox, Guitar
Player and Record Collector.
A big thank you also to the proofreader of this opus, fellow
COBOL++ enthusiast, beaver keeper and highway chile Mr. Andy
"Speed-Racer" Wagliardo.
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0.4 - Dedication
"To the memory of Ayrton Senna da Silva
1960-1994
To the heroes who prove, by the events of their lives
and sometimes their deaths,
that some dreams are worthy of any price
and bring adventure back to a world
without knights in armour."
Taken From "Darklord Of Mystara" by Thorarinn Gunnarsson.
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1.1 - Pink Carnations And Pickup Trucks
Blues tradition has never had a problem with artists borrowing
riffs, lyrics or techniques from other artists. Given the extensive
grounding in the blues that Led Zeppelin had, it is unlikely they
were acting in anything but this spirit when they entered the studio
to add their own touches, revisions and additions to the blues legacy
of artists that preceeded them. In some cases this got them into
serious copyright trouble, a lot of which was to do with the lyrics.
In an interview with _Guitar_World_ in December 1993 Jimmy Page said,
"As far as my end of it goes, I always tried to bring
something fresh to anything that I used. I always made sure
to come up with some variation. In fact, I think in most
cases you would never know what the original source could be.
Maybe not in every case, but in most cases. And Robert was
supposed to change the lyrics, and he didn't always do that -
which is what brought on most of our grief. They couldn't
get us on the guitar parts or the music, but they nailed us
on the lyrics."
o "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" - On all the box set releases, and re-
releases since 1990, a credit has been added for Anne Bredon, an
obscure folk musician who wrote and recorded the original song in
the 1950s. Back in the 1980s her son was intrigued to hear his
mother playing what he and the rest of the world thought was a
Led Zeppelin song. After asking her why she was doing this, a
quick trip to a solicitor saw her name added and her contribution
recognised. Led Zeppelin's version is not that reminiscent of
Bredon's original though, the Zeppelin version borrows from Joan
Baez's cover of the song. When Jimmy and Robert got together at
Jimmy's Pangbourn home in 1968 to evaluate each other, Page told
Plant he had an arrangement of this song in mind which had a lot
of "light and shade". Contrary to what Richard Cole claims,
Plant did not pick up a guitar and play Page the riff, because he
didn't play guitar at the time, and both Page and Plant have both
said it was Jimmy that played the riff for Robert, and not the
other way around.
o "You Shook Me" - The song is a cover of a Willie Dixon song of the
same name. The following extract from the song is borrowed from
Robert Johnson's "Stones In My Passway" : 'I have a bird that
whistles, and I have birds that sing, I have a bird that whistles,
and I have birds that sing.' Prior to Zep's cover of this
song, the Jeff Beck group released a cover on their album "Truth"
and Beck later claimed Page copied his arrangement. The truth of
the matter is, though, that it was a very popular cover in England
at the time, and including it on their album did not amount to the
plagiaristic claim Beck levels at Led Zeppelin. The song was
originally recorded by Muddy Waters.
o "Dazed and Confused" - This began as an acoustic folk tune in
the sixties by New York folk singer Jake Holmes before Page re-
arranged it for the Yardbirds as "I'm Confused." The song first
appeared on Holmes's 1967 album "The Above Ground Sound Of Jake
Holmes". For the Yardbird's version, the title and the lyrics
were changed, completely altering the original meaning of the
song, which in Holmes' version is about an acid trip. For their
cover Led Zeppelin revived the original title, but not the lyrics
nor the original meaning. The reason the Yardbirds changed the
title was probably to avoid legal action, in the same way they
changed the title of "Train Kept A-Rollin'" to "Stroll On" for
the "Blow Up" soundtrack. On the Page-vetoed "Live Yardbirds
Featuring Jimmy Page" the song is listed as "I'm Confused". The
guitar solo following the bowing section was lifted intact from
the Yardbird's "Think About It" where it was originally composed
and played by Page. The violin bow technique Page uses during
the song is territory he had previously explored with the
Yardbirds on "Glimpses" and "Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor". John
Paul Jones's bassline is from the Yardbirds version, where Paul
Samwell-Smith was the bass player.
o "Black Mountain Side" - According to Page, "I wasn't totally
original on that riff. It had been done in folk clubs a lot.
Annie Briggs was the first one that I heard do that riff. I was
playing it as well, and then there was Bert Jansch's version."
However, Briggs cites her source for the song as being Bert Lloyd,
a collector of old folk songs, who according to Briggs assembled
the song from fragments. The riff though, again according to
Briggs, comes from Stan Ellison, who composed the accompaninment
on the version Briggs recorded. Bert Jansch went and wrote a
different guitar part for his version which appeared on his 1966
album "Jack Orion". Page probably learned the old Irish folk song
from folk musician Al Stewart during a session where Page turned
up to play on Stewart's cover of the Yardbird's song "Turn Into
Earth", the b-side for his single "The Elf". Stewart recalls
that between takes he showed Page how to play the riff and that
Page seemed really taken with it. Stewart later realised though,
that he showed Page the wrong tuning for what he thought was
Jansch's version, D modal, but which wasn't. That actual tuning,
DADGAD is acknowledged as an invention of folk musician Davey
Graham. Out of this confused set of sources, Jansch apparently
contemplated legal action but those acting on his behalf gave up.
Viram Jasnai plays tabla drums to add a feel similar to an Indian
raga.
o "Communication Breakdown" - Borrows from Eddie Cochran's "Nervous
Breakdown."
o "I Can't Quit You Baby" - Originally by Willie Dixon, a Page
arranged version found it's way onto the first album. A live
version, not the soundcheck as claimed, appears on Coda.
o "How Many More Times" - The song is in part inspired by Howlin'
Wolf's "How Many More Years." Prior to Led Zeppelin, Plant
played this in the Band of Joy with John Bonham. Page takes his
solo from The Yardbirds "Shape Of Things." The imagery of "Rosie"
and "The Hunter" is borrowed from Albert King's "The Hunter",
which was most likely originally by Booker T. and the MGs, some
of whom formed a backing band for Albert King for a while.
Zeppelin's version is lyrically related to a cover called "How
Many More Times" by Gary Farr and the T-Bones (from liner notes by
Giorgio Gomelsky, one-time producer of The Yardbirds). At one
point during the instrumental section the band play an excerpt
from the Page composition, "Beck's Bolero." The main riff from
the song is very similar to that of the song "Night Comes Down",
which Page played on during his session days. A song by Howlin'
Wolf, who Jimmy claims is who he thought he was borrowing from,
called "Come Back Home (Take 1)" features a very similar riff as
well. This song can be found on "Howlin' Wolf: Memphis Days - The
Definitive Edition Volume 1" on Bear Family Records. It has been
remarked upon that the riff also has a vague similarity to the one
from Pink Floyd's "Money".
o "Whole Lotta Love" - The riff is Page's but the lyrics are taken
from Willie Dixon's "You Need Love." Plant has said,
"Page's riff was Page's riff. It was there before anything
else. I just thought, 'well, what am I going to sing?' That
was it, a nick. Now happily paid for. At the time, there
was a lot of conversation about what to do. It was decided
that it was so far away in time (it was in fact 7 years) and
influence that...well, you only get caught when you're
successful. That's the game."
The middle section which was edited for the original release as a
single features Page and Eddie Kramer doing a lot of "random knob
twisting." Apart from that, sounds of sirens, screams, demolition
sounds, an orgasmic wail from Plant can be heard. Page also uses
backwards echo, a technique he pioneered with the Yardbirds and in
a Mickie Most session. In 1985 Willie Dixon sued the band over
their use of his lyrics. An out of court settlement was reached.
A similar `sound' is achieved by the Small Faces on their 1966
debut album with the track "You Need Loving."
o "The Lemon Song" - This track, cut live in the studio, is an
amalgam of Led Zeppelin's blues influences. The major influence
for this was Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor." With lyrics and an
instrumental section borrowed from it, it is not surprising the
band was sued for it. The suit was settled out of court. The
"squeeze my lemon" sequence comes from Robert Johnson's
"Travelling Riverside Blues." It is likely that Johnson borrowed
this himself, from a song recorded in the same year, 1937, called
"She Squeezed My Lemon." Albert King's "Cross Cut Saw" was also
an influence. Some lyrics are also common to Lightning Slim's
"Hoodoo Woman", such as `You take all my money and give it to
another man'. "Killing Floor" has also been recorded by Jimi
Hendrix, notably.
o "Moby Dick" - Originally titled "Pat's Delight" after Bonham's
wife Pat, the version that appears on "Led Zeppelin II" was edited
down from a much longer version. The riff is from the track that
the band recorded for the BBC on June 16th 1969, "The Girl I Love"
that was never used. That song was originally written by Sleepy
John Estes under the title "The Girl I Love, She Got Long Curly
Hair." Some of the drum parts were lifted from George
Suranovich's drum solo from the Arthur Lee song "Doggone." The
Led Zeppelin equivalent for Bonham of Cream's "Toad" for Ginger
Baker, some of the inspiration was probably derived from there.
The guitar part also draws on a song from Bobby Parker, the
bluesman Page tried to sign to Swan Song, that song being "Watch
Your Step." The song can be found on Parker's album "Bent Out Of
Shape." But the story does not stop there. Parker, in the liner
notes for "Bent Out Of Shape" recalls, `It was a takeoff on
"Mantecna" by Dizzy Gillespie. I started playing the riff on
guitar and decided to make a blues out of it." The Spencer Davis
Group in the UK, with Steve Winwood on vocals, covered the tune
where it was a big hit. John Lennon said the guitar for riff on
"Day Tripper" started out as a variation on this theme.
o "Thank You" - Robert wrote the lyrics for this touching ballad
for his wife at the time, Maureen. The guitar in this song has
chordal similarities to Traffic's "Dear Mr. Fantasy." Rumour has
is that Page during his days as a session player was the guitarist
on that particular song, although this is unproven. Additionally,
some of the lyrics are taken from an earlier song by Jimi Hendrix,
"If 6 Was 9", from the "Axis: Bold As Love" album.
o "Bring It On Home" - The beginning and end of this song draw
directly from the original verison of this song by Sonny Boy
Williamson, who performed it under the same name. Zeppelin even
tried to recreate the peculiarities of Williamson's voice at the
beginning for the opening section. To do this, Robert Plant is
singing through a harmonica microphone and amplifier.
o "Since I've Been Loving You" - Features a brief lyrical nod to
Moby Grape's "Never."
o "Out On The Tiles" - The lyric `see my rider right by my side'
bears a distinct resemblance to Robert Johnson's `Goin' to
Rosedale with my rider by my side' from his song "Travelling
Riverside Blues".
o "Gallows Pole" - A new version of a traditional folk song which
according to Dave Lewis can be traced back to Leadbelly, whose
version was called "The Gallis Pole." The version this draws more
on was by Fred Gerlach. The song "The Hangman's Knee" on Jeff
Beck's "Beck-Ola" album employs a similar lyrical theme, that of
the appeal to the hangman. Leadbelly's "The Gallis Pole" actually
has the line, `Friend, did you get me silverm friend you get me
gold, what did you get me dear friend, keep me from the Gallis
Pole?', and he then repeats that line substituting friend for
father, mother and wife.
o "Tangerine" - A Page composition left over from his days in the
Yardbirds, written for his girlfriend at the time, Jackie
DeShannon.
o "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" - The introduction is lifted from
"The Waggoner's Tale" by Bert Jansch, a traditional song. The
subject matter, Plant's dog, includes a few lifts from the
traditional folk tune "Ole Shep" where the dog in question had
its existence terminated for some obscure reason. Plant's dog is
named "Strider" and is, according to the song, "a blue-eyed
merle".
o "Hats Off To (Roy) Harper" - The lyrics to this song draw heavily
on Bukka White's "Shake 'Em On Down." Also covered by Joe Lee
Williams and Blind Lemon Jefferson.
o "Black Dog" - Page admitted recently that the vocal arrangement on
this song was influenced by Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well." The song
is built around a bass riff by John Paul Jones.
o "Rock And Roll" - The drumbeat borrows from the drumbeat from
Little Richard's "Good Golly Miss Molly/Keep A Knockin." Page has
said that they were trying to achieve a similar feel to those
songs. Ian Stewart plays piano.
o "Stairway To Heaven" - It has been murmured that there is a vague
similarity between the opening notes of this song and those of a
song by Johnny Rivers called "Summer Rain". Another suggested
source for the introduction chords is The Chocolate Watch Band's
"And She's Lonely". The solo chords are also similar to the
chords of Dylan's, and Hendrix's, "All Along The Watchtower",
though the chord progression is hardly uncommon and any direct
influence is also unlikely.
o "When The Levee Breaks" - A radically different version of an old
blues song originally written and performed by Memphis Minnie and
Kansas Joe McCoy which they recorded on June 18, 1928.
o "The Song Remains The Same" - The beginning of the song, and the
layered chords that give the song its impetus is a very similar
effect to that used by Jimmy on the Yardbird's ong "Tinket Tailor
Soldier Sailor" from the "Little Games" album. The resemblance
is quite apparent even to a casual listener, and, the song also
features some early experimentation from Jimmy with the violin
bow, which was to become his trademark in later years. The violin
bow also appears on another track from that album, "Glimpses".
o "The Crunge" - A play on James Brown's "Sex Machine", complete
with lyrics about missing bridges. In this song Brown frequently
says "Take it to the bridge, take it to the bridge" and as "The
Crunge" has no bridge, the search for the bridge at the end can be
explained by this.
o "D'Yer Mak'er" - Initially an attempt to recreate a 1950's doowop
feel, Rosie and the Originals, although this was warped by a
subtle reggae influence.
o "Custard Pie" - The lyrics to this song also draw on bluesman
Bukka White's "Shake 'Em On Down." Other reference points that
Dave Lewis cites are Sonny Boy Fuller's "Custard Pie Blues,"
Blind Boy Fuller's "I Want Some Of Your Custard Pie," and Big
Joe William's "Drop Down Daddy," which was the most important of
these three. However, the earliest source for this seems to be
Sleepy John Estes song "Drop Down Daddy" in 1935, which preceeds
Blind Boy Fuller by five years. Sonny Terry covered it with the
title "Custard Pie Blues."
o "Trampled Underfoot" - The lyrics are thematically similar to
those in the song "Terraplane Blues" by Robert Johnson, and more
recently the Rolling Stones' "Brand New Car."
o "In My Time Of Dying" - Page borrows a riff from Bob Dylan's
version on his first album. The song was recorded by Blind Willie
Johnson as "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed", which has more in common
with the Zeppelin version than Bob Dylan's. The Animals song
"Bury My Body" also features some of the lyrics of this song,
"Leave me, Jesus leave me. Why don't you meet me in the middle
of the air. And if my wings should fail me, won't you provide me
with another pair", albeit altered slightly. The Animals give
credit to Al Kooper for their version. Kooper jams with Hendrix
on "Electric Ladyland" and his most recent work is doing
soudntracks, such as the NBC series "Crime Story". While he may
have written the music for the Animals, the lyrics are most
certainly derivative of "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed". Plant has
cited Josh White's 1933 song "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed" as a
source for Zeppelin. A similar version appears on the self-titled
album by the Canadian band Fear Itself, whose "In My Time Of
Dying" is credited to Ellen McIlwaine, the band's lead singer and
slide guitarist. Besides many musical and length similarities,
the Fear Itself version ends with the line, "My dying... cough."
o "Kashmir" - The way the string section echoes around Page's guitar
in this song harks back to the earliest Page and Jones
collaborations, such as on the Yardbird's song "Little Games"
where Jones's arrangement for the strings seeks to achieve a
similar effect.
o "Down By The Seaside" - A guitar section in the song apparently
sounds reminiscent of "Signs" by the Five Man Electrical Band,
however, "Signs" was released in August 1971 while Zeppelin had
been working on "Down By The Seaside" since 1970, so any
resemblance between the songs is likely to be the other way
around.
o "Ten Years Gone" - Part of this song, the slow part then the
several chord lead into the solo, sounds like the opening bars of
"Band On The Run" by the Beatles or the part where the Beatles
lyrics go `If we ever get out of here.'
o "Boogie With Stu" - This track features the "sixth" member of the
Rolling Stones, the late Ian `Stu' Stewart, and it borrows from
Richie Valens "Ooh My Head," which in turn was based on Little
Richard's "Ooh My Soul." There is a credit on the track for Mrs.
Valens, Richie's mother, as the band heard his mother never got
any royalties from Richie's songs. The result was that the band
was sued! A working title dreamt up by Plant was "Sloppy Drunk."
o "Nobody's Fault But Mine" - The lyrics are borrowed from Blind
Willie Johnson, although the song has thematic similarities with
Robert Johnson's "Hellhound On My Trail." Robert Plant has the
following to say about this song, "First of all, it's public
domain because he's been dead so long, and secondly it wasn't his
song in the first place - nobody knows where it comes from."
o "Candy Store Rock" - During the `Nanananananananah, yeah' vocal
section the riff being played as the same one in "Walter's Walk"
which is being played as Plant sings `I've been walking the floor
over you'. One of the bass riffs resembles one from "The Wanton
Song".
o "Hots On For Nowhere" - A riff from this song might also have been
borrowed from "Walter's Walk".
o "In The Evening" - James Carr has a song entitled "In The Evening,
When The Sun Goes Down", but the two are not similar.
o "I'm Gonna Crawl" - Dave Lewis points to the influence of people
such as Wilson Pickett, O.V. Wright, and Otis Redding. Lewis
cites Pickett's "It's Too Late" as a reference point.
o "Poor Tom" - Owen Hand, a little-known friend of Bert Jansch
recorded a couple of albums during the 1960s, one of which
featured the song "She Likes It", shares a few licks with "Poor
Tom".
o "Darlene" - This song features a line borrowed from Don McLean's
"American Pie". "With a pink carnation and a pickup truck..."
o "We're Gonna Groove" - Originally written by Ben E. King and James
Bethea, Led Zeppelin recorded this way back in 1969.
o "Travelling Riverside Blues" - Like "When The Levee Breaks" this
is a much changed cover of an old Robert Johnson song originally
recorded in 1937. The song "Don't Know Where I'm Going" by Norm
Gallagher also features the section about the `rider', although
it is obvious that Gallagher also borrowed this section from
Johnson. Moving from the lyrics to the music, there are some
lifts from Johnny Winter's "Leavin' Home Blues" and another Johnny
Winters song, "I'm Yours She's Mine". This song was performed
rather unsteadily by the Rolling Stones at their free Hyde Park
Concert in 1969, and although credited to Jagger and Richards, is
usually credited to Johnny Winter.
o "White Summer" - This Page composition draws upon Davey Graham's
"She Moved Through The Fair", credited to a traditional
arrangement, but performed in a DAGDAD tuning. Interestingly,
when page performed the "White Summer/Black Mountain Side" medley
live he also frequently played an excerpt of Bert Jansch's
"Casbah". A 40 second excerpt was played by Page at the Anderson
Theatre Yardbirds concert that appeared on a quickly withdrawn
album, "Live Yardbirds With Jimmy Page". Another Page performance
of this medley, at a 1969 concert at Houston, Texas, includes a
section of the Anne Briggs song "Go Your Way My Love", also
recorded by Bert Jansch a year later than Briggs in 1967. Page
also tossed in bits and pieces of the never completed instrumental
"Swan Song" to this medley when playing live in the late 1970s.
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1.2 - Hats Off To Strange Song Titles
Even a cursory glance at the Zeppelin back catalogue would cause
most music buyers some puzzlement as they struggled to pronounce
"Bron-Y-Aur" or scratched their head in wonderment at a song title
like "The Lemon Song". In many cases the cause of this confusion
can be cleared up quite easily with a bit of research in blues
history, or the band's history, or the most valuable account, that of
the primary songwriters for the band, Page and Plant, the latter of
whom wrote the lyrics and most likely came up with titles for a lot
of the songs.
o "Dazed and Confused" - The title neatly fits both the original
lyrics about an acid trip and Plant's diatribe on getting the
runaround from a woman.
o "The Lemon Song" - The title is drawn from the "squeeze my lemon"
lyrics in the song which are borrowed from Robert Johnson's
"Travelling Riverside Blues." Elements of the song use Howlin'
Wolf's "Killing Floor" as a source, the title of which is a
synonym for being in serious trouble, or being mistreated.
o "Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman)" - Thought to be a
reference to an aging and persistent groupie on early American
tours.
o "Out On The Tiles" - The title means the same as a slang term such
as `Out On The Town.' Page recently said that song may have drawn
on some drunken lyrics Bonham came up with about drinking such as
`Now I'm feeling better because I'm out on the tiles.'
o "That's The Way" - Another song written during the highly
productive time Page and Plant spent together at the cottage,
this was originally titled, "The Boy Next Door."
o "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" & "Bron-Yr-Aur" - The title, which is correctly
spelled `Bron-Y-Aur,' and, pronounced `Bron-Yar,' is the name of a
derelict cottage in South Snowdonia in Wales where Page and Plant
retreated to write some songs and get to know each other before
the third album was recorded. It has been attributed as having
several meanings, and Welsh is a language best left to the Welsh.
The most common translation is "breast of gold." Another version
is offered by Cameron Crowe, "...Bron-Y-Aur, so-called for the
stretch of sun that crossed the valley every day." The working
title for "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" was "Jenning's Farm Blues." This
early version was quite different from the song that finally
appeared on the album, particularly as it was not acoustic.
o "Hats Off To (Roy) Harper" - Roy Harper is an eccentric folk
singer who was a friend of the band. Harper is perhaps better
known for his involvement with Pink Floyd, and David Gilmor in
particular. Harper can also be heard on the Pink Floyd song
"Have A Cigar," and a variety of recordings with Jimmy Page.
o "Black Dog" - Named after a black labrador that was a frequent
visitor to the Headley Grange studio during recording sessions.
According to "Unplugged" producer Alex Coletti, this dog is the
one that can be seen during the Slate Quarry sections of the MTV
"Unledded" special. However, this seems exceedingly unlikely,
and the dog in the "No Quarter" video is a black Russian
wolfhound, which may or may not be related to the dog in Plant's
"Little By Little" video. Additionally, onstage, Plant used to
introduce "Black Dog" saying how the dog was `...too old to
boogie anymore..." and "...he'd go down the road to boogie with
his old lady and be too tired to get back home...'
o "Misty Mountain Hop" - The title is drawn from "The Hobbit" by
J.R.R. Tolkien, the Misty Mountains being a location in the book.
o "Four Sticks" - Bonzo plays the drums with four sticks, two in
each hand, hence the title.
o "The Song Remains The Same" - Originally titled "The Overture"
when it was an instrumental before Robert added lyrics. This
song was also known as "The Campaign" at one point.
o "The Rain Song" - The working title for this song was "Slush",
a reflection on its smooth, flowing nature.
o "The Crunge" - The title and lyrics are a parody of what Dave
Lewis calls `...the James Brown/'take it to the bridge' school
of funk mannerisms.' The song is rendered undanceable however
by Bonham's beat and the band `...named this non-dance cult 'The
Crunge'...' There were plans at one stage to release this as a
single with the cover being a picture of the band doing the dance
steps for the song.
o "D'Yer Mak'er" - The title to this song is pronounced in the same
way as "Jamaica" and may have several meanings. The song sounds
a bit like reggae so the title may be a reference to that. Also
possible is that the title is drawn from an old music hall joke
along these lines,
`Two men are sitting in a pub. One says to the other, "Me
and muh wife are goin' to the west indies." The other asks
"Jamaica?" The first one replies, "No, she wants ta go."'
Another school of thought has it that D'Yer Maker is a Jamaican
term equivalent to the phrase `Did you make her?' or `Did you
score?' Plant has been attributed as saying this, although no
firm reference has ever surfaced.
Yet another theory is that it is a British/American term as in the
Beatles' "Lovely Rita": `Thinking that he has already made her...'
In conclusion, it is probably a combination of elements of these
theories, and when said with a Cockney accent it apparently sounds
very much like `Jamaica.' Knowing Plant's lyrical style, and
preoccupation with the opposite sex, sexual connotations are
highly likely.
However, the answer to this was provided by John Paul Jones in a
1993 radio interview, celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the
formation of Zeppelin, where he indicated that the name comes
from the jokes about the wife going on holiday.
o "Kashmir" - As the geographically aware would have noticed,
Kashmir, the place, is not in, or even anywhere near, Morocco,
which was the inspiration for Plant's lyrics. The lyrics describe
a car trip Page and Plant took across the Moroccan desert, yet
Kashmir, not really a specific city, more of a region, is
comprised mostly of fertile farmlands. Furthermore, it is
situated at the foothills of the Himalayas, the tallest mountain
range in the world, and has been the subject of fighting between
muslims for years, fighting which contines to this day. About the
only thing that Kashmir might have in common with the song is it's
history of religious mysticism, which would attract Plant,
although there is no record of any band member ever having visited
there. The lyrics describe sand, heat, and endless desert, so the
choice of song title is hard to explain. It may be Plant trying
to evoke the imagery of some sort of metaphorical "paradise", in
the same way people talk about places like Hawaii. However, he
has the terrain and geography completely wrong. Most likely, he
just though that the title just sounds great, which it does. The
song was originally titled "Driving To Kashmir".
o "The Wanton Song" - Despite also being the name for a type of
Chinese appetizer similar to a spring roll, although it's spelled
Won Ton, this title is more likely a reference to `wantonness'
which dictionaries variously define as capricious, luxuriant,
licentious or sportive, and generally more fun than Chinese
appetizers.
o "Black Country Woman" - This song was originally know as "Black
Country Woman (Never Ending Doubting Woman Blues)," in reference
to a final spoken line from Plant that was left off the album
version, `What's the matter with you mama, never-ending, nagging,
doubting woman blues.' The `Black Country,' the area around
Birmingham where Plant and Bonham were from, was so known because
it had formerly been an important iron-working and coal-mining
district. Whether the women in the area have assumed distinct
characteristics as the title infers is open to debate.
o "Boogie With Stu" - The song is named for the participation of the
Rolling Stones resident boogie-woogie pianist Ian Stewart, who was
for a time a member of the Rolling Stones, but was deemed `too
normal' by then-manager Andrew Loog Oldham and subsequently became
the band's roadie and long-term associate until his death in 1985
while the Stones were working on the "Dirty Work" album. The
snippet of honky tonk piano at the end of side two of that album
is their triubte to him.
o "Achilles Last Stand" - The recording of "Presence" was a
magnificent achievement considering Plant was confined to a
wheelchair the whole time due to his car accident. Legend has
it that the first time this song was played back to him after he
had done the vocals Plant fell out of his wheelchair he was so
taken with it. Given that he had a broken heel at the time and
his superb vocal performance on this song the title may well be
self-explanatory.
o "South Bound Saurez" - The title is a mispelling of "suarez", a
Spanish word for a party, similar to the French "soiree".
o "Carouselambra" - The name is a reference to the band thinking
the song sounded a bit like Carousel music.
o "All My Love" - The working title for this song was "The Hook",
due to its commercial nature.
o "Poor Tom" - The title refers to the main character in the song,
the ubiquitous Tom, who was the seventh son, and thus did not
inherit any land or property and was poor in terms of material
possessions.
o "Ozone Baby" - The title may be some sort of dated equivalent to
bimbo, or airhead, with similar connotations.
o "Wearing And Tearing" - A gesture from the band to the emerging
punk music genre, which harboured a pathological dislike of the
band, which never failed to mystify Page, seeing them as rock
`dinosaurs.' This may be regarded as a sort of `we're just as
screwed up as you are' type response to the punk movement's
disdain for the band. Plant has been attributed as saying it is
partly about the lifestyle of a rock star which certainly fits in
with this idea and the hectic feel of the song.
o "Jennings Farm Blues" - The title of this unreleased song,
although it is available on bootleg studio outtakes, is the name
of the farm where Plant lived at the time of the song.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1.3 - What about the studio chatter? Nah, leave it, yeah.
Across the Zeppelin catalogue, various songs incorporate some
form of additional dialogue. This ranges from unintelligible
background chatter to timeless lines such as "Shall we roll it
Jimmy?"
o "You Shook Me" - The way this song is produced there are echoes
all over the place, and if you turn the volume right up and listen
to it on headphones, occasionally you can hear faint sounds such
as at 0:24 in the left speaker which sound like far off voices.
Much more obvious is Plant's laugh at 1:45, and his "Ooh, ooh,
ohh..." at 3:18. Harder to pick is what sounds like Plant
crooning something along the lines of "Doobee-doo-doo..." at 4:45,
which you can just make out through the static in the right
speaker if you listen very closely. A few other miscellaneous
moans from Plant can be heard at 3:35 and 3:56.
o "Your Time Is Gonna Come" - Right at the very end of the song,
just as the first notes of "Black Mountainside" are about to be
played, and this is first noticeable at about the 4:33 mark, Plant
can be heard to say what sounds like 'Wait for ya, Wait for ya...'
o "Friends" - Before the song starts and for the first few moments
once it begins talking can be heard in the background, what is
being said though is impossible to make out. However, at about
the 0.09 mark, just as the bass guitar starts, Jimmy can be heard
to exclaim 'Fuck!' About the same time someone can be heard
saying 'Ssh!' Why Page says this is not clear, maybe Jones
started before he was ready, and possibly the other person was
telling the people speaking in the background to quieten down.
One of the voices in the right channel sounds like Peter Grant.
o "The Lemon Song" - Plant can be faintly heard to yell something
unintelligible at the 1:58 and 2:04 points in the song. This can
be heard in the left channel.
o "Since I've Been Loving You" - Just before Page's solo starts
Plant shouts 'Watch out!' This happens around 3:38 into the song.
Also worth noting is Plant's "Oh..." at the 53 second mark as Page
and Bonham really begin to wind up.
o "Out On The Tiles" - Between the 10 and 11 second marks a voice
can be heard in the left channel to say what sounds like `Stop.'
Also, at the 1:23 mark Page clearly says `Stop'. He did this to
remind himself to get the timing straight on the riff because he
kept screwing it up in practice. Or so rumour has it. However,
the voice actually sounds more like Plant than Page, and the
rumoured explanation for that is that Page was making faces at him
as he was trying to do the vocal track.
o "Tangerine" - The count in which goes 'one, two' and then barely
spoken, 'one, two, three, four, one, two,' is provided by Page.
o "The Crunge" - at the end of the song in a continuation of the
final lyrics about looking for a bridge, Plant asks, 'Where's that
confounded bridge?' Anyone in doubt as to whether it's Plant
should have a close listen to the version of "Whole Lotta Love" on
the bootleg of the 13/7/73 Detroit show. During the theremin
section Plant exclaims, `Where's that confounded bridge?!' in
exactly the same voice as he does on the studio version of "The
Crunge". Jimmy and engineer George Chkiantz can be heard talking
before Bonzo comes in on the intro. The conversation sounds
something like,
Jimmy Page : "One more straight away George."
George Chkiantz : "You like it?"
Jimmy Page : "Right... [obscured by the start of the song]"
o "The Ocean" - at the start of the song Bonzo says, 'We've done
four already, but now we're steady, and then they went, one, two,
three, four...' He is referring to the number of previous takes
they had done on the song. Also, at the 4:20 mark Plant very
clearly half sings "Oh, so good". This song also features some
rather unusual, for Zep, backing vocals which start around the
3:40 mark in the form of 'Doo wop doo, doo wop doo...' Also at
this point, buried in a background part of the mix Plant can be
heard to say `I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, yeah'. He then
does some `woo-hoo-hoo' style harmonising before apologising
again. There is some other stuff he seems to be singing but it
is unintelligible.
o "In My Time Of Dying" - Getting towards the end of the song, Plant
half sings 'Oh, feels pretty good up here... pretty good up here.'
Surely the understatement of the century. At the end of the song
a discussion something like this takes place,
Someone : [loud cough]
Plant : [sings the last line of the song] "Cough."
Bonzo : "That's gotta be the one... hasn't it?"
Someone : [continued quieter coughing as Bonzo says the
above]
Ron Nevison [?] : "Come and have a listen then."
Jones [?] : "Oh yes, thank you."
Other discussions are taking place in the background but it is
not possible to make out what is being said. Also noticeable is
someone coughing at the 40 second mark.
o "Black Country Woman" - at the start of the song which was
recorded outdoors at Headley Grange an airplane can clearly be
heard flying overhead and the following conversation takes place,
Eddie Kramer : "Shall we roll it Jimmy? We're rolling on, er..."
[Someone] : "One."
Eddie Kramer : "One, oh, one again."
[laughter] : [Plant?]
Eddie Kramer : "Can't keep this airplane on."
Robert Plant : "Nah, leave it, yeah.
o "Boogie With Stu" - After the song finishes laughter can clearly
be heard, the last laugh in this case certainly sounds like it is
most likely Plant. The first laugh on the other hand could well
be Page.
o "Achilles Last Stand" - Some listmembers with amazing hearing
claim to be able to heard a very faint "Yeah" somewhere between
the 7:17 and 7:20 point in the song, just between the second and
third of four note bends Jimmy is doing at the time. The exact
point of the sound is around 7:18.
o "Hot Dog" - The `One, two, three, four' count-in, where Jones can
be heard to noodle on the bass momentarily as `three' is said,
sounds like it's more likely to be Jones than Page.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1.4 - Will someone answer that phone!
There seems to be a wealth of unusual and interesting background
noises, and in some cases foreground noises, in Led Zeppelin songs,
some of which are so obvious you really wonder how you missed them
when you listened to that song the first 5,000 times.
o "Good Times Bad Times" - A suggsted explanation for the hollow
sound that Bonzo makes during the opening of the song is that he
might have been hitting a cymbal stand. The sound is a crisp,
metallic type sound, which gives the impression that a hollow
object of this nature is being struck. On the other hand, this
could well be a cymbal.
o "I Can't Quit You Baby" - Referring to the version on the first
album, the odd metallic sound heard on "Good Times Bad Times"
recurs through this song as well, which suggests it is probably
a cymbal. It doesn't sound as hollow on this song.
o "Whole Lotta Love" - Plant can be clearly heard to laugh just
prior to the start of the song. The middle section features a lot
of randon knob twisting in the studio from Page and Eddie Kramer.
o "The Lemon Song" - A gong can be heard right at very beginning
of the song.
o "Moby Dick" - Careful listening to this song reveals a variety of
noises which could range from Bonham moving about on the drum
stool to various sqeaking noises, probably drum pedals. There is
a particularly odd scraping noise at 1:58.
o "Immigrant Song" - The odd buzzing sounds at the beginning of the
song are tape noises coupled with the count in.
o "Friends" - The fret buzz in parts of the song is due to the
guitar being in a different tuning where the sixth string is
quite loose, which combined with poor fingering at that fret
causes the string to buzz on the fret. The tuning Jimmy is
using is a C tuning, C, G, C, G, C, E, where the low E is tuned
down 2 whole steps.
o "Celebration Day" - The drone that carries over from "Friends" is
there to compensate for the rhythm track which was accidentally
erased during recording.
o "Since I've Been Loving You" - the bass drum pedal has a clearly
audible squeak about which Page recently said, 'It sounds louder
every time I hear it!' Also, as Plant is singing the first line
of the song, "Working from seven..." while he sings "from" a
strange wheezing sound can be heard in the left channel.
o "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" - Some interesting extra instruments in this
song are spoons and castanets, all played by John Bonham.
o "Black Dog" - In the early stages of the song Bonzo can be heard
clicking his drumsticks together, keeping time for the band.
o "Stairway To Heaven" - Not really a weird sound, but the subject
of some occasional discussion in the wind instrument being played
at the start of the song. It is a recorder and it's being played
by John Paul Jones. This instrument was incorrectly claimed to be
a mellotron by _Q_ magazine in 1995.
o "Misty Mountain Hop" - There is a mistake in this song in the line
that begins "There you sit...", but the band apparently felt the
rest of the take was too good to warrant discarding it.
o "Four Sticks" - There is the sound of possibly either a cough or
someone exhaling at the five second mark of the song. Then again
in the left channel at the 41 and 43 second marks, a very similar
sound, that sounds like an exhalation. This occurs again at 1:51.
Someone, possibly Page, may have had a microphone a little too
close to their face. The same sound, although fainter and closer
to the middle in terms of the channels, occurs at the 30 and 37
second mark.
o "When The Levee Breaks" - The titanic drum sound was created
through experimentation by Page and Andy Johns with Page's
penchant for distance miking. In perhaps the ultimate case of
this, they had Bonzo set up his kit, a brand new one, in the
stone stairwell at Headley Grange and experimented with
microphones in various positions before placing one a few flights
of stairs above him. A similar technique was used by producer
Don Was and the Rolling Stones on the song "Moon Is Up", where
drummer Charlie Watts is playing at the bottom of a stairwell.
Right near the end of the song, where the sound is panning all
over the place, the basic riff is also played backwards at one
point. The idea of reversing riffs is not all that uncommon,
Jimi Hendrix did it frequently.
o "The Rain Song" - Bonham's squeaky drum pedal can be heard on this
song. The string on this song are not real and are actually John
Paul Jones on a mellotron, an early synthesizer.
o "Over The Hills And Far Away" - Another track where Bonham's
squeaky pedal can be heard, most clearly from about the three
minute mark onwards.
o "The Crunge" - Again, a sequaky drum pedal can be heard,
especially at the start of the song where just the bass and the
drums are being played. Page can be heard to depress the whammy
bar, he used a Stratocaster on this song, at the end of each
phrase.
o "Dancing Days" - Another track on "Houses Of The Holy" where
Bonham's squeaky drum pedal was somehow overlooked.
o "No Quarter" - In a _Guitar_World_ interview Page revealed he
lowered the track half a tone to make "the track sound so much
thicker and more intense." Plant's voice is also slightly
flanged, while Page uses a theremin to create the moaning of
"the dogs of doom" that Plant sings about.
o "The Ocean" - A phone can clearly be heard ringing at about the
1:38 point in the song. The sheet music that accompanies the box
set has the word `ring' printed twice above the percussion tab
of this song, so the inclusion of the phone sounds like it was
intentional. As well as this, there is also the sound of the
squeaky bass drum pedal that is present on "Since I've Been
Loving" you, which is most apparent in the early parts of the
song. And, yet more odd noises occur at 1:59-2:00 and 2:12-2:13
where it sounds like someone is making the `c' sound, as in the
first letter of the word `cat'. Just as Bonham comes to "Two" in
the introduction you can hear the first five notes far off in the
distance, the result of some sort of production glitch.
o "In My Time Of Dying" - Some members of the list with very keen
hearing have in the past claimed to have heard the sound a
television makes when it's turned on, about half way through this
song. The sound they are hearing is produced by the high voltage
power supply, or more specifically, the flyback transformer,
of the tv which is somewhere around 32,000 volts for color
televisions. Not so much a weird noise, as an anomaly, at the
5:44 mark it sounds like Bonham misses a beat. Them cymbals
continue as they are but at that time it sounds a bit like a
drumbeat is missing.
o "Houses Of The Holy" - Recorded initially for the album of the
same name, the squeaky drum pedal that can be heard on a lot of
the tracks from that album can also be heard on this song. At
the 3:41 mark a strange sound, resembling a bird call, can be
heard clearly.
o "Kashmir" - The orchestra riff that is first heard at the 1:19
point in the song can be heard earlier, in the left channel, very
faintly, after each line of the first verse, such as at 0:25,
0:34 and 0:43. What this is, is the original track using the
orchestra that was wiped off, but a slight "ghost" of that
recording remains and is slightly audible.
o "Night Flight" - A strange hissing sound can be heard for around
half a second in the right channel before the organ starts.
o "Ten Years Gone" - The squeaky bass drum pedal that was noted in
"The Ocean" and "Since I've Been Loving You" occurs here as well,
although slightly quieter than on both previous occasions. Also,
at the 2:59 mark, and faintly in the left channel, a strange sound
can be heard, which has been suggested as the sound of a guitar
being plugged in. Another sound, sounding much more like a guitar
being plugged in occurs between 5:44 and 5:47.
o "Sick Again" - Bonzo can be heard to cough faintly at the end of
the song.
o "Achilles Last Stand" - Despite Page's assertions that there
weren't any keyboards on "Presence" between 6:54 and 7:00, on the
ascending runs with the staccato background guitar, you can hear
what sounds very much like a keyboard. It could also be an
extremely affected guitar sound though. Bonham is said to groan
at one point during the song, but the time for that is unclear.
o "For Your Life" - Plant makes two weird noises after the lines,
'Wanna find myself a crystal, Payin' through the nose.' The two
noises sound very much like a snort, most likely a play on the
line about crystals and paying through the nose, in reference to
cocaine. This starts at around the 5:30 point in the song.
o "In The Evening" - The third Zeppelin song on which Page uses the
violin bow, the others being "How Many More Times" and "Dazed And
Confused", the unusual noises in the guitar solo are caused by the
springs of a fully depressed whammy bar.
o "Fool In The Rain" - An odd noise can clearly be heard at the 1:05
point in the song. The sound occurs just after the line `And you
said that you'd always be true'. The sound is most likely Plant,
and may be some sort of play on that line. The sound itself is
like a sort of `ppttt' noise made with the lips. A suggested
explanation for this involves the meaning of the prior line of the
song. When someone makes a hand shape like a gun with a clenched
fist, extended fore-finger and raised thumb, the sound they most
commonly make when they `fire' the gun is similar to this noise,
a sort of `ppttt' noise made with the lips. Hence, it may be that
Plant was firing off a shot at someone that had not been true to
him. This is a rather tenuous theory however.
o "Carouselambra" - The unusual sounds that have been described as
`percolating' that occur in this song are most likely to be Bonham
hitting some sort of drum as they follow a rhythmic pattern, which
rules out other explanations such as perhaps a bong.
o "Wearing And Tearing" - At the 0:19 mark a sound that is similar
to a phone ringing, one of the newer ones, not the older ones that
actually make a ringing noise, can be heard in the right channel.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1.5 - Intuitive Interpretations
Proposing what a particular song is about is usually futile,
unless the artists has clearly spelled out what the meaning is,
and even then there is plenty of room for personal interpretation,
a largely speculative process. One song can mean many different
things to different people. The aim of this section is not to
engrave in stone what the song is supposed to mean, but to just
present some interpretations.
o "The Lemon Song" - The frequent references to a "killing floor" in
this song hightlight a recurrent theme in blues lyrics. The term
does not specifically refer to a slaughterhouse or abbatoir, but a
situation, after you have been, for example, cheated on, dumped
by your woman, ignored, or hurt, or some such unfortunate
predicament. The term is probably used an analogy, as a man could
see an animal being slaughtered, and then when his wife cheats on
him for example, saw a similarity in terms of feeling that way.
This is only a subset of the song's lyrical themes however. The
concept was popularised by Chicago bluesman Howlin' Wolf in his
appropriately titled song, "Killing Floor", from whence the riff
to this song is derived.
o "Ramble On" - The reference to `the darkest depths of Mordor' is
one of the several Tolkien references in Plant's lyrics. Mordor
is, in _Lord_Of_The_Rings_, essentially a wasteland, obviously
artificially so because of Sauron's, the `dark lord' in "The
Battle Of Evermore", poisonous sphere of influence. Mordor is
surrounded by a mountain range that encloses it on three sides.
Another Tolkien reference is the line referring to Gollum. He is
more pitiful than evil. He was once a Hobbit-like creature who
fell under the power of the ring and became a monster that he is.
His entire essence is now controlled by the ring. The evil one
that is mentioned as accompanying Gollum could be one of a variety
of characters, such as Saruman, Morgoth, a ringwriath, however,
Morgoth was not a contemporary of Gollum's in Tolkien's world.
Another part of the song that may be related to Tolkien is the
section about "spreading roots", "goin' round the world", "gotta
find my girl". In "Lord Of The Rings", Frodo and Sam wander into
the forest after being captured by the Orcs. While there they
meet an old Ent called Treebeard who tells them the story of the
Ents' loss and subsequent search for the Entwives. More likely
though, this is part of Plant's recurring lyrical theme of having
to find his woman, a neverending search further chronicled in
"Going To California".
o "Immigrant Song" - The inspiration for the lyrics for this song
are said to have come from a trip to Iceland in June 1970, which
goes some way to explaining the Viking overtones of the song.
o "Since I've Been Loving You" - One of the most interesting lyrical
moments in this song is Plant's updated blues cliche', the "new
fangled back door man". "Back door man" is a term used to
describe a woman's secret, or alternative lover, who may enter the
house via the back door to preserve the secrey of the affair.
Plant's spin on this, the "new fangled" version, may imply that
the lover has a unique style, or is particularly up-to-date in
appearance or some other detail about him. It could also be that
he is reflecting that times have changed since this ancient blues
mannerism was first used. Another song that revolves around this
concept is the Doors' "Back Door Man".
o "Tangerine" - Written during Page's days with the Yardbirds, he
wrote this for his then girlfriend Jackie DeShannon. Marianne
Faithfull in her not-to-be-taken-too-seriously autobiography,
_Faithfull_, recalls an instance where she was in a hotel room
next to theirs and that Page was through his involvement with
DeShannon making the transition to being "interesting".
o "That's The Way" - The song centres on the dissolution of a pair
of star crossed lovers. This song has been interpreted as having
pro-conservation themes, although the generally peaceful nature
of the song may have been in part inspired by the unrest Plant
witnessed first-hand during his travels across the USA in 1970.
Plant has said that it was about the loss of a friend, with a
divergence into various social and environmetal issues.
o "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" - The song is about Plant's dog Strider, which
in Plant's words is a "blue-eyed merle". This is likely to mean
the dog is a Collie, by breed, with blue-grey fur speckled or
streaked with black.
o "Black Dog" - It has been suggested the lyrics are about Plant's
feelings towards fat women.
o "The Battle Of Evermore" - With some imagery borrowed from Tolkien
and lyrics inspired by a book Robert was reading at the time about
Scottish border wars, it is likely that the song is a compilation
of elements of these two sources. The lyrical reference to
`ringwraiths' is an indication of the use of some middle earth
imagery. The actual ringwraiths reference, "The ringwraiths ride
in black..." refers to the Nazgul in Tolkien's middle earth. The
Nazgul were evil servants of the Dark Lord, also referred to in
the song, Sauron, who roamed the earth in search of the one ring
to rule them all, the magic ring of invisibility found by Bilbo
Baggins in _The_Hobbit_. The Nazgul were referred to as
"Ringwraiths" by common peoples. Another line from the song
"Bring it back, bring it back..." is interpreted by some as the
rapidly fading links between England and the magic of the past.
The lines "The magic runes are writ in gold, to bring the balance
back" are interpreted by some as meaning the band had found or
regained some sense of balance, although this is very probably not
what Plant was singing about. Additionally, the Queen of light
referred to is Galhadriel, and a ringwraith is a human that fell
under the power of Sauron and now lives as a "shadow" or being on
another plane of existence. A ringwraith is essentially one of
Sauron's henchmen and were dedicated to finding the ring and to
bring it back to Sauron. They also dress in black. Some other
lyrical ideas are supposed to have come from "The Magic Arts In
Celtic Britain" by Lewis Spence.
o "Stairway To Heaven" - The meaning of this song has to be one of
the most enduring musical debates of all time. Australian
comedian and tv personality Andrew Denton has throughout his tv
career expressed his complete ignorance of the meaning and sought
to enlighten himself. He finally gained his chance to ask the
man who wrote the words what the phrase "If there's a bustle in
your hedgerow" actually means, and Plant related an idea, after
checking with Jimmy to see whether he should pass on the Freudian
meaning, and being told not to, which bears a striking resemblance
to one aired in _Guitar_ magazine several years ago. The winner
of a contest in that magazine as to what the meaning was also
concerned himself with that particular phrase. The theory had it
that a hedgerow can also be defined as a "bush", which is also a
slang term for the female genitalia. A bustle is a disturbance or
some similar dispruptive activity. Supposedly this refers to a
woman's period. The May Queen, mentioned in the next line of the
lyrics, symbolizes a woman's first period, and thus the two lines
taken together relate to a woman's coming of age. Plant's reply
to the question on _Denton_ was, "What it is, it's the beginning
of Spring, it's when the birds make their nests, when hope and the
new year begins. And it's nothing to do with any of that weird
stuff you read about in America!" These two explanations at
a stretch can be reconciled, so one part of the song is thus about
a woman's coming of age. Jimmy has also said that one of the
original lyrical inspirations was a woman they both knew. This
may be so, but the "lady" in the song appears to be some sort of
reference to materialism. The song is reportedly based on a
number of Celtic myths and also drew on English literature such
as "The Faerie Queene" by Edmund Spenser.
o "Misty Mountain Hop" - Despite a title that is a location drawn
from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," from what Plant has said about
the lyrics, it sounds much more likely that the song is something
to do with an afternoon in the park and some illegal substances.
A rough paraphrase of Plant's words is that it about is the
trouble one can get into when spending an afternoon in the park
with some `cigarette papers.' Another source says that the song
is written about a love-in near London that was broken up by the
police.
o "Going To California" - The song is, according to Plant, about the
unrequited search for the ultimate lady. He would often adlib,
"It's infinitely hard," when they played the song live. At
Knebworth in 1990 Plant added, "Do you know what? It's still
hard."
o "When The Levee Breaks" - The story behind this song is that,
after the civil war, many black freemen and former slaves settled
on farms in an area along the Mississippi side of the Mississippi
river. This area, known as the Delta, is from Greenville north to
Memphis, Tennessee. Obviously, this is not the only delta on the
Mississippi, and should not be confused with the one south of New
Orleans. The reason for settling in this area was the richness of
the soil, primarily because of semi-annual floodings In response
to this phenomenen a 45 foot tall dirt levee, a ridge of soil, was
constructed along the side of the river for mile after mile.
Early in the century, a series of floods managed to penetrate the
levee and flood the area, devastating crops and farms. Thousands
of familes moved upriver to Chicago as a result of this, and also
due to the hope that jobs were plentiful and homes inexpensive in
that area. However, levees were not just the haunts of farmers.
Criminals such as prostitutes, bootleggers and thieves often lived
in levee camps, as the people who ran them found it very hard to
enforce the rules and were prepared to turn a blind eye to their
activities. In such an environment, early bluesmen found a place
to play and learn their trade, people such as Robert Johnson,
Tommy Johnson and Son House. The levee camps were dangerous
places and if a musician failed to impress the patrons there was a
good chance he could be in serious trouble.
o "The Song Remains The Same" - Zeppelin's tribute to world music,
and the varieties they experienced on their travels.
o "Over The Hills And Far Away" - A song about the joys of the open
road and `acapulco gold', a popular slang term for marijuana. Roy
Harper, a Zeppelin associate and the subject of the last song on
"Led Zeppelin III" actually has a song of that name.
o "The Crunge" - In a song that is basically a James Brown parody,
the closing spiel from Plant, `Where's that confounded bridge?' is
a reference to the fact that there is no key transition at that
point in the song. A musical "bridge" is a segment wherein there
is a key change from the tonic key, so at that point in the song,
Plant is looking, probably in jest, for the key change, without
which the band is stuck in the same key forever, and the song
doesn't end. The point at which the bridge is first mentioned is
after the band has been playing the riff in the same key several
times, hence Robert's search for a transition.
o "Dancing Days" - This positive, upbeat song was inspired by music
Robert and Jimmy heard in Bombay during their stopover there.
Eddie Kramer recalls the band dancing on the lawn at Stargroves
during the playback for this song.
o "The Ocean" - While it is generally agreed that the "Ocean" Plant
refers to is his view of the crowd at a concert from the stage,
less obvious is his reference to his three years old daughter at
the time, Carmen. Carmen is now grown up, and is married to
Plant's bass player Charlie Jones. The couple brought a son into
the world in early 1995, making Robert Plant a grandfather! In
several live versions of "The Ocean" Plant changed the lyrics to
"She is only four years old" to keep up with Carmen's age. The
line "Playin' in the moonshine, rockin' in the grain" is a clear
reference to grain based alcohols, which were the most common ones
during the Prohibition period in America, when the term moonshine
was coined to describe illegal liquor. A term was also coined for
the people involved in the production and distribution of the
alchohol, bootleggers, a term which has also been used to describe
those who illegally tape concerts by artists such as Led Zeppelin.
o "In My Time Of Dying" - This antiquated song froma round the turn
of the century is the cry of a man on his deathbed as he tries to
have his life and soul justified. It is a cry from the edge of
the grave, an impassioned beg for mercy, and an attempt to ensure
a place in heaven for the man's soul. Hence, the lyrics have,
quite literally, got to be "It's gotta be my Jesus" and "Oh my
Jesus" as it would make no sense, in such a moving, spiritual song
which gradually builds up to a brilliantly executed catharsis, for
Plant to start yelling out the name of some woman, Gina being the
suggested name he uses. However, when peformed live Robert did
sometimes swap the Jesus for Georgina or Gina, depending on what
sort of variations took his fancy on the night. But, on the album
version it would make no sense for it to be anything other than
Jesus. This ties in with the cultural values and beliefs
prevalent in the culture Zeppelin came from, and from the
spiritual side of the blues, as the original performer of this
song, Blind Willie Johnson, sought to convey.
o "Achilles Last Stand" - Given Plant's enthusiasm for mythology the
lyrics seems thematically linked to the Trojan war during the
Hellenistic age. On the other hand, the rumour persists that
Plant, in a wheelchair with his leg in a cast due to a car
accident at the time of the session for "Presence", literally
fell out of his wheelchair when he first heard the completed
song. Given his leg injury, the title may indeed be a reference
to this incident.
o "Nobody's Fault But Mine" - Another Blind Willie Johnson song,
this has a similar lyrical theme to "In My Time Of Dying", a man
on his deathbed or staring death in the face taking responsiblity
for his sins and seeking redemption by doing so.
o "Royal Orleans" - Rumours have persisted for years that this song
is about John Paul Jones and some rather decadent exploits at the
Royal Orleans Hotel. The line about `kissing whiskers' infers
some sort of involvement with a drag queen. In the song, Jones
is referred to as John Cameron, to avoid naming him directly.
o "Hots On For Nowhere" - The reference to `Corner of Bleeker and
nowhere' sounds like it might be a reference to Bleeker Street, in
which case there are several he might be referring to. There is a
Bleeker Street in New York City, in Greenwich Village, which is
home to many aspiring musicians and is the location of some small
bars that Jimi Hendrix and others played in before they became
famous. Also, this Bleeker Street is very close to the building
on the cover of "Physical Graffiti", and may be adjacent to, or
actually converge with St. Marks Place at some point. There is
also a Bleeker Street in London which is famous for having lots of
pubs on it. New Orleans, in keeping with the delta blues style of
the album, may also have a street named Bleeker. Another lyrical
reference to Bleeker Street is in the Simon and Garfunkel song
"Bleeker Street". The rest of the song is something of a diatribe
by Plant against close friends "who would give me fuck all", the
people in question apparently being Jimmy Page and Peter Grant.
o "Tea For One" - A melancholic reflection by Plant on the time he
was separated from his wife after their car accident.
o "Hot Dog" - Unsurprisingly for Plant, this is a song about women.
There are several theories that have been postulated as to what
it's about, the funniest being that it is about having a 17 year
old girlfriend dump you. It is claimed that Robert once said that
the song is about a woman who he used to mess around with in
Texas, but this is not confirmed. The song though, is filled with
jokes about the way Americans speak, with several extremely corny
puns such as "U-Haul" instead of "Y'all", "Set down" instead of
"Sit down" and so on. One particular line, "Hangin' round for
more, ah more" would appear to be play on the French word "amour"
or the Spanish "amor", both meaning love. The word "Dungarees"
also makes its only appearance in a Zeppelin song. The use of the
word "U-HauL' is a reference to U-Haul moving vans, as the girl
involved is going to Texas and needs to move her belongings also.
o "Carouselambra" - An observation about the person who is the
object of the song is disguised by references to the past, who,
according to Plant, will one day realise it was written with him
in mind and say, "My God! Was it really like that?"
o "Poor Tom" - Tom, according to the lyrics, is a family's seventh
son. Thus there is little left for him to inherit in terms of
land or money because the six previous brothers have taken it
all. However, in occult lore, negro mysticism and other belief
systems, a dispensation for this is the influence of seven which
is considered a lucky number, the seventh son may have a variety
of supernatural powers to compensate for his reduced birthright.
This is referred to in Muddy Waters' "Hoochie Coochie Man", also
written by Wille Dixon, amongst others. The magical powers seem
to relate quite often to having good luck with women. Wille
Dixon also wrote a song called "Seventh Son" about the belief that
the seventh son was lucky. However, the poverty aspect of his
predicament means he has to live the blues which probably appealed
to blues songwriters. Basically, as the seventh son, you may be
poor in material riches, but may be able to make up for this by
developing non-material riches. Another group to have recorded a
song about this is Iron Maiden with their song, "Seventh Son Of A
Seventh Son". The seventh son of a seventh son is even luckier
than than a seventh son, and is as legend has it, blessed with
incredible magic powers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1.6 - Miscellaneous Song Trivia
o A suggested explanation for the intriguing question of whether the
version of "I Can't Quit You Baby" on "Coda" comes from the
rehearsal or the actual concert that same evening, is that if Page
had proper audio equipment set up to record the show, then if it
was multitracked, that would give him the opportunity to stereo
separate it at a later date. The recording of this show may have
been intended for the long mooted live box set, or retrospective.
o The issue of whether the "Coda" version of "I Can't Quit You Baby"
is from the rehearsal or the subsequent show is further brought
into question by the video clip purporting to be from that date
that features an identical version. Either, it is from the show
that night, or a very well attended rehearsal.
o Zeppelin were nowhere near the first people to play and popularise
"Train Kept A-Rollin'". The song was already a standard for the
beat boom bands of the sixties, and Page's previous band, The
Yardbirds, although before his time in it, did the most to
popularise it at the time. It was re-recorded during Page's stint
with the band as "Stroll On" for the Antonioni film "Blow Up".
The only change was to the lyrics, which were re-written, the
reason being that they were unsure that they could obtain
permission to use it from the copyright holder. That version may
feature Page on either bass or guitar, no-one seems to be sure.
The song was originally written by Tiny Bradshaw, L. Mann, and H.
Kay and recorded by Tiny Bradshaw's Big Band in 1951. Originally
it was a jump blues tune, but was re-recorded as a rockabilly
song by The Johnny Burnette Trio in 1956. The guitarist involved
was Paul Burlison, who sometimes filled in for bluesman Howlin'
Wolf's guitarists, Hubert Sumlin and Wille Johnson, and was a
major influence on Jeff Beck. The Yardbirds first recorded the
song in 1965, and then again in 1966 for "Blow Up". Zeppelin
played the song at their first meeting, and then on their early
tours. It made a re-appearance on their last tour and was
mentioned by Plant as being on the next album, indicating that
they intended to cover it for the next album, which was of course
never made. When Page jammed with Aerosmith at Donington in 1992,
just before his solo Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler shouted
"Stroll on, Jimmy!" Aerosmith are noted fans of the Yardbirds and
their version of the song can be found on their "Gems" album, and
a newer version on the box set "Pandora's Box".
o The Rolling Stones' resident honky-tonk pianist Ian Stewart, who
was originally the sixth Rolling Stone, is the man responsible for
tinkling the ivories on the Zeppelin songs "Boogie With Stu" and
"Rock And Roll". Apart from the Stones and Zeppelin, Stewart, now
deceased, also appears on some songs with Howlin' Wolf from the
London Sessions for Wolf. Stewart died before the Stones "Dirty
Work" album came out and the snippet on honky tonk piano on the
fadeout from the album is a tribute to him.
o On "You Shook Me" and "Bron-Yr-Aur" Page is using backwards echo,
a technique he pioneered during his time with the Yardbirds. By
playing a solo once, flipping the tape over and recording over the
solo and some studio tricks he managed to get the echo preceeding
the signal. The effect is quite odd at times, for example the
brass section on the Yardbirds song "Ten Little Indians" uses this
technique, and it sounds like the song is going backwards. The
backwards echo in "You Shook Me" is right near the end of the
song.
o "The Rain Song" was recorded in the key of G on "Houses Of The
Holy" but was performed in A in concert. In a 1990 interview
in _Guitar_World_ Page said this was because the studio version
used an odd tuning and the live version was an approximation.
o "In My Time of Dying" is recorded in the key of A on "Physical
Graffiti", but was performed in G live.
o A parody of "Stairway To Heaven" by Little Roger And The
Goosebumps which involved combining the lyrics from the theme to
tv show "Gilligan's Island" received little radio coverage when
it was released thanks to Zeppelin's manager Peter Grant's use of
some strong arm tactics to prevent it from getting any airplay.
o The solo to "Stairway To Heaven" was done in several different
takes by page on a Fender Telecaster. Hence, there are several
alternate takes that have not seen the light of day, but remain
in the vaults on the master. Page said one of his _Guitar_World_
interviews that he recorded three different solos and then picked
the best one.
o A version of "Whole Lotta Love" was recorded as the theme song for
BBC's "Top Of The Pops" show by a group called C.C.S., and led by
influential English bluesman Alexis Korner. The cover had a big
band feel, with a flute used to emulate the vocals in the middle
section. A single of it was released on Mickie Most's RAK label.
Despite the obvious watering down of the song, the "Way down
inside" lyrics was kept for this cover. This rendition can be
found on at least two compilation albums in the U.K., "The No.1
70's Rock Album" and "The Premier Collection Of Instrumental Hits
Vol.3."
o "Kashmir" has been covered by The Dixie Dregs on their reunion cd,
"Bring 'Em Back Alive". Steve Morse emulates the vocal melodies
on guitar, while the bass, keyboards, strings and drums replicate
the original parts.
o Due to the primitive analog recording equipment used by the band
in the early days, there was frequent leakage between the tracks.
This was certainly the case with Plant, whose voice was so strong
it seeped across the tracks. This is also the explanation for
the reason the orchestra can be faintly heard in "Kashmir" some
time before it appears at the correct point. This may have been
due to a decision not to have the orchestra appear that early in
the track, and so the tape track with the orchestra part was
erased. However, because of the signal strength, it had already
seeped onto other tracks, whichever was next to it, and thus can
be heard faintly. The leakage of vocals in songs such as "You
Shook Me" and "How Many More Times" can be explained similarly.
With the quipment at the time it was probably not noticed, but
with the clarity of today's stereo equipment it is possible to
notice these things. Alternately, when it was decided that the
orchestra would not be used at that point the tapes were erased
but the tape was saturated, and the oxide on the tape had been
re-arranged with such force it was not possible to comepletely
erase the sound. Another theory has it that pre-groove echo may
be to blame for these type of phenomena. When the Mother record
which is used to press the acetates is cut, if the signal is too
hot what happens in that the actual sound waves on the record
itself bleed over to each other.
o A sample from "Misty Mountain Hop" has turned up in an Adidas
Tennis Shoe commerical, broadcast in the U.S.A. The sample is set
to a hip hop type background beat. This only serves to remind us
that the band no longer has any sort of control over their music
when artistic control is not stipulated in the sale. All the
rights apparently belong to Atlantic these days, with only Plant
admitting he has sold all his rights to the music. The sample
again turned up in a commercial tied into the 1994 World Cup in
the U.S.A. which began with the voice-over, "In my country,
England, we call it football..."
o "When The Levee Breaks" was only performed twice by Zeppelin, both
times on the early dates of the 1975 tour, Rotterdam and Chicago.
The presence of that and "How Many More Times" on the setlist was
due to Page's injured finger which prevented him from playing the
live staple "Dazed And Confused". Unfortunately, both the live
recordings of "When The Levee Breaks" are of a low quality. At
the Chicago gig, both Page and Plant were ill at the time. The
song was rarely performed because it involved a lot of effort to
set up the stage for the song, with Bonham and his drumkit in a
specially prepared pit onstage.
o Rumour has it that the rhythm track at the beginning of
"Celebration Day" that was wiped, was erased by Richard Cole.
o The first song Led Zeppelin ever played together was the
Yardbird's "Train Kept A Rollin'."
o Pagey is unsure just how many overdubs he did on "Achilles Last
Stand." One anecdote about this song is when Page presented the
song to the band, Jones did not see any scale in what Page was
playing. Page had to explain what it was in detail before Jones
could understand.
o On the album "Led Zeppelin," the duration of "How Many More Times"
is listed as 3:30, not even close to the actual duration of 8:28.
Rumour has it that this was done so that discjockeys would think
it was within the time limit for what was considered appropriate
for airplay and it would thus get played at least once.
o "Walter's Walk" was among the tracks overdubbed by Jimmy at the
Sol in 1982, and actually may also have vocals overdubbed by Plant
at the same time. People who heard the track at this time confirm
this.
o Jimmy plays a strat on "The Crunge" and depresses the whammy bar
at the end of each phrase.
o Jimmy lowered "No Quarter" half a tone in the studio, "...because
it made the track sound so much thicker and more intense."
o At one of the October 1972 shows at Budokan Hall in Japan Plant
introduced "The Song Remains The Same" as "The Campaign" as the
band had no title for the song at that stage. It was also known
as "The Overture" and "Zep" at other times before the band settled
on a title.
o The backing vocals for "The Battle of Evermore" are Sandy Denny of
Fairport Convention. Sandy Denny was also a member of the group
The Strawbs and another group called Fotheringay. Her premature
death in 1978 was due to a brain haemmorhage caused by falling
down a flight of stairs. Ties between Fairport Convention and
Zeppelin are numerous ranging from a jam between the two in 1970
to the late inclusion of Fairport's Dave Pegg in an incarnation
of The Band Of Joy and his appearance along with former Fairport
members Richard Thompson, and Maartin Allcock on Plant's "Fate Of
Nations." The book "Rock Movers and Shakers" claims that Plant
was part of a group with Dave Pegg called The Exception (or The
Exceptions) that around 1967 released a single called "The Eagle
Flies On Friday". The book though is fairly vague about whether
Plant was actually a member of the group or whether he sang lead
vocals on that song. However, in an interview in the now defunct
_Nirvana_ fanzine, Pegg said that while he had jammed with Plant
and Bonham he was never in a group with them.
o The first time "Stairway to Heaven" was performed live was on
March 5, 1971 at Belfast Ulster Hall. This was prior to the
release of the untitled fourth album and the performance was
partly intended to determine if they should even place it on the
album. They played it perfectly and when they were finished
there was a deafening silence in the crowd. Plant turned around
to the band and said, "I guess we'll scratch that one." When he
turned back to the crowd Plant saw one lighter going in the far
back of the center. The crowd went into an incredible ovation
for the band and they wound up repeating the song immediately
again. The accuracy of this story has not been established.
o The album "Stairways To Heaven" is an album of covers of "Stairway
To Heaven" by a very eclectic collection of artists ranging from
Rolf Harris (largely unknown in the USA, but famous in Australia
and the UK for such gems as "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport" and an
advertisement for British Paints) to Kate Ceberano (Australian
jazz/pop/soul singer). The songs come from the tv series "The
Money Or The Gun" a weekly tv show on Australia's ABC network that
took a humourous look at various issues raning from prostitution
to physical disabilites. The latter episode entitled "The Year Of
The Patronising Bastard" won an international award. The host of
the show, Australian comedian and tv show host, Andrew Denton
seemed endlessly fascinated with what "Stairway To Heaven" meant
and he had a different artist perform the song on each episode,
which is where the album comes from. A compulsory interview
question during each show was what the interviewee thought of the
song. The performances of all the versions are collected together
on a video with the same title as the album. Rolf Harris's cover,
complete with `wobble board', was released in the UK and charted
surprisingly well. It also resulted in some London bikers
declaring a fatwah against Rolf Harris, which they have sadly not
followed through... The covers of "Stairway To Heaven" are by the
following.
Kate Ceberano and the Ministry of Fun, John Paul Young,
Pardon me Boys, Nick Barker and the Reptiles, Rolf Harris,
The Australian Doors Show, Sandra Hahn and Michael Turkic,
Helen Jones, Robyne Dunn, Neil Pepper, The Rock Lobsters,
Toys went Bersek, Jodie Gillies, The Beatrix, The Fargone
Beauties, and others.
o There has been some speculation over time about who it was that
blew the whistle in "Fool In The Rain." It turns out that a
Chicago blues harmonica player, Norton Buffalo, was in the studio
at the time, and there is some speculation that Page invited him
to perform the task. Page plays on one of Buffalo's albums, "Draw
Blues," so this seems a logical assumption. Although for such a
small part, the task may well have fallen to the group member who
seemed to play anything, John Paul Jones.
o Zeppelin's last concert was on July 7, 1980 in Berlin at the
Berlin Eissporthalle. This concert in an interesting twist of
fate saw the band play one of the longest, if not the longest,
version of "Stairway To Heaven" they had ever played.
o The whereabouts of the tapes of "Baby Come On Home" were unknown
for years until they turned up, according to rumour, in a bin
outside a studio in London in time to be included on "Box Set 2".
To add to the confusion, the tapes were labelled "New Yarbirds."
o The first Zeppelin recordings enter the public domain in the year
2018.
o On Box Set 2, the two Bonham percussion tracks, "Moby Dick" and
"Bonzo's Montreux" are both track 13 on disc one and two
respectively.
o The similarity between a section of the solo in "Heartbreaker" and
Edward Van Halen's solo piece "Eruption" has been noted
frequently. Edward admits Page is where he got the inspiration
and in a _Guitar_World_ interview before the release of the Van
Halen album "OU812" said,
"As far as the hammer-on thing is concerned - I never really
saw anybody do it okay? I'm not saying, `Hey, I'm bitchin',
I came up with it,' but I never really saw anybody do it.
But I got the idea a long time ago when I saw Led Zeppelin
back in '71 or something like that. Page was doing his
guitar solo before "Heartbreaker," or in the middle of it
[hums guitar riff]. He stood there playing [hums some more],
and I think, `Wait a minute, open string, pull off. I can
do that. Use that finger up here, and use this as the nut,
and move it around.' That's how I first thought of it, and
I don't know if anybody else did it. I just kind of took it
and ran with it."
"Eruption" appears on the group's debut album, "Van Halen".
o Some "Stairway To Heaven" trivia. "Stairway" is the biggest
selling piece of sheet music in rock history. It seels about
15,000 copies every year on average these days. In total, over
one million copies have been sold. It has been broadcast on
radio over three million times. There is a Muzak version
available, and rightly so, in a solo harp format. These tidbits
come from the Columbia House monthly catalogue.
o The outtakes that were collated on "Physical Graffiti" were
recorded as follows. "Houses Of The Holy" was recorded in 1972,
obviously as the title track for that album, at Olympic Studios.
"Black Country Woman" and "The Rover" were recorded at the same
time as "D'Yer Mak'er". "Bron-Y-Aur" was originally recorded for
the third album. The following Jimmy Page quote is taken from
"Led Zeppelin In Their Own Words" by Paul Kendall.
"As usual, we had more material than the required 40-odd
minutes for one album. We had enough material for one and a
half LPs, so we figured let's put out a double and use some
of the material we had done previously but never released.
It seemed like a good time to do that sort of thing, release
tracks like Boogie With Stu, which we wouldn't normally be
able to do."
Stephen Davis, a name to mention in a mumble at most, claims that
"Down By The Seaside" was recorded along with "Bron-Y-Aur" for
the third album as well. Also, "Night Flight" and "Boogie With
Stu" were from the fourth album sessions, while "Houses Of The
Holy", "Black Country Woman" and "The Rover" were destined for
"Houses Of The Holy". Thus, after collating this, we are left
with the initial version of "Physical Graffiti" containing, on
the first record, "Custard Pie"/"In My Time Of Dying"/"Trampled
Underfoot"/"Kashmir", and on the second, "In The Light"/"Ten
Years Gone"(the origins of which go back earlier too)/"The Wanton
Song"/"Sick Again". This would amount to in total, the album and
a half, or so, of material Page describes.
o In the album version of "Misty Mountain Hop", a listmember once
claimed that after the lines "Why don't you take a good look at
yourself and describe what you see? And baby, baby, do you like
it?" one of the band members loses sync and all of a sudden
they're playing the riff a quarter note apart. The lapse isn't
rectified until Plant does his loud breathing, when the band gets
back in sync.
o It was not unusual for Zeppelin to debut a song on tour before it
came out on an album. Here is a brief, and by no means exhaustive
list of examples.
- "Led Zeppelin" : "Dazed & Confused", "I Can't Quit You Baby",
"You Shook Me", "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", "How Many More
Times" - through late 1968, and very early in 1969.
- "Led Zeppelin II" : "The Lemon Song" (as "Killing Floor" in
early 1969), "Whole Lotta Love" - mid 1969.
- "Led Zeppelin III" : "Since I've Been Loving You" in early 1970.
- "(Untitled)" : "Stairway To Heaven", "Black Dog", "Rock And
Roll" (first introduced as "It's Been A Long Time"), "Going To
California", "Four Sticks" at least once, all in early 1971.
- "Houses Of The Holy" : "The Song Remains The Same" (initially
was introduced as "The Campaign" or "Zep"), "The Rain Song", "Over
The Hills And Far Away", "Dancing Days", all in late 1972 and
early 1973.
- "Physical Graffiti" : "Sick Again", "In My Time Of Dying",
"Kashmir", "Trampled Underfoot", "The Wanton Song" at least once,
all in early 1975.
- "In Through The Out Door" - "In The Evening" and "Hot Dog", both
at Knebworth, and the prior warmup dates.
Additionally, early versions of some songs from "Led Zeppelin II"
were played throughout 1969. "Moby Dick" was originally titled
"Pat's Delight" after Bonham's wife.
o The origins of an acoustic version of "Black Dog" are somewhat
unclear, however, it is not Zeppelin. One theory has it that it
is taken from a collection of Zeppelin samples called "The Slog".
The acoustic guitar and keyboard accompaniment may have been
performed by one of the well known Zeppelin tribute bands such as
The White. The sample is a looped vocal track taken from the
album version of "Black Dog". On the other hand, it has been
claimed that this acoustic version is taken from rehearsals for
the fourth album. Thor Iverson's funk-enhanced FAQL however,
states that the acoustic version is by a now defunct tribute band
called No Quarter.
o Jimmy has said that the only time Zeppelin repeated themselves was
with "Since I've Been Loving You" and "Tea For One". These tracks
have quite a bit in common. Both are minor blues, and both in the
same key, C. The changes aren't the same, but both have a similar
feel, until "Since I've Been Loving You" gets louder. The live
versions of "Since" moved closer to "Tea For One" over the years,
although the 1980 version was a bit of a send-up.
o The answer to the question of who does the backing vocals on "Hey
Hey What Can I Do" is unclear. It sounds like it might be an
overdubbed Plant vocal in the left channel, but it also sounds
like it might be more than one person, in which case it might be
either or both Page and Jones.
o The length of some of Zeppelin's live jams is staggering. The
version of "Dazed And Confused" on the bootleg "From Boleskine To
The Alamo", lasts around 30 minutes. The version of "Dazed And
Confused" from the 27/3/75 show at the L.A. Forum on the "Electric
Orgasm" bootleg, is even longer clocking in at over 43 minutes.
During the 1975 tour, when this song was performed live,
renditions of 30 minutes and longer was not an uncommon
occurrence. Another famous jam of this nature was at the Dallas
Pop Festival in 1969 where the band stretched "How Many More
Times" to twenty minutes duration.
o The performance of "White Summer/Black Mountainside" that appears
on the various boxed sets was taken from the live performance
taped by the BBC at the London Playhouse on 27/6/69. The version
of "White Summer" at the end of the "Another White Summer" cd is
from the Julie Felix Show, on UK tv, taped in May 1970.
o When Zeppelin played "Whole Lotta Love" live, Plant would often
ad-lib a few lines from John Lee Hooker's "Let That Boy Boogie".
At the end of one of the Knebworth '79 shows, they eventually end
with "Whole Lotta Love", and Jimmy, exhausted after two hours of
playing is exasperated to hear Plant sing "One night, I believe I
told you this before, but one night I was laying down and hear my
mamma and pappa talking..." However, Page gets his revenge as
after that Plant goes to walk off the stage and Page puts up his
index finger, indicating one more song, then starts playing
"Communication Breakdown".
o When "No Quarter" was being recorded, everything but the drums were
recorded, then slowed down, then the drums were recorded at this
slower playback speed. The studio version is around the key of
C# minor, while the live version is in D minor.
o One of the reasons "When The Levee Breaks" has such an impact
is because everything apart from Plant's vocals were recorded at
normal speed then played back slightly slower. The song is
pitched between the keys of F minor and F# minor, but the effect
of the slowed tape was to put it a little flat of true F#.
o The strings and horns on "Kashmir" are authentic, and are not
mellotron enhanced as "The Rain Song" is.
o "Travelling Riverside Blues" features a very unusual guitar setup
from Page. It's played on a 12 string electric guitar with an
open G tuning, possibly a Nashville tuning, which creates a rich
ringing tone, so when you finger chords they seem very tight
because all the notes are in and around the same octave, creating
a lush multi-tracked type of sound, especially when played slide
style.
o
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.1 - The Golden God : Robert Plant
o Robert Anthony Plant was born on August 20, 1948 in West Bromwich,
Staffordshire, England.
o Before Led Zeppelin, Plant's previous bands included The Crawling
Kingsnake Blues Band, Black Snake Moan, The Delta Blues Band, and
The Band of Joy. The first and last of these also featured John
Bonham. The name for the first band, The Crawling Kingsnakes, is
most likely derived from a John Lee Hooker song of the same name.
Plant's appreciation of Robert Johnson is well documented and the
source of the name for the third band is not hard to work out.
o When he met Page, Plant was singing in a band called Hobbstweedle.
o "Thank You" is written for his first wife Maureen who he met at a
Georgie Fame concert and later married her, having three children,
Karac, Carmen and Logan.
o Robert and Maureen were married on November 9, 1968 in London.
The reception was the band's first show billed as Led Zeppelin at
the Roundhouse, Chalk Farm.
o Plant released a single as a solo artist containing "Our Song"/
"Laughing Crying Laughing" which was followed up by "Long Time
Coming"/"I've Got A Secret." Both flopped on the charts.
o Robert Plant did not receive any songwriting credits on "Led
Zeppelin" as he was still under contract to CBS at the time.
o Plant's symbol on the fourth album uses the feather of Ma'at, the
Egyptian goddess of justice and fairness, and is the emblem of a
writer. In the past Plant has said that it comes from the ancient
Mu civilisation.
o When "Stairway to Heaven" was played live Plant made a habit of
adding the line "Does anyone still remember laughter?" to it.
On one date on the 1977 tour Plant changed this to, "Does anybody
remember... forests?"
o Plant's son Karac died suddenly from a stomach infection during a
Led Zeppelin tour of the USA, at New Orleans on July 26, 1977.
The song "I Believe" from Plant's "Fate Of Nations" album tries to
deal with the tragedy.
o Robert's second son Logan Romero was born on January 27, 1979.
o Plant's bass player in his current solo band, Charlie Jones is
married to Plant's daughter Carmen.
o Plant played the flute during his 1988 tour.
o A suggested reason for the non-inclusion of lyrics to "Manic
Nirvana" are the numerous and potentially embarassing Zeppelin
references.
o "Ship of Fools" from "Now and Zen" is seen by some as a metaphor
for how Plant saw his relationship with Page at the time.
o Several songs Plant has released during his solo career contain
lyrical references to Led Zeppelin :
- "Easily Lead" : At the 3:43 point in the song Plant invokes a
family call of "I've been lonely, lonely, lonely..." He then
follows that up with his much repeated "Little girl, little girl,
little girl..." mannerism at the 4:01 mark, and then at 4:06
utilises the "Shake for me girl..." motif from "The Lemon Song".
- "Tall Cool One" : This song contains some samples from Led
Zeppelin that Jimmy was apparently not thrilled about. Towards
the end of the song Plant wails "Hey baby, hey baby, goin' down,
goin' down..." in time honoured fashion a la "Black Dog" and "When
The Levee Breaks".
- "White Clean And Neat" - As the song fades out Plant can be
clearly heard to wail, 'Baby, baby, since I've been loving you...'
- "Big Love" : Towards the end of the song Plant raps '..One time
I saw Las Vegas, I stopped in a Motel, I stopped in the same room
as Jimmy Page, They just finished remodelling it from the '75 tour
but I've got my free air miles..."
- "Your Ma Said You Cried In Your Sleep Last Night" : This
contains an entire verse from "Black Dog", 'Hey, hey, mama...'
- "Liars Dance" : A song about a song, in this case "Stairway to
Heaven," and Plant's intense dislike of it. `...leave it to the
lady there who's sure, she won't back again, I know she won't be
back agin, I'm sure she won't be back again.'
- "Calling To You" : Right at the end of the song Plant
evocatively exclaims, 'Oh Jimmy!' This is preceeded by the phrase
`Fading away, just fading away' which is repeated three times.
What this means in relation to the call to Jimmy is unclear.
- "Memory Song (Hello Hello)" : Released at around the same time
as the "Coverdale/Page" album this song may be Plant having a go
at Jimmy over his involvement with Coverdale in that project,
which itself is interpreted by some people as Jimmy getting back
at Robert for refusing a reunion.
- "Promised Land" : The harmonica sounds very much like the one
on "When The Levee Breaks", while other parts of the song have a
similar rhythm to "Hey Hey What Can I Do." The dissonance sounds
reminiscent of "She Said" from "Manic Nirvana." Plant also
borrows some lyrics from "When The Levee Breaks."
- "The Greatest Gift" : Right at the very end of the song, some
recorders, or a similar sounding instrument, can be heard to play
what sounds like an excerpt from "Stairway To Heaven."
- "Great Spirit" : Plant borrows some lyrics from "Celebration
Day" and "The Song Remains The Same."
o A pink 1959 Chrysler Imperial Crown convertible once owned by
Plant and with the motto "50s Rock'n'Roll For Ever" painted above
the number plate now forms part of the Yorkshire Car Collection
and was exhibited in a 1991 "Cars of the Stars" show at
Birmingham.
o Rumours linking Plant to Canadian singer Alannah Myles
romantically, proved to be true, and there is a suspicion the
song "29 Palms" is written about her. Alannah opened for Plant
on his "Manic Nirvana" tour and some time later had a baby, the
father of which is reputedly Plant. Plant reinforced the idea
that the song may be about Myles when he said it was "...my ideal-
love-affair-gone-wrong song." 29 Palms is an actual place, an
army base and community out in the middle of the California
desert. Plant may have played a concert there during his "Manic
Nirvana" tour.
o Roy Harper's song "Evening Star" was written for Plant's daughter
Carmen on the occasion of her wedding to Charlie Jones.
o Plant sold his rights to the Led Zeppelin material in the early
1980's, although he still maintains 1/3 creative control, but he
doesn't get any royalties from the sales of Led Zeppelin albums,
hence his comment when being interviewed by Letterman about
Zeppelin being more rewarding for Jimmy these days. Robert has
used this control to veto the 20th anniversary single of
"Stairway to Heaven" and the use of any Zeppelin material in the
film "Dazed and Confused."
o The song "Watching You" from the "Manic Nirvana" album was used by
the NBC tv network in the USA when advertising "Dateline NBC."
o Plant allowed "Tall Cool One", complete with Zeppelin samples, to
be used for a Coke Classic commercial in the USA, a move he now
regrets. This gives him the dubious honour of being the only
member of Zeppelin to have sold off part of their legacy.
o The producer of "Now and Zen" and "Shaken 'n' Stirred", Tim
Palmer, also works with Tin Machine.
o Legend has it that Plant was inspired to start singing after he
heard Bobby Parker's version of "Blues Get Off My Shoulder."
o The drummer on "Shaken N Stirred," Richie Hayward, also played
with Little Feat.
o Plant's guitarist on his initial solo outings, Robbie Blunt, had
his most recent involvement with Plant at a jam at a Los Angeles
show on June 14, 1988. The crowd were somewhat miffed with Plant,
as he had made it sound like he was being joined by Page, only to
turn out that it was Blunt. Blunt also played on the first album
by Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians which was coincidentally
recorded in the same studio as Plant's "Principle of Moments"
album which Blunt played on.
o Plant made a guest appearance with the band Rockpile on the track
"Little Sister" on the "Concert For Kampuchea" charity album. The
track is also on two other albums, "Rockpile Live In Concert
1979", and "I Hear You Rockin'", both by Rockpile.
o During the Zeppelin years Plant only ever played harmonica and
tambourine onstage. However he did take a few solos on his two
most recent tours. He also played bass during the abortive 1986
studio reunion, as well as playing guitar on his duet of "Down By
The Seaside" with Tori Amos on the "Encomium" Zeppelin tribute
album which reportedly led to Jimmy making him promise never to
play guitar in the studio again! However, in 1966 when Robert got
some publicity for his "You Better Run" single, one article
mentioned that Robert was a skilled multi-instrumentalist, playing
guitar amongst other things. In a 1977 interview, Plant said that
he played guitar on four Zeppelin songs, one of which is probably
"Boogie With Stu", and interestingly, another may well be "Down By
The Seaside".
o Plant's favourite song from his "Now And Zen" album is "White,
Clean And Neat." Another of Plant's solo favourites is "In The
Mood" from "The Principle Of Moments."
o The sample at the beginning of "Tie Dye On The Highway" is from
the original Woodstock.
o The song "If I Were A Carpenter," originally by Tim Hardin, and
one that Plant covers on "Fate Of Nations" was a song he used to
perform with John Bonham in the Band of Joy. Another cover was
by Bob Seger on the album "Smokin' O.P.s." In an interesting
coincidence, in the liner notes for a collection of Hardin's
VERVE recordings is the following anecdote.
"He [Hardin] hated it [the military] when he was in. He was
stationed at Okinawa, San Diego and Twentynine Palms,
California."
The coincidence being of course, that the same Plant album
features the track "29 Palms".
o In recent interviews Plant says he has been listening to music
from Julian Cope and Blind Melon, amongst others, in recent times.
Plant's daughter Carmen is also a Blind Melon fan and reportedly
asked Plant why he doesn't make songs like theirs anymore.
o "Calling To You" sounds reminiscent of Metallica's "Wherever I May
Roam."
o There is a very intriguing sample in the song "Nirvana" from
"Manic Nirvana" which can be heard at around the 3:10 point in the
song. It goes as follows, "Can you hear the thunder? Can you
hear the thunder? My love, cascading towards you in a torrent
of... don't go, listen, listen. Let me try my song and dance..."
There is also a sound like a saxophone in the background. Where
this comes from is unknown, although as Plant got "Your Ma Said
You Cried In Your Sleep Last Night" from his jukebox, it may well
be there too. But given Plant's interest in pop trivia it may
well be from some very obscure source.
o When Plant played live on PBS at the time of "Fate Of Nations" he
wore a t-shirt commemorating a deceased Egyptian singer called
Abdel-Halim Hafez. The words "HAFEZ" and "HAWEL TEFTEKERNY" are
on the shirt. The latter words are the title of one of Hafez's
songs, "Try To Remember Me."
o During Plant's 1993 appearance on the Letterman show, the CBS
orchestra played "Black Dog" and "Misty Mountain Hop."
o Plant features on the soundtrack to "Porky's Revenge" from 1985.
The catalogue number for the soundtrack is Columbia JS 2275 (US)/
CBS 70265 (UK). His back band, listed as the "Crawling King
Snakes" is an all-star unit that probably featured Dave Edmunds.
The song they contributed to the soundtrack is "Philadelphia
Baby".
o Plant's song "Messin' With The Mekon" takes it title from a
fictional character in the comic "Dan Dare" which appeared in the
British boys magazine _Eagle_ during the life of the magazine
between 1950 and 1970, when it merged with _Lion_. The Mekon was
the head of the alien race, the Treens, who inhabited the northern
half of the planet Venus. The capital of their territory was
Mekonta. Unlike the rest of the treens which were vaguely
humanoid, the Mekon was of much smaller build with a bulbous head,
and hovered around on a small platform. The Mekon as Lord of the
Treens was possessed of infinite wisdom and intelligence. The
Treens incidentally, were green. One of the more well-known Dan
Dare stories saw him travel to Venus to try and get the assistance
of the civilisations there to help the earth which was suffering a
major food shortage. Venus is, according to the story, split in
half by a flame belt along it's circumference, the northern half
inhabited by the hostile and imperialist Treens, while the south
was inhabited by the pacifist race, the Therons. In the interests
of not spoling the story, no more details will be provided.
Compared to the comics of today such as "Sandman", those in
_Eagle_ such as "Dan Dare" have aged gracefully, and are still an
enjoyable read. A great source of material from "Eagle" is the
book:
Morris, Marcus (Editor), The Best Of Eagle, Michael Joseph
Limited, London, 1977.
Given that Plant was born in the late 1940's he probably read this
particular boys magazine while he was growing up, as it was very
popular at the time.
o The book, Plant, R., Journey Into Light, Cassell, London, 1972,
was not written by Robert Plant, but Ruth Plant, and is about is
about forty years communication with a brother in the after life.
Another author listed is yet another R. Plant, Ralph Plant.
o The "Fate Of Nations" tour had a bit of an Indian flavour to it
with concerts opening with the song "Dil Cheez Kya Hai" by Indian
singer Asha Bhosle from the film "Umrao Jaan" being played just
before Plant took to the stage. Also, one of the tour t-shirts
had an image of the goddess Lakshmi sitting in a lotus flower with
Plant posturing beneath it. Plant was also seen wearing a t-shirt
with a picture of the arab world's best known singer Om Kalsoum on
the front of it during some shows.
o The video accompanying Plant's song "I Believe" from his "Fate Of
Nations" album features a lot of poetry, that has been likened by
one list member to that in the video game "Final Fantasy II" -
although given what Plant wrote "I Believe" about, this is
unlikely to be a source.
o The song "Tall Cool One" uses a riff borrowed from "Train Kept A-
Rollin'". Considering the tongue in cheek nature of the song, its
resemblance is probably intentional.
o The first line of the song "White, Clean And Neat" from Plant's
"Now And Zen" album opens with the lyrics, `13th day of August
'54, I was 5 years old, depending where you're counting from..."
There has been some discussion on the list regarding the
reccurrence of some numbers regarding Zeppelin, in this case 54
being the number of tracks on the 1990 box set "Led Zeppelin".
The age Plant gives is correct for that date, but the relevance
of that particular date remains a mystery. It may just be a date
Plant conjured up as one fit the lyrics.
o Plant's current residence is somewhat uncertain, he maintains a
farm in Wales, quite likely Jennings Farm, but also has a
residence in England. The latter caused him some trouble a few
years back when he wanted to install some new windows as the local
authorities deemed it to have some heritage value.
o While Page has claimed several classical composers, such as
Penderecki, as influences, Plant has only recently admitted some
admiration for Gustav Mahler.
o Robert's divorce from Maureen was a quiet and amicable parting
which occurred in 1983.
o The concert program from Plant's "Manic Nirvana" tour contained an
excerpt from Robert Palmer's book "Deep Blues" pages 59 and 60,
which deals with the murky legends regarding the mystical and
occult roots common in blues lore. Robert Johnson is the subject
of many of these legends, the most common of which being, he sold
his soul to the devil by playing at a crossroads at midnight, and
thereby acquired his remarkable skills. The excerpt from the book
states the stories are rooted in voodoo lore from the African
Yoruba religion. The black man at the crossroads is Legba, a
trickster figure. Slave legends also portray the devil as a
trickster figure, but their vision of the devil is quite different
from the traditional christian one. The stories about Johnson and
the devil persist to this day, and were probably a result of the
overly religious black communities of the time and the awe in
which storytellers with the talent of Johnson were held.
o Robert puts in an appearance on the soundtrack to "Wayne's World
2" playing "Louie Louie" with his band. The lyrics are slightly
varied from the original though, and apparently the chords are
wrong.
o Plant's most prominent pre-Zeppelin band, The Band Of Joy,
recorded several songs prior to their breakup. The most notable,
"Adriatic Sea View", was made available by Diane Bettle-Lovett of
the _Nirvana_ fanzine on an audio cassette some years ago. The
tape was compiled to benefit several Wolverhampton charities. The
cassette was entitled "In The Forest".
o Robert appeared on the _Today_ show on December 20, 1993.
o There is a book available about Plant, featuring rare photos of
him at home, and others of him live in concert, during and after
Zeppelin, entitled "Thru The Mirror".
o "Albion", a place mentioned several times in lyrics by Plant, is
the ancient name for Britain. The name has been largely forgotten
and is now used only in a romantic sense when conjuring up images
of the Britain of old. Albion was the chapter of British history
before the country was invaded by successive waves of Romans,
Vikings and Saxons. The last part of England to retain this aura
is the Welsh border area around Herefordshire and Shropshire.
With many ancient and medieval ruins, graves and assorted
surviving phsyical evidence this may well have served as the
inspiration for some of Plant's lyrics. This is very likely
since he was born and raised not that far from there.
o Plant got the lyrics "Blues falling down like hail" from the
Robert Johnson song "Hellhound On My Trail".
o Robert's 1993 appearance on the Spanish tv show "En Vivo" must
surely rank as one of his oddest tv appearances. For the
interview Robert and his band of the time were interviewed through
two interpreters. When asked why he doesn't play "Stairway To
Heaven" any more, Plant replies "I forgot the words!" By this
time, guitarist Kevin Scott MacMichael had dozed off and the next
question was to drummer Michael Lee, who was asked why Plant hired
him. Lee replied to this by saying it was because he had great
eyebrows. The Plant band performed a horrendous, only partially
live version of "29 Palms", after which Plant thought they had
finished only for the overdubbed start of "If I Were A Carpenter"
to be played. Plant who had sat down, had to leap to his feet to
get back in sync with the song and managed to forget the opening
lyrics. The rest of the band was caught similarly unawares, with
Dunnery and Johnstone caught guitar-less while the song was
starting. The least chaotic aspect of the show was the airing of
the "I Believe" video just after the interview and before a
commerical break, which was followed by the semi-live performance.
Of the instruments, all but the guitars were live, which were the
only instruments mimed for some reason.
o Plant made an appearance on the show "Center Stage" in 1993,
playing "What Is And What Should Never Be", "Thank You", "If I
Were A Carpenter", "Going To California", "Whole Lotta Love", "29
Palms", "Tall Cool One", and "Ramble On". This was with his
"Fate Of Nations" era band. Robert even played guitar on an
untitled blues tune similar to "Look Over Yonder's Wall". On the
tv broadcast he did not play on any other songs, and his playing
on that particular number was reportedly fairly dodgy.
o The "Hiawatha Express" bootleg includes a recording of Plant
teaching his five yeard old daughter at the time, Carmen, her
ABC's. This canbe heard on the bootleg just before the "In My
Time Of Dying" rehearsals.
o Plant is renowned for messing up lyrics when peforming live, even
the ones he had written. He trims down the verses of his song
"Ship Of Fools" when he plays that live, and has been known to
repeat verses from "What Is And What Should Never Be". But, the
song he seems to have had the most trouble with in recent years is
"Kashmir", and, in both cases, at high profile events. At Live
Aid he came in with the coda too early, Jimmy still had 8 measures
left in his solo. At the Atlantic 40th Anniversary shindig, he
repeated an entire verse of "Kashmir", only realising after he had
started it the second time, he sang, "Oh father of the four winds,
fill my sails... again!" He also managed to miss nearly every
verse entry when they played "Misty Mountain Hop" at the Atlantic
gig as well.
o Plant was scheduled to perform at the Alexis Korner Memorial
Concert at Buxton Opera House on April 17, according to the
February 1994 issue of _Q_. Also listed as performers, were Paul
Jones, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts.
o Robert is one of the guest artists on the Martin Allcock compiled
"Fairport Songbook" Fairport Convention live 2CD set.
o A photo of Alannah Myles appeared in the February 10, 1994, issue
of the _Victoria_Times-Colonist_ paper where she is a wearing a
"Robert Was Here" belt buckle.
o It is occasionally claimed that a demo version of "Sixes And
Sevens", from Plant's "Shaken 'n Stirred" album, exists of
Zeppelin experimenting with the tune. This is not the case, as
it is taken from a tape of demos for the Plant album, of around
thirty minutes duration, containing this and other songs from the
album in demo form. The Zeppelin bootleg that is the source of
this misunderstanding is called "Round & Round" and features the
Chicago, July 6 1973 soundcheck, widely mislabelled as the one
from Minneapolis in 1975. What happened was that the company
that made the cd took off a few of the songs that were played at
the soundcheck, such as "Hungry For Love" and "Reeling And
Rockin", and put the demo of "Sixes And Sevens" on there, for
reasons best known only to them. This same mistake was also made
on the "Uncensored" bootleg, where the demo was said to have
originated from a 1975 soundcheck, the soundcheck of which they
were referring to was 1973 anyway. The song was not demoed
until the early 1980s.
o Plant was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1993 for his vocals on
"Calling To You", from the "Fate Of Nations" album, in the Hard
Rock Performance category. The other nominations were, "Plush"
by Stone Temple Pilots, "Cherub Rock" by Smashing Pumpkins,
"Leave It Alone" by Living Colour, and "Highway To Hell" by AC/DC.
o A rumour started by Diane Bettle-Lovett, formerly the owner of the
"Nirvana" fanzine, was that the guitarist listed as featuring on
Plant's "29 Palms" single, Rainier Ptcaek, was in fact a pseudonym
for Plant himself, both having the same intials. This is untrue,
as Ptacek, is a real person, a blues guitarist from Tucson,
Arizona in fact. He has a deal with Demon records, and
apparently, Plant heard him, liked what he heard, and asked him to
join him in the studio.
o A short interview with Plant is included in the second part of the
two part documentary on Atlantic records "Hip To The Tip: The
Independent Years". Plant is filmed in a darkened room wearing a
pair of sunglasses and with a single light shining on him, giving
him a rather cliche'd appearance. Around this a clip of "Whole
Lotta Love" from "The Song Remains The Same" is played.
o The lyrics to the song "Tall Cool One" may be a bit more clever
than they appear on the surface. It appears to draw some
comparisons with the animal kingdom. At one point Plant is trying
to reconcile a woman's doubts about him by saying his animalistic
desires are tempered by the fact that he is also in love with her,
`Lighten up baby I'm in love with you'. The line about `With my
one hand loose I am to satisfy' could be compared to the way cats
and other animals of that persuasion hold their prey in position
with one hand while using the other to tear it open. However, in
this case Plant is obviously not intending to tear the object of
his desires to shreds. Cats can often appear to have bloodshot
eyes, while humans get them from not sleeping much, which might
explain the line about `Bloodshot eyes'.
o A particularly interesting interpretation of the Plant song
"Calling To You" posted to the list claimed that the cry of `Oh
Jimmy!' is meant in anything but a conciliatory sense. And
examination of the lyrics at various parts of the song support
this assertion. The lyrics are hard to make out in places
however, so this is open to question.
(2:38) Greed call call, greed call, When ya gonna stop? You
stole the keys to the gates of the castle of love.
(3:48) Greed call call, What ya gonna say? Standing in the
shadows as the words kept fading away.
(4:09) Greed called ? (sounds like Jimmy?), What, you won't
stop?
You stole the keys to the gates of the castle of love.
(4:34) Greed called called, What you won't say.
(4:38) Standing in the shadows of our work and's fading away,
Just fading away, Just fading away. Oh, Just fading
away (repeated several times)
(5:40) Ooohhhh Jimmy!
Could the lyrics of this song share thematical influences with the
"Anti-Stairway" song "Liar's Dance" on Plant's earlier "Manic
Nirvana" album? If this is the case, the castle of love might
represent the Zeppelin sound and mystique. In which case, it
follows that Plant feels that Jimmy is degrading himself in
letting greed get the better of his musical intentions and was
wasting his musical heritage. This view is supported by some
rather derogatory comments Plant made on Letterman about what he
thought of Jimmy's motives. However, it all seems like high
hypocrisy from someone who sold "Tall Cool One" to Coca Cola for
use in one of their commericals.
o The Wolf's head logo Robert adopted during his solo career,
notably on the "Now And Zen", "Manic Nirvana" and "Fate Of
Nations" albums is a likeness of the logo of his favourite
football club, the English third division side Wolverhampton
Wanderers. The symbol appears on the front cover and on the
cd of "Now And Zen", which also features Jimmy's ZoSo logo which
indicates which tracks he played on. In the case of "Manic
Nirvana" it appears on the cd again, on the rear cover, and
throughout the cd booklet. It only appears only once on "Fate Of
Nations", on the front of a cap which is being worn backwards by
a boy watching the traffic in one of the pictures in the cd
booklet.
o A performance by Robert Plant at New York's Bottom Line was set to
be released by Razor & Tie Music as "In Their Own Words: Volume
1", with other artists to follow. However, his performance does
not appear on volume one.
o An interview with Plant was conducted in early 1994 for MTV's "24
Hours In A Day Of Rock And Roll". Plant, on tour at the time,
mentioned his next destination was New Orleans where he "would
talk to transvestites, because they were friends of John Paul
Jones!" Plant also claimed the reason he does what he does is
because he is "socially incapable of dealing with real life"
o A vague resemblance in style between Plant's version of "If I Were
A Carpenter" and The Kink's "Celluloid Heroes" has been noted.
o In mid-1968 Plant recorded a song with English blues legend
Alexis Korner, "Operator", which can be found on Korner's "Bootleg
Him" double album (Rak SRAK 514). The album was originally issued
in 1971 and re-released in 1986.
o Plant was one of the performers at the Freddie Mercury Tribute
Concert, and during the performance of the Queen song "Innuendo"
he slipped in a few lines from "Kashmir", "O father of the four
winds fill my sails" etc. Plant also performs "Thank You/Crazy
Little Thing Called Love" on the video.
o Plant contributed a harmonica solo to his former-guitarist Francis
Dunnery's first solo album, "Fearless". That particular
contribution can be found on the track "The King Of The Blues."
o Director Richard Linklater went to the extreme length of sending
a video tape of him personally pleading to Plant to let him
include the song "Rock And Roll" in his movie "Dazed And
Confused". The film is about a group of teenagers in the 1970s
and what they get up to on the last day of school. The film
featured a lot of classic seventies songs such as Aerosmith's
"Sweet Emotion". Both Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones approved the
inclusion of the song, but Plant, for reasons best known to
himself, refused to allow it to be used. This meant it couldn't
be used, as agreement from all three surviving members of Zeppelin
was required. There is no Zeppelin content in the film anyway,
and Linklater was of the opinion that Plant's "people" rather than
him were behind the refusal, actually expressing his doubts that
his pleas ever got to Plant himself.
o A picture of Plant appears in the book _Eight_Days_A_Week_, which is
a photographic history of rock. Plant is shown whilst singing, and
is wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the name of a group called
"Bobby And The Brains".
o Plant appeared on BBC's "Tops Of The Pops" in 1993, performing "29
Palms". He did so completely live, not lip synched as most other
performers do on the show.
o Robert's voice was artificially lowered in pitch by studio means
on his early solo recordings in order to make him sound more like
a `crooner'.
o The following Plant anecdote appeared in the June 1993 issue of
_Boston_ magazine.
"Susan Anton, Mo Vaughn, and Taylor Dayne have all stopped
in at Joe's American Bar & Grill in the last few months,
but waitress Beth Turchan doesn't get excited anymore. Not
after her blunder with Robert Plant, the legendary voice of
Led Zeppelin.
Turchan's trouble started, she says, when another
waiter sang a line from "Simply Irresistible" in honor of
Plant. "No, that's a Robert Palmer song," Turchan told him,
but her coworker's crooning must have kept ringing in her
ears.
When Plant, who had refused autograph hounds all night,
was leaving, Turchan extended her hand and said, "Mr.
Palmer, may I have your autograph?" 'I'm not Robert Palmer,
love," replied Plant, "but would you like an autograph?"
He gave her one, and even used his own name."
o Plant did an acoustic set for Italian radio in May 1993, which
comprised an interview, with several interviewers and Plant
replying in English, and acoustic performances by Plant, Dunnery,
and MacMichael of songs such as "Going To California", "You Shook
Me", "Living Loving Maid", a surprising choice, and, "29 Palms".
o In another 1994 radio appearance, Plant hosted a BBC show in May
where he played excerpts from "Fate Of Nations" and selections of
his choice, incorporating a variety of world music, and a new
acoustic rendering of "Whole Lotta Love (You Need Love)", with
the "(You Need Love)" added to appease a legal finding against
Led Zeppelin.
o Robert played a concert for charity at a Kidderminster supermarket
in 1988, covering a variety of songs by Sting, Bryan Adams, and
the covering "Rock And Roll" with the backing band.
o Plant put in an appearance at Woodinville Stock 94, minus Page who
was rumoured to be joining him, and played what was reportedly an
excellent set.
o There is an interview disc from the "Manic Nirvana" era available
where Plant admits his voice was somewhat "dormant" between 1981
and the "Now And Zen" era.
o Plant was very much into the hippie ethos during the Zeppelin
days, as evidenced by by his apparel at the early concert at Bath
and through his love for Californian music.
o In, or around 1982, Plant performed at a benefit concert for the
family of a guitarist in Worcester who had died recently, at the
Stourport Civic Hall in front of around 200 people. Plant's
initial appearance for the evening was with a band called The Big
Town Playboys, with Jason Bonham on drums. This set was mainly
comprised of old standards such as Billy "The Kid", and Emerson's
"Red Hot". After their set, the Big Town Playboys were followed
by a variety of local bands until, around 12:30, Plant re-emerged
onstage with Robbie Blunt and Jason Bonham. After a few rhythm
and blues standards, Plant made the surprise announcement to the
crowd that, "An old mate of mine was in town today so he's dropped
in to play". To the astonishment of those present Jimmy Page then
appeared onstage. They jammed out a few more rhythm and blues
standards, then moved on to to "Black Dog" and "Rock And Roll" to
conclude the evening. This all took place before a crowd of about
200. This sort of cameo appearance by Plant was not uncommon in
the Worcester area at the time, and he popped up frequently to jam
with local bands in Stourport.
o "The Movie Show" on SBS in Australia in mid-1994 showed a brief
excerpt from a black and white Australian art-type film going to
the Venice Film Festival, accompanied by "Greatest Gift" from
Plant's "Fate Of Nations" album.
o _Q_ magazine's 1993 awards ceremony saw an award go to singer/
songwriter Tori Amos, and there was at least one picture of her
and Robert Plant together at the ceremony.
o An English magazine claimed in 1994 that Plant had had a facelift
by showing picture of him at the 1990 Knebworth show and several
years later. This is obviously not true, you only need to see
Plant being interviewed on television to see that he has plenty of
facial wrinkles.
o Both Page and Plant were backstage at the Fairport Convention
Annual Reunion at Cropredy on Friday, August 12th, 1994, and were
scheduled to play on Saturday night, but didn't for reasons that
were described as "problems with the Performing Rights Society".
Rumour has it that this was because Plant had run off with Roy
Harper's wife, the one prior to the one who ran off with Nigel
Kennedy the violinist who appeared on the Plant song "Calling To
You". Harper and Plant were apparently not getting on that well
since Kennedy's appearance on "Fate Of Nations", but Plant's
behaviour seems to make a mockery of gestures from Harper such as
writing the song "Evening Star" for Plant's daughter Carmen.
o During the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, Plant gave an
interview to MTV's Kurt Loder, and said that he was completing an
album that was very much in the vein of the Seattle grunge sound,
and that the album would be available around October 1992. What
happened to this album and material is unclear, as "Fate Of
Nations" could hardly be described as being grunge. On the topic
of grunge, Plant has gone on the record praising Soundgarden a
few times in recent years.
o Richard Cole's, erm, interpretation, of where Plant got the, much
overused by the media, nickname Percy is that the band were
sitting around watching a gardening show on tv, the host of which
was called Percy, and who took great delight in growing his plants
to perfection. However, it has also been claimed the nickname
sprung from Plant's campy onstage behaviour and effeminate type of
mannerisms in the early days of the band. Another possible source
of the nickname was The Kink's rock-opera, later made into a film
starring Hwyel Bennet, called "Percy". The film was named after
the main character whose preoccupation in life was his libido and
inordinately large genitals. On the other hand, Percy may have
just been a one-time joke that has been cliche'd by the media, and
not really a regularly used nickname at all. More recently, Plant
has been referred to as Planty by his ex-guitarist and friend
Francis Dunnery.
o The nature of relations between Plant and Paul McCartney would
appear to at least be cordial, if the photo of him, his son Logan,
and Paul and Linda McCartney backstage at Knewbworth in 1990 is
any indication. Going back further, Plant joined McCartney
onstage during one of the latter's concerts in 1979. That
particular jam session took place at the 29/12/79 concert at the
Hammersmith Odeon by Wings for a Kampuchea benefit show. Also
onstage with Plant were Jones and Bonham, while Page had attended
a Wings gig on December 2 in Brighton, and Plant and Bonham had
popped up at a Wings show on December 12 in Birmingham. Jones was
later to appear on McCartney's "Give My Regards To Broadstreet".
o On at least one of his 1990 dates Plant and his band played a
portion of "Give Peace A Chance" and the Beatles song "Things We
Said Today" just before he played "Living Loving Maid (She's Just
A Woman)".
o In the video for "Hurting Kind" Plant's plays a white `Flying V'
style guitar, and rather sparingly too.
o At the end of the credits on his "Mumbo Jumbo" video it lists
Plant as the Executive Producer, and then at the bottom of the
screen, "If you can't take a joke...!" appears.
o Storm Thorgerson, the guru behind the renowned sleeve designers
Hipgnosis, and long-time Pink Floyd associate, was the director
for the video for Plant's songs "Big Log" and "In The Mood".
o Plant's "Heaven Knows" video was filmed in Morocco.
o Plant contributed the track "If It's Really Got To Be This Way"
to "Adios Amigo", a tribute album for Arthur Alexander, who was
an early influence on Plant's singing. The album is on the Razor
& Tie label. Arthur Alexander was one of the first soul artists,
his combination of blues, country and '50s rhythm and blues was
instrumental in laying the foundation for later artists such as
Otis Redding and James Carr. Early in their careers both the
Beatles and the Rolling Stones covered his songs, "Anna", and "You
Better Move On" respectively. The following quote from Paul
McCartney is taken from the liner notes from Alexander's last
release, "Lonely Just Like Me", on Elektra.
"If the Beatles ever wanted a sound it was R&B. That's what
we used to listen to, what we used to like, and what we
wanted to be like. Black, that was basically it. Arthur
Alexander."
Another of his better known songs is "Every Day I Have To Cry".
His career was anything but consistent however, as he was ripped
off with a disturbing regularity, and suffered the rigours of
long term drug abuse and a downturn in his career that lasted for
several decades. He was poised to make a comeback in the early
1990s with a performance for the "In Their Words" series at The
Bottom Line in 1991, which was followed by a new album in 1992.
In a cruel blow Arthur Alexander died at just 53 only a short
time after the album, "Lonely Just Like Me" was released to rave
reviews. His performance for the aforementioned series can be
found on "In Their Words Volume One", also on the Razor & Tie
label.
o The song "Oompah (Watery Bint)" is a b-side recorded during the
"Now And Zen" period, appearing on the "Hurting Kind" cd single,
and features a series of amazing screams from Plant towards the
end.
o There were rumours doing the rounds in 1988 that Plant was in
some sort of relationship with Joan Jett, who was opening for him
at the time on the "Now And Zen" tour.
o Various explanations have been offered for the changes that have
taken place in Plant's voice.
- Up to the mid-1970s Plant had very bad teeth, but he later had
them corrected, which may cause a change in how his voice sounds.
- Cocaine snorting can result in a deviated septum, which leads to
a constantly running nose, although this can be corrected by
surgery, which has the effect of making a voice more nasal.
- Plant was known to smoke pot in the early days of the band. In
small quantities, some singers claim that it improves such things
as lung capacity and gives a nice crisp, clear sound. This leads
to the rather tenuous theory that after Plant became less frequent
in his use of pot,in the late 1970s, his voice changed.
- Plant and the rest of the band smoked cigarettes, and these
alone have well-documented effects upon the throat and lungs to
name but a few things.
- More likely is that Plant permanently damaged his voice by
pushing it too far, too often, and scarring his vocal chords.
- Certain types of surgery, such as cosmetic surgery, can have
varying effects on the voice, not that it is proven that Plant has
ever had any.
o The song "Calling To You" is in a phrygian mode.
o "The Honeydrippers: Live At The Bluenote Derby in 1981" released
by Box Top Records in 1984 is nothing to do with Plant's band of
the same name, as in 1981 their formation was still a few years
away. Plant's Hondeydrippers band is rumoured to have featured
Paul Schaeffer, who is nowadays in charge of the CBS Orchestra on
"Late Night With David Letterman". Plant did however do gigs
dating back to 1981 with bands called "The Skinnydippers" and
The Honeydrippers".
o At the time of the "Unledded" special with Jimmy Page, Plant was
said to be dating Indian singer Najma Akhtar, who sang with him
on "The Battle Of Evermore".
o The girl in Plant's "Hurting Kind" video is rumoured to be his
daughter.
o Robert Plant was spotted on October 29, 1994 around 4.00pm at
Avebury, near Bath, Bristol. Avebury has similar attractions to
Stonehenge for tourists.
o Plant has often asserted his admiration for Sonny Boy Williamson
II, and how he believes he is a great model for how musicians
should be when they get older. Whether this amounted to the
rumour that Plant stole one his harmonicas is unlikely though.
o Alannah Myles' most recent album makes a few pointed references
to Plant, such as in the liner notes a notation, "those who you
recognize between the lines", as well as song lyrics beginning
with "Heaven knows...".
o Zeppelin's former publicist, B.P. Fallon, in his book about the
1994 U2 Zoo TV Tour reports that Plant's favourite U2 song is
"Salome~", and that he actually quite likes Bono, and in a phone
call to Fallon compared him to Ral Donner, an English Elvis
copier who Elvis stole "The Girl Of My Best Friend From", and
as Plant is said to practically worship Ral Donner, that is high
praise indeed.
o Plant once suggested that Zeppelin gigs should conclude with a
cover of The Incredible String Band's "Hedgehog Song", but was
chastised by Bonham.
o According to a 1988 interview, Plant had an operation on his
throat around 1973/74 that rendered him unable to sing or talk
for weeks. One particularly inane rumour I heard recently was
that this operation was undertaken by Hindu religious leaders
in India.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.2 - The Sorceror's Apprentice : Jimmy Page
o James Patrick Page was born on January 9, 1944, in Heston,
Middlesex, England.
o When Jimmy appeared on the "Huw Wheldon Show" in 1956, after
playing a brief excerpt from "Mama Don't Wanna Play No Skiffle
No More," he said he wanted to become a biotechnologist and work
with germs.
o Jimmy's first job was as a lab assistant, giving him something in
common with Henry Rollins, whose tales of rat and animal problems
can be found on his "Talking From The Box" spoken word double cd.
o Page's early inspiration to play guitar came from the Elvis
Presley song "Let's Play House."
o Jimmy stopped playing guitar for two years while he went to art
school.
o Jimmy Page has known Jeff Beck since he was 11.
o When questioned about which songs he did play on as a session
player, especially ones where some controversy as to what his
exact role is has arisen, Jimmy usually pleads ignorance and
points out that it is hard to remember exactly what he did given
the huge amount of sessions he was playing at the time.
o Jimmy was a session guitarist for three years, playing on
literally hundreds of recordings of an incredibly diverse nature
playing anything from a few licks to a solo. Various estimates
have him playing on anything from 50% to 90% of the records that
were recorded in England between 1963 and 1965.
o Page was the favoured session guitarist of producer Shel Talmy,
and ended up doing session work on songs for The Who and The Kinks
as a direct result of this.
o As a session player, Page's involvement with Herman's Hermits has
been a source of much controversy, possibly due to a wrangle
between Page and the producer. One rumour has it that he played
on all their early hits, although a more likely scenario is that
he played on several of them. In the case of Herman's Hermits,
the backing tracks for their songs were usually cut while Peter
Noone and the rest of the band were on tour.
o The Who song "I Can't Explain" features Jimmy in a minor role.
Although there is a story that Jimmy played the main rhythm part
while Peter Townshend played the solo.
o Page supplied the rhythm guitar for The Kink's "You Really Got Me"
and "All Day And All Of The Night", which has not really been
contested by Dave Davies. What he has contested however is that
Page played the solos in these songs, which he almost certainly
didn't, they don't sound very Page-like at all. However, Page may
well have played the main riffs in both these songs which prompted
Elliot Easton to claim in _Guitar_World_ that if he did play the
riff in "You Really Got Me" then he invented heavy metal there and
then. Page claims he contributed "bits of feedback" to The Kinks
song "I Need You" which appeared on one of their early albums.
Further fuel for the debate comes from Ray Davies autobiography
_X-Ray_, where he says that Page was present but he didn't do the
solo.
"When we went upstairs to hear the playback in the tiny
control room, we found it crowded with onlookers and assorted
musicians. Among them was Jimmy Page, who cringed as it came
to Dave's guitar solo. Perhaps Page was put out about not
being asked to play on the track, and we were slightly
embarassed by the amount of jealousy shown by the eminent
guitarist. Perhaps he thought Dave's solo was inferior to
anything he could have played, but Dave not only invented a
sound, but also had every right to play whatever solo he felt
fitted the track."
However, the released track is the third take of the song and
while Dave Davies features on the first and third takes, Page
may be on the second. Ray Davies also says that Page played the
tambourine on the Kink's first record, attempting to minimalise
Page's contribution. However, the song both Page and Davies agree
features Page is "I'm A Lover Not A Fighter" which Jimmy plays 12
string guitar on. A few other tracks on that particular album
also feature Jimmy playing rhythm guitar, but he denies ever
having tambourine on any Kinks record.
o Page has long been rumoured to feature on songs by Van Morrison's
Them such as "Baby Please Dont Go", "Here Comes The Night",
"Gloria", and "Mystic Eyes". The exact details are unclear, and
while the first two are likely, he may have played bass on "Baby
Please Don't Go", there is some doubt about "Gloria", but his
fiery style is very evident on "Mystic Eyes". He probably also
played on the b-sides of all these songs. However, as with The
Kinks, by saying he played on these songs does not automatically
mean he played lead guitar on them. But as "Gloria" was the
b-side of "Baby Please Don't Go" he probably played on at least
one of those two songs.
o Page may have played on several songs by Donovan such as "Sunshine
Superman" although the long held belief that Jimmy played on
"Hurdy Gurdy Man" has been questioned recently, with the
contention that it is in fact Allan Holdsworth, and not Page.
Jones on the other hand, who most certainly did work on the track
says it was Alan Parker. Donovan in a radio interview in 1988 on
KCRW in Santa Monica, said that it was Holdsworth not Page, as
they tried to get Page but he was unavailable, and tried out a new
young guy, Holdsworth, instead. An answer to this perplexing
question that could be seen as definitive came from Allan's wife
Claire, when she was asked this by a member of the Allan
Holdsworth mailing list. The response she gave was (included
without permission), "Allan is bemused by the number of people,
including Donovan, who have said that he played on that song -
because he didn't!! He thinks it might have been Ollie Halsell
but he is dead now so I guess we can't ask him." Page, who denies
playing on it claimed in a 1977 interview that it was Alan Parker.
To confuse matters further, in the liner notes for Donovan's
"Trouabdour" box set it claims Page played on the track.
o A bootleg 2 cd set called "James Patrick Page: Session Man"
features many of Page's notable early performances as a session
man with bands such as The First Gear, Dave Berry & The Cruisers,
and Lulu And The Luvvers. A portion of these probably also
feature John Paul Jones who was the leading session bass player
and arranger at the time. However, these album aren't really
bootlegs. The record label, AIP, sidestepped any possible legal
problems by licensing the album through a third party, the "Jimmy
Page Fan Club." Greg Shaw, President of Bomp/AIP records had
this to say on the matter in the May 12, 1995 "Special Independent
Label Issue" of _Goldmine_.
"I wasn't constrained by the traditional way of doing things:
going through legal departments and making sure every
contract is 100 percent firm. Most of the best reissues are
done by going directly to the artist, maybe circumventing
people who are the legitimate owners. I wasn't too sure
about the legality of the _Pebbles_ [a reissue compilation]
so I worked with these Australian guys and had them issued
there, but after a couple of years it appeared there wasn't
going to be a problem. So I started the AIP label."
o Page's favourite guitar solo is said to be the one from "Reeling
Away The Years" by Steely Dan. The guitarist responsible is
Elliot Randall. This detail comes from a postcard circulated by
Metal Leg advertising a show featuring Elliot Randall in a band
called Chain O'Fools, on February 5, 1994, 10.30pm, at Le Bar Bat,
311 W. 57th St., New York City. The quote on the postcard reads,
"My favorite guitar solo of all time was Elliot Randall's on
Reelin' in The Years".
o For information relating to Jimmy's symbol please refer to the
FAQL for a detailed explanation. The most recent theory that
seeks to explain it has it that it that it symbolizes a near-
death or Tantric sex experience to unify the worlds of the
living and the dead, and thus to reveal the secrets of the
universe. A few points are worth clarifying.
- It is not a word that can be prounounced "Zoso".
- The symbol was designed by Jimmy, and the only person he has
revealed its meaning to was Plant, long ago, and he has since
forgotten. Nigel Eaton, hurdy gurdy player on the Page & Plant
world tour was reported in _Q_ as having asked about it and
been greeted with a deathly silence.
- It is also unlikely to symbolize Cerebus, the guardian hound at
the gates of hell.
- It is not a stylisied "666".
- The closest thing to an explanation from the man himself came on
his November 1994 appearance on _Denton_ with Plant. At the end
of their interview a member of the studio audience yelled
"What's your symbol mean Jimmy?" After some confusion as to
what was being yelled, understanding dawned on Plant's face and
he replied "Frying tonight". Page did not elaborate further.
- It most likely has absoluely nothing to do with Curious George
The Monkey, known as Zoso, a character in English children's
books.
- It doesn't have anything to do with the pyramid of Zoser in
Egypt.
o The "Wall of Sound" phenomenen that is attributed to Page as some
sort of invention can be traced back to Phil Spector in the days
before multi-track recorders. John Coltrane was attributed as
having a wall of sound too, but this was a reference to his
playing and arranging style and not his production techniques.
o An amusing story relating to the guitarist from Jethro Tull is
that Page was passing through the studio when the guitarist was
recording the solo for "Aqualung" and recognizing a prior
acquaintance waved to him, nearly distracting the guitarist enough
to break his concentration and ruin the solo.
o Page was not a fan of Jethro Tull's live performance, labelling
them as "Jethro Dull."
o Carlos Santana in the notes for "Viva Santana," hails Jimmy Page's
studio and compositional genius, `He really is the Stravinsky of
the Les Paul.'
o Like Paul McCartney, Page admits to having no real grasp of
reading sheet music, although he can puzzle it out given time.
When he began his session career he had to be taught the basics by
fellow session man, "Big" Jim Sullivan. But even then Page found
it difficult and time consuming to work out what he was supposed
to be playing. Tony Meehan once recalled,
"He came down and I knew right away that he was faking it.
He couldn't read the music I'd written for him. But he was
doing well enough on his own - I switched him from lead to
rhythm guitar and all went well. The session was at IPC
Studios in 1962, and I'm positive the song we did,
"Diamonds", was the first number one record that Jimmy had
ever played on."
Even today Jimmy admits he is not that great at reading music,
although he says he is better at writing it down.
o In October 1982, Page received a 12-month conditional discharge
for drug related offences.
o Jimmy donated the Yamaha acoustic guitar he used on the 1975 world
tour as a prize in a local radio contest in 1982. On the guitar
he wrote, "This guitar was stolen from Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin
(Officially of course)."
o Jimmy owns Aleister Crowley's former residence Boleskine House,
and at one stage opened a shop called Equinox, with a front door
facing an alley adjoining a shopping center, which sold various
items of Crowley paraphenalia.
o Jimmy Page performs the guitar solos on two tracks from Plant's
"Now And Zen" album, "Heaven Knows" and "Tall Cool One." In each
case, in the cd booklet Jimmy's ZoSo symbol is used to indicate
which songs he played on. The Zeppelin samples were added to
"Tall Cool One", which annoyed Jimmy immensely.
o The Rolling Stones album "Dirty Work" features Jimmy on "One Hit
(To The Body), and according to the "Rolling Stones Complete
Studio Recording Sessions" also on "Back to Zero." Page is
credited in the liner notes as having played on the album, but
apparently the reason the songs he plays on are not identified is
for contractural reasons. Page does not play the solo on either
track. On "One Hit (To The Body)" Page plays a modified Fender
Telecaster with a GeneParson/Clarence White B-String Bender, which
he also used on the ARMS tour, with the Firm and on the "Outrider"
tour.
o The soundtrack to the film "Death Wish II" features Page
experimenting with a Roland Guitar Synthesizer.
o Contrary to Plant, Page loathes the tacky imitation of Dread
Zeppelin.
o The theme song to the tv show "The Wonder Years" features Page.
o Page recently identified one of his influences as the contemporary
classical composer, Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-), particularly his
use of dissonance for dramatic effect. Some further details on
this composer reveal how his influence may have been felt by Page,
"It is a remarkable aspect of Penderecki's career that he has
been able to, and almost from the first, to write music of
wide and direct appeal which makes use of advanced vocal and
instrumental effects and places no long-term reliance on
tonality. His success may be ascribed in part to his
treatment of momentous subject matter, whether religious or
secular: tearing conflicts, drama, mourning and victory are
his strong points. ... In his vocal writing for example,
prayerful psalmody appears alongside singing, speaking,
shouting and impressions of uproar."
o Page entered into an agreement with Kenneth Anger to supply the
soundtrack for Anger's film "Lucifer Rising", which had some
Crowlean content. Page even let Anger use the cellar of Boleskine
House for filming. But in the end Page only delivered twenty
three minutes of material, which Anger thought was useless. Anger
went public with his displeasure in 1976 slamming Page as an
addict and a pretentious dabbler in the occult, something that
must have annoyed Page as he always seemed to take his studies
quite seriously. Anger himself is deeply involved in such
matters, he likes to call himself a satanist although probably in
much the same way as Aleister Crowley did. The music eventually
came from Bobby Beausoleil, a member of the Manson family. The
Page material was released on a soundtrack album of uncertain
legitimacy on the label Boleskine House Records, BHR 666, 1987.
The pressings were very limited edition, and were done on blue
vinyl at 45 rpm, although other coloured vinyl is rumoured to
exist, and the final recordings may not be entirely Page content
alone. The music itself consists of a lot of theramin driven
material. Interestingly, director Anger, who was a friend
of Anita Pallenberg, wanted to cast Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
in the film, with Mick in the role of Lucifer. In the end, Anger
cast Marianne Faithfull along with Chris Jagger, brother of Mick,
although he lasted only a day on the set before being sacked. The
story behind this particular film is related in Marianne
Faithfull's autobiography, _Faithfull_.
o The raging guitar track for Joe Cocker's cover of "With A Little
Help From My Friends" is Page.
o Page is featured on two tracks on Stephen Stills' solo album
"Right By You."
o Page made the album "Whatever Happened to Jugula" with Roy Harper.
o Page's technique is by his own admission `sloppy,' something he
finds amusing considering he took lessons from John McLaughlin,
reputedly one of the `cleanest' guitarists ever.
o At a concert in Chicago in 1977 Page experienced stomach cramps
and the show was called off after "Ten Years Gone."
o Some information on one of Page's toys, the theremin:
"This is the first device to use alternative means of
interaction to produce music. It was invented by Leo
Theremin, a Russian living in England, in the 1930's, and
was made popular in the 1960's by Sun Ra. The instrument
produces sine-wave sounds by the beat frequencies between a
reference RF oscillator and an oscillator tuned by the change
in capacitance between an antenna and the performer's hands,
arms or body caused by movement. The closer you came to the
antenna, the higher the capacitance and higher the pitch.
Later versions of the instrument have volume control from a
second antenna. The Theramin is used at the beginning of the
Beach Boys' song "Good Vibrations". Bob Moog, of synthesizer
fame, built these as a way to make money while in college."
o Singer Chris Farlowe who contributed vocals to Page's "Outrider"
album had been involved with Page previously, when Page as a
session player had played on Farlowe's 1966 album "14 Things To
Think About" and on the single "Out Of Time/Baby Make It Soon."
In a long and varied career Farlowe also performed with Atomic
Rooster ("Made in England", (1972), and "Nice & Greasy", (1973),
Colosseum ("Daughter of Time", (1970), "Colosseum Live", (1971)),
and under his own name ("Chris Farlowe Band Live", (1975)).
Farlowe also did a lot of covers of Rolling Stones material during
the 1960's.
o Jimmy gets a mention in the `Inspiration and Coolness' section of
the liner notes for Bob Rock's most recent album. Coincidentally,
the third produer of "Coverdale/Page" Mike Fraser engineered
Rock's album. Rock, a Canadian producer and musician is also
known for his work with bands like Motley Crue ("Dr Feelgood"),
Metallica, The Cult, and Bon Jovi.
o According to MTV, a man in Palm Springs, California, recently
built a swimming pool in the shape of Jimmy's double neck Gibson
guitar. The pool is over 59 feet long, 23 feet wide, and cost
over $87,000 to build. The pool is even accurate to the extent of
including the knobs on the guitar which double as underwater bar
stools. Only in America.
o Over the years Page has jammed with, amongst others, Aerosmith,
Bon Jovi, Jaco Pastorius, and Mason Ruffner.
o Jimmy has a guest spot on Norton Buffalo's album "Draw Blues,"
which also features Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, and Dan Ackroyd. There
is some speculation that it was Buffalo who blows the whistle
during "Fool In The Rain." A possible highlight of the "Draw
Blues" album, judge for yourself, is a harp `duel' between Beck,
Guy, and Ackroyd. The album is available on Japanese import, and
features a cover of Cole Porter's "Being The Beguine" with Jeff
Beck playing blues sitar.
o Joe Walsh gives Jimmy a mention in the liner notes for his early
seventies album "So What?" The link between Jimmy and Joe is that
Joe gave Jimmy a 1959 Gibson Les Paul guitar, which is Page's
second string guitar. It has been modified in several areas by
Page's recording studio maintenance engineer, Steve Hoyland. The
guitar has a custom bridge that raises the strings in the
following manner:
_ _
_ - - _
This makes it possible when playing the guitar with a violin bow
to play individual strings, not just the top and bottom 'E'
strings. Orchestral stringed instruments are constructed in this
way. Another reason Page is credited on that album is that he
played on the original take of "Country Fair", although that
version didn't make it onto the album.
o In a 1977 interview with _Guitar_Player_, Jimmy recalled how the
idea was suggested to him.
"The first time I recorded with it was with the Yardbirds.
But the idea was put to me by a classical string player when
I was doing studio work. One of us tried to bow the guitar,
then we tried it between us, and it worked. At that point I
was just bowing it, but the other effects I've obviously come
up with on my own using wah-wah and echo. You have to put
rosin on the bow, and the rosin sticks to the strings and
makes it vibrate."
Dave Lewis further hones this by revealing that the son of the
session violinist who suggested it to Page was the actor David
McCallum of "Man From U.N.C.L.E." fame.
o Page favours Herco Flex 75 picks.
o Page was at one time involved with well-known groupie and tell-all
author Pamela Des Barres. Des Barres's book "I'm With The Band"
linked the two, and Des Barres was interviewed for Stephen Davis'
"Hammer Of The Gods" where she contributed the following slightly
erroneous and suspect observation, "I believe that Jimmy was very
into black magic and probably did a lot of rituals, candles, bat's
blood, the whole thing. I believe he did that stuff." After
Page, Pamela married musician and actor Michael Des Barres,
although they have long since split.
o Page married in 1988, and now has a son, James Patrick Page Jr.
Page's daughter Scarlett is in her mid twenties. Information on
who it is that Page married are sketchy, which is probably the way
he wants it, and we're happy to leave it at that.
o Jeff Beck was supposed to play "Stairway To Heaven" with Jimmy on
the ARMS video but is strangely absent and Jimmy can be seen to
look up at Andy Fairweather Low after the song and ask "Where's
Jeff?"
o Chris Squire who was with Page in XYZ has said that one of the
songs XYZ did turned up on one of the Firm albums.
o The `Jimmy' mentioned in the Rolling Stones song, "You Can't
Always Get What You Want", `...I was standin' in line with Mr.
Jimmy... So I sung my song to Mr. Jimmy...', is not a reference
to Jimmy Page. Jimmy does feature though in the credits for the
Stones album "Metamorphisis" although it is unclear which tracks
he played on. Jimmy may have been involved in the early days of
the Rolling Stones during his days a session player and producer,
no-one can say for sure. He has played on an album with Ron Wood
and Paul Rodgers, and Bill Wyman was present on the ARMS tour, so
there is ample evidence the bands got on reasonably well, although
Keith Richards has said he thinks Plant is a bit of an egomaniac.
The reference to Page on the back cover of "Metamorphisis" reads:
"This new elpee is for your home rack
with songs and stars to take you back
Some old, some new, some gone, some due
From days when people wrote for the fun of it
And played for the hell of it
With pictures taken when all was smart
and just another piece of art,
From sessions gone by, when friends dropped in
to play or stay or grin and drink
No one kept a list to say
Who played like this or clapped that way
The toads of parking lots weren't around to state
Pay up or you've got no sound
So thank you Jimmy Page, John McLaughlin....
...John Paul Jones..."
Two tracks on "Metamorphisis" that seem the most likely candidates
for Page's involvement are "Heart Of Stone" and "Memo From
Turner". Keith Richards has admitted that the guitar part on the
released version of "Heart Of Stone" was copied straight from
Jimmy's demo tape. Additional 1964 demos are avilable on other
Stones bootlegs, including the recently released "Metamorphisis"
pirate.
o The guitar Page played at the Knebworth 1990 jam with Plant's
band was one of his Les Pauls equipped with a Gene Parson/Clarence
White B-String Bender, evident from the small item that looks like
a knob behind the bridge. This cherry red guitar is the one Page
is holding on the May 1993 cover of "Guitar World." It was his
main guitar on the "Outrider" tour. This 1970's Les Paul is a
goldtop that was repsrayed cherry red, and was used on the
"Unledded" special.
o Jimmy's main guitars with the Firm were his 1959 Fender Telecaster
with the B-Bender, and his sixties Lake Placid blue Fender
Stratocaster.
o In 1963 Jimmy played as session guitarist on a song with Brian
Auger and Sonny Boy Williamson, "Don't Send Me No Flowers" which
is available on the Marmalade label.
o In the future the former singer of Pink Floyd, now a solo artist,
Roger Waters is due to record an album with Jimmy Page, if his
trend of recording with ex-Yardbirds guitarists continues. Eric
Clapton features on Roger's first album "The Pros And Cons of
Hitchiking", and Jeff Beck features on "Amused To Death."
o Jim Sullivan, who appears with Page on "No Introduction
Necessary", along with Page dominated the session player scene in
London during the 1960's. Sullivan was known as "Big Jim" while
Page was nicknamed "Little Jimmy."
o One of Richard Cole's more interesting recollections is that when
he heard one of the band had died he assumed it was Page, probably
due to Page's drug problems, his malnutrition, heavy drinking, and
physical exhaustion.
o Page has pointed out in interviews that he was surprised that
Zeppelin were not accused of copying Howlin' Wolf, as that is who
he thought he was borrowing from.
o One of Jimmy's houses is Tower House in London.
o From a live Paul McCartney album from the 1970's comes a song
called "Rock Show", the opening lyrics of which are, "Who's that
man walkin' 'cross the stage? Looks like the one they call Jimmy
Page...".
o Rumour has it that one Zeppelin song includes Page being sick and
coughing constantly in the background, although which song this is
has never been established, if it happened at all.
o An album called "The White Album" by Phish features a song called
"A Letter To Jimmy Page." Phish have also been known to cover
"Good Times Bad Times" and other Zeppelin songs as encores.
o On tour it is likely Jimmy has several bows, as there have been
instances where road crew complained of having no idea of where to
get a bow restrung in the city the band had just arrived in.
o Redd Kross have a song called "Jimmy's Fantasy", the first line of
which is 'Climb the mountain with your fingertips.'
o Contrary to popular myth, it is not Page that was playing with
Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison at The Scene, 301 West 46th St, on
March 6, 1968, in New York. Page in an interview with "Guitar
World" in 1993, revealed he had never played with Hendrix. The
guitarist in question is Johnny Winter, and not Jimmy Page. The
reason for the uncertainty is that Winter plays a small excerpt
from Page's "White Summer". Page never actually played with
Hendrix, contrary to what is claimed in David Hendersen's "Excuse
Me While I Kiss The Sky", that Page and Hendrix jammed during the
time of the Jimi Hendrix Experience in the autumn of 1968. Page
has said that the only time he ever got to meet Hendrix was in a
bar, and that Hendrix was completely gone and there was no point
in trying to talk to him, let alone jam.
o As well as being the bass player in The Firm and Blue Murder, Tony
Franklin has also played with Roy Harper.
o Page attributes his string-bending style to Elvis Presley's
guitarist and Cliff Gallup.
o Jimmy helped out on the ARMS tour, which was a benefit organised
for former bass player for the Faces, Ronnie Lane, who was
diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Lane's treatment was a
prohibitively expensive experimental snake venom treatement, which
was at the time not available to other sufferers. Some of the
participants were Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Bill
Wyman, Kenny Jones, Andy Fairweather Low, and Jimmy Page. The
benefit concert was held in London, and a highlight was to be the
appearance of Jimmy Page, being his first notable public
appearance in a long time. The previous year Page had been
charged with drug related offences, and he did not look in the
best of health, very thin and pale, and didn't play all that well.
The London shows were on September 20 and 21 1983 at the Royal
Albert Hall. Page performed amonst other things "Who's To Blame"
(with Winwood on vocals), "Prelude" (The Chopin prelude he used
for "Death Wish 2"), and an instrumental version of "Stairway To
Heaven." The finale was "Layla" with Beck, Page and Clapton
jamming, and "Goodnight Irene" with Ronnie Lane on vocals. The
show then moved to the USA for dates in Dallas, Los Angeles, San
Francisco and New York's Madison Square Garden. Paul Rodgers of
Bad Company replaced Winwood, and Joe Cocker turned up at some of
the shows. Page's playing improved steadily throughout the tour,
with multiple dates played at each venue. Page even spoke
onstage, something he rarely ever did with Zeppelin, the exception
being during the 1980 tour. A bow segment was added, and Page
began playing a song he and Paul Rodgers were working on called
"Bird On A Wing" (A descdendant of the unfinished Zeppelin song
"Swan Song") which went on to become "Midnight Moonlight" during
The Firm years. The instrumental version of "Stairway To Heaven"
also featured Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton joining Page for a jam at
the end.
o The debut album by a band called Cartoone credits Jimmy as the
producer, and he is quite likely to have also played on it. The
album was recorded in 1969, and according to "A Celebration" Page
is featured as a guest artist on unspecified tracks, and he seems
to recall playing acoustic rhythm guitar on the album in a couple
of places. Interestingly, the beginning of the song "Ice Cream
Dreams" is very reminiscent of "Stairway To Heaven". On the
subject of this album, in _Proximity_#10_ the following appeared.
"Another Atlantic release shortly following _Led Zeppelin_,
the only redeeming feature of this album is the fact that
Jimmy Page's name appears on the jacket. His guitar playing
is nowhere in evidence and the music is uniformly awful.
Page claimed in an interview once that he thinks he strummed
an acoustic guitar on a few of the tracks, and for that he
receives equal billing with the band members on the jacket as
'guest artiste'."
o When playing "Heartbreaker" live, Page liked to segue into two
unusual covers midway through the song. The first of these was
"Bouree", which is essentially Jethro Tull's popularised version
of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Lute Suite No. 5". The other was
Simon and Garfunkel's "59th Street Bridge Song" or "Feelin'
Groovy" as it is sometimes called. Page did this a lot on the
early tours, 1970 and 1971, less in the middle years, but again
on the 1980 encores.
o In recent times Page is said to reside in Berkshire, adjacent to
his home studio. Jimmy does not currently live in Aleister
Crowley's old home, Boleskine House, although he apparently still
owns it.
o Page and Jones get a "thank you" credit on the "Rock Aid Armenia"
remake single of "Smoke On The Water" which featured amongst
others, Ritchie Blackmore, David Gilmour, Tony Iommi, Alex
Lifeson, Brian May, Bryan Adams, Bruce Dickinson, Ian Gillan, Paul
Rodgers, Chris Squire, Keith Emerson, Geoff Downess, Roger Taylor,
and Geoff Beauchamp.
o The Yardbirds song "Glimpses" feature some of Page early, and very
psychedelic attempts to utilitise his bowing technique.
o Jimmy has his own star on the "Rock Walk" at the entrance to the
Guitar Center on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. The inlay in the
footpath has imprints of Page's hands and his signature. Fellow
guitar legend Edward van Halen was present at the unveiling and
was reported as saying the following in _Rolling_Stone_, "Led
Zeppelin is universally considered to be one of the heaviest bands
of all time, and yet 90% of their music was acoustic. I think
that's great!" A photo of Page at the ceremony appeared in the
February 1994 issue of _Q_.
o From early in Jimmy's career is a song he cut with Sonny Boy
Williamson II, "I See A Man Downstairs".
o In interviews Page has stated he prefers AAD to DDD purely for
"feel".
o Page's relationship with Lori Maddox is frequently brought up by
people such as Richard Cole and Stephen Davis in their quest to
find dirt on the band. The exact nature of the relationship
remains slightly unknown, but if it what they claim it is, it
could well be judged illegal as she was 14 when they first started
going out together.
o While playing "Take Me For A Little While" during a Coverdale/Page
show in Japan, Jimmy succummbed to the urge to throw in some licks
from "Stairway To Heaven", the chords of which are the same.
o Jimmy's 1965 solo single, "She Just Satisfies/Keep Moving" was
released on cd in 1991. The song is very derivative of the Kinks
song "Revenge" Kinks, which was co-written by Larry Page, manager
of the Kinks, of whose recordings, Jimmy appears on several as a
session player, probably including "Revenge". This cd single is
part 1 of a set of 12 Fontana collectable single reissues. The
single is also part of a boxed set of similar vintage and rarity
recordings.
o During the April 28, 1977 show at Cleveland, Page's "White Summer/
Black Mountainside" very clearly contains a snippet of what was to
become the Firm song "Midnight Moonlight". The bootleg of this
show, the night after the more common "Destroyer" bootleg, is
available on a cd by the Japanese company Smilin' Ears.
o The second part of the "Sha la la la" harmonies in "Fool In The
Rain" could well be Page.
o "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", "Ten Years Gone" and "Since I've Been
Loving You" all illustrate Page's "light and shade" musical
philosophy.
o In early 1994 _Guitar_For_The_Practising_Musician_ voted Page
"Getting Better All The Time".
"It's hard to see how Page - the acknowledged master of
creating guitar-driven songs - could get much better, but he
did. Despite what you think of Coverdale/Page, listen to
"Absolution Blues" and "Whisper A Prayer for the Dying" to
hear what a master sounds like when he puts his mind to it.
The riff in "Whisper" is as truly menacing as anything Page
has ever done."
o At the April 21, 1977 show at the L.A. Forum, misfortune befell
Jimmy, when, early in the show, apparently after "Sick Again", his
pants fell down! After starting the show in his white suit, he
was forced to change into his black suit to avoid a repetition of
this unfortunate incident.
o Page in the Zeppelin days had a habit of recycling riffs, or
making slight changes to them and turning them into new songs.
The guitar at the start of "Rock And Roll" sounds very similar to
the one in "Boogie With Stu", played at a different speed. These
are typical of Page's fixation with a position in A, which he uses
a lot. For example, "Hots On For Nowhere" uses the same thing, in
E later in A, and the riff from that, in A, is used again in
"Walter's Walk". This is also strongly reminiscent of the guitar
in "Custard Pie".
o The professionally shot footage from the August 11, 1979 Knebworth
show is officially unreleased and two possible explanations for
its recent appearance are, that it was among the material stolen
from Jimmy's house at the time of "Outrider", or that it was
secretly dubbed when Jimmy released the footage for use at the
Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary, where the footage was shown
during band changeovers. Also stolen from Jimmy's house at the
same time were the extensive demos he had put together for his
upcoming "Outrider" album. Originally intended to be a double
album, it eventually emerged as a single album thanks to the theft
of so much material. The burglary took place in 1987 at Jimmy's
house where his home studio, The Sol, is located, in Cookham,
Berkshire.
o Another unfortunate concert incident occurred when Jimmy jumped on
stage with then musical ally David Coverdale for a jam session
with Poison. This occurred at a show at either Reno or Las Vegas.
The unfortunate incident involved Page falling into one of the
onstage pits, destroying one of Poison guitarist C.C. Deville's
prized Ibanez guitars, and having to be helped out of the pit by a
roadie. David Coverdale's contribution was to appear not to know
the words to several Zeppelin covers they did.
o There is a Japanese release called "Jimmy Page Studio Works
1964-68" which collects together 27 tracks from that period that
he played on.
o In an article in _Musician_ dating back to the "Outrider" days,
Jimmy and the interviewer discuss songs that rip off "Kashmir".
While not mentioned during the interview, in a side bar, Robert
Plant's "Heaven Knows" is mentioned. Page played the solo on
this track.
o The Firm that appears on the Dr. Demento compilation is not The
Firm that Page was involved in, not unless his Firm sampled old
Star Trek dialogue that is. There is even a note on the
compilation that says "No connection with Jimmy Page's band".
The song was, apparently, called "Star Trekkin'" and featured
lyrics such as the following, `There's Klingons on the starboard
bow, Starboard bow, starboard bow, There's Klingons on the
starboard bow, Scrape 'em off, Jim!"
o Page appears on an album by a band called Box Of Frogs made up of
ex-members of the Yardbirds. The core members of the group were
Jim McCarty, Chris Dreja and Paul Samwell-Smith. The lead
guitarists varied, with some appearances by Jeff Beck on the
first album, and Page on the second. A 1986 album saw the
involvement of Rory Gallagher, but not Page. Page's involvement
only came about in the first place after some well-publicised
whining that he had not been invited to contribute to the first
album. The track featuring Page on the 1986 album is "Asylum".
o And, should the question of what happened to former Yardbirds
vocalist Keith Relf, who only had one lung, be raised, the
following is a brief summary. After the Yardbirds split, Relf
formed a new band in 1969, which lasted only one year by the name
of Renaissance. The band also featured Jim McCarty, and Jane
Relf. After that, Relf's career was sporadic at best, until he
died tragically at the age of just 33 in May 1976, after being
electrocuted in his Hounslow home. Renaissance however, kept
on going, and its later incarnations minus Relf have received
much critical acclaim.
o The version of "White Summer" on the "James Patrick Page - Session
Man Volume 2" bootleg is credited to The New Yardbirds live at the
Marquee Club 18/10/68. This is almost certainly incorrect. This
is more likely to be from the 27/6/69 performance at the London
Playhouse Theatre, broadcast by the BBC. This version appears on
the recent box sets, and the bootleg of the performance is quite
common, and mostly known as "White Summer".
o The mystery surrounding a Page guitar instrumental entitled "Swan
Song" has long intrigued Zeppelin fans. The piece is a further
evolution of the exotic tunings that produced "White Summer/Black
Mountainside". It in fact, was performed live, in small excerpts,
as part of this number on several occasions, particularly on the
last two Zeppelin tours. It was then adapted to become "Bird On
The Wing" during the ARMS tour, and finally got an official airing
as part of the Firm song "Midnight Moonglight". By this stage,
however, it was a big progression from the earlier versions. It
shares it's tuning with "Kashmir" too. This version of the story
is endorsed by former journalist and Zep associate Cameron Crowe.
Dave Lewis however, speculates that "Swan Song" may have been an
early version of "Ten Years Gone". Furthemore, in the collectors
column in the magazine "Electric Magic", details were provided
about a bootleg of "Swan Song". The details provided were, that
it runs roughly an hour or so in length and is broken up into
twelve sections. Some of the sections contain bass, mellotron,
overdubbed guitar parts, and synthesizers, signs that it was
toyed with by the band, or at least someone else, on various
occasions. The magazine described the piece as a musical diary
from about 1976 to 1980. The source for this, if it is available,
could possibly be the tapes that were stolen from Jimmy's house in
the mid 1980's. No other source seems likely, as Jimmy would
not release music of this rough and unfinished nature to the
public. Legend has it that the band was working on the song
during the "Houses Of The Holy" sessions, but stopped recording
when someone yelled out "Swan Song!", which then became the
working title for the album, and then the name of their record
label.
o According to Page, Richard Cole was not privy to 90% of the things
he wrote about in his sleaze expedition "Led Zeppelin Uncensored".
o "Dazed And Confused" was dropped from the setlist of the 1975 US
tour for the first two weeks because Jimmy sprained his finger by
catching it in a fence. It was replaced with "How Many More
Times".
o The Rolling Stones song "Through The Lonely Nights" which appeared
as a b-side on the single of "It's Only Rock'n'Roll (But I Like
It)", is rumoured to feature Jimmy Page on guitar. The track was
a leftover from the "Goats Head Soup" sessions in late 1972 and
early 1973.
o According to a Peter Grant interview aried on April 21, 1994 on
Q-107 Toronto, Jimmy bought Boleskine House, Aleister Crowley's
former residence around 1967.
o The May 1994 issue of _Q_ magazine featured a competition where
readers had to guess the names of guitarists from pictures of
their guitars. Jimmy was featured with the red Gibson double-neck
in picture 20 with the hint "'60s session man."
o During one of the 1980 performances of "Since I've Been Loving
You" Jimmy sounds rather wasted, as evidenced by his rather
bizarre behaviour and introduction and comments about his glasses,
and multiple "Good evening"'s.
o Legend has it that Page recorded all the guitar overdubs for
"Presence" in one night, including those on "Achilles Last Stand",
an intensely harmonically complex song.
o The 1967 Michaelangelo Antonioni directed film "Blow Up" features
a performance by the Yardbird's of "Stroll On", which is
actually "Train Kept A-Rollin'" with alternate lyrics. The actual
performance takes place in a club, roughly sixty minutes into
the film, when the photographer main character is searching for
someone and stumbles into a club in his search for her. The
people in the club look rather wasted and most are basically
motionless as the Yardbirds are playing. The performance is
mimed, and Jimmy is miming his guitar parts on a yellow 1958
Fender Stratocaster given to him by Jeff Beck, which later that
year was repainted in psychedelic colours. The main action during
the scene takes place when one of Beck's amps strats to play up.
Despite some adjustments by singer Keith Relf and Beck it
continues to crackle. Beck then thumps it a few times with the
cheap looking hollow-bodied guitar he is playing at the time. A
sound technician scampers onstage and tries to correct the problem
but Beck seems not to care and thumps the guitar against the amp a
few more times, then takes it off and proceeds to destroy it by
jumping on it and breaking off the fretboard. He tosses the
fretboard into the crowd, and the main character grabs it and runs
out of the club frantically, only to discard it on the pavement
when he gets outside. Beck can be seen putting on another guitar
right near the end of the clip. The crowd is awoken out of their
apathy by Beck's actions and the retrieval of the fretboard by the
main character is preceeded by some raucous behaviour by the
crowd. Jimmy is decked out in hip clothing, including a very cool
lapel badge for the performance and has a suitably trendy haircut
and extensive sideburns. The original soundtrack album to the
movie was released in March 1967 (MGM SE 4447) and "Stroll On" can
be found on that. There is some debate as to what instrument
Jimmy plays on what was one of the very few Yardbirds tracks to
feature both him and Jeff Beck. Conventional wisdom may suggest
the second guitar part, but some will have us believe he played
bass on that particular song instead of the Yardbirds's regular
bass player Chris Dreja. The reason Beck actually destroyed the
guitar makes an interesting anecdote. Antonioni had originally
wanted The Who for the scene, and at the time Pete Townshend had
made a name for himself by breaking guitars onstage. However, it
turned out that Antonioni couldn't afford The Who so he hired the
Yardbirds instead, and asked Beck to smash his guitar in keeping
with his original idea for the scene. Beck is not known for
destroying instruments, and his reaction to this suggestion was
not recorded. In 1995, Antonioni received an Oscar for a his
cinematic achievements, during the presentation of which, a brief
clip from "Blow Up" was shown, the tennis scene.
o Page did some recordings around 1969 with American slide guitarist
John Fahey at Olympic Studios.
o The question of which Yardbird's songs featured both Page and Beck
was addressed by page in a 1977 interview in _Guitar_Player_. The
portions in square brackets were listed in the original article as
sources for the material.
"`Happenings Time Years Time Ago' [The Yardbirds' Greatest
Hits], `Stroll On' [Blow Up], `The Train Kept A-Rollin''
[Having A Rave-Up With The Yardbirds], and `Psycho Daisies'
[available only on the B side of the English single release
of `Happenings Ten Years Time Ago,' and an obscure bottleg
titled _More_Golden_Eggs_ (Trademark of Quality, TMQ-61003)],
`Bolero' [Truth], and a few other things. None of them were
with the Yardbirds, but earlier on just some studio things,
unreleased songs: `Louie Louie' and things like that; really
good though, really great."
Beck and Page are also both featured on the "Great Shakes" U.S.
radio commercial, while the "Roger The Enginner" album which has
both "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" and "Psycho Daises" on it has
recently been re-released.
o Another guitarist who uses a Gibson double-neck guitar is Slash,
the guitarist from Guns 'n' Roses, although his is a blue, navy
blue colour. His most notable use of it was on the version of
"Knockin' On Heaven's Door" that the band played at the Freddie
Mercury Tribute Concert that was subsequently released as a
single. Carlos Santana is apparently another who owns one of
these guitars, while one, possibly a replica, hangs in The Hard
Rock Cafe in New York.
o Succubus Music Inc. is the name of Jimmy's publishing company,
used since "Outrider". The name is taken from that of a demon,
one in the form of a woman who seeks to have carnal intercourse
with men. An incubus is the direct opposite of this. If anyone
meets one of these, please direct her to the compiler of this
document for a stern talking to.
o A picture of Jimmy appears in the book _Eight_Days_A_Week_, which
is a photographic history of rock. Jimmy is decked out in a
cowboy outfit for the photo, with a hat which looks several sizes
too small.
o Jimmy didn't attend the Gibson Guitars 100th Anniversary Show at
Wembley Stadium in 1994.
o A bootleg of outtakes from the "Outrider" album lists three tracks
originating from the Sol Studio in February 1987, "Judas Touch",
"Muddy Water Blues" and a cover of "Train Kept A-Rollin'". Paul
Rodgers later released a song called "Muddy Water Blues" with
Jason Bonham on drums.
o The following extract regarding Page is taken from Jim Miller's
_The_Rolling_Stone_Illustrated_History_of_Rock_n_Roll_, p. 457.
"...Page, in contrast to Cream's trio of superstars, grasped
the importance of crafting a cohesive ensemble. Taking his
cues from old Chess and Sun recordings, he used reverb and
echo to mold the band into a unit, always accenting the
bottom (bass and drums), always aiming at the biggest
possible sound. As a result, the best of Led Zeppelin's
records still sound powerful, whereas Cream tracks like
"White Room" sound pale and disjointed."
o Page was clearly not used to miming for videos when he made the
video that accompanied The Firm's "Satisfaction Guaranteed".
Jimmy himself admitted this, claiming he can never remember what
he was supposed to be playing, making the miming difficult.
o The February 1994 issue of _Guitar_World_ reported that Page was
featured in the book _Gibson_-_100_Years_Of_An_American_Icon_.
The book features more than 500 photographs of Gibson guitars
through the years in the hands of artists such as Robert Johnson,
Les Paul, Duane Allman, B.B. King, Slash, and Page.
o Page introduced "Black Dog" on every night of the 1980 tour, and
his erratic introductions indicate his fried and drug-affected
state of mind at the time.
o Jimmy is responsible for the "Little drops of rain" backing vocals
during the bridge in "Thank You". Page may also be the one doing
the "Ahhhh-uh-huh" parts near the end of "Gallows Pole". When the
band played live Jimmy infrequently did background vocals, most
notably on "Whole Lotta Love", and with a somewhat inconsistent
quality. Back in the studio, the "All right, all right" backing
vocals in "Candy Store Rock" sound as if they might be Page.
Other songs with Page on back vocals include "Your Time Is Gonna
Come", "Communication Breakdown", "Whole Lotta Love", "Living
Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman)", and possibly "Good Times Bad
Times" and "Baby Come On Home".
o Page made an uncredited appearance on an album by the Dubliners in
the early to mid 1960s.
o Page has only ever been recorded once singing lead vocals, and
that was on his 1965 solo single "She Just Satisfies", on which
he also plays most of the instruments, including harmonica. The
b-side, a song called "Keep Moving" which was co-written with
Barry Mason is arguably a better song. The vocals on "She Just
Satisifes", also written with Mason, do actually sound quite a
lot like Keith Relf, as does the harmonica, although most sources
claim that it was in fact Page singing. The song is available on
the Yardbird's bootleg "More Golden Eggs".
o In August 1998, Page joined Aerosmith onstage on at the Donington
Monsters of rock festival for a couple of songs, then two days
later he jammed with them again at the Marquee Club in London, in
a five song set which included "Immigrant Song". One of the tunes
they jammed on at Donington was "Train Kept A-Rollin'", and just
before the solo, Steven Tyler, Aerosmith's lead singer, yells
"Stroll on, Jimmy!" in reference to Page's participation in the
Yardbird's cover of "Train Kept A-Rollin'" with alternate lyrics,
"Stroll On", from the Antonioni film "Blow Up". Aerosmith are
noted Yardbirds fans and used to cover "Shapes Of Things" during
their shows.
o The first single Page ever played on, as opposed to the first hit
single he ever played on, was a session for Englebert Humperdinck.
John Paul Jones claims to have played on most of Englebert's
sessions, so he may well be on the track too. This question is
used occasionally in radio competitons.
o The first hit single Page played on was "Diamonds" by Jet Harris
and Tony Meehan.
o Page's daughter Scarlett attended the 1994 Led Zeppelin Convention
organised by Dave Lewis.
o Jimmy has reportedly said he wanted his new band in 1968 to be
something along the lines of Pentangle. That was until he heard
Bonham play, which changed his mind completely. Pentangle were a
1960's English group who played similar material to Fairport
Convention, but in a more traditional style. Several very well-
known musicians have come out of the band, including several major
influences on Page, Bert Jansch and John Renbourn. Another to
rise to fame in Pentangle was upright bassist Danny Thompson, who
has recently been playing with Richard Thompson, former Fairport
Convention member, and Indigo Girls.
o One of Page's classmates at Art College was Sandy Denny, who later
on became a singer for Fairport Convention and contributed vocals
to "The Battle Of Evermore".
o Former Fairport Convention member Dave Mattacks plays on Page's
"Deathwish II" soundtrack.
o The deleted, and withdrawn thanks to Page, Yardbird's album "Live
Yardbirds With Jimmy Page" has turned up again on a cd called
"Yardbirds Rare Concerts 1965-68".
o An interview cd with Page is available where he discusses the
trials and tribulations of making "The Song Remains The Same".
However, the sound quality is poor and the interview content is
not that interesting.
o Throughout his solo career, Page has written music that has
complimented his vocalists, all of which have been much less
versatile than Plant, and inhibited Jimmy in this way. For
example, the material he wrote with The Firm, such as
"Satisfaction Guaranteed" would not have worked with David
Coverdale, nor would "Whisper A Prayer For The Dying", from the
Coverdale/Page album, have worked with Paul Rodgers. Neither
of these two could cover the terrain that Plant does which goes
a long way to explaing why Jimmy's hasn't written songs like
"D'yer Mak'er", "The Rain Song" or "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You"
during his solo career. The plethora of vocalists on "Outrider",
three in fact, John Miles, Chris Farlowe, and Plant, may have
contributed to the unfocussed nature of the album. Robert Plant's
involvement was minimal anyway, Page gave him the song and asked
him to write some lyrics for it.
o At one of the Knebworth 1979 shows Page broke a string during
"Over The Hills And Far Away". Plant mutters something like "He
broke a string?" while Jimmy tries to continue, then gives up,
strums a G chord and smiles at the crowd.
o At a concert in 1970 Jimmy played a special solo as a tribute to
Jimi Hendrix, soon after the death of the latter.
o The following is one of the many, and in this case incorrect,
interpretations of what Jimmy's symbol from the fourth album
means. The first step pyramid in Egypt was created in the third
dynasty, under the rule of the Pharoah Zoser. The pyramid's name
is attributed to him in the same way most of the pyramids in Egypt
are known. The architect of this particular pyramid was a man
called Imhotep. All pyramids were considered to have an intensely
spiritual nature, as the burial place of kings. The early step
pyramids were considered to be stairways to heaven for the spirit
of the pharoah. Hence it follows, well it doesn't actually, but
never mind, that the centrepiece of the fourth album is the song
"Stairway To Heaven" and if Jimmy's synbol was a word, which it
isn't, it would be close to Zoser. Unfortunately, this is the
flaw in this theory, the symbol can't be pronounced as word. But
as Jimmy isn't telling us exactly what his symbol means, no-one
can say for sure what it means. However, there may be some sort
of Egyptian content in its meaning, as Jimmy is known to have
visited Egypt and been interested in the pyramids, plus Aleister
Crowley was the conduit for what he considered to be some of the
most significant knowledge he ever had access to while in Cairo
from his guardian angel Aiswass. It was there that he wrote "The
Book Of Law" from the dictation of that particular angel.
o Another theory on the infamous "ZoSo" symbol is that it is in
fact, nothing more than a smiling face with eyes, a nose and a
mouth. This is said to tie in with the supposed deep and
meaningless ideology of the band, in that it looks complicated
and mysterious, but probably means nothing.
o A few excerpts from the book _On_Tour_With_Led_Zeppelin_ make for
amusing reading. In 1978 in _NME_ Nick Kent reported that Page
had suddenly and for no apparent reason flown to Cairo, possibly
because he saw UFOs on his tv screen. The following extract is
from a 1978 interview.
"Another current favourite is the one about Pagey enjoying a
spot of television viewing, suddenly seeing UFOs on the
screen, grabbing his toothbrush and tearing off to Cairo,
presumably for a rendezvous with little green men."
Page's response to this is fairly predictable.
"That's because somebody didn't really read what I'd said,
and they were just being bloody stupid."
The rumour was aired again in an interview the following year
with some more detail.
"We talk about Egypt for a minute or two. Page's trip to
Cairo had, indeed, been the subject of some quite splendid
rumours. On the first leg, I think it was, of that last
ill-fated Led Zeppelin US tour, it was said that one night
he'd been watching TV when the screen became filled with
flashing lines. Immediately, so the tale went, he cancelled
the next dates and flew off to Egypt."
All this makes for just one more bizarre rumour to add to the
collection. The time this is supposed to have taken place is in
May 1977. Dave Lewis lists Page's visit to Cairo as being for
a mid-tour break.
o Jimmy's reunion with Robert Plant at the 1994 Alexis Korner
benefit concert was not the first time he had performed at an
Alexis Korner show. He also performed at a show on 6/5/84 along
with Ruby Turner, Jack Bruce, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Charlie Watts,
John Paul Jones, Ian Stewart, accompanied by a horn section. The
show was broadcast by Radio Trent and it is from that telecast
that the bootleg "Jimmy Page And Friends", from the show at the
Nottingham Palais, comes from. The concert is also on 2 albums
of the 10 album set "Strange Tales From The Road".
o Page has only played with Beck a handful of times on record, but
more frequently live. When Paul Samwell-Smith quit the Yardbirds,
Page replaced him on bass, and then swapped with rhythm guitarist
Chris Dreja, playing dual lead guitar with Jeff Beck. He also
appears, along with John Paul Jones, on the Page composed track,
although Beck disputes this, "Beck's Bolero" on Beck's "Truth"
album. More recently Page played with Beck at the induction of
the Yardbirds into the Rock 'n Roll Hall Of Fame. Only a handful
of Yardbirds recordings feature both Beck and Page, "Stroll On",
"Happenings Ten Years Time Ago", "Psycho-Daisies", "Beck's
Bolero" (from Truth), and "Great Shakes America", a jingle that
was released on "Little Games Sessions And More". On the
Honeydrippers and Box of Frogs albums they appear on different
tracks.
o Page, Clapton and Beck all played together on the ARMS benefit,
including jamming on Clapton's "Layla". Page by himself played
"Prelude", "Who's To Blame", "City Sirens", and "Stairway To
Heaven" before joining Beck and Clapton for "Layla", "Tulsa Time",
and "Goodnight Irene". The three also played on the four date
ARMS tour of the USA. Page added a composition he was working on
at the time with Paul Rodgers, later to become "Midnight
Moonlight", and had Clapton and Beck join him for the solo in
"Stairway To Heaven".
o Page jammed with Clapton at Guildford Hall on May 24, 1983,
during a Clapton concert there, which wasn't bootlegged.
o In a curious move, Page had Durban LaVerde overdub all of Tony
Franklin's bass parts on "Outrider".
o One of the most unusual theories on the meaning of Page's "ZoSo"
symbol is that it was taken from the name for Curious George The
Monkey, a famous character in Eglish children's books who was
known as Zoso. The adventures of George stem from his name, his
innate curiosity, although when he got into unfortunate situations
he was always saved by a Ranger. What the connection might be
with Jimmy Page though is unclear, and as "ZoSo" is not actually
a word, this theory can also be consigned to the ever-growing pile
of discredited ideas.
o The source of Page's red and blue ZoSo sweater is unknown, it may
well have been a gift from a fan, but judging from the pictures of
him in it, it looks a fraction too small.
o Page didn't play on any of the recordings Clapton made with John
Mayall's Bluesbreakers, but he did produce both songs on their
first single, "Telephone Blues"/"I'm Your Witchdoctor". At the
same session "Double Crossing Time" was also recorded, and Page is
reasonably certain that this was the version that ended up on the
classic "Beano" album, even though he is not credited on the album
sleeve. He was credited on the single though. The Mayall and
Clapton Bluesbreakers recordings are now the stuff of legend,
with Jimmy crediting Clapton as being the first to marry the Les
Paul guitar with the Marshall amplifier to create the "fat" sound
that has become a rock trademark. Jimmy's contribution to the
proceedings is the echo-laden production which brings out the best
in Mayall's falsetto vocals and Clapton's guitar. Jimmy did
however, reportedly, play bass on some Immediate recordings of the
period. Richie Yorke's biography also claims that Page produced
the Bluesbreakers song "On Top Of The World", although this is
somewhat uncertain.
o The cd "The Early Eric Clapton Collection" features seven tracks
on which Page and Clapton are listed as having played together
in the "Immediate All-Stars". All seven of these songs are
instrumentals and according to the liner notes all of the songs
recorded by this combination were instrumental. These are the
frequently copied and redistributed Page/Clapton jams that were
released by the Immediate label much to the chagrin of Page and
particularly Clapton. Also featured on the cd are three
Bluesbreakers tracks, including the two produced by Page for
their first single, and "On Top Of The World", as well as some
Yardbirds era material.
o On the track "Tulsa Time" on the ARMS concert video during the
Clapton/Beck/Page jam, the very country sounding solos were
inadvertently blemished by Andy Fairweather-Low backing onto
Page's volume pedal.
o Two more cd's featuring early Page material are "British Blues
Heroes", the first of which is based on Jeff Beck and features
Jimmy on a couple of tracks. The second is based on Clapton and
features 3 or 4 tracks with Page.
o The early Page Immediate outtake "Miles Road" is named after the
location of Jimmy's parent's house.
o "Miles Road", "Freight Loader", "Choker", "Draggin' My Tail",
"West Coast Idea", "Tribute To Elmore" and "Snake Drive" were all
recorded on a two-track reel-to-reel deck in Eric Clapton's
mother's house in the drawing room, in London. The jams took
place in the period when Clapton was between stints with the
Yardbirds and Mayall's Bluesbreakers. These were later released
by Immediate Records, who Page was working for at the time, who
claimed that they had the rights to anything Jimmy had recorded,
and asked him to tidy them up a bit for release. Clapton, now
along with Page a "marketable name" was furious about this, and
felt that was Page was responsible. Page claims that he had to
hand over the tapes or he would be sued by Immediate, since they
decided that the tapes were their rightful property. Clapton,
however, didn't buy this story, despite Page also being upset that
the jams were released too, and this virtually destroyed their
close friendship. The relationship was not really healed until
their appearances together on the 1983 ARMS benefit shows.
o The rest of the personnel involved in the many Page/Clapton jams
that have surfaced, may include luminaries such as Mick Jagger
playing harmonica on one or more tracks.
o Page is featured in the book "Koenige des Griffbretts" a German
publication about guitar heroes, also featuring Duane Allman and
Albert Lee. The section on Jimmy is nearly 50 pages long and
looks at his pre-Zeppelin session work in some depth. It is
unfortunate that there is no English translation available.
o Page has recorded a large amount of material with Roy Harper over
the years. He features on all the tracks on Harper's "Whatever
Happened To Jugula?", the song "Same Old Rock" on the "Stormcock"
album, and a handful of the song on the live "Flashes From The
Archives Of Oblivion" album. Page plays both acoustic and
electric on the latter. The "Lifemask" album also features Page
on some tracks, including the 20 minute epic "The Lord's Prayer".
Some other notable musicians that have appeared with Harper
include John Paul Jones, Bill Bruford, David Gilmour, Keith Moon,
Kate Bush and Tony Franklin amongst others.
o The chair used by Page for "White Summer/Black Mountain Side" on
the Coverdale/Page tour looks very similar to one he used when
touring with Zeppelin.
o Page is one of the people thanked on Adrian VanDenberg's album,
imaginatively entitled, "VanDenberg".
o Inevitably, over the years Page's dexterity has diminshed somewhat
and the "fluttery" style and flexibility his left hand used to
have seems to have deteriorated. The broken finger which Page
suffered in 1975, may be troubling him, as he may be suffering
arthritis from lingering damage caused by that mishap, which
was probably accentuated by him keeping playing on that tour.
Another possible source of trouble for Page may be hinted at by
his admission that he didn't play guitar for nearly a year after
Bonham died. While this may be an exaggeration, a prolonged
absence from playing, and then playing again regularly might have
increased the likelihood of getting arthritis in his previously
broken finger.
o Jimmy has two children, Scarlett from a relationship during the
1970s, and a son James from his marriage during the 1980s which
ended around 1994/95 and in _People_ was said to be leading to a
a custody battle between Jimmy and his ex-wife for custody of
James. A story doing the rounds at the time "Outrider" when
Jimmy was happily married has been told by Jon Miles. Jimmy was
late for a rehearsal, and upon ringing him up at home Jimmy's wife
said in her Louisiana accent that "Jimmy cain't come to the phone
right now, he chaingin' the baby's nappy".
o It was widely reported around the time of "Unledded" that one of
the tasks Page had assigned to his publicist was to break in any
new shoes he might acquire. Additionally, those working for Page
and Plant were assigned all sorts of menial tasks such as going
out and buying cds for them.
o Page joined the Yardbirds in controversial circumstances. Going
backstage after a particularly anarchic gig, he found bassplayer
Paul Samwell-Smith on the verge of leaving and suggesting that
singer Keith Relf depart with him. In the end Relf stayed, but
Samwell-Smith, an original member, left. Page, at the time
feeling his creativity was blunted by session work, offered his
services to the band. So, in July 1966, more than month after
Samwell-Smith quit in May 1996, Page joined the Yardbirds on the
second offer. He turned down an offer to join the band when Eric
Clapton left, feeling it would be unfriendly to Eric, so he
suggested Jeff Beck. Page spent a week acclimatising himself to
the bass before joining. However his position on bass seemed
uncertain as he admitted that he and Beck had trialled a dual-
guitar lineup in the studio in late 1966. Page was officially on
bass when the band recorded "Stroll On", however the second guitar
part does not sound like Dreja, unless he had drastically improved
overnight, so there remains some uncertainty as to what Page did
in fact play on that track. The reason for the relabelling of
"Train Kept A-Rollin'" was that the publisher demanded more money
from director Michaelangelo Antonioni than he thought it was
worth, so Relf rewrote the lyrics. By the end of 1966, Beck's
increasing unreliability led to Page's move to lead guitar and
Dreja's relocation to bass.
o The ARMS concert video which features Page has been released by
M.I.A. under the alternative title "Rock Legends Part II". The
video is exactly the same as the ARMS concert video, except the
packaging of course. The interview is the same, where each of the
three guitarists say who they enjoy playing with the most at the
concert.
Jeff Beck : "Jimmy!"
Jimmy Page : "Jeff!"
Eric Clapton : "Jimmy and Jeff!"
o According to notorious groupie, and recently tell-all author Pam
DesBarres, Page's daughter Scarlett was at one point going to join
a convent. This revelation appeared in her book "I'm With The
Band". Scarlett has been more recently spotted at Yale, and is
now reportedly a photographer in London. The gossip column in
_Q_ magazine reported that she was at the "Unledded" tapings as
a photographer.
o The encore of The Firm's "Mean Business" tour was "You've Lost
That Loving Feeling". An unusual choice.
o The first couple of chords of The Firm's "Midnight Moonlight" bear
a vague resemblance to "Wonderful One" from "Unledded".
o The ARMS video captures a moment of inspired playing from Page,
where in one move he changes from the 12 string to the 6 string
on his double-neck guitar, switches pickups, switches the active
neck, and adjusts both volumes in one fluid process.
o Chorused and multi-tracked guitars were primarily an invention of
Jimmy Page.
o Jimmy's main guitar is a 1958 Les Paul Standard, in a flame-top
finish. The guitar has no serial number, and various changes have
been made to it over the years. The back pickup cover is chrome
instead of nickel, and it has gold Grover tuning heads, and a
white selector cap in place of the original parts.
o Jimmy's 1959 Les Paul Standard, also a flame-top finish, was a
gift from Joe Walsh. Its neck has been shaved to give it a
similar profile to his 1958 Les Paul. Further modifications have
been made beneath the lower edge of the scratchplate, where two
spring loaded buttons have been installed. One is for setting
the pickups to serial or parallel, while the other is for
alternating between ordinary and phased guitar sound. The regular
pots have been discarded in favour of two push/pulls that provide
coil tapping on either pickups, and the feature of offering all
four coils in parallel. These modifications were undertaken by
Page's guitar technician, Steve Hoyland.
o Page's Sixties Danelectro was assembled from the parts of two
different Danelectros, and also features a retro-fitted Badass
bridge. This guitar is made from masonite, of all things, and
has concentric volume volume/tone controls.
o Page's legendary doubleneck is really not that unusual. It is
quite cumbersome though, featuring a 6 and a 12 string neck. The
guitar differs from the standard SG in that it is obviously wider
and has a better sustain. Each neck has a volume and tone control
knob, but there is only one pickup selector, which is used with
both necks. The guitar also has a selector switch for having one
or both necks active on the guitar's circuit. To produce some
sympathetic resonances Page usually had both necks active.
o All of Page's electric guitars are strung with light gauge Ernie
Ball Super Slinky Strings.
o Page made a very brief appearance on the documentary "The History
Of Rock 'n Roll By The People Who Made It", which was screen in
Australia on November 3, 1995. Page's appearance, all of five
seconds in the guitar hero section where he was shown saying,
"It's amazing what you can do with six strings," or words to that
effect, was accompanied with some dramatic footage of his violin
bow solo from "The Song Remains The Same."
o This list is by no means comprehensive, but is a listing of some
of the people who Page either player sessions for, or appeared on
their albums, at various stages of his career from session man to
established star. Herman's Hermits and Donovan are not included
because Page has claimed, with some evidence to support him, that
he didn't play on any of the records of either of these artists.
The long running debate over whether Page plays on Donovan's
"Hurdy Gurdy Man" can be settled, as Page says he was in the USA
at the time and it was Alan Parker, the guitarist with Blue Mink,
that did the session. In the case of Herman's Hermits it is less
clear cut. Mutterings of legal action may have made Page rather
secretive and there is a chance he did play on their records.
Brenda Lee, Sonny Boy Williamson, Brian Poole And The
Tremeloes, Dave Berry, Everly Brothers, The Pretty Things,
Tom Jones, Lulu And The Luvvers, The Kinks, John Mayall,
John Williams, Them, Twice As Much, Chris Farlowe, The
Who, Crispian St. Peters, The Yardbirds, Jeff Beck, P.J.
Proby, Cartoone, Family Dogg, Joe Cocker, Al Stewart,
Screaming Lord Sutch, Roy Harper, Maggie Bell, Dave Barry,
Jet Harris And Tony Meehan, Robert Plant, Steve Stills, The
Firm, Willie And The Poor Boys, John Paul Jones, The Rolling
Stones, Box Of Frogs, Mannish Boys And Davey Jones, Carter
Lewis And The Southerners, Neil Christian And The Crusaders,
The Redcaps, Mickie Most, The Brooks, Mickey Finn And The
Pills, Neil Christian, The First Gear, Billy Fury, Wayne
Gibson And The Dynamic Sound, The Sneekers, The Primitives,
Pat Wayne And The Beachcombers, The Lancastrians, The
Zephyrs, Judi Smith, The Outsiders, Nico, The Masterminds,
Bobby Graham, The Fifth Avenue, Glyn Johns, Gregory Phillips,
Jimmy Tarbuck, Twice As Much, Les Fleurs De Lys, Mickey Finn
And The Blue Men, Jackie DeShannon, The Dubliners, Paul Anka,
Petula Clark, Cliff Richard, Johnny Hallyday, Burt Bacharch,
Chris Ravel And The Ravers, Dave Berry And The Cruisers,
Mickie Most And The Gear, The Pickwicks, The Blue Rondos, The
Talisman, Mickie Most And The Most Brothers, The Untamed,
Scott McKay Quintet, Sean Buckley And The Breadcrumbs,
Philamore Lincoln, Val Doonican, The Authentics, Brian Howard
And The Silhouettes, Led Zeppelin.
o At age 17, Jimmy occasionally jammed with British blues legend
Cyril Davies. It was at one of these jams that producer Mike
Leander offered Jimmy some session work.
o Jimmy was not the first person to use a violin bow with a guitar,
that honour goes to Eddie Phillips of Creation, one of the bands
managed by Shel Talmy, whom Page worked for.
o During their 1966/67 tour The Yardbirds played and jammed with
local bands in the areas they passed through. One such artist was
Fort Worth local-legend Scotty McKay, a musician with a career
that stretched back to the 1950s. McKay and his band impressed
The Yardbirds so much that Jim McCarty later produced a single
with him, "I Can't Make Your Way", with The Yardbirds, and sold
it to EMI, although whether this features Page is unknown. McKay
also recorded a version of "The Train Kept A-Rollin'", and mailed
it to Page, who overdubbed a jaw-dropping solo and returned it.
This single is incredibly obscure, mainly because it was only
pressed locally.
o Some further info on the B-String Bender, invented by Gene Parsons
and Clarence White, that Page used throughout his career with
Zeppelin and right up to the current day. The information is from
_The_Guitar_Handbook_.
"Also known as a "pull-string', this is a mechanical system
of levers and springs which allows you to raise the pitch of
the top E or B strings, according to type. It simulates some
pedal-steel guitar techniques. The rods and springs are
fitted into a cavity in the guitar body, and a pivoting arm
is connected to the string at the bridge. A second arm is
attached to the strap button, so that pushing down on the
guitar at this point raises the pitch by a tone. Palm pedals
such as those made by Bigsby also allow you to raise one or
two notes without affecting others, whereas a tremolo arm
alters the pitch of all six strings."
Page recently used this during "Thank You" for the "Unledded"
special.
o The "No Introduction Necessary" album, recently re-released on cd
as "Jimmy Page & Albert Lee", also features John Paul Jones on
bass. Page and Lee do not apparently both play on any one song,
and the ones Page played on are uncertain. The rest of the band
is Clem Cattini, drums, Nicky Hopkins, piano, Chris Hughes, sax,
and Jim Sullivan, guitar.
o The material Page recorded with blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson
has been frequently bootleged over the years. The other personnel
on the album were, Brain Auger, keyboards, Joe Harriott, sax, Alan
Skidmore, sax, Mickey Waller, drums, and Sonny Boy Williamson II
on vocals.
o The triple-necked guiar Jimmy used on "Unledded" was made by
Ovation, but where their triple necks usually go, mandolin, 6
string, then 12 string, Jimmy's goes, mandolin, 12 string, then 6
string.
o Page was the producer when Clapton was recording "I'm Your
Witchdoctor", and the somewhat older engineer, who was used to
recording big bands and orchestras and was bewildered by Clapton's
use of distortion and feedback made the famous comment that "This
guy is unrecordable!" Page had to convince him that he'd take
full responsiblity for the session to put his mind at ease.
o The original Led Zeppelin, the idea for which was formed at the
session for "Beck's Bolero" was Page on acoustic guitar, Beck
on lead guitar, Keith Moon, then unhappy with The Who, on drums,
and not John Paul Jones, on bass, but Jon Entwistle, as suggested
by Moon. Stevie Winwood was the suggested vocalist but after they
found out that he was unavilable, still heavily comitted to
Traffic, they tried getting in touch with Steve Marriott. A
message came back from his camp that said, "How would you like to
play guitar with broken fingers? You will be if you don't stay
away from Stevie". After that the idea pretty much died, until
Page put together his own version of the band. It was at this
time that the famous naming incident with Keith Moon occurred.
o Page worked out how to play pedal-steel guitar specially for
"Your Time Is Gonna Come".
o When Keith Richards went to see Zeppelin play he remarked to Page
that, "You ought to get another guitarist; you're rapidly becoming
known as the most overworked guitarist in the business."
o In 1975, Page got together with Keith Richards and Rick Grech and
recorded a song called "Scarlet".
o At June 1984 tribute concert for bluesman Alexis Korner, a band of
Jimmy Page, Jack Bruce, Charlie Watts, Ian Stewart, Paul Young and
Ruby Turner, performed as The Alexis Light Orchestra. The
performance was broadcast on Radio Trent.
o Original Rolling Stone the late Brian Jones recorded a soundtrack
for the film "A Degree Of Murder" which featured his then
girlfriend Anita Pallenberg. Amongst the people who played on
the album were Jimmy Page and Nicky Hopkins, both recruited to the
project by Glyn Johns.
o According to Rolling Stones biographer Phillip Norman, Page was
one of the candidates considered to replace Mick Taylor when he
left the band.
o Page says his motivation to visit Morocco came from the
encouragement of William Burroughs, who he did an interview with
discussing the hypnotic power of rock and how it related to Arabic
music in _Crawdaddy_ magazine.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.3 - The Omnipresent Force : John Paul Jones
o John Baldwin was born on January 3, 1946, in Sidcup, Kent,
England.
o John's first experience of playing music was playing the organ in
a church choir as a child. He reprised his talents on the organ
for the song "Your Time Is Gonna Come" on the debut album.
o John Paul Jones released a solo single entitled "Baja" produced by
Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham. The flipside entitled
"A Foggy Day In Vietnam" does not feature Jones and is thought to
instead feature several members of the Rolling Stones.
o Jones is responsible for the string arrangements on the Rolling
Stones song "She's A Rainbow" from the album "Their Satanic
Majesties Request." "2000 Light Years From Home", from the same
album, also has a string section so it seems likely that Jones
did that arrangement for that as well.
o Jones composed a piece called "Maastricht Time", which was
performed by the Mondrian Quarter at the New Zealand Music
Festival in 1993.
o Jones and the band found touring with Jethro Tull a rather
tiresome experience, Jones calling Tull's Ian Anderson "...a pain
in the ass." Page labelled their live performance as "Jethro Dull"
and Bonham suggested Tull should make an album called "Bore 'Em At
The Forum."
o Jones wrote an opera "The Happy Prince" in 1992, with some help
from Manu Katche and Red Byrd.
o Amonsgt the bewildering variety of things Jonesy has worked on
since Zep split up is Macondo, a composition he wrote for steel
drummer Ricardo Gallandro Maconda.
o At one point in the 1970's Jones approached Peter Grant about
leaving the band as he was sick of Page and Plant getting all the
attention. It dawned on him that perhaps he didn't necessarily
want all the baggage that went with that and he continued with the
band.
o The variety of instruments Jones played in the studio and on the
road is staggering. Clavinet, mellotron, bass, organ, keyboards,
triple necked guitar with one six string guitar, a twelve string
and a mandolin as well as pedals in combination with this, bass
and keyboards. The triple necked guitar was used on "Ten Years
Gone". Jones also sang backing vocals live, notably on "The
Battle Of Evermore."
o Jones once described a rendition of "Kashmir" the band did where
he claimed they got completely lost in the song. The point where
it all started to go awry was where the song changes and he was
responsible for giving the onstage cues. They were saved by
Bonzo who launched into a drum solo, and the band picked up again
when he finished the solo and played the song out. The
performance was at Zurich in 1980 and appears on the bootleg
"Silver Coated Rails" complete with some explanation from Plant
to prospective bootleggers that Jonesy had messed up during the
song.
o In early concerts the loudness of Jones amps was partially
designed to cover up when Plant forgot the words, something he has
been known to do on occasion.
o A John Paul Jones gets a credit for involvement in the music for
the film "Splash" although it is hard to say whether it is the JPJ
from Led Zeppelin or someone else with the same name.
o Jones recorded a soundtrack album for the film "Scream for Help"
which also features Page on the songs "Spaghetti Junction" and
"Crackback".
o Jones involvement in the Peter Gabriel album "Us" was apparently
much more exentsive than was eventually released. He is listed
as having contributed to "Fourteen Black Paintings", and some more
of his work may appear on "Plus From Us", an album of extra
material from the people who contributed to Gabriel's "Us" album.
o Jonesy made a guest appearance playing bass on the Butthole
Surfers album "Independent Worm Saloon." Ironic considering the
band has a song called "Hairway To Steven." Jones not only
produced this album, but also played some bass on it as well.
o The only time Jones has jammed with either of the remaining
Zeppelin members outside the various reunions was on Plant's first
solo tour, on December 4, 1983 at Colston Hall in Bristol. Jones
apparently made some negative comments about the experience to
Page afterwards. Of course, Jimmy appeared on two tracks on
Jones' soundtrack to the film "Scream For Help." But apart from
these two things, the reunions and the choice of songs for the
1990 box set he has had little to do with his former bandmates.
Although more recently he jammed with them again at the induction
of Led Zeppelin into the rock'n'roll hall of fame.
o Jones produced Raging Slab's "Dynamite Monster Boogie Concert"
album.
o For some time now Jones has been rumoured to be working very
slowly on a solo album.
o Jones appears to have a very offbeat sense of humour, frequently
giving very bizarre answers to questions during interviews. One
interesting case is where Jonesy jokingly proclaimed in _Rolling_
_Stone_ that Bob Dylan's songwriting was slacking because he had
found Jesus. Months later Dylan announced that for real and
released "Slow Train Coming."
o Keith Emerson was the lucky recipient of a gift from Jones once,
Jones giving him his GX-1 synthesizer. Emerson later related how
it had packed up and died him, rendered totally useless. It was
used though, such as for the Emerson Lake and Palmer song
"Fanfare For The Common Man."
o On several Zeppelin songs Jones uses a mellotron, which was
basically the first sampler. They're primitive by today's
standards and required extreme amounts of skill and patience to
get anything useful from. The most interesting feature of the
mellotron was it's use of samples, which were recorded on tape,
causing a huge amount of problems to do with rewinding,
durability, speed variations, the fragility of the unit, and a
susceptibility to endless technical problems, meaning it was handy
to have a technician around to fix it all the time. Apart from
Zeppelin, the Moody Blues also used a mellotron, notably on their
song "Knights In White Satin." Despite all it's shortcomings, the
mellotron did have a very good string sound, which is why it is
still used occasionally, and emulated, such as on the U2 song
"One."
o Jones appears on the album "No Introduction Necessary" along with
Jimmy Page, Nicky Hopkins, the pianist for the Rolling Stones
during some of their tours in the mid-seventies, Clem Catinni, the
leading session drummer during the 1960s, Chris Hughes, who
produced and played on Plant's "Fate Of Nations", Keith de Groot,
Albert Lee, and Jim Sullivan.
o Jones's symbol has been seen on the cover of a book about the
Rosicrucians, a religious cult in the middle ages which was of
some interest to Aleister Crowley and his fellow members of the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, such as Westcott.
o In the early stages of the band's career, Jones would appear to be
the only group member fluent in reading and writing sheet music.
He would also have needed this skill to do his previous string
arrangements, such as on the Yardbirds song "Little Games".
o One of the most obvious edits in "The Song Remains The Same" film
is in "Whole Lotta Love" where Jones's shirt changes, clearly
showing he didn't wear the same shirt at each concert. Not to
mention the section at the end where he takes off his bass twice.
o On February 20, 1994, BBC 1 aired an hour or so of Zeppelin
related material recorded during BBC sessions. This included an
interview with Jones which went something like this.
Interviewer : So John Paul Jones, you are the keyboardist
with Led Zeppelin and you also do some
arranging?
Jones : No.
Interviewer : OK, so you are the main composer and arranger
with Led Zeppelin?
Jones : No.
Interviewer : Well, what are you then?
Jones : I'm a bass player and arranger.
Interviewer : Damn, perhaps we should start this interview
again.
This is apparently indicative of Jones wacky sense of humour. A
similar type of interview was conducted in the short lived
_Keyboard_Player_ magazine.
o Jones made an appearance with Lenny Kravitz, playing bass at the
1994 MTV awards. The reason for his appearance was that Lenny's
regular bass player had quit shortly beforehand and, Lenny, very
roughly paraphrased, thought that "Why not get the person who you
were trying to copy?"
o The reason for Jones's change of surname from Baldwin, is unclear,
nor is a vague date known for when he did this.
o Jones did the string arrangements for the songs "Drive",
"Everybody Hurts", and "Nightswimming", on R.E.M.'s "Automatic For
The People" album.
o Jonesy was responsible for the string arrangements on Cinderella's
"Heartbreak Station" album, for "Winds Of Change" and the title
track.
o A project of Jones's that has recieved several awards was his
original soundtrack for the adult animation "The Secret Adventures
Of Tom Thumb". The animation is about an hour long and belongs in
the horror genre.
o Less certain is Jones's involvement on an ancient Christmas single
called "The Man From Nazareth" which supposedly features Jones
doing the commentary. A short exceprt from this appeared on BBC's
"Tops Of The Pops" in a worst pop songs segment titled "TV Hell".
o In 1994 John Paul Jones teamed up with Diamanda Galas, playing
bass on her album "The Sporting Life" and co-writing some of the
material. The pair toured later in the year as well. A video was
made for the single "Do You Take This Man" which featues Jones
playing a six string bass. Galas's previous work centred around
the theme of AIDS and subsequent deaths from it, after her brother
and some of her friends succumbed to the disease. The album with
Jones is available on the Mute label and features him playing
bass, and keyboards, as well as producing it. Interestingly,
there are no guitars on the album whatsoever. The drummer was
Pete Thomas, from Elvis Costello's Attractions. Galas described
it as "A collection of homicidal love songs". One of Jonesy's
comments was "With a voice like Diamanda's, a guitar would simply
be a cosmetic device". Diamanda has a rather frightening 3 octave
range to her voice which she uses to full effect on the album. An
amusing picture of Galas and Jones in a car, with JPJ driving,
appeared in a 1994 issue of _Musician_. Some of Galas's previous
albums were titled "Litanies Of Satan" and "Saint Of The Pit",
while one of her songs from "Litanies Of Satan" was called "Wild
Women With Steak Knives (The Homicidal Love Song For Solo
Scream)".
o In 1994 _Rolling_Stone_ reported that Jones was doing some work
with Michael Penn. Jones' role in this case being that of
producer, although this material has yet to surface.
o 1994 was a busy year for Jones, he was also involved with playing
and producing a live album from Heart, which was recored in
Seattle at The Backstage club, a 500 seat venue, over five nights.
Jones played mandolin on most of the tracks, but on a few he
played piano and at different times, bass, one of which was "What
Is And What Should Never Be".
o In the summer of 1993 a DJ on a Boston radio station told an
amusing, and supposedly true story, about Jones' visit to a music
shop in New York City while there on a promotional tour recently.
Jones reportedly walked into the shop and was inspecting some of
the older equipment at the rear of the shop when a young store
salesperson approached him, and not recognising him, asked if he
could be of assistance. Upon noticing that Jones was interested
in older equipment he said, "Yeah this stuff is dated, but it's
great, bands like the Stones and Led Zeppelin used this stuff all
the time". According to the story, Jones left the store laughing
his head off.
o John Renbourn was amongst the several people who contributed to
Jones's "Scream For Help" soundtrack. Jones later ended up
producing Renbourn's 1987 album "The Three Kingdoms".
o On Zeppelin's final tour Jones used a Yamaha GX-1 synthesizer, as
well as on "In Through The Out Door", an instrument the size of
an upright piano, that is notoriously unreliable.
o Jonesy's main bass is a 1962 Fender Jazz. This bass was used from
his days with Jet Harris & Tony Meehan right up until the mid
1970s. He also used a Fender fretless upright bass for playing
songs like "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" live for a time. He also used a
standard fretless bass, non-upright, bass. In 1976 he got some
new basses from Rick Baker, which are Alembic copies, and are
frequently mis-identified as such. One was an 8 string, which was
used on "Nobody's Fault But Mine" and "Achilles Last Stand", while
the other was a standard four string. These were deployed on the
1977 and 1980 tours, and with a lot less rounder tone than his
jazz bass, on earlier material such as "Black Dog" he had a much
increased presence. 8 string basses are not very common, a noted
user being Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament, who also has a twelve string
bass, with three groups of four strings. At Live Aid Jones used a
1952 Fender Telecaster bass, while he returned to the old jazz
bass for the Atlantic 40th Anniversary Reunion, Jason Bonham's
wedding, and the MTV Awards performance with Lenny Kravitz.
Jones most notable other guitar is the triple necked monster he
had custom built with pedals for performances of "Ten Years Gone"
on the 1977 and 1979 tours. The guitar has piezo pickups which
were still farily new at the time and were very trebly, which can
be heard on various bootlegs.
o Jones uses Hecro Grey bass picks.
o Among the keyboards he has used over the years are a Hammond C3
Organ, a Hohner Clavinet, a Fender Rhodes, a Mellotron 216, and a
Mellotron 400, a Yamaha GX1 Organ and a Yamaha GP 70B electric
grand piano.
o At the time it was claimed that John Paul Jones was ill when he
was absent from the sessions in November 1973. However, it later
transpired that Jones was seriously considering quitting the group
to take up a position as choirmaster at Winchester Cathedral.
Peter Grant strongly urged Jones to stay with the group and to
give him some time to sort out his affairs Jones took a break for
a few weeks. The uncertainty regarding his future is supposed to
have come about because Jones was overwrought from the incessant
tours the group embarked upon. Jones later decided not to quit
and resumed with the band at Headley Grange in early 1974.
o Jonesy composed the theme music to the award winning BBC serial
Odysseus.
o In 1986 Jones wrote an organ piece fpr Christopher Bowers-
Broadbent.
o Jones contributed an instrumental to the Opal label's Music For
Films compilation in 1989.
o This is a list, by no means comprehensive, of artists and groups
that John Paul Jones has worked with from his early session days
right up until the present time.
Jeff Beck, Madeline Bell, Dave Berry, Donovan, Downliner's
Sect, Family Dogg, Diamanda Galas, Graham Gouldman, Roy
Harper, Herman's Hermits, Jobriah, John Paul Jones, Ben E.
King, Lulu And The Luvvers, Paul McCartney And Wings, The
Mission, Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra, P.J. Proby, The
Rolling Stones, Del Shannon, Dusty Springfield, Rod Stewart,
The Mighty Avengers, Billy Nicholls And The Mockingbirds,
The Yardbirds, Marc Bolan, Greenbeats, High Society,
Manchester Mob, Tony Meehan, The Mindbenders, Paul And Barry
Ryan, Marianne Faithfull, Burt Bacharach, Etta James, Tom
Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, Kathy Kirby, The Walker
Brothers, The Everly Brothers, Champion Jack Dupree, Led
Zeppelin, Heart, The Lovemongers.
o Jones put in some stage appearance in early 1991 with Red Byrd.
o Jones was behind the movie soundtrack for the 1993 film "Risk".
o Jonesy's symbol from the fourth album was taken from a book of
runes and symbolises a person with confidence and competence. It
shares the common characterisitc with Bonham's symbol of having
trisected ovals, termed "yonics", which are in opposite aspects
on the two symbols, indicating that the two symbols reflect two
very different people.
o In 1982, Jones taught Electronic Composition at Dartingnton
College of Arts, Devon.
o Jones appears on Paul McCartney's "Give My Regards To Broad
Street", playing bass on the track "Ballroom Dancing".
o Jones composed a trombone piece for Jim Fulkerson, for the
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 1984. The piece
was titled "Showdown".
o 1990 was a busy year for Jones. He did the string arrangements
on Cinderella's "Heartbreak Station", produced La Sura Dels Baus's
"Noun" album, produced an album for his daughter Jacinda, set up
a 32 track digital electronic studio near Bath, and a was
commissioned to come up with a one hour duration multimedia show,
Memory Palace, for Art Futura at the Seville Expo in 1992.
o Jones composed and produced a multimedia show for a Mercedes Benz
launch in 1991, as well as scoring a computer animation piece for
Rebecca Allen, of Aimatica Spain.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.4 - The Engine Room : John Bonham
o John Henry Bonham was born on May 31, 1948 in Redditch,
Worcestershire, England.
o Bonzo married Pat at 17, whom he met a dance. They had two
children, Jason and Zoe.
o Bonham's explosive power and endurance may well have come from his
days as a hod carrier on building sites.
o At one stage Bonzo owned 21 cars.
o A notorious episode involving John Bonham was when he walked into
the Rainbow in Los Angeles and ordered 20 Black Russians, drank
them all quickly in succession and left.
o Another incident saw Bonzo ride a Harley Davidson motorcycle
through the lobby of the Hyatt House Hotel in Los Angeles.
o The hot rod John Bonham drives in "The Song Remains The Same" was
originally imported by Jeff Beck in 1969 before being sold to
Bonham. It is a "Blown Model T" with a 500bhp Chevy Engine, 1932
Ford dropped beam, 1942 Ford front drums, 1962 Chevy rear axle,
Convair steering boxes and a Holeshot torque converter. The car
was nicknamed "The Boston Strangler."
o Jimmy has said that Bonzo was the reason the band had to buy
bigger amps.
o When tempers flared in the band it was not unheard of for Robert
and Bonzo to dig up old arguments from their Band of Joy days,
such as who had paid for what in 1968.
o Bonzo's symbol from the fourth album, the three linked circles
came from the same book of runes that Jonesy's came from, and is
meant to symbolise the man-wife-child trilogy. Bonham's symbol
has a common elements with Jones's, trisected ovals, or "yonics",
which are in opposite aspect in their symbols, reflecting that
they symbolise two very different people. Plant has pointed
out that it also looks like the emblem for Ballantine beer.
Another source says that Bonham picked the symbol at random,
simply because he liked it, and it reminded him of drumheads. A
DJ in Britain, Danny Baker, came up with the interesting theory
that Bonham was sitting in the pub with his customary glass of the
amber fluid and plonked it down on his beer mat a couple of times
and noticed what a nice little symbol the marks formed. Jason
Bonham has said, on the same DJ's show that the symbol is the
man-wife-child trilogy rune. The German company Krupp AG also
has a symbol with three interlocking circles, although it is the
opposite way up to Bonham's. A German band called the Krupps has
used this symbol and pictures of zeppelins for album art. Another
reasonably plausible thought, is that the symbol looks a bit like
a drum kit when seen from in front, with bass kickers, or above
with toms and cymbals slightly overlapping.
o The drumbeat from "When The Levee Breaks" is the most frequently
used sample in dance music, notably featuring in the hit song
"Relax" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. At one time the remaining
band members took legal action against The Beastie Boys for their
use of this drum sample. The Beastie Boys use several Zep samples
on their album "Paul's Boutique".
o John Bonham, band manager Peter Grant, tour manager Richard Cole
and security man John Bindon were charged with battery after an
incident following a show at the Oakland Coliseum on July 23,
1977 involving the staff of promoter Bill Graham. The source of
the incident was a member of Graham's entourage refusing to give
a carved wooden plaque with "Led Zeppelin" written on it that was
hanging outside the dressing room door to Grant's son Warren.
Not only did the guard refuse the request, but he also slapped
Grant's son, which turned out to be a somewhat ill-advised idea.
According to notorious liar, crack addict and alcholic Tour
Manager Richard Cole, he stood in front of the door to a trailer
while Grant and Bindon beat the man up. However, before this,
Bonzo who had actually witnessed the incident, kicked the security
guard in the groin before going onstage assuming that was the end
of it. It wasn't and the performance was delayed while Graham
threatened severe legal action and vowed never to promote a
Zeppelin show again. Other reports claim Bonham beat up three of
Graham's other security men, and that the plaque had been
requested by his son Jason. However, if this was the case Bonham,
notoriously protective of his son, would probably not have gone
onstage so readily, so the story with Warren Grant at the centre
of it sounds more likely. A civil suit for 2 million pounds for
punitive damages was filed against the group. The charges against
Bonham, Grant, Cole and Bindon were heard in California, on
February 16, 1978, all of them escaped with suspended prison
sentences and fines. The security guard in question, came out of
the whole incident the worst, as he needed hospital treatment
after the show for his injuries. To make matters worse, the band
had to play another show in Oakland the following night. Page
reportedly sat down for the entire performance. Back at the hotel
after the show the four involved were arrested, and were released
within two hours on $250 bail each. Cole claims that before the
arrest it was necessary to rid the band's rooms of drugs and any
other illegal substances. Things only got worse, as the following
weekend Karac Plant died. However, relations between the band
members and Graham appeared to have improved by the time of Live
Aid and the Atlantic 40th Anniversary show.
o Dave Lewis in _A_Celebration_ rates Bonzo's top 10 performances
as,
1) Moby Dick 6) D'yer Mak'er
2) Whole Lotta Love 7) In My Time Of Dying
3) Poor Tom 8) No Quarter (Live)
4) Rock And Roll 9) Achilles Last Stand
5) When The Levee Breaks 10) Hots On For Nowhere
o Bonham's funeral was held in Rushock, Worcestershire.
o Bozo's drumming is characterised by a tendency to play slightly
behind the beat rather than in front of it. This gave Page a
solid base from which to expand his riffs, while Plant seems to
find a huge beat very inspiring, whether it is energy or volume
providing that power.
o Bonham's symbol has also been observed on the side flap of a one
pound container of Challenge Butter.
o A 1982 issue of US _Playboy_ featured the following tribute to
Bonham, when he was inducted into their rock'n'roll Hall Of Fame.
"John "Bonzo" Bonham was part of a well equipped army
that scaled the face of rock and roll until, for a few years,
there was nothing left but rock - power rock, heavy metal,
lude and lascivious rock. For 12 years, Bonham's drumming
for Led Zeppelin managed to avoid setting the critics on
fire. They called him heavy handed, leaden. That did not
deter the listeners who supported Bonzo from the beginning.
Led Zep's founder, guitarist Jimmy Page, described
encountering Bonham for the first time: "I couldn't believe
how he was living his music. When he gets into a trip, the
audience goes with him." He was inventive and unpredictable,
raw and basic. It was as though he recognized no rules, no
conventions. Sometimes he'd drum with his hands, which
prompted one manufacturer to claim its drums were as tough
as Bonham. Perhaps the same insistent push to the limit that
characterized his work crushed him in his private life. On
September 25, 1981, as American fans lined up to buy tickets
to Led Zeppelin's first tour since 1977, Bonzo, exhausted
from touring and drink, died in his sleep, yet another
casualty of rock and roll life. Since then, the tour has
been cancelled and the band has called it quits, a rather
heartfelt testimonial to Bonham's talent. We'll miss the
incredible timekeeper who could solo for 30 minutes and
leave his audience screaming for more. He spawned hundreds
of imitators, but no one in the world plays drums the way he
did."
o Bonzo's symbol has been sighted on a church steeple in Italy.
o Bonham claimed that Zeppelin came away from the Earl's Court shows
in 1975 with nothing more than a few hundred quid each to show for
their efforts.
o The drummer on Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man", a song arranged by
John Paul Jones, is reputed to be Bonham, although this is very
unlikely.
o One of Bonham's defining characteristics as a drummer was his
lightning fast bass pedal foot, and his amazing endurance. He
could also triplets and quads very quickly and with a very even
rhythm, he didn't even need to build up to them, he could just
jump straight into them. Several examples of this being in
"The Song Remains The Same" film during his drum solo.
o Bonham played Ludwig drum kits throughout his career with
Zeppelin, even getting a custom miniature set made up for his
son Jason. He used Ludwig 2A sized drumsticks.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.01 - The Trivia Remains The Same
Regrettably at this time, "The Song Remains The Same" is still
the only official live concert released. Despite being underrated by
most followers of the band, the surreal atmosphere and bizarre twists
the movie takes make it quite intriguing, but as more of a curiosity
than a blistering performance by the band.
o The shootout sequence at the beginning, with it's mafia overtones
is meant to symbolise Zeppelin taking it's revenge on the
"faceless" critics. Two of the people involved are band manager
Peter Grant, and the road manager, Richard Cole.
o At the beginning of the movie...
- Peter Grant answers the phone, and and after receiving some news
heads out for a drive with his wife in his vintage Bentley
sports car, which is of course, British racing green.
- Plant, his wife Maureen, and their two children Karac and
Carmen, are fooling around beside a mountain stream before the
messenger arrives on bicycle to pass on the tour dates.
- Jones is reading a bedtime story to his children, "Jack and the
Beanstalk."
- The first clip of Bonzo has him on a tractor indulging his
passion for adopting the guise of a gentelman farmer. A short
time later he is driving his "Blown Model T" hot rod to a nearby
pub.
- Jimmy is in the garden of his manor, previously owned by
Aleister Crowley, sitting on a blanket with an acoustic guitar
handy, cranking the handle of a hurdy-gurdy. The music sounds
suitably mystical.
o The fantasy sequences are...
Plant: Sailing in a small boat with an enormous welsh flag on it,
and then a swordfighting scene with several knights, with
the goal of saving a rather attractive princess. This is
in "The Rain Song." The sailing sequence was filmed at
Aberystwyth in Wales.
Page : Climbing a mountain, at the top of which he meets a
somewhat older version of himself, several hundred years
older quite possibly, whois dressed in a white cloak.
This is in "Dazed and Confused." The sequence was filmed
at Loch Ness on December 10 and 11, 1973.
Bonzo: Driving a dragster, happens during his solo. Filmed at
Santa Pod. Bonzo also shows off his uncanny ability to
ride at a motorcycle in a variety of seating positions and
remain upright. There is also footage of him at home with
his wife Pat and son Jason belting out a rhtyhm on a custom
made miniature drum kit.
Jones: Travelling on horseback through graveyards and back to his
house dressed in black wearing a mask. This is in "No
Quarter."
o Also in the movie...
- Driving from the airport to the concert venue in a fleet of
black limousines with some surrealistic shots of the city
skyscrapers. These scenes were taken from before the July 24
show in Pittsburgh.
- A scene where Peter Grant confronts promoters over a man selling
unauthorised Zep memorabilia at the Civic Centre, Baltimore.
- Several very lucky punters getting in for nothing thanks to some
security guards.
- Footage from various press reports and press conferences with
Peter Grant regarding the theft of money from a deposit box in a
hotel Led Zeppelin were staying in during the U.S. tour. The
last shot is of Peter Grant being taken downtown by the Police
for questioning. The police apparently suspected Richard Cole
as being responsible. The amount stolen was us$200,000 and the
disappearance of a bellboy a few days after the event provided
a rough scenario of what might have happened. The money was
never recovered, and neither Peter Grant or Richard Cole, or
anyone associated with Zeppelin was ever charged. The persons
involved have also been claimed to be, at various times, a
manager or desk clerk, who resigned under a cloud of mystery.
o A few points to note...
- Page uses the violin bow in his solo.
- Page uses the famed red double neck for "Stairway to Heaven".
- Page uses the theramin during "Whole Lotta Love."
- Plant's short sleeved demin waistcoat defies good taste.
- Plant sings his famous added line in "Stairway to Heaven".
- Jones performs the solo to No Quarter surrounded by dry ice.
- Bonzo tosses away his drumsticks at one point and begins playing
the drums with his hands during his "Moby Dick" solo.
o The concert footage was filmed over three days at Madison Square
Garden.
o There is an alternate version of Plant's fantasy sequence in which
his wife plays a much larger role.
o At the beginning of Jones' fantasy sequence there is a scene where
several men are being pursued down a foggy road by several other
men on horseback. If you look closely at the road you can see the
double continuous lane markings down the middle of it, meaning of
course the horses were overtaking the pedestrians illegally...
o There appear to be two version of the film out on video, which can
be distinguished by the endings. One has "Stairway To Heaven"
playing as the screen fades to black, while the other has the
Starship taxi-ing and taking off while "Stairway To Heaven" is
being played. The latter was the original ending in the movie
version shown in cinemas.
o The song "Autumn Lake" which is listed on the video cover, but was
never actually recorded by Zeppelin is the song Page is playing on
a hurdy-gurdy beside the lake as the camera approaches him through
his garden.
o The film is rife with editing and continuity errors. One of the
most obvious is Jones's changing shirt during "Whole Lotta Love".
Jones also takes off his bass twice at the end of the show.
Jimmy's hair changes it sweat content half way through one song,
and the gong is lit at the end, yet in the next frame it's not.
o Jones was the only member of the band unwilling to wear the same
clothes at each of the Madison Square Garden gigs.
o Contrary to the official word, the film and soundtrack do feature
overdubs, probably mainly patches for glitches, in the guitar and
keyboard work. One such edit occurs in the middle of the violin
bow solo, which is either an overdub or a snippet from another
night's performance. The music on the film does not match that on
the album, nor that on an unedited bootleg from one of the shows,
whilst Page had a studio installed in his home and spent months
working on the soundtrack, all of which support the theory that
the music was retouched. The album version of "Dazed And
Confused", for example, is from one night, while the movie version
is from multiple nights. The movie version of "No Quarter"
deletes at least one guitar solo.
o The actual filming took place over three nights at Madison Square
Garden in New York, 27-29/7/73, with the additional backstage
footage shot the previous three nights at Pittsburgh, Boston and
Buffalo.
o The complexity of filming such a show with multiple cameras was
not helped by the crew who managed to miss a few bits and pieces,
which meant that Zeppelin had to go to a soundstage in late 1975
and early 1976 to act out the missing parts. The easy way to tell
these lip-synched sections is to look at Plant's teeth, he had
them straightened between the original filming and the additions.
o The caste used for Plant's fantasy sequence can also be seen in
"Irish Tour '74" with Rory Gallagher, where he spends some time
exploring and talking about that particular castle, Raglan castle.
o A video came out in 1990 called "The First Cuts". This exists in
both bootleg and extremely rare official versions. It is mainly
comprised of outtakes from the film, minaly dealing with the band
member's fantasy scenes, and also footage of "Moby Dick", "Dazed
And Confused", "Whole Lotta Love", and "The Song Remains The
Same".
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.02 - Electric Green Tennis Courts And Other Cover Art
From the simple cover of the first album to the multiple covers
for "In Through The Out Door" Led Zeppelin always came up with a
cover that was individual and could be easily identified with the
band. Although Page says none of their covers were intended to be
part of some sort of concept for the album, they still make some
striking visual statements.
o "Led Zeppelin"
- The cover of the debut album, was a simple print chosen by Jimmy
of the Hindenburg airship disaster. One of the largest airships
ever built, the Hindenburg was 245 metres long, 41 metres wide,
had a volume of 199,980 cubic metres, and a cruising speed of
125 kilometres per hour. The picture was taken on May 6, 1937
as the Hindenburg approached its mooring mast at Lakehurst, New
Jersey. At this point the hydrogen gas inside the airship
somehow ignited. The exact cause of this has ever been
established. Of the 97 passengers on board at the time, 35
perished in the ensuing explosion. This disaster was the end of
an era where huge dirigible airships such as the Hindenburg made
regular crossings between the USA and Europe, mainly
transporting passengers.
- The picture of the band on the back cover was taken by musician
turned photographer Chris Dreja, a former bandmate of Page in
the Yardbirds.
- To begin with the band name on the cover was printed in
turquoise, but this was soon changed to orange, creating a much
sought after rarity.
- The overall design was co-ordinated by George Hardie.
o "Led Zeppelin II"
- The group of men on the front cover is a photgraph of the Jasta
Division of the German airforce with the band members faces
inserted in place of those of the pilots. The faces of band
manager Peter Grant and Richard Cole were also added. The woman
in the picture is Glynis Johns, the mother from "Mary Poppins".
Her presence in the photo is an obvious play on the name of
recording engineer Glyn Johns. The other face added was that of
bluesman Blind Willie Johnson.
- The silhouette of the Zeppelin airship surrounded in brown gave
this album it's nickname of "The Brown Bomber."
- The centre spread is a lavish celebration of imagery and the
band members.
- David Juniper is credited as having come up with the artwork.
o "Led Zeppelin III"
- After the somewhat conservative covers of the first two albums,
the cover of III is a major departure. Liberally splattered
with various bits and pieces of psychedelia and hippie imagery,
and with its rotating wheel and cutouts, the overall feel does
not appeal to Page.
"I knew the artist and described what we wanted ... But
he got very personal with this artwork and disappeared off
with it. ... I wasn't happy with the final result - I
thought it looked teeny-bopperish. ... There are some
silly bits - little chunks of corn and nonsense like that."
- The man responsible for the art is only identified as Zacron,
which may be fortunate for his business reputation given the
lambasting from Page.
- Original pressings of III have a quote from Aleister Crowley
inscribed on the runoff matrix, "Do what thou wilt shall be the
whole of the law." The quote however, may not necessarily be
somewhat older than that. The Crowley version comes frim his
work "The Book Of The Law" which was dictated to him between
the 8th and 10th of April 1904. Crowley actually lost this
manuscript for five years in the attic of Boleskine House,
eventually finding it again in 1909. It was pointed out on the
list that the phrase was the motto of the Abbe de Theleme in
Rabelais' "Gargantua And Pantagruel," `Fay ce vouldra.' Crowley
actually founded an Abbey of Thelema in Cefalu, Sicily in 1920
before being expelled from the country by Mussolini. It was
also adopted by the Hellfire club as it's motto several hundred
years ago. An interview with Page available on vinyl apparently
has some details regarding this quote on the it's sleeve. The
Crowleyian meaning is somewhat complex, suffice to say it does
not mean `Do what you want' as it may imply.
- "So mote it be" is not a quote from Aleister Crowley, it is the
last line of a passage used to bind a spell.
- It would seem that there was an inscription on the runoff matrix
of every issue of "III" right up until pressing ceased, with the
sole exception of the mono white label promo version of the
album.
o The first issue, Atlantic SD 7201, issued in November 1970
has "So Mote Be It" inscribed on both sides.
o The first issue a short time later with a "Gold Record
Award" sticker has "Do What Thou Wilt" inscribed on both
sides.
o The white label promo, stereo version, has "Do What Thou
Wilt" inscribed on both sides.
o The white label promo, mono version, as previously stated
has no inscription on either side.
o The second issue, Atlantic SD 19128, in around 1972 has "Do
What Thou Wilt" on one side, side two, only.
o The second issue a "Gold Record Award" has "Do What Thou
Wilt" inscribed on side one only.
o During the 1980s this continued with the "Do What Thou Wilt"
quote only inscribed on one side.
- Jimmy apparently had the quotes from Crowley inscribed on the
runoff matrix without telling the rest of the band, who only
found out about it after the album had been released.
- The first few thousand UK pressings of "III" were reportedly
impregnated with a "cannbis-smelling" resin.
- The brief credit to Bron-Y-Aur was later to resurface almost
verbatim on Page & Plant's "No Quarter".
o "(Untitled)"
- The artwork for the fourth album is much more in keeping with
the band's image. In the words of Jimmy Page.
"Robert and I came up with the design of IV together.
Robert had actually bought the print that is on the cover
from a junk shop in Reading. We then came up with the
idea of having the picture - the man with the sticks -
represent the old way on a demolished building, with the
new way coming up behind it. The illustration on the
inside was my idea. It is the Hermit character from the
Tarot, a symbol of self-reliance and wisdom, and it was
drawn by Barrington Colby.
The typeface for the lyrics to "Stairway To Heaven"
was also my contribution. I found it in a really old arts
and crafts magazine called `Studio,' which started in the
late 1800's. I thought the lettering was so interesting I
got someone to work up a whole alphabet."
- This album also saw the debut of the four symbols, one for each
band member, which were used extensively to promote the album,
which bore no artist identification anywhere on the sleeve. In
deference to the rubbishing the band received from the critics
they left their name off to show that Led Zeppelin was more than
just a name.
- The four symbols are arranged in a typical magical formation,
with the two strongest symbols, Page and Plant's, on the outside
protecting the weaker symbols on the inside.
- The picture of the man in white on top of a mountain with a
lantern, was drawn in pencil and gold paint by Barrington Colby
and is titled, `View in Half or Varying Light.' The original
was auctioned in a sale of rock'n'roll art in 1981. This
imagery was reprised for Page's fantasy sequence in "The Song
Remains The Same." If you hold this image perpendicular to a
mirror, the face of a black dog or dragon becomes apparent in
the mountain the man is standing on, or is if you believe some
people.
- On one of the buildings pictured on the rear of the sleeve, a
bareley legibile Oxfam poster bearing the sloagn "Someone dies
from hunger everyday", can be seen. Page intended the picture
to be clearer bu the negatives let him down.
o "Houses Of The Holy"
- Led Zeppelin's most exotic album cover has to be the one for
this album. And according to Page, the cover should look even
better if it were not for some problems translating the colours
onto the album cover.
"When the proofs for the album came back, they didn't look
anything like the original artwork. Again, we were on a
deadline and there wasn't much to be done. I suppose it
doesn't matter now. But back then it was a problem."
- The photograph on the cover was taken by Aubrey Powell, who
trekked to the Giant's causeway in Ireland, Peru was considered
as an alternative, with two children to try and fulfil the idea
that Jimmy, Robert and Peter Grant came up with. Dave Lewis
provides more details,
"This time they chose a collage print depicting a group of
children mysteriously scaling the top of a mountain, which,
according to Page, denoted the feeling of expectancy for
the music contained within."
- Powell used a science fiction book "Childhood's End" as a
basis for the cover, although some have pointed out a
resemblance to the pscyhedelic art of 1970's artists such as
Peter Max.
- The children were originally meant to be silver, not purple.
- This is the only Led Zeppelin album to feature song lyrics.
- The sleeve is the first one commisioned by the band from
Hipgnosis, the firm founded by Storm Thorgerson responsible for
a lot of the Pink Floyd album covers. However according to Page
it was not a collaboration that got off to a good start,
"We had commisioned them to design "Houses of the Holy" and
this guy Storm came in carrying this picture of an electric
green tennis court with a tennis raquet on it. I said,
`What the hell does that have to do with anything?' And he
said, `Racket - don't you get it?' I said, `Are you trying
to imply our music is a `racket'? Get out!' We never saw
him again. We ended up dealing with one of the other
artists. [laughs] That was a total insult - racket. He
had some balls! Imagine. On a first meeting with a
client!"
- Rumour has it that one of the children on the cover is former
page three and centrefold model, and occasional singer, Samantha
Fox.
- The album was originally sold with a paper ring around it with
the name of the band and the album title on it, since this
wasn't listed elsewhere. This was crudely reproduced by
Atlantic on the future cd release by stamping the name and album
title slightly askew across the cover of the album. This is the
only piece of cover art not reproduced in "The Complete Studio
Recordings" (with the exception of the "In Through The Out Door"
sleeve that changed colour when you added hot water to it).
- The most ambiguous piece of artwork on this album is the picture
of an adult holding up what looks like a small child in front of
a castle. One theory is that it is some sort of offering to the
Gods - which is very prophetic regarding the death of Plant's
son. The children on the cover do look a bit like Plant's kids,
especially after seeing them in "The Song Remains The Same".
_Q_ magazine disputes this, however, saying the girl is the same
one as on the back of "Presence", which is somewhat unlikely.
o "Physical Graffiti"
- As with III, cutouts on the album cover allowed the record buyer
to look inside the windows of the building at the various goings
on inside.
- A similar concept is employed on the Rolling Stones "Some Girls"
album. It is also identical in concept to Jose Feliciano's
"Compartments", including the pull-out card and the "hidden"
photos.
- The building featured on the cover is at 97 St. Mark's Place in
New York City. There is currently a used clothing store in the
basement appropriately called Physical Graffiti.
- Down the middle right side of the fourth sleeve is a Marilyn
Monroe look-a-like getting undressed, doing what looks like a
strip-tease performance.
- Of the many pictures inside, quite a few are quite easy to see
who they are while others a re pretty obscure. The following
list lists the images from left to right in each row, top to
bottom.
o Sleeve 1.
A nun, ?, ?, ?, Charles Atlas, ?, Elizabeth Taylor as
Cleopatra, ? , Jimmy Page, A Zeppelin blimp, ?, ?, ?, John
Bonham & Robert Plant, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Queen.
o Sleeve 2.
King Kong, Robert Plant, ?, ?, ?, Some indians or Aztecs, Lee
Harvey Oswald, John Bonham, ?, Jimmy Page, An old lady, ?,
Someone and an ape (!), A lady in her kitchen, A group of what
appears to be naked Bonzo look-a-likes..., The Queen.
o Sleeve 3.
Planes, Peter Grant, Marlene Dietrich, ?, Neil Armstrong, ?,
John Bonham, ?, ?, A horse, An indian guru of some sort?, A
religious looking painting, ?, Two children, Scene from an
old movie?, John Bonham, The Queen.
o Sleeve 4.
?, A cat, A foot on a doll, ?, John Paul Jones, ?, John
Bonham, I dread to think, A cowboy, Robert Plant, The Virgin
Mary, a medieval looking painting, An angel, A woman putting
on stockings, Jimmy Page with someone who is obviously a
buddhist, Jimmy Page & John Paul Jones, The Queen.
- Roy Harper gets a credit for photography although which photos
he took is unclear. Also credited is the band's publicist at
the time, B.P. Fallon, most recently the "vibemaster" on U2's
Zoo TV Tour. He has written a highly entertaining account of
that tour, "U2 Faraway So Close".
- The identity of the figure sitting on the right hand set of
stairs is said by some to resemble John Bonham. Those who
like to indulge in the sort of speculation that Beatles fans do
regarding the cover of "Abbey Road", interpret the presence of
Bonham as symbolic. The two doors symbolize "There are two
paths you can go by" from "Stairway To Heaven", light and shade,
two opposites, heaven and hell, a choice? It's a big stretch
at any rate. What makes the building look a bit odd is the
seemingly unnecessary jumble of ladders, balconies and windows
which cover the facade of the building. The person sitting on
the steps has what looks like two black dogs in their arms. A
further twist on the door theory can be seen on the back cover
where one door is brightly illuminated and shut, while the door
inside the darkened doorway is open.
o "Presence"
- The artwork for Presence is dominated by "the object." In the
past it has been associated with the black slab-like object in
2010. In _Q_ Magazine in December 1992, Storm Thorgerson of
Hipgnosis had the following to say,
"I like pictures that don't necessarily have an
explanation off pat," Storm Thorgerson says of the
beguiling sleeves that cemented the reputation of
Hipgnosis, the design group he co-founded in 1968. "I
remember the idea for Led Zeppelin's Prescence which was
to Tamper with nostalgic pictures of the '30s and '40s
with an object from the future, which was basically a
funny shaped black hole. To me, it represented Zeppelin
power, which people at home, or school, would have to
have a blast of every few hours, like the ultimate drug.
So the design was related to the band, yet extremely
tenuous, just as what makes music so rewarding is that it
gives you your own pictures."
- A similar concept, having an object in various strange
locations, is employed on the "Coverdale/Page" album cover.
- "The Object" was actually copyrighted by Swan Song Inc. in 1976.
o "The Song Remains The Same"
- The details of the album cover are provided by Dave Lewis in
_Celebration_.
"The movie poster and sleeve design depicted a run down
picture house, which was based on Old Street Studios, a
London rehearsal theatre they used to perfect the 1973 US
stage act prior to the tour."
- An interesting contrast to the run-down building in the
foreground is what looks like a skyscraper or at least a
somewhat more modern and well maintained building in the picture
that is behind the main scene.
o "In Through The Out Door"
- The cover for this album came in six different configurations,
all photos of the same bar room scene but each taken from the
perspective of a different person in the bar. Each of the
photos shows the view that person had of a man at the bar
dressed in white, who bears a passing resemblance to Jimmy Page,
setting fire to a small white piece of paper.
- Perhaps the most curious feature of the scene is the thousands
of small pieces of white paper that are hanging from the walls
and ceiling, all very similar to the one the man at the bar is
about to set alight.
- The whole scene has a Caribbean feel to it, in keeping with some
of the tracks on the album like "Fool In The Rain" and "South
Bound Saurez."
- One out of every two pictures that made up the album's front and
back covers featured a smear which reveals the colours of the
photo under the greyish tint the photos have.
- When released the album covers were prepared so that if exposed
to warm water, their colours changed.
- A final touch was added by Peter Grant who insisted the albums
be sold in shrink wrapped paper bags so none of the buyers could
see which cover they were getting out of the six, which were
labelled A to F on the spine of the cover. Dave Lewis estimates
a full set of six original record covers in good condition is
worth around one hundred pounds.
- Some vinyl versions of the album have the word `strawberry'
carved into the runoff matrix.
- The bar that Aubrey Powell may have been trying to recreate for
the cover picture is the Old Absinthe Bar, at 400 Bourbon
Street, just around the corner from the Royal Orleans hotel in
New Orleans.
o "Coda"
- This album of unreleased material and out-takes which was
released in 1982 is pretty plain compared to some of the other
bands efforts. The spartan and stark cover and packaging for
the album may be a reflection of the enormous loss the band
members still undoubtedly felt about the death of John Bonham.
- A coda can be defined as, "The closing section of a movement..."
- The black discs on the front are in fact records.
- However, another school of thought has it that the discs are
crop circles created by sprinkler systems. If this is true,
then the re-appearance of crop circles on the box set covers is
most intriguing. Further details on this are that is when crops
need to be irrigated they might be planted around a well, with
the sprinkler attached to the well. This would account for the
"dry" ground surrounding the crop circles on the album cover.
- Led Zeppelin guru Dave Lewis was consulted by the band during
the design process.
o "Box Set : The Collection"
- This deluxe 4 compact disc box set has a picture of a crop
circle with the shadow of Zeppelin blimp on it, as if the blimp
was flying overhead.
- At the four corners of the box set there is a number. The
numbers and what they represent are:
o 54 : The number of songs on the box set.
o 69 : (19)69, the year the first studio album was released.
o 79 : (19)79, the year the last studio album was released.
o (X) : The sideways '8' is the mathematical symbol for
infinity, representing of course, how long the music
will last.
- Given the `mysterious' origins of crop cricles the cover picture
was a perfect choice in keeping with the mystery and intrigue
the band had cultivated around itself during its career.
o "Remasters"
- This two compact disc set set features the same picture of the
crop circle used for the 4CD box cover, except that it is viewed
from the opposite end.
o "Box Set 2"
- The now familiar blimp and crop circle theme with a psychedelic
twist to it.
o "The Complete Studio Recordings"
- The numerous attractions for buying this box set, all the
albums, all the original artwork and so on tend to ignore what
at first seems to be a chaotic haze of grey shades on the
outside of the box. The picture is in fact the scaffolding and
beams and so on that support the exterior skin of a Zeppelin
blimp and maintained the shape. Each of the ten compact discs
also has a picture of the inside of a zeppelin on it, with no
two the same, or coinciding with the picture on the exterior of
the box set. A feature unique to this box set is the "garage
door" style flip top.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.03 - Plantations And Other Onstage Musings
The heading for this section is the term sometimes used to
describe Robert Plant's onstage utterances. These ranged from simple
introductions to songs to humourous anecdotes and stories depending
on the circumstances.
o From the 21 June 1977 performance at the L.A. Forum (on the
"Listen To This Eddie" 3CD bootleg). Bonham was about to do his
solo, entitled "Over The Top" in those days, but apparently had
a problem with his drum hardware. So Plant filled the time:
"That was called Kashmir...let me take you there. Bit of
trouble with the musical equipment here. Right now, the
man who fought against the elements. The man who fought
food poisoning. The man who drinks Heineken. The man who
doesn't get out of bed. The man who hasn't got a cymbal.
The man who's having a chat with this man who knows the man
who tunes Jimmy's guitar and comes from Scotland and doesn't
know the man they call Tim... but does know Audrey from
Dallas (thank you). The man who now learns to construct
his own drum kit. The man who's _not_ very professional.
(Shuddup, wait a minute!) The man who said he could go back
to a building site anytime (and we all agreed). The man
who's holding up the show... the Rhinestone Cowgirl. C'mon
Bonzo, get on with it! The man who played the Los Angeles
Aztecs and beat them 10-1 by himself. C'mon, you silly
fucker! The man one wonders: is he worth waiting for? ...
and doesn't realize there's a curfew here. A childhood
friend, a man who many people once said...`never 'eard of
him,' John Bonham Over The Top!!!!"
o From the Earl's Court 75 shows and the bootleg "Rock and Roll"
after the band performs Tangerine, Plant makes the interesting
observation,
"That is the first time the four of us have sung together
on stage, or on record."
o At a performance in Dallas on March 4, 1975 before "In My Time Of
Dying" Plant goes some way to explaining whether Zeppelin were
more influenced by the traditional version or Bob Dylan's cover.
"This is a tune that goes way back to the roots from which
all English people took their notes from, many, many years
ago; and strangely enough, it's called In My Time Of Dying."
o Before the band performed "The Battle of Evermore" at the June
10 show in New York, Plant introduces the song by way of the
following explanation.
"When we recorded this song we got a girl to help sing the
vocals and we are pleased to have her with us tonight.
Ladies and gentlemen, John Paul Jones on vocals. John Paul
Jones on vocals!?"
o From the "Silver Coated Rails" bootleg of the Earls Court show on
May 23, 1975, is a peculiar recital from the song "Cats In The
Cradle" by Cat Stevens. At one point between songs Plant whines,
"Old man take a look at my life, I'm a lot like you."
o At the 25/3/71 show at the Paris Theatre, which was taped for the
BBC, Robert opens the show with the following preamble.
"First of all, I'd like to say sorry about last week. We did
about 18 dates in 6 days, no at least 20 days. And uh, my
voice kind of gave up altogether. And we hope it's in better
condition tonight, but if it's not, cheer because you're on
the radio."
o The following spiel from Plant preceeded the performance of "Over
The Hills And Far Away" at the March 29, 1973 show at Madison
Square Garden, New York.
"We had a really good one last night, I don't know whether
anybody was here. But, ah, what we intend to do try and
get it better every night. So with your - only with your
co-operation can we do that. And you know what I'm talking
about."
The rendition of "Misty Mountain Hop" at the same show was
preceeded by another dose of Plant verbosity, this time directed
at a person in the crowd misusing firecrackers. Plant points out
that they are "no longer clever".
"Now don't forget that will ya. You up there with the
glasses."
Yet more dialogue from the same concert. this time towards the
end of the show.
"At the end of my career, I should be able to give a
television programme on how to keep roses... but as that's
about a kiss away, it's out of the question..."
o The bootleg entitled "From Boleskine To The Alamo" of the 1973
Fort Worth show has Plant providing a confusing introduction to
"Dazed And Confused".
"We like to uh... in fact it's nothing to we it's something
to do with me... I'd like to dedicate this next one to an old
friend... if she's about, the Butter Queen"
o On the 1980 tour Jimmy Page did some of the song introductions,
which was unusual for him, and the following proceeded the
performance of "Black Dog" at the Zurich concert.
"We're gonna do a number it's called Strangers in the night
or fantasy dog town. This is an old one... I don't know if
you can remember it or not because it's quite an old one...
it's called Black... Dog."
o The L.A. Forum show of 27/3/75 saw the following humourous intro
for "Trampled Underfoot" from Plant.
"I guess instead of a lemon song, this is a quart of oil
song... it's called Trampled Underfoot..."
o At a show in Japan in 1971, John Bonham's suspicious departure
from the stage was accompanied by the following Plantation.
"Bonzo gone bye, bye. Bonzo gone for bath with Geisha, yes".
o The following reminiscence from Plant is from Earl's Court in
1975.
"The last time we played at Cardiff at the Lacarno the
equipment was set up but they wouldn't let us in cuz we
didn't have a tie on. It was really, those were the days,
but have things changed that much? ... This song is really
for our family and friends... It's a song of love in its
most (Page mumbles something) in its most innocent stages.
It's called Tangerine."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.04 - Trivia Of Illegitimate Origin
o The plethora of soundboard recordings from the 1980 tour suggests
that there were some corrupted sound people behind the mixing
desk. In fact, this may not be the case at all. When Jimmy's
home was burgled prior to "Outrider" a large quantity of tapes
were stolen, including professionally recorded shows. Tt is not
unusual for a band to record themselves to see how well their
performance went, and this may have been done with a view to one
day releasing the much talked about Live Retrospective. Also,
over the years it is possible that other members of the band's
associates may have had tapes stolen from the. It has also been
suggested that some of the tapes come from roadies who got ahold
of them "legitimately" and re-sold them later for large sums of
money. But, getting back to the mixing board operators, with an
appropriate sum of money it may not have been hard at all to be
able to persuade someone to tape the show for you. Ironically,
Zeppelin and their management seemed to think they were stemming
the flow of bootlegs throughout their career.
o At the Dallas Pop Festival on 31/8/69 Zeppelin put in an amazing
performance. However, due to time constraints they could only do
one more song after "You Shook me" on the setlist, so they made
"How Many More Times" stretch out to twenty minutes in length!
With the crowd screaming for more they tossed in "Communication
Breakdown" to finish their set.
o On the "Destroyer" bootleg at the 8:37 mark in "Stairway To
Heaven" just as Plant has sung "And as we wind on down the road"
the guitar sound suddenly disappears, and the remainder of the
song is totally devoid of guitar, just keyboards, bass, and drums.
The absence is really noticeable as Page was really howling up
that point. The guitar sound is picked up for the next song
though, "Rock And Roll".
o An album is available in America called "Bootleg Zeppelin :
Performed By John Vearity, Whole Lotta Love". The album features
the aformentioned individual playing covers of 16 Zeppelin tunes.
o The performance of "Misty Mountain Hop" on the 17/7/73 Seattle
show, on the "Trouble In Vancouver" bootleg, is dedicated by Plant
to the people who drove the buses from Vancouver to Seattle. This
refers to the cancellation of the scheduled Vancouver show, and
how the people had to come from there by bus to see the band in
Seattle. The Vancouver concert was cancelled after rioting broke
out while people were queuing for tickets.
o An instrumental outtake of "Carouselambra" appears on the bootleg
"In Through The Back Door".
o The unreleased "Tribute To Bert Berns" is very similar to "Baby
Come On Home" except that it is longer and has more of an organ
presence. This can be found on the bootleg "Strange Tales From
The Road" which also contains the 1971 Bombay Symphony Orchestra
recordings made by Page and Plant of "Four Sticks" and "Friends".
o On the well known "Destroyer" bootleg at one point Plant says,
'...and the doctor was played by Larry Badgely.' Larry Badgely
M.D. is a real person and was the doctor on that particular tour
as well as being a doctor for the Rolling Stones on their 1972
tour. Relations between the band and Badgely were not particulary
good with at least one claim that Page and Bonham were known to
dip into the good doctor's supply of painkillers. Badgely is
known to have accused Page of pilfering qualudes from his medical
bag while on tour once.
o The bootleg cd "Stockholm '69" features the band running down a
version of Otis Rush's "I Gotta Move" while Jimmy changes a string
he broke on his guitar. The song is listed on the cd, however, as
"I Fought My Way Out Of Darkness" though, another Otis Rush song.
o "Hiawatha Express" has, amongst other things, three songs from
Plant's pre-Zeppelin band, The Band Of Joy, a cover of "Hey Joe",
"Got To Find My Baby", and "For What It's Worth".
o There is a bootleg interview available from Japan on the CGI
label, identifiable by the picture on the cover of the band with
some Japanese women. The band's name is misspellt as Led Zeppelin
in the accompanying liner notes.
o A bootleg entitled "Rare Tracks Vol.1", a Greek import, contains
several interesting demo tracks of "Stairway To Heaven" amongst
other things. Sources for this material are probably the thieves
who broke into Page's house and made off with a variety of his
tapes.
o Both the versions of "The Girl I Love" on the bootlegs "Shenadoah"
and "Radio Session" fade out at about the same spot, during the
second guitar solo. The version on "Radio Sessions" has better
sound quality.
o Only a handful of performances of "As Long As I Have You" have
been captured on bootlegs. The January 9, 1969 performance at the
Fillmore West sounds like the band is still learning the song, as
Jones plays a few bad notes, while the April version is much
better realised, with several guitar solos and guitar/vocal unison
transitions. Other performances were on March 13, and May 19,
1969. The song was originally performed by Garnett Mimms but was
written by B. Elgin and J. Ragavoy.
o The recordings with the Bombay Symphony Orchestra of "Four Sticks"
and "Friends" can be found on the bootlegs "Tangible Vandalism",
and the appropriately titled "Bombay Symphony Orchestra", which
also several takes of each, along with Page acoustic material.
The "Tangible Vandalism" bootleg also contains "Physical Graffiti"
outtakes, third album session material, and recordings from
Liverpool, England.
o "Poles And Sticks" is a notable bootleg. It contains the only
complete version of "Gallows Pole" and the only live version of
"Four Sticks", from a performance at Copenhagen in 1971. There is
also the first live version of "Celebration Day", a 20 minute
version of "Dazed And Confused", and a 21 minute "Whole Lotta
Love" medley. Plant introduces "Four Sticks" as a new song there
isn't a title for yet, and "Rock And Roll" as "It's Been A Long
Time".
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.05 - Meet The Press
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FROM: BOB ROLONTZ
ATLANTIC RECORDS SIGNS ENGLAND'S HOT NEW GROUP, LED ZEPPELIN,
IN ONE OF THE BIGGEST DEALS OF THE YEAR
Atlantic Records has signed the hot new English group, Led
Zeppelin, to a long term, exclusive recording contract. Although the
exact terms of the deal are secret, it can be disclosed that it is
one of the most substantial deals Atlantic has ever made. Agreement
for the group's services was made between Jerry Wexler, Executive
Vice President of Atlantic Records, and Peter Grant, manager of the
group.
Led Zeppelin consists of four of the most exciting musicians
performing in Britain today. They are Jimmy Page, leader of the
group and lead guitarist; John Paul Jones, bassist, pianist,
organist, arranger; John Bonham, drums; and Robert Plant, lead vocal
and harmonica.
Jimmy Page is a former member of the Yardbirds, the group that
spawned the careers of two other great musicians, Eric Clapton and
Jeff Beck. Page joined the Yardbirds in 1966 and stayed with the
group until it disbanded in the summer of 1968. Prior to joining
the Yardbirds he was one of the busiest session men in London.
John Paul Jones is considered one of England's finest arrangers
as well as an outstanding bass player. He is the arranger of
Donovan's "Mellow Yellow", "Sunshine Superman", and "Hurdy Gurdy
Man", and of the Rolling Stones' "She's A Rainbow." Drummer John
Bonham created a sensation with his drum solos while accompanying
Tim Rose on his British tour in early 1968. Vocalist Robert Plant
is considered one of England's outstanding young blues singers, and
has been involved in singing blues since he was 15. All of the
members of the group are in their early 20's.
The pulsations surrounding Led Zeppelin have intensified ever
since the group recorded its first (and as yet unreleased) album,
which was produced by Jimmy Page, just a month ago in London. Top
English and American rock musicians who have heard the tracks have
compared the LP to the best of Cream and Jimi Hendrix, and have
called Led Zeppelin the next group to reach the heights achieved by
Cream and Hendrix. This Led Zeppelin LP will be released by Atlantic
early in January.
Led Zeppelin is the eighth British group to be singed by
Atlantic during the past 24 months. The others are Cream, Bee Gees,
Julie Driscoll-Brian Auger & The Trinity, The Crazy World of Arthur
Brown, The Marbles, The Magic Lanterns, and Jimmy James & The
Vagabonds.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.06 - Zeppelin Miscellania
o The debut album was recorded in 30 hours spread over two weeks.
The MTV Rockumentary though, claims it was 36 hours, while the
original quote pertaining to this was something along the lines of
"A little over 30 hours."
o At a February 21, 1970 gig in Copenhagen the band was billed as
"The Nobs" as a result of a threat of legal action from aristocrat
Eva von Zeppelin. She is reported to have said, "They may be
world famous, but a couple of shrieking monkeys are not going to
use a priveleged family name without permission."
o Road manager and band associate Richard Cole was relieved of his
duties for the band's last tour by Peter Grant because of a
chronic cocaine addiction. Sent to Italy to detox, Cole somehow
ended up being mistaken for a terrorist involved in a bombing and
was imprisoned temporarily.
o On stage the band worked like this; Jimmy usually led the band
unless Robert came up with a good lyrical segue, Bonham watched
Jimmy for cues while Jones listened to Jimmy for cues. When Jones
and Bonham figured out where Page was heading, quite often in some
very bizarre directions, notably during "Dazed and Confused", they
were right there. An example of Plant trying to direct the band
were his attempts to get the band to segue into "Gallows Pole"
from "Whole Lotta Love." Something he never quite managed. These
details were provided by Jones.
o The title than band had in mind for the studio album to follow
the 1977 tour was "Tight But Loose" but this ended up not being
used as Plant's son Karac died mid-tour throwing the band's plans
into chaos and resulting in everything being put on hold.
o Led Zeppelin played to a total of 1,388,729 people on their 1977
American tour.
o The way the songs were selected for the 1990 box set was,
according to Page, that Page got Jones and Plant to write down
what they didn't want to be on the set and he went from there.
o Peter Grant's frustration with the efforts of bootleggers to rip
off his act is manifested in many incidents such as the one in the
film "The Song Remains The Same", Grant destroying copies of the
bootleg "Blueberry Hill" he happened to find in record stores, his
rapid dissassembly and dispersal of any unauthorised recording
equipment he came across at concerts such as at the Bath festival,
and an infamous incident when he spotted a guy in the front row of
the audience with a microphone. Grant marched out and proceeded
to destroy the equipment only to later find the man was a
government employee monitoring noise levels. This last incident
occurred in Vancouver, and Grant apparently, according to Richard
Cole, a phrase which seemingly guarantess inaccuracy, had to give
Canada a wide berth until the arrest warrant for him was finally
lifted.
o When a show at Tampa, Florida in 1977 was rained out a riot broke
out amongst the crowd.
o From the May 1993 issue of "Guitar World", page 15.
"In 1972 Jimmy Page flew to Washington D.C. to hear bluesman
Bobby Parker perform, with the intent of signing him to Led
Zeppelin's nascent Swan Song label. The two guitarists
jammed and Page gave Parker $2,000 to buy a tape deck and
record a demo. But Parker never completed the tape, and his
great opportunity fizzled."
Plant acknowledges Parker as an influence, and the interest of
Page is also some indication of a similar feeling. Parker was at
the forefront of the British blues craze with his 1961 single
"Watch Your Step" and in 1968 was brought to England and hailed as
the new Hendrix. Somehow it never quite worked out. Parker
released a new album in 1993, "Bent Out Of Shape" and must surely
regret his failure to cut a demo for Jimmy. "Moby Dick" is
apparently very derivative of one of Parker's early songs.
o Former tour manager Richard Cole has claimed he was only paid
$1250 by Stephen Davis for his revelations which make up a large
proportion of Davis' notorious book "Hammer of the Gods."
o Rap group the Beastie Boys sampled Zeppelin at least twice, their
song "Rhymin' & Stealin'" uses the drum track from "When The Levee
Breaks," and "She's Crafty" uses guitar samples from "The Ocean."
Both these songs are on their first album. At one stage the
Beastie Boys were sued by the group for their use of these
samples. One song "License To Ill" samples "Custard Pie", while
on Paul's Boutique there are samples from "Moby Dick" and "The
Ocean". The Beastie also used a sample from "Rock And Roll".
o The "Screaming Lord Sutch And Heavy Friends" album from 1970 which
features Jimmy Page and John Bonham has also been released under
the title "Smoke And Fire." Jeff Beck, Noel Redding and Nicky
Hopkins also appear on the album.
o A song by Jeff Beck called "Cathouse" on the soundtrack to
"Frankie's House" apparently bears some similarities to Zeppelin's
"Heartbreaker".
o The film "Sea Of Love" does not feature the cover of that song by
the Honeydrippers, on which Plant sang and Page played guitar.
It features the original version, and a cover by Tom Waits.
o All the songs on Aerosmith's "Get A Grip" album are copyrighted to
Swag Song Music Inc. The band are noted Zeppelin fans, regularly
doing great covers of the Yardbirds' "Train Kept A Rollin'" Bass
player Tom Hamilton has said Aerosmith wanted to be the American
equivalent of the great English bands like Led Zeppelin and Cream.
Guitarist Joe Perry thinks Aerosmith was more influenced by the
Yardbirds though. Jimmy Page jammed with Aerosmith at the 1990
Donnington festival, and again at a Marquee Club show on August
20, where they played five songs, one of which was "Immigrant
Song." Anyway, the copyright name may well be some sort of
humourous name the band came up with in light of all this.
o The band is known to have declined an invitation from Cynthia
Plaster Caster to have their more private parts immortalized in
stone. Other artists such as Hendrix did have casts made.
o One of the few occasions when Zeppelin allowed one of their songs
to be used during a film was in the film "Fast Time At Ridgemont
High." The reason being that the director was Cameron Crowe,
Zeppelin devotee, and a journalist who was popular with the band
during their heyday, as he tended to write reasonable articles
about them. The song that is featured in the film is "Kashmir",
and is accompanied with some interesting comments about the
aphrodisiac-like effect of the fourth album, "And when it comes
time to make out, pop in side one of Led Zeppelin IV." Cameron
Crowe's wife, Nancy Wilson of the Canadian rock group Heart, makes
a guest appearance in the film, as the blonde girl in the sports
car who flirts with Judge Reinhold.
o An example of the attitudes from the music press in general and
music critics to Led Zeppelin is shown by this extract from an
essay written in 1969 by Jon Landau, "Rock 1970 - It's Too Late
To Stop Now."
"Led Zeppelin has now become the most popular of all the late
sixties British bands. Like their predecessors, they build
their style on doubling bass and guitar figures, thereby
creating a distored emphasis on the bottom sound range. It is
a completely physical approach to sound that usually works
better live than on records. Zeppelin's demeanor, like that of
most of these groups, was loud, impersonal, exhibitionistic,
violent and often insane. Watching them at a recent concert I
saw little more than Robert Plant's imitations of sexuality and
Jimmy Page's unwillingness to sustain a musical idea for more
than a few measures.
"I got a sense that the real mood of the band is ennui. I sat
there thinking that rock could not go on like this. There are
those who are prepared to buy it now, but there is no future in
it, and that is why groups like Led Zeppelin take it all now.
They have no place to go, no place to grow into, no roots
anywhere. And so there they were in front of 15,000 people,
going through the motions- their `act'- in order to pick up a
paycheck. Fifteen thousand people sat through it all hoping
that somehow their expectations would be fulfilled. They
weren't because in the words of a fine Bob Dylan song, `nothing
was delivered.'"
o An issue of "Time" magazine in October 1993 featured an article
categorizing various bands from the 1960's to the 1990's. Led
Zeppelin was classified by them as a "60's Hard Rock Band." In
keeping with this rather unusual interpretation of musical history
Pink Floyd was categorized as an "80's Acid Rock Band."
o Of all the strange places for Zeppelin to pop up, an episode of
"Beavis & Butthead" has to rank up there. The conversation that
preceeded the airing of "Over The Hills And Far Away" went:
Beavis : This sucks! It sounds like folk music!
Butt-head : Shut up, ass wipe! It gets cool. Just wait...
o The film "Bad Lieutenant," starring Harvey Keitel, features a song
by rapper Schooly D. called "Signifying Rapper" which is basically
"Kashmir" with a lot of rapping about violence over the top of it.
o The Toshiba phone company in the October 4, 1993 issue of
MacLean's magazine published an advertisment which purported to
show a single of "Stairway To Heaven" and had the following
accommpanying text:
"Stairway to Heaven. You're in high school. It's late.
You've got your arms around someone. It's playing. A few
years later you hear it on an elevator and can't wait until
it stops. But you find yourself admiring it for its
durability. And hope other things might wear that well.
."
o "Travelling Riverside Blues" - In addition to the Rosedale
mentioned in the song, it has been pointed out that Roseale is
also an upmarket suburb in Toronto and a shopping mall outside St.
Paul, MN. It is however exceedingly unlikely Robert Johnson was
referring to either of these, as his Rosedale is the one on
Mississippi Highway 1, which is also known as the River Road, 45
miles from Friars Point, which Johnson also mentions in the
original version of the song.
o There is an amusing parody of "Stairway To Heaven" called "Buying
A Slurpee At 7-Eleven." One of the verses begins, `There's a sign
on the door, that says "Slippery Wet Floor", but you know those
signs have no meaning.' The parody was written and performed by
Mark Davis, althoug very likely not the Mark Davis who was one of
my lecturers in first year, and Rob "Iceman" Izenberg. Another
parody is "Elevator To Menswear."
o The famous Swan Song symbol that Zeppelin adopted as the logo for
their record label was borrowed from an 1851 oil-on-canvas
painting by William Rimmer entitled "Evening Fall Of Day." The
figure in the painting is the Greek sun god Apollo. The painting
is not, as some people would have you believe, of Icarus or
Daedalus. These two are also figures from Greek mythology.
Daedalus is, according to legend, supposed to have crafted a set
of wings from feathers and wax for himself and Icarus which they
could use to escape from their prison on Crete to freedom in
Greece. Unfortunately, Icarus being the younger of the two
thought it might be a lark to fly a little higher, and flew too
close to the sun which melted his wings and he plunged to his
death in a sea, which is still known as the Icarian sea. Icarus'
first flight was also his swan song. Daedalus also designed the
labyrinth on Crete for King Mino's minotaur, which was the reason
for his imprisonment, because he alone knew the secrets of the
labyrinth.
o The Swan Song label came into being in 1974 after Zeppelin's
contract with Atlantic came up for renegotiation. Peter Grant
negotiated a deal whereby all the band's business affairs and his
management of them would be handled by a separate label. Dave
Lewis lists some rumoured names as Eclipse, Slut, Slag, Deluxe,
Stairway, and the name of their publishing company, Superhype.
Lewis also writes that a sub-company owned by the band,
Cullderstead, was registered for Swan Song as a business name.
The name is taken from the title of an unfinished band
composition, an instrumental, which Page had tagged as "Swan
Song." The song was another piece built around an exotic guitar
tuning from Page. Although the song was never finished, it most
likely, according to Christopher Crowe, evolved into the Firm song
"Midnight Moonlight." Dave Lewis writes that "Swan Song" may have
been an early version of "Ten Years Gone."
o The "Wayne's World" and "Wayne's World 2" films feature a number
of Zeppelin references. In the first film when Wayne goes to a
guitar store to buy himself his dream white Fender Stratocaster
he starts to play "Stairway To Heaven" only to be interrupted by
the store attendant who points to a sign in the store that says
"No Stairway To Heaven". Wayne is understandably aghast. This
sign is apparently quite common in music stores. In the second
film when Garth meets Kim Basinger's character in a laundromat he
is wearing a t-shirt with the cover of the first album, the
Hindenburg disaster, on it. A quote from Wayne from the first
film, "Look at Led Zeppelin, they didn't make songs people liked,
they left that to the Beegees." The mirthmobile, is, by the way,
an AMC Pacer not a Pinto. The actor who plays Garth, Dana Carvey,
is apparently a huge Zeppelin fan, which might explain the
plethora of Zeppelin references. In the second movie when Wayne
and Garth visit the home of the legendary roadie, they pick up a
photo album of him and the bands he had toured with and a touched
up photo of the roadie, Page and Plant is shown. Wayne states the
bleeding obvious by asking, "Hey, is this you with Led Zeppelin?"
On all video and cable releases of the first "Wayne's World"
movie, to "Stairway To Heaven" that Wayne is supposed to be
playing in the music store are overdubbed with random, distorted
guitar as the film-makers didn't have permission to use the real
intro.
o _Rolling_Stone_ magazine, in an unsubtle attempt to rewrite
history, and create the impression that they loved all the
Zeppelin albums to death when they were first released,
re-assessed all of them for their recently released Album Guide.
When first released, _Rolling_Stone_ was particularly dissmissive
and scathing of most of Zeppelin's output. This institutional
bias has now been dissipated with the addition of Zeppelin fans
such as David Fricke to the writing staff. The revised ratings
are on a scale of one to five stars.
"Led Zeppelin" ****
"Led Zeppelin II" ****
"Led Zeppelin III" ****
"Untitled" *****
"Houses of the Holy" **** 1/2
"Physical Grafitti" ****
"Presence" *** 1/2
"The Song Remains the Same" ** 1/2
"In Through the Out Door" ***
"Coda" ** 1/2
"Led Zeppelin" (Box Set) **** 1/2
o Similarities have been noticed between the riff in the
introduction to "Under The Bridge" by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers
and the intro riff in "Achilles Last Stand."
o Several Zeppelin songs contain drug references, whether directly
or indirectly through slang terms. Probably the most widely used
drug by the band, Plant admits this, was marijuana, which is
referred to in "Over The Hills And Far Away" in it's "Acapulco
Gold" incarnation. `I live for my dream and a pocket full of
gold'. Plant added the "Acapulco" during live versions.
"Stairway To Heaven" also contains a line, `..all that glitters is
gold' although this is probbably not a drug reference. "Misty
Mountain Hop" has the aura of some drug induced haze and when
discussing the origins of the song Plant has hinted at the
presence of drugs at a London sleep-in busted up by the Police.
"Dazed And Confused" originally known as "I'm Confused" when
performed by Jake Holmes was about an acid trip, but the lyrics
were changed for the Zeppelin version, although a few lines hint
at its prior lyrical theme. Harder drugs such as cocaine were
used by the band later in its career and are mentioned in "For
Your Life" where Plant even makes snorting noises. Another song
about the band's overindulgences, "The Rover" also contains drug
references amongst other things.
o During an appearance on "The Tonight Show" in America Plant
claimed that Zeppelin used to try and sound like black guys from
Chicago, a claim supported by their choice of covers, several from
Chicago bluesmen. The Chicago blues style itself is markedly
different from other dominant blues styles, such as Delta, Texas
and Memphis. It relies less on acoustisc instruments than these
others, and can cover more traditional band elements in the form
of extra musicians. Some notable exponents of Chicago blues as
Buddy Guy and Robert Cray. Chicago blues was also the first blues
variety to gain a major following among young British musicians in
the 1960's, although some of the leading musicians of the time
such as Page, Clapton and Richards moved on from Chicago quickly
to other more sparse styles such as Delta. However, Zeppelin
probably sounds closer to the Memphis style which incorporates
electric and acoustic elements. A Delta blues influence is also
present with both Page and Plant readily proclaiming their
admiration for Robert Johnson the acknowledged "King Of The Delta
Blues". Memphis is in turn a derivative of the Delta style.
o The whole issue of whether or not "Stairway To Heaven" contains a
backmasked message is surrounded by emotive and irrational
arguments. One of the foremost sleaze expeditions on Zeppelin is
Stephen Davis's "Hammer Of The Gods". Within this illustrious
tome, he asserts the common theory that the message is "Here's to
my sweet Satan" on page 9 of the book. Yet on page 309 he asserts
that when "Stairway" is played backwards at a slower speed the
message is "I live for Satan". Additional sources for this debate
include the christianmentary "Hell's Bells : The Dangers Of Rock
And Roll" wherein the theory is espoused that the message is "My
sweet Satan. No other made a path for it makes me sad whose power
is Satan." Next up is renowned religious freak Monty Python who
claimed to hear the message "Spam spam spam" over and over
throughout the entire duration of the song. Of a slightly more
factual nature, Henry T.F. Rhodes has claimed that in black masses
prayers are sometimes said backwards, although presumably this
only affects the word arrangements.
o Another persistent claim is that the bandmembers, often with the
claimed exclusion of Jones, sold their souls to the devil. This
helps to explain Plant's car crash, his son's death, Bonham's
death and a multitude of other unfortunate occurrences. A slight
twist on it is that Pagey was very close to the devil because his
daughter was not injured in Plant's car crash, although the devil
must not have liked one of his houses as it fell into the sea. No
such public misfortunes befell Jones and so it logically follows
he didn't sell his soul to the devil. But the whole idea of
someone selling their soul to the devil for their success and fame
seems to be a recurrent theme with celebrities dating back to
the nineteenth century. One example was Paganini who had to get
his mother to write a letter stating his father was not the devil
in order to appease a French town. Musicians seem to feature
prominently on the list of celebrities well-acquantined with the
devil, such as Jim Morrison, Eric Clapton (who is also God), John
Lennon, Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper and Kiss, which is of course
stands for "Knights In Satan's Service". Outside the field of
music others include Walt Disney (check out Fantasia), Carol
Lombard, and even corporations such as Proctor & Gamble. From
these examples, it appears that when people cannot find a rational
explanation for the talent some people possess they begin to look
for unusual explanations, hence the eventual claim that the person
in question is in league with the devil, which is a quick, and
easy way to get back at them I guess.
o Along with the recurring number 54 in relation to Plant and
Zeppelin, the number 10 seems to pop up quite frequently as well.
In "How Many More Times", `I've got ten children of my own', in
"Heartbreaker", `It's been ten years and maybe more since I first
laid eyes on you', in "Ramble On", `Been this way ten years to the
day', and in "Ten Years Gone", `Ten years gone, holding on'. A
slightly tenuous extension of this theme is that the number 10 is
sacred to the ancient Cail Li'n cult of gaelic origin in a similar
way that 7 recurs in the bible. Plant may have been trying to
invoke some sort of mystic power or magical influence by repeating
the number in the lyrics to songs. A comparison is that in the
bible many things are grouped in sevens, the days of creation,
seven plagues in Egypt, and the number of apocalyptic horsemen.
Much more likely is that it seemed a suitable timespan for the
lyrical theme.
o One of the bands formed out of the ashes of the Yardbirds was
Together. This featured Keith Relf and Jim McCarty but not Page.
The band's style could be said to be soft acoustic rock.
o Led Zeppelin's first five album were released on reel to reel
format. According to Rick Barrett the first three albums are
numbered with roman numerals on the spines of the boxes while the
fourth album just has the band member's four symbols. However,
Barrett in an impressive display of attention to detail notes that
there is a second version of "Led Zeppelin II" on this format,
which features the roman numerals on the spine as the normal
version does, but also the phrase "The only way to fly". This is
apparently very rare and would be worth a quite considerable
amount of money to a collector, such as Barrett.
o Zeppelin are rumoured to have performed some christmas carols at a
show during the early seventies.
o The Bombay Orchestra with which Plant and Page recorded version
of "Friends" and "Four Sticks" in 1971 features along with western
style instruments, native Indian ones such as tabla drums and
sitars. While an interesting experiment, the recordings were
never released offically and are only available on bootlegs. The
project is said to have run into problems because Page complained
that the orchestra members didn't keep time in the Western style
and some of them drank rather a lot.
o When last mentioned, sales of "The Complete Studio Recordings" in
the USA had been certified "Gold", meaning sales of 500,000 units.
Sales of the first Box Set have reached one million, four times
platinum.
o Rehearsals for "In Through The Out Door" took place at Clearwell
Castle in May, 1978.
o The working title for "Coda" was "Early Days And Latter Days".
o Another Zep clone band in the style of Kingdom Come were an outfit
that went by the name of Zebra, who supposedly did a cover of "The
Ocean". Another group lumped into the Zep clone category, and
unfairly so according to some, is Canadian group The Tea Party.
On their "Splendor Solis" album is a song called "Sun Going Down"
which features the following lyric, `I think my wings have fallen
below, Jesus I need another pair, St. Peter at the gates of heaven
won't you let me in?' Random coincidence? The singer, in all
fairness, sounds more Jim Morrison than anyone else. Yet another
Zeppelin clone band is The White. The singer from this outfit,
Michael White, is apparently so good at reproducing Plant's voice
that it's eerie. Interestingly, Michael White is the mananger of
The Tea Party, and The White and The Tea Party both use the same
studio, in Vermont. A gig by The White in the U.K. was attended
by Plant's bass player Charlie Jones, and his wife, Plant's
daughter Carmen. It was suggested to Plant himself that he check
out the band and he has, although his thoughts on their
performance are not recorded. The Tea Party recently played on
the same bill as Page and Plant.
o In the gap between tracks 8 and 9 on Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey"
album ("When That Evening Sun Goes Down" and "Moonshine Whiskey")
there is the sound of someone exhaling that is reportedly a dead
ringer for Plant's exhale at the beginning of "Whole Lotta Love".
"Tupelo Honey" was released in 1971 as a follow-up to the very
successful "Moondance" album. The question of whether or not this
is sampled is a major stretch of the imagination however, so it
can be classed as random coincidence.
o The Spanish seaside town of Malgrat de Mar has a bar called
"Zeppelin" which is run by a group of Zeppelin fans and
enthusiasts. The bar also sells a t-shirt with it's logo on it
for tourists, the logo being a picture of "Mr. Zeppelin".
o The Rock And Roll Cafe in New York City, situated at 149 Bleeker
Street, at one point several years ago featured a Zeppelin tribute
band called Four Sticks every Monday night. The tribute band was
preceeded by a Hendrix tribute band.
o Peter Grant's bathrobe from the cancelled 1980 U.S. tour with "Led
Zeppelin The 80's, Part One" emblazoned on the back was spotted by
a listmember for sale in a Boston store for around US$700.
Judging by the size of Grant at the time you certainly get your
money's worth though!
o Punk "Musicians", a term I use with some trepidation, were
renowned for bucketing Zeppelin. Johnny Rotten who once labelled
the band, "boring old farts", was reported in _Q_ magazine as
having contacted Plant recently to get the lyrics for "Kashmir" so
PIL could cover it. An even more derisive quote, is Paul Simonon
of the Clash's, "I don't even have to hear the music, just looking
at one of their album covers makes me want to throw up".
o The street that the building depicted on the cover of "Physical
Graffiti" is on is St. Marks Place, New York City. The street
runs right through Greenwich Village.
o The punk band Unsane does a cover of "Four Sticks".
o Led Zeppelin are the only band to have had all their albums reach
the Billboard Top 10. Of these ten albums, six went to number
one.
o During his drum solo on their 1994 tour, Aerosmith drummer Joey
Kramer would sometimes incorporate a section from "Poor Tom".
o A song by Soundgarden, title unknown, uses the "Killing Floor"
riff from 1969. This is the riff where an E is played twice,
count out a measure, and a "Boom Boom" style riff is then
played, at about half the speed John Lee Hooker plays it.
o The riff from "In The Light" was borrowed by the guitarist from
Stone Temple Pilots, sped up, made heavier and simplified and
incorporated into either "Sex Type Thing" or "Wicked Garden".
o On the 1994 Aerosmith tour, guitarist Joe Perry was known to play
a bit of "Dazed And Confused" during his solo which usually led
into "Sweet Emotion". He did this at Aerosmith's Woodstock 1994
appearance. This seems to be a common trend among guitarists,
with Slash also doing this with Guns 'n Roses. On the Metallica
box set "Live Shit: Binge & Purge" during one of the concerts on
video bass player Jason Newsted begins playing the start of "Dazed
And Confused" at the end of his bass solo. Guitarist Kirk Hammett
then chips in with the psychedelic guitar chords from the song.
They also play a snippet from "Moby Dick" later in the concert.
o The band Brother Cane have a song called "Make Your Play" which
features some slide work reminiscent of that in "In My Time Of
Dying".
o Kristin Hersh's "Your Ghost" cd single features a cover of "When
The Levee Breaks". This can be on the "Strings" album.
o Duran Duran's cover of "Thank You" appears on the soundtrack to
the film _With_Honors_.
o The CBC show "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" uses the same burning
Zeppelin footage in the beginning of their show as appears on
the cover of the first album.
o The Powder Monkey's album "Smashed On A Knee" features a similar
picture to that on the first Zeppelin album, except that is was
taken a few moments later.
o Heart is a band that wears its Zeppelin influences on its sleeves,
but in places it does sound a bit too derivative. Two examples
are the songs "Barracuda" and "Magic Man" which imitate "Achilles
Last Stand" and "Immigrant Song" respectively. Also, the end of
"Straight On" is a lift from "The Crunge".
o Unlike during "The Song Remains The Same", for the two Knebworth
1979 dates, the band dressed identically on both occasions.
o A radio station in Florida found out the hard way that an all
Zeppelin format was not a viable idea when it kicked off its
transmissions by playing "Stairway To Heaven" fifty times in a
row. Within two weeks the station had gone broke and had had to
resort to the usual dull and unvaried commercial format.
o At a Minneapolis date on his 1994 tour Billy Joel and his band ran
down a cover of "Good Times Bad Times" with the introduction "This
is one of my all time favourite songs". Before that he had
instructed the band to "Let's do that one we were fooling around
with before". Billy played rhythm guitar for this song.
o In the first story, _The_Langoliers_, in Stephen King's _Four_
_Past_Midnight_, one of the characters says the following,
"Sometimes, when I'm sure my music teacher isn't around, I play
old Led Zeppelin songs," he said. "That stuff _really_ cooks on
the violin. You'd be suprised."
o The programme for Zeppelin's 1979 Knebworth gigs was a little
ahead of their record company. It listed the new, at the time,
album, "In Through The Out Door", as being "Available now on
Swansong records and tapes". In fact, the album was not available
at the time of the concerts, and was delayed for some time. An
advertisement for HMV records also in the programme was more
accurate, in that it listed all the previous Zep albums, showing
sleeves and prices, but not "In Through The Out Door".
o A music convention in Toronto, Canada, in early 1994 featured
Peter Grant as a keynote speaker.
o A classical guitar recital at the Berklee College of Music
attended by a member of the list in early 1994 included a song
listed on the programme as "Bob Pix On Lead - Jimmy Page and
Robert Plant".
o Rapper Ice-T has been known to use Zeppelin samples such as the
drum beat from "When The Levee Breaks", commonly used in rap and
dance music anyway, and the bass riff in "Heartbreaker".
o On March 29, 1975 Led Zeppelin made music history by becoming the
first band to feature their entire back catalogue, all six albums,
on the album charts at the same time. That was the first and so
far, last time that has happened with that quantity of albums.
o The 1969 Sony Super Show film features Zeppelin along with Eric
Clapton and Steven Stills, amongst other.
o The shows that Zeppelin recorded for the BBC have been rebroadcast
in recent years on the syndicated shows "In Concert" and
"Superstars In Concert" on American radio. Some of the material
may no longer exist in BBC archives, and these radio broadcasts
are the ones that turn up most frequently as bootlegs.
o The Kentucky Headhunters, an American group obviously, are noted
Zeppelin fans. Some members of this band claimed to have been
signed to Sawn Song at one point, as mentioned in the FAQL.
o Yorke's book on Zeppelin contains the following illuminating
statistics regarding album sales in the USA.
1st. The Beatles = 56 million albums sold.
2nd. Led Zeppelin = 45 million albums sold.
These figures do not include the sales of either of the box sets
or "The Complete Studio Recordings".
o An unknown Soundgarden song reputedly features the riff, or a
very similar one from "Friends".
o The organist who played during Rangers home hockey games at
Madison Square Gardens in the early 1990's had a repertoire which
included "Kashmir".
o Richard Cole, possibly not the well known one among Zeppelin fans,
manages the Zeppelin tribute band Physical Graffiti.
o An interesting Zep legend relates to their 1968 show at Denver,
26/12/68, which was the first date from their first US tour.
There was a snowstorm in Denver at the time and Zeppelin were
stuck there without their equipment and expected to do a show at
the Coliseum. Using borrowed equipment Zep went ahead with the
show and whilst Plant was singing at some point the microphone
went dead. Plant, reputedly, tossed it aside and continued
singing without it.
o In June 1994, WHJY-FM in Providence broadcast the statistic that
74% of the members of President Clinton's administration believed
that Led Zeppelin was a fuel additive.
o At the 1994 Zeppelin convention, some newly unearthed footage of
Page and Plant at an Australian press conference was shown. Only
about 10 minutes long, the piece is an interesting curiosity.
o The film "The Client" features several references to Led Zeppelin.
The kid in the film who witnessed the murder is seen wearing a
Zeppelin t-shirt, and the lawyer asks the rather rhetorical
question of whether the kid likes Zeppelin. The kid is under the
impression that the lawyer has no idea about Zeppelin and is just
trying to worm her way into his trust. He asks her what her
favourite Zeppelin song is, and she replies, in a rather unusual
response, the live version of "Moby Dick". The kid then asks her
to name the first four albums, which she does, even explaining
that the fourth album is officially untitled but is commonly
referred to as "IV". The film incidentally is based on a John
Grisham novel.
o A series of comics entitled "The Led Zeppelin Experience" were
published in 1993 by Revolutionary Comics in California. As with
Australian bootlegs in recent years, the covers loudly proclaim
their unofficial nature. However, the comics are content just to
rip off Richard Cole's tired old road stories, doing little but
translating them into pictorial form. However, one issue does
get a little more interesting with an exceprt from Aleister
Crowley's "Magick In Theory And Practice" printed on the inside
cover.
o A song was released in 1993 called "She Likes To Make Love To Led
Zeppelin" which had a lyrics that touched on various album and
song titles.
o A 1994 song by Bomb The Bass contained several references to Jimmy
Page and how "The song remains the same".
o The exact pronunciantion of Bron-Y-Aur, the cottage in Snowdonia,
Wales, where Page and Plant retreated to to write the songs for
"Led Zeppelin III", is unclear. Welsh being one of the hardest
languages to understand, it is obviously not pronounced as it
appears. The word apparently originated in old Welsh dialects,
and one school of thought has it that it is pronounced brom-rar.
However, Robert has been heard to pronounce it bron-rar.
o In a section of Alice In Chain's "I'll Stay Away" where the
acoustic part ascends, then descends, it sounds similar to the
guitar in Zeppelin's cover of "Travelling Riverside Blues".
o Legend has it that after their August 18, 1969, show at the
Rockpile in Toronto, Zeppelin carried on playing acoustically
outside the venue on the street for an hour or so. Nobody paid
much attention to them as they were not well known at the time.
o The band members major influences could be stated as follows:
Jimmy Page - Early rock 'n roll, electric blues, Carnatic
(Indian), Celtic folk, and Arabic music.
Robert Plant - folk rock (Californian bands), psychedelia,
acoustic blues, Arabic, and Indian later in life.
John Paul Jones - Motown, Jazz, Rock, and Classical arrangements
for non-standard instruments.
John Bonham - Jazz, Rock, and Funk.
o Led Zeppelin's admiration of The Beatles is an established fact.
The famous "Blueberry Hill" bootleg features them inserting a
quick nod to "I Saw Her Standing There" during a "Communication
Breakdown" medley. They also played "Please Please Me", in
parody, on at least one occasion, and on the 1980 tour played
"Money", with Phil Carson, at some shows.
o Stephen Davis, author of the notorious "Hammer Of The Gods", has
claimed that Zeppelin performed "Purple Haze" during concerts on
their 1973 tour. This is uncertain, but during "The Song Remains
The Same" just after the bowing section and as Robert is saying
"Do it!" Jimmy plays what sounds like a snatch of "Foxy Lady".
o Frank Hannon, guitarist from the band Tesla, has a red Gibson
double-neck guitar like Page's which he uses for the Zeppelin-
influenced "Love Song".
o Boston band Fury And The Slaughterhouse, a local band from Boston
appear to be adept Zeppelin thieves, with one of their songs
featuring a direct sample from the beginning of "D'Yer Mak'er",
and the drums from "When The Levee Breaks".
o "The Ten Legendary Singles" a special New Zealand-only release
features the standard ten Zeppelin singles in a seven-inch box
set with a picture of a Zeppelin over Berlin during World War II
on the cover. This is an official release, although a printing
error results in the A and B sides being reversed on the singles
for "Whole Lotta Love", "D'Yer Mak'er" and "Candy Store Rock".
o The Australian release of "Led Zeppelin II" featured the band on
the inside front cover instead of the bomber on some pressings.
o The hilarious rock-spoof-pseudo-documentary "This Is Spinal Tap"
features more than a few digs at Zeppelin. The most obvious is
guitarist Nigel Tufnell's "bowing" solo where he plays his guitar
with a violin, as opposed to Page using the bow. The band's
manager also appears to be modelled on Peter Grant, and one of
their many previous drummers choked on vomit, although it was
someone else's, and as someone in the film points out "You can't
really dust for vomit". The film also takes swipes at most
obviously Black Sabbath, although the Stonehenge gag may also be
a poke at Zeppelin's "Stonehenge" theme at their Oakland show in
1977.
o The slogan for Zeppelin's 1980 tour was "Cut The Waffle", which
meant trimming down the hour-long-jams and endless solo, with the
exception of the drum solo, making Zeppelin a far leaner outfit
than for years.
o Mention has been made of a resemblance between the Soundgarden
song "Superunknown" and "Misty Mountain Hop".
o Zeppelin's last show was at Eissporthalle, Berlin, Germany, on
July 7, 1980.
o Phish has been known to cover "Good Times Bad Times" in concert,
one such occasion being 24/7/93 at Greatwoods, Massachusetts.
o The appalling quality of the sound and video footage of the 1979
Knebworth show available on various bootlegs, may be for a reason.
The footage was originally stolen from Jimmy's house, and while
the thieves most likely didn't get the master tapes, they may have
purposely denigrated the quality to enhance the value of their
copy.
o Japanese Zeppelin tribute band Cinnamon take the whole idea of a
concept band to its extreme. They have been playing together
since 1979, and are so obsessed with accuracy that they introduce
each number by title, tour, venue and date, playing the song
exactly as it was performed that night. Hailing from Nagoya, they
go under the names of Robart, Jimy Page, John-G, and Bonzow. An
album of their original material is, for some reason, entitled
"Led Zeppelin", while their latest work, "Cinnamon III", which
features a parody of the "II" cover, is a 58 song medley of
Zeppelin classics performed in 56 minutes. Jimy Page when he is
not reproducing the performance of the other Page owns and works
in a drugstore, while Robart runs a Nagoya language school named
"Woodstock".
o On a Red Hot Chilli Peppers bootleg the band segues momentarily
into "Dazed And Confused".
o On October 21, 1994 _The_Guardian_ printed the following comment,
"Robert Plant and Jimmy Page confirmed that they turned down an
offer of $100 million to reform Led Zeppelin. So there is a
God..."
o A standup comedian, whose name is not known, does a sketch about
what old rock stars are doing these days. He says he pulled into
a gas station where Robert Plant was working, and Plant walked
over, popped the hood, had a look around underneath and wailed
"You need coolant..."
o There is a golf video avilable called "Fairways To Heaven" which
has the title emblazoned on the cover in the font Zeppelin used
for "The Song Remains The Same".
o At an early 1972 concert at Mohawk College in Hamilton Ontario,
Rush is reported to have played "Stairway To Heaven" as part of
their encore.
o "How Many More Times" has appeared on the soundtrack of at least
one film, who's title is not widely known, but also includes at
least one song by Steve Miller. This film is "Homer", from 1969.
The catalogue number for this album is Cotillion SD 9037 (US)/
Atlantic 2400 137 (UK). This is mentioned in Robert Godwin's
"The Illustrated Collectors Guide To Led Zeppelin (3rd Edition)".
o Television advertisements for the film "Deer Hunter" and maybe
also the film itself used "Dazed And Confused" as background
music.
o There exists a musak version of "Tangerine" that can be heard in
various elevators.
o The Swan Song label was dissolved several years after Zeppelin
ended, but not before "Coda" and Robert Plant's first solo album,
"Pictures At Eleven" were released on it. The other artists on
Swan Song mostly resigned with Atlantic, with a few exceptions.
Bad Company soldiered on minus Paul Rodgers, while Dave Edmunds
switched labels. A recent retrospective of his work contains all
his Swan Song material. Other artists simply lost their recording
deals thanks to Swan Song's demise. Jimmy Page's soundtrack to
"Deathwish II" also appeared on Swan Song.
o The publishing companies used throughout the Zeppelin years were
Superhype and Flames Of Albion, both set up by Jimmy but also used
by the other bandmembers to administer their rights. For those
unfamiliar with how this works, these companies then sign with one
of the major administrators such as ASCAP or BMI. These companies
are reponsible for collecting the royalties generated by other
people using the songs, such as companies publishing music books.
Fees generated from radio and video broadcasts and live covers are
also administered by these companies, usually at a standard rate
regardless of the artist. However, depending on the band's status
in the industry, their management may take it into their hands to
see that the various fees are paid. These companies also handle
such things as songwriter disputes, and disputed credits for song
authorship, such as the recent Michael Bolton/Isley Brothers
dispute, which bypassed this mechanism and ended up in court.
o Led Zeppelin were one of the few 1970's bands, big bands that is,
who did not deliberately experiment with some sort of deliberately
vague bisexual imagery.
o At one particular Primus gig, Les Claypool, the bass player, put
on an unusually shaped bass and the band started to play the
introduction to "Kashmir".
o A duet by Neneh Cherry and Michael Stipe has a stab at recreating
the Bonham sound. The title of the song is not apparent, but can
be distinguished by a chorus of "Round and round and round..."
o Various things such as Tolkien influenced lyrics and some album
art suggest that Zeppelin, most notably Plant, had some sort of
interest in, fixation with subreality, such as that explored by
Tolkien.
o There are quite a few things that a band might do that could hint
to a Zeppelin influence. Probably the most obvious is repeating
a blues-based or pentatonic riff over and over again. Zeppelin
didn't invent this, but some of their most well known songs such
as "Whole Lotta Love" use it. Additionally, backwards echo,
multi-tracked guitars, choruses guitars, and open and Indian
tunings all point to Zeppelin and Jimmy Page. Stylistically, a
song that stars off with acoustic guitar and really soft sections,
then builds up to a much louder, quite often electric, climax,
are Zeppelin trademarks. A recent example being Van Halen's
"Take Me Back (Deja Vu)". Zeppelin was again, not the inventor of
this, but songs such as "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" used it to
great effect. The influence of Zeppelin in rap is also quite
important, Frankie Goes To Hollywood sampled Bonham for "Relax",
and The Beastie Boys with Rick Rubin sampled a number of Zeppelin
riffs and drumbeats. The interest in World Music also exhibits a
Zeppelin influence with their dabbling in Carnatic, Arabic,
Celtic, Caribbean and Moroccan music. The preponderance of a huge
reverb/gating effect of drum sounds of people such as Phil Collins
and by producer Mutt Lange with artists such as Bryan Adams is a
clear attempt to replicate Bonham's sound. Also, the guitar hero
with the low-slung Les Paul and the cigarette dangling from the
lips is not a trademark of Slash, but rather, Jimmy Page, who can
be seen in various photos and footage leaning back into the riffs,
in a much imitated pose. The influence of Zeppelin has been very
pervasive, leap-frogging acorss genres and generations and is very
likely to continue for some time to come.
o The name Zeppelin first sprang to public prominence thanks to
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838-1971) who was a German airship
designed who developed the dirigible balloon, named after him,
which was used in World War I. He developed the airship between
1897-1900.
o The Zeppelin bursting into flames on the cover of the first album
is The Hindenburg, named after Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934), a
German general and statesman. He succeeded Falkenhayn as chief of
the High Command during World War I and served as President of the
Weimar Republic (1925-1934). In 1933 he was forced to make Hitler
chancellor.
o Led Zeppelin did four seperate tours of the USA in the space of
one year during 1969, 26/12/68-08/11/69.
o Headley Grange, a recording venue for Zeppelin during the 1970's,
was a converted poorhouse.
o The search for the master tapes for the remastering process took
Page to all manner of strange locations, such as a now-abandoned
Underground Subway Station in North London.
o The Jeff Buckley song "Mojo Pin" features a very Zeppelin-ish
section around the 3:50 mark, and again later in the song, which
sounds like "Achilles Last Stand".
o The plane featured in "The Song Remains The Same" is a Boeing
720B, a scaled down model of a 707 that was formerly owned by
United Airlines. United Airlines sold the plane to a company
called Temporary Entertainer's Services which leased the plane
out to various groups and performers for their tours. The plane
was also used by at various times, The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple
and Elton John. The man who ran this company was the manager of
singer Bobby Sherman, who derived his fame from the tv show "Here
Comes The Bride." For the use of Led Zeppelin the plane was
repainted in brown and gold and a logo added to the fuselage.
This paint scheme was later changed by Elton John to a stars and
stripes design. In turn, each group or person leasing the plane
changed the paint scheme to give the impression that the current
occupant owned it. In 1973 the plane was leased at $2500 a day
plus a mileage charge. It was used by the group to travel to and
from gigs and back to the major cities such as New York, Chicago
or Los Angeles where they would "base" themselves for part of a
tour. The plane was nicknamed "The Starship" or alternately
"Starship One."
o At a gig in September 1970 at the L.A. Trouabdour where Fairport
Covention were recording a live album, they were joined onstage
by a previously unheard of band called the Birmingham Water
Buffalo Society, who turned out to be Led Zeppelin.
o The reason for Eddie Kramer's non-involvement between the second
and fifth albums was a dispute that broke out in Electric
Ladyland studios in New York, where Kramer was the director of
engineering. One of Zeppelin's roadies spilled some Indian food
on a new rug, and when asked to clean it up by Kramer, harsh
words were exchanged. Zeppelin sided with their roadie and thus
something of a wedge was driven into their relationship with
Kramer.
o While Woodstock was happening, Zeppelin was performing in Asbury
Park, new Jersey.
o The completion of "Presence" just prior to Thanksgiving, prompted
Jimmy to suggest "Thanksgiving" as an album title.
o The rumoured title for "In Through The Out Door" prior to its
release was "Look".
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.07 - Shaking The Tree
People have interpreted Jimmy Page's brief alliance with former
Whitesnake and Deep Purple singer, and alleged Plant clone, David
Coverdale as an act of revenge for Plant not agreeing to do a
reunion. Whether Jimmy really set out to annoy Plant, or mush more
plausible he was dying to get back in the studio and Coverdale came
along at just the right time, they did come up with an album,
"Coverdale/Page," that has drawn mixed reactions from Zeppelin fans.
o At the end of the recording process, there were a handful of tunes
left over that didn't make the album, one of which is known to be
called "Saccharine." In the words of Coverdale, `There's a song
called "Saccharine" that is going to make you shit. The riff is
absolutely obscene, as are the lyrics.' Another unreleased song
is a mix of "Shake My Tree" with a `wild assortment of crunch
guitars' according to Coverdale.
o On the "Coverdale/Page" album Page uses a guitar tuning device
made by TransPerformance that apparently works by automatically
winding the string until the correct pitch is reached after the
string is struck. The device fits over the tunings keys. Page
had the device installed on one of his Les Pauls, and he says it
can store up to two hundred different tunings. This may well be
the guitar he uses in the "Pride And Joy" video, as it looks to
have some sort of custom parts added to it. It is also the
guitar Jimmy uses for "Kashmir" on "No Quarter", which is how he
can segue into "Black Dog" which is in a completely different
tuning.
o The "Coverdale/Page" album was the first time Jimmy had played
harp since on his solo single "She Just Satisfies" in 1965. Jimmy
plays a dulcimer during "Pride And Joy", something he hasn't done
on record since "That's The Way" on "Led Zeppelin III."
o Coverdale's explanation for his screaming on the "Coverdale/Page"
was that Page was writing songs that made him sing `...up with the
pigeons.'
o The song "Take Me For A Little While" is apparently about the
losses both Page and Coverdale have had to deal with in their
lives, Bonham in the case of Page, and Tommy Bolin in the case of
Coverdale. Coverdale has said he pictures the song as being about
old buddies huddling around the fire for comfort. Page says
he wrote the song while looking at his young son, while they were
in Tahoe, Nevada. The solo of this song sounds reminiscent of the
one from "Stairway To Heaven" being played slower.
o The idea to work with Coverdale did not come from David Geffen
according to both page and Coverdale, but from Page's management.
At the time Page had been sifting through lots of demo tapes of
young singers and found nothing of interest.
o The initial writing for the "Coverdale/Page" album was done with
the aid of a $50 Radio Shack cassette recorder and some backing
tapes of drum tracks. Coverdale jokingly says they thought about
donating it to the Smithsonian.
o In the Kerrang interview with Page, Coverdale made a somewhat
confusing comment, "... walking the fine line between Pagan and
Christian, essential and superfluous." This is what he says at
the end of the song "For The Love of God" on Steve Vai's album,
"Passion And Warfare."
o The opening riff for "Shake My Tree" from the "Coverdale/Page"
album was something Page had come up with at the time of the
sessions for "In Through The Out Door" but discarded because
no-one but Bonham had any idea what to do with it. It was also
later ignored by Paul Rodgers when he and Page were in The Firm.
o "Pride and Joy", another "Coverdale/Page" track was originally
conceived by Coverdale as a Dr. John style, laid back song called
"Barbados Boogie." Coverdale notes, "...and then, of course, he
[Page] had to put in this enormous...you know... gutter,
digusting, churning, malevolent, _sucking_ riff." A riff from
Sammy Hagar's turgid song "Heavy Metal" sounds reminiscent to the
riff before the drum intro in "Pride And Joy."
o The cover of the "Coverdale/Page" album with it's traffic merging
sign, meant to symbolise the musical merging of Coverdale and
Page, was designed by Hugh Syme who has in the past been
responsible for album covers for Whitesnake, "1987" and "Slip Of
The Tongue", and every Rush cover since "Caress Of Steel", even
playing on the latter's albums. The sign from the "Coverdale/
Page" album appears in a variety of locations, similar to the way
the `object' appears on the cover of "Presence." The locations of
the road sign are:
- Among some clouds in a blue sky. (Front Cover)
- On the moon. (Rear Cover)
- Between two piles of felled trees.
- In a field with cattle.
- In the desert with pyramids in the background.
- In front of a pile of crushed cars.
- In shallow tropical water. (The Great Barrier Reef?)
- In a breaking wave in a stormy sea.
Hugh Syme is reported to have a very quirky sense of humour so
there may well be a meaning for each of these scenes. A photo
of the same pyramids, from slightly to the left and closer, is
included in the "The Dark Side Of The Moon Twentieth Anniversary
Edition" of the classic Pink Floyd album.
o "Coverdale/Page" session players Ricky Phillips (Bass) and Denny
Carmassi (Drums) have made mention of the nearly impossible
rhythmic patterns Page wanted them ot play throughout the album.
In several places on the album Page modulates the chord up a
half-step, which has been suggested as a joking reference to
Bonham's "Wait For You."
o The much rumoured US tour never happened, although at one stage
they got as far as lining up Extreme as the opening act. Instead
they played a handful of dates in Japan, with some vintage
performances from Page, and then split amicably. Page is now
back with Plant, while Coverdale is trying to reform an early
incarnation of his previous band, Whitesnake.
o The solo for "Don't Leave Me This Way" was done in one take while
Page had a 102 degree temperature!
o The slides in "Waiting On You" are not done with a slide, but with
a whammy pedal.
o The main riff from "Don't Leave Me This Way bears some resemblance
to the Beatles song "I Want You (She's So Heavy)."
o The credit John Kalodner : John Kalodner refers to one of the
promotional people at Geffen, who is possibly best known for his
excessive hyping of lame bands. Kalodner is also the bearded man
wearing the wedding dress in Aerosmith's "Dude (Looks Like A
Lady)" video. Kalodner recently left Geffen.
o David Coverdale's mother died while the album was being recorded
and her name appears in the credits for that reason.
o The bass player for Coverdale/Page's shows in Japan was Guy
Pratt. He would have been unable to continue touring with the
band if any additional dates had been added, as he was already
committed for the rest of 1994 to an obscure group named after
two even more obscure Mississippi Delta bluesmen.
o In the same way he had Durban LaVerde overdub all of ex-The Firm
bass player Tony Franklin's parts on "Outrider", Page had studio
player, also from Miami Sound Machine, Jorge Casas overdub nearly
all of Ricky Phillips bass parts on "Coverdale/Page".
o In the video for "Take Me For A Little While" Jimmy is playing a
very rare and expensive instrument called a Gibson Harp-Guitar.
These were built sometime during the 1920's and feature 12 extra
ass strings, one for each key, as well as the standard six guitar
strings.
o "Shake My Tree" features Page's backwards echo effect.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.08 - Coverdale/Plant
The war of words between Robert Plant and David Coverdale that
erupted in the music media during Coverdale's alliance with Jimmy
Page for the "Coverdale/Page" album is merely the latest salvoes in
the debate over whether Whitesnake is a Zeppelin clone band.
o Ever since Whitesnake released its "1987" album with the song
"Still Of The Night" on it David Coverdale has been incessantly
bashed in the popular music media as a "Plant Wannabee" and "Plant
Clone."
o What this ignores is Coverdale's pedigree as an established singer
long before Whitesnake. Coverdale was the singer for Deep Purple
Mark IV, after Ian Gillan left, and recorded several albums with
the band which featured until his death, the late Tommy Bolin.
o The similarites between Plant and Coverdale are surpericial to say
the least,
- Both are English, both are singers, both have worked with Jimmy
Page, both have king sized egos, both seem obsessed with the
opposite sex, both have blond hair - although you have to wonder
whether Plant uses dye these days, and Coverdale certainly does.
So does dying you hair and working with Jimmy Page consist of
blatant plagiarism? Given that they both emerged on the scene at
around the same time with a similar base in the blues the
comparions would appear to be unfair to both of them.
o The crux of the problem is the video for "Still Of The Night"
where Whitesnake guitarist Adrian Vandenberg picked up a violen
bow and in a manner reminiscent of another guitarist began to play
his guitar with it. From a headline hungry media it was a logical
progression that Coverdale was imitating Plant. At any rate,
Coverdale was not the main musical writer behind Whitesnake, he
wrote the lyrics mainly and Vandenberg's bow exploits are by the
guitarists admission not Coverdale's idea.
o The part of "Still Of The Night" which resembles "Immigrant Song"
most closely is when the band are playing octaves and Coverdale is
singing "Ooooh... Baby..."
o Coverdale has claimed in recent interviews that the riff from
"Still Of The Night" which sounds reminiscent of the one from
"Black Dog" was something that Richie Blackmore had come up with
during Coverdale's days with Deep Purple. According to Coverdale,
John Sykes and himself tidied it up a bit for the song.
o Another source of discontent was a remark Coverdale offhandedly
made about his "good friend" Robert Plant and and how, "He and I
like to sit down and discuss the current events in music." Since
then it has been pretty much open-season from both camps. Plant
contended that he did not know Coverdale, unlikely, and that the
aforementioned events never took place. Page has remarked that,
"When I saw that guy pick up the bow I just about fell out of my
chair laughing." Coverdale countered with, "You can hear
`Kashmir' on Moroccan radio 24 hours a day."
o Since then, the Coverdale/Page union has come and gone and left
little other trace than their album. At the time, the feud seemed
to change focus a little, Coverdale expressing his regret things
had got so out of hand.
"Let's not pull any punches," Coverdale pouts. "There _has_ been
something of a hate campaign conducted by Robert . A lot of the
things discussed by Jimmy and myself are, I'm afraid, very
personal, but there's never, ever been a problem between Mr Page
and myself. The thing that hurt me most of all is Robert saying
that we didn't know each other.
When you asked before if Jimmy and I knew each other, we'd
crossed paths, had maybe three chance meetings throught the 70s;
whereas Robert had brought his daughter to Whitesnake shows when
we played in his neck of the woods, and he'd been given the whole
royal treatment and all that.
I knew Robert back in the 'Purple days, him and Bonzo. I
never knew John Paul Jones. So that was a weird thing for me.
But I'd rather stay out of all that and let the music do the
talking, really. I admire Robert immensely - I'll leave it at
that."
Plant on the other hand is not particularly conciliatory,
describing Coverdale recently as "...a fucking idiot".
o Page at the time had this to say on the infamous violin bow
incident, "That's what it was about. It wasn't anyting to do with
the rest of the song - it was purely the reference to the bow,
which wasn't used on the record, as far as I know."
o Plant's thoughts on Coverdale/Page? "It's a bit limiting,
artistically, to think that's the way it is and that's what is
needed."
o With Coverdale/Page achieving only a small amount more succes than
Plant's "Fate of Nations" album and the outward appearance that
Plant had squandered all his chances to get together with Jimmy
sour grapes is an easy accusation to make.
o In recent years the jibes between Plant and Page got so intense,
it wasn't Page and Coverdale that seemed so unlikely, but Page and
Plant.
o One is left wondering in whose interests the whole thing got
started, it certainly wasn't either Plant or Coverdale and given
that the press has been quite happy to give this prolonged
coverage, some unfortunate conclusions about the character and
quality of music journalism can be drawn.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.09 - Like Father Like Son
o As if it wasn't fairly apparent, Jason Bonham is the son of the
late John Bonham and is an established rock drummer in his own
right these days.
o In the words of Jason,
"Most fathers give their four year old children train sets,
toy cars or tricycles - mine gave me a scaled down Ludwig
drum kit."
o At the age of 11, Bonzo is said to have pointed out that in his
opinion Jason was the only person he had heard apart from himself
who could play the drum part of "Trampled Underfoot" just right.
o Jason Bonham can be seen at a very young age in "The Song Remains
The Same" drumming away furiously on his drum kit during Bonzo
Sr.'s fantasy sequence.
o Since then Jason has played in several Zep reunions such as at
the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary gig, where Jason's drumming
was apparently the only hightlight.
o Another reunion at Carmen Plant's 21st birthday party saw Jason
on drums again for what was apparently a much improved performance
from the other three members.
o The last of these reunions was at Jason's own wedding where the
remaining three members came together and played several numbers
such as "Custard Pie." As with Carmen Plant's birthday, this was
from all reports a great performance.
o Plant was apparently unwilling to consider Jason for his touring
band during the late 80's because of an alcohol problem.
o Jason formed his own group in the late 1980's comprising himself
on drums, Daniel MacMaster (Vocals), Ian Hatton (Guitars) and
John Smithson (Keyboards, Bass, Violin). The band released it's
debut album "The Disregard of Timekeeping" to an encouraging
response in 1989. The band went by the name "Bonham" and even had
a logo that resembled his father's runic symbol from the fourth
Led Zeppelin album. The first album was comprised of,
The Disregard of Timekeeping/Wait For You/Bringing Me Down/
Guilty/Holding On Forever/Dreams/Don't Walk Away/Playing To
Win/Cross Me And See/Just Another Day/Room For Us All
"Wait For You" was released as a single with "Cross Me And See" on
the flipside.
o The cover of the album with it's bar-room sceen brings to
mind the cover of another album... "In Through The Out Door."
o The band was well promoted and toured extensively to a sometimes
favourable and other times disparaging critical response. The
singer bore an unfortunate resemblance to Plant which was a
source of much derision and along with the debut album's Eastern
influences led to the predictable label of "Zep Clone."
o A followup album in 1992, "Mad Hatter" was a huge flop and the
band was dropped from it's label along with several other `metal'
acts and slpit up. Jason also broke his arm jsut before the band
was due to gon on tour at one point.
o Jason most recently appeared on record on Paul Rodger's Muddy
Waters tribute album and Rodgers latest solo effort. When last
heard of he was touring with Rodgers and his band. The Muddy
Waters tribute album features Jeff Beck, Richie Sambora, Neal
Schon, Gary Moore, David Gilmour, Slash, Steve Miller, Trevor
Rabin and Buddy Guy. The guitarist from Jason's group Bonham,
Ian Hatton is credited with playing rhythm guitars on the album.
o Jason is from what he has said, not part of the current "rumoured"
Plant and Page project, Plant instead using the drummer from his
"Fate of Nations" album and last touring band, Michael Lee.
o Jason Bonham can also be found on the soundtrack album for the
Moscow Peace Festival, "Stairway to Heaven, Highway to Hell,"
playing on the track "Moby Dick," as part of an all-star band,
Drum Madness, which also included Tico Torres, Mickey Currie and
Jim Vallence.
o Jason played drums for a set with Paul Rodgers on vocals, and
Slash on guitar, at Woodstock 1994. Amongst other things, they
played a few Bad Company songs.
o The current activities of Jason Bonham are not well-documented,
however it has been reported that he has a new band Metropolis,
basically Bonham with a different singer.
o Jason apparently lost favour with Page when he had his drum kit
made with the Swan Song logo on it. On tour with Bonham the band
always used to make a big thing of covering "Black Dog", which
probably did not endear him to Page either. Rumoured alcohol
problems and the tackiness of involving him in the Page & Plant
reunion have seen him continue his musical career in relative
obscurity in recent years.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.10 - The Led And How To Get It Out
o A report in MTV's "Headbanger's Ball" in 1994 reported that Jimmy,
Robert, Charlie Jones, and Michael Lee had been working on around
twelve new songs since the beginning of March. The report also
stated that there was enough material for an album.
o The May 1994 issue of _Q_ magazine in its news section featured a
small piece about the ongoing collaboration and a picture of Page,
dressed rather badly in tie-dyed shirt, black jacket, hideous
scarf and denim jeans, and Plant wearing a black tracksuit,
outside a studio in King's Cross in a strong breeze. The
following text also appeared.
"It's Pagey, it's Planty and it's last month's rumour of an
MTV acoustic rendition entitled Unledded taking a long stride
towards credibility. They were snapped in a windy mews
outside a King's Cross rehearsal studio and, while MTV
spokespersons remain in "schtum" mode, the smart money is on
them recording in June in New York. ... Incidentally, Page
and Plant have also been in litigious tandem to prevent a
Schooly D track, Signifying Rapper, being used in TV
screenings of the Harvey Keitel movie The Bad Lieutenant
because of its "striking similiarity" to their own Kashmir.
Certain ancient bluesmen might regard this news with a degree
of wry scepticism."
o The Zeppelin fanzine "The Only One" was amongst many sources that
reported a scheduled Plant performance at the annual Alexis Korner
Tribute Concert Benefit For Cancer Research on April 17.
o A radio interview with Francis Dunnery in May 1994, the guitarist
for Robert Plant on his "Fate Of Nations" tour, added further fuel
to the rapidly spreading rumours. Dunnery claimed that Page and
Plant really began to think about doing something while they were
in Boston for a Plant show in 1993. Dunnery even referred to the
project as being called "Unledded". However, he would not confirm
or deny their involvement in the Gibson GUitars 100th Anniversary
bash, but did point out that they had played together at the
Alexis Korner benefit gig. Dunnery, who is apparently a good
friend of Plant, repeatedly referred to him as `Planty' throughout
the interview.
o Part of the impetus for "Unledded" may have come from plans that
Plant had for making a travel documentary where he visited Wales
and Morocco.
o A new version of "When The Levee Breaks" was recorded for the
"Unledded" special in Wales. This was the first time the song had
been peformed live by any of the ex-Zeppelin members since the
early shows on their 1975 tour. Even then it only joined the set
briefly, due mainly to the technical problems inherent in lowering
Bonham and his kit into a specially prepared pit onstage.
o The setlist for thw Page and Plant reunion at the Buxton Opera
House for the Alexis Korner Benefit Show was as follows. "Baby
Please Don't Go", "I Can't Quit You Baby"," I've Been Down So
Long", "That's Why I Love You", "Train Kept A-Rollin'".
o WBCN in Boston ran a competition offering free tickets and a trip
to the taping of "Unledded" for their listeners.
o The location "Unledded" was filmed at, was a venue of only 200 -
250 seats capacity, 50 of whom were the lucky winners of a contest
run by MTV. Another 100 were picked at random from a list put
together by Jimmy and Robert's management of known, and various
influential fans.
o The arrangements for transporting the 200 lucky punters to the
Unledded tapings would not seem out of place in a tacky spy movie.
The ticket holders were issued with instructions to turn up at a
certain place in London, from where they would be transported to
the secret location by bus.
o MTV widely publicised "Unledded" before it appeared. One of the
commericals in use featured a cab driver rabbiting on about the
"reunification of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page" before he starts
to sing "Black Dog" and "Stairway To Heaven", badly. The taxi's
passenger in the rear seat looked uncannily like Bonzo in the late
ear of the band. Another commercial had someone pulling lottery
balls out of a machine with the names of people that had upcoming
performances on MTV, two of whom were Page and Plant.
o One American paper greeted the imminent Page and Plant reunion
with the comment "Can lightning strike four or five times in the
same place?"
o The "Unledded" show was first broadcast on MTV on October 12,
1994, and was preceeded by a Page and Plant press conference at
the Beacon Theatre, in New York City, on October 11.
o Before "Unledded" was broadcast, Jimmy was spotted walking down
Charlotte Street in London, an area abounding in video production
facilities, with a minder, most likely working on the project in
a nearby studio.
o Two of the locations used for "Unledded" were Corris Slate
Quarries, near Bron-Y-Aur, in Wales, on August 15, 1994, and
the London Television Centre. The audience at Corris Slate
Quarries apparently comprised two people and a few sheep. This
location was on land owned by Plant.
o It has been reported that Page and Plant will headline the 1995
Knebworth festival in Hertfordshire, England.
o The meaning of the term "No Quarter" in relation to the album, is
most likely not a shot at John Paul Jones using the title of his
signature song. The meaning is probably close to that of the
term when used in a military sense, that the attacker will not
spare any of the enemy, even if they surrender. This phrase was
used by officer prior to 1700, to both psych up the troop and to
hopefully frighten the enemy into an easy rout, just before the
rival armies engaged, thereby making their intentions known to
the opposing side. Thus, in the Page and Plant sense it could
mean that no effort has been spared, no compromises made, nothing
left to chance in the hope of fully realising the potential of the
project.
o The phenomenal Michael Lee, who before "No Quarter" was a member
of Robert Plant's band also worked with the English band Little
Angels beforehand, featuring on their cd "Don't Prey For Me", a
cd which features a note of thanks to Plant in the liner notes.
Lee is listed as being responsible for drums, percussion and ghost
vibroslap. The cd was released in 1989.
o The meaning of "Yallah", the title of which was changed to "The
Truth Explodes" on the "No Quarter" video is from arabic. The
root of it is "ya-allah", a rough translation of which is "Oh God"
although not in the commonly used way it is in English, to
express one's surprise or amazement. In Arabic the meaning can
vary from "Let's go!" to "Get a hike!" depending on the context.
Interestingly, "Yahweh" is Hebrew for "God".
o Although Atlantic claimed Page and Plant were present at the New
York world premiere screening of "Unledded" but did not think it
was worth making their presence known, a comment by Page at the
Paris Press Conference seemed to indicate that the Paris screening
of "Unledded" was the first time thay had seen it since the actual
taping, which makes Atlantic's claim they were present in New York
sound rather suspicious.
o "Unledded" generated MTV's highest ratings for the "Unplugged"
series, with a rating of 2.4, as opposed to the previous best, 2.3
set in 1992 by Eric Clapton.
o Najma Akhtar, who sings with Plant on "The Battle Of Evermore" is
of Indian nationality, and judging from her name, which is Muslim,
she is most likely from northern India. She has also recorded a
solo album called "Qareeb", which is available on Shanachie
Records, SH64009. While the album was recorded in London, the
content is non-Western, with Najma singing love songs called
ghazals in Urdu, backed by a mix of traditional Indian instruments
and Western ones.
o The phrase "Wah Wah" is an expression of pity and grief, usually
used after hearing some bad news.
o The sparse arrangement of "Nobody's Fault But Mine" was not a
new one, it returns the song, originally by Blind Willie Johnson,
to its white country blues roots. Note that white country blues
as a label is not related to the racial identity of the artist,
but is a reference to the religious or spiritual theme of the
music.
o The "Unledded" special was first broadcast on October 12, 1994,
the one hundred and nineteenth anniversary of the birth of
Aleister Crowley. Rumour had it that Jimmy had stipulated that
this would be the date of broadcast.
o During "Yallah", or "The Truth Explodes" as it had been re-titled,
while Jimmy is manipulating the echoplex unit, one of the crowd
shots shows someone holding up a portable video camera in the
lower left hand area of the screen.
o Rumour has it that the black dog shown several times in "Unledded"
is the black dog that was present at the sessions for the fourth
album and had the song named after it. However, this is fairly
unlikely as that would make it a very old dog. Another rumour was
that it was Plant's dog Strider, although this is not plausible as
it is the wrong breed.
o Several times during the performance, such as in "Gallows Pole",
Plant is seen to be staring down in front of him. The likelihood
of him using a monitor is enhanced by his previous problems
remembering all sorts of lyrics, such as at the Atlantic 40th
Anniversary show and at Live Aid.
o On the topic of tuning and tonality, the original version of "No
Quarter" was Aeolian/Dorian while the new version introduces some
Locrain elements. The locrian mode is easily the most dissonant
of modes, and given Page's frequent use of dissonance in the past
and its place in Middle-Eastern music it seems apprpriate. The
clash in the new version of "No Quarter" is between Plant's vocals
which represent the original tonality, and between the chords that
Page plays, two of them, before he switches back to a standard
key.
o International Creative Management was the booking agency handling
the Page & Plant tour.
o The "No Quarter" album cover features a picture of Page and Plant
which looks very much like it was taken at the Slate Quarry in
Wales where "Nobody's Fault But Mine" and "When The Levee Breaks"
were recorded for "Unledded". The carved wooden door that has
been used extensively, such as on the back of the album and on the
"Gallows Pole" single, is most likely African in origin. The
hands that are shown in the picture in the middle of the cd
booklet are those of an African woman, with the increasing
complexity of the spirals on her fingers as they move closer to
her hands signifying the development of femininity. The spirals'
increasing detail means they are moving closer to the wrist
chakra.
o Interestingly, the font used in the "No Quarter" liner notes is
based on the handwriting of Leonardo da Vinci, such as on his
noted sketches of a man spreadeagled and drawn with unnerring
anatomical accuracy. The same font is used in the liner notes
for Van Halen's "Balance".
o The release of "No Quarter" coincides with the twenty third
anniversary of the release of the untitled fourth album on the
eighth of November 1971.
o The liner notes for "No Quarter" included the dedication,
"Credit must be given to Bron-Y-Aur, a small derelict cottage
in South Snowdonia for painting a somewhat forgotten picture
of true completeness which acted as an incentive to some of
the musical statements. August 1994"
Which is somewhat reminiscent of the dedication on "Led Zeppelin
III",
"Credit must be given to Bron-Y-Aur, a small derelict cottage
in South Snowdonia for painting a somewhat forgotten picture
of true completeness which acted as an incentive to some of
these musical statements - August 1970"
o The end of "Kashmir" where Plant starts wailing "Feel, feel, feel"
is a daring improvisation.
o The versions of "Wonderful One" on the video and the album are
clearly different, the differences ranging from Plant singing them
differently to Page's guitar sounding different.
o A rumour circulating before the Page & Plant tour kicked off was
that several dates were uncertain due to the availability of some
venues due to problems with the American hockey season. This of
course, proved to be unfounded.
o Some translations of what is being sung during "Wah Wah". In
between "wah wah"'s the "leh he heBabi" means "no baby" and the
"lah tin Sani" means "don't forget me". He also sings other words
such as "the thought of your hands" or eyes. The interesting
thing about "Wah Wah" is although the title means "I'm sad", that
isn't necessarily what the song is about.
o The arabic script at the end of the video has been translated as,
"The things we played or the songs they stay the same way".
o Despite their togetherness during the "Unledded" promotional tour,
_NME_ spotted Page and Plant at one of The Black Crowes Albert
Hall gigs, in two separate adjoining boxes.
o The footage for the song "No Quarter" was shot in Dolgoth, Wales,
across the road from Plant's farm. The forest is so dense that it
managed to conceal the fact that it was raining quite heavily at
the time.
o While in Morocco Jimmy and Robert were travelling up a mountain by
bus when Plant noticed a kid walking along with a Led Zeppelin
shirt, in literally, the middle of nowhere. Plant promptly jumped
off the bus to say hi.
o According to "Unplugged" producer Alex Coletti, Page and Plant and
the band recorded a version of "Hot Dog" while they were in Wales.
o Plant personally selected Aubrey Powell to work on the project,
based on their previous work together.
o According to Page, they tried out "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" with the idea
of using it, but it just didn't seem to work.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.11 - Jimmy And The Beast
This section is not intended to try and cover the entire area of
Aleister Crowley and all his work. It is merely intended to give a
brief overview and point those interested to further readings. The
subject of Crowley seems to recur with a rather predictable sort of
regularity thanks to Page's interest in him and his work. There are
many myths and rumours told about Crowley, most of which are most
likely false, as this is a very controversial man, even now, nearly
half a century after his death.
o Aleister Crowley was born in 1875 and died in 1947.
o A few general points.
- Crowley was not a satanist, his obsession with the occult does
not necessarily make him a devil worhsipper, he wasn't.
- He did use drugs, and rather a lot of them. A common claim is
that he died hoplessly addicted to heroin. Half true. In the
early part of the century the prescribed medicine for chronic
asthma, which Crowley had, was, believe it or not, heroin. He
went on to experiment with it, observing its effects on his
mind, and when he died he was still using it. He used a lot
of other dugs too, notably expounded upon on in his essay
"The Psychology Of Hashish".
- Crowley was interested in tantric sex, one of his primary
interests actually.
- Crowley had a notorious sense of humour, and revelled in the
public disdain for him, deliberately cultivaing it to some
extent. His use of the "Beast 666" tag is one example of this.
- Some of Crowley's other interests include mountaineering and
poetry.
o Some references for further reading on Crowley and his work.
- Crowley, Aleister, _The_Confessions_Of_Aleister_Crowley,_An_
_Autohagiography_.
Crowley's autobiography, an autohagiography is the biography
of a saint, which contains lots of interesting details, but,
ends a long time before his death and is thus somewhat
incomplete.
- Crowley, Aleister, _Magick_In_Theory_And_Practice_.
- Crowley, Aleister, _Equinox_, Volumes I & II.
- Crowley, Aleister, _The_Diary_Of_A_Drug_Fiend_, 1922.
- Crowley, Aleister, _Songs_Of_The_Spirit_, 1898.
- Crowley, Aleister, _The_Book_Of_Thoth_.
Crowley's interpretation of Eqyptian tarot.
- Camell, Charles Richard, _Aleister_Crowley,_The_Man,_The_Mage,
_The_Poet_.
- Crowley, Aleister. _The_Complete_Astrological_Writings_, Gerald
Duckworth & Co. Ltd., London, 1974.
This contains Crowley's "Treatise on Astrology: Liber 536",
and two hard to find essays, "Batrachophrenoboocosmomachia",
and, "How Horoscopes Are Faked".
- Maugham, W. Somserset, _The_Magician_, 1908.
This is based pretty much around the life of Crowley, and
gives some idea of his obsession with the occult and his
general character.
- Suster, Gerald, _The_Legacy_Of_The_Beast:_The_Life,_Work_ And_
_Influence_Of_Aleister_Crowley_, W.H. Allen 7 Co., London, 1988.
This is a good introduction to Crowley and his work, and is
reasonably objective, and covers most of the major topics he
was interested in and worked on. A few excerpts are included
in this section.
o A small warning though, Crowley's writings are not an easy read
for novices, or those with just a casual interest in the man. A
lot of his material was written specifically for initiates into
the Hermetic Order Of The Golden Gawn, and as such are not meant
to be understood by outsiders. For those with little or no prior
knowledge of the man the best place to start is probably one of
the numerous biographies or books about him and his work.
o Some of the stigma surrounding backmasking in popular music may
in fact come from the whole aura of occultist sin that seems to
surround Crowley in the eyes of many. The predilection to listen
to one's record collection backwards seems most prevalent amongst
christians and may stem from something Crowley wrote, that if a
man wants to practice magick he has to "train himself to think
backwards by external means, as set forth here following,
a) let him learn to write backwards
b) let him learn to walk backwards
c) let him constantly watch, if convenient, films and listen
to records reversed..."
This quote comes from page 417 of Crowley's "Magick In Theory And
Practice".
o A cd exists called "The Great Beast Speaks" which apparently
features speeches by Aleister Crowley.
o There is a Zeppelin bootleg entitled "From Boleskine To The
Alamo".
o An example of the sort of misinformation surrounding Crowley is
the persistent claim that in the crypt of Boleskine House a
child was sacrificed. Other juicy rumours have it that orgies,
sacrifices, drug taking and other nefarious actitivites all took
place regularly at Boleskine.
o Jimmy Page is known to have sought out rare Crowley manuscripts
and obtained them for his collection. He has been quoted as once
saying that he should have gone to university and done a degree in
theology because he's studied it so much.
o The quote on the runoff matrix of original pressingsof "Led
Zeppelin III" is frequently misinterpreted and misquoted. Here is
an extract from the book by Suster listed in this section which
provides some further details.
"The central doctrines of 'The Book Of The Law' can be stated
simply. First and foremost is the commandment: 'Do what thou
wilt shall be the whole of the Law' - also reiterated as
'thou hast no right but to do thy will'. This does _not_
mean 'Do what you want'. It means that within every man and
every woman there is a True Will- 'The Book Of The Law'
states that 'Every man and every woman is a star' and that
the the only serious business of life is to discover our True
Will and to do it. As the Ancient Greeks put it: Know
thyself; then Be Thyself. 'The word of sin is restriction'
means that everything which inhibits the True Will is evil.
'Love is the law, Love under will' asserts that the
nature of the Law is Love but that this love must be directed
by the True Will. As Crowley states in his Old Comment:
'Love under will - no casual pagan love; nor love under fear,
as the Christians do. But love magically directed, and used
as a spiritual formula.' p. 126.
o A further extract from Suster is enlightening and gives an insight
into what Crowley thought he was doing and how he viewed people
that judged his work. The first paragraph is by Suster, the rest
by Crowley.
"Small wonder that Crowley, hailed in 'The Book Of The Law'
as Ankh-f-n-khonsu, priest of the Princes, finally wrote
'The Comment' which is both a challenge to those who have
sufficient courage, and a prohibition upon long, boring
commentaries on commentaries (the fate of most sacred texts)
- and on squabbles, quibbles, and persecution among those
called Thelemites, whose desire is to do their Wills in the
Aeon into which this planet has entered during its spin
through the agony of evolving human consciousness.
THE COMMENT
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
The study of this Book is forbidden. It is wise to
destroy this copy after the first reading.
Whosoever disregards this does so at his own risk and
peril.
These are most dire.
Those who discuss the contents of this Book are to be
shunned by all, as centres of pestilence.
All questions of the Law are to be decided only by appeal
to my writings, each for himself.
There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.
Love is the law, love under will.
The priest of Princes.
Ankh-f-n-khonsu." p. 133-134.
o An interesting anecdote has it that Crowley, whose actitivies
during World War II are the subject of much speculation, gave the
English war department the "V" for victory gesture, as it is the
occult counter to the Swastika.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.12 - Zeppelin Mediawatch
Locating Zeppelin interviews, or more recent ones with Page,
Plant and Jones can be a time consuimg business. Here then is a list
of some of the many interviews they have done over the years.
o _Circus_, in 1975 had an interview with Jimmy done by Mick
Houghton.
o _Rolling_Stone_, also in 1975, featured one of the best known of
the Zeppelin interviews, with Cameron Crowe interviewing Page and
Plant.
o _Guitar_World_, 1990, interview with Page.
o _Guitarist_, the French version features and interview with Jimmy
in the November 1994 issue, as well as a cover photo. Robert is
also interviewed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.13 - Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
On Tuesday, December 7, 1993, Michael Ayoob posted the results
to a poll he had conducted coinciding with the thirteenth anniversary
of the breakup of the band. For his poll, Michael posed the question
"What would have happened to the band had Bonham not died?" The
results are as follows, and illustrate an interesting variety of
scenarios.
1) New Heavy Album 22% Of The Vote
2) Together, But Fairly Inactive 18%
3) Quit Anyway 16%
4) Popularity Loss 15%
5) Page Overdoses 13%
6) Softer Sound 9%
7) Plant Quits 4%
8) None Of The Above 3%
Interestingly, option five is what Richard Cole thought had
happened when he had heard one of the band had died, based on his
opinion of the amount of drugs Page was doing and his fragile health.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.14 - Pezed Pellni Anagrams
This list of rather amusing anagrams was posted to the list some
time ago by Maurice Maes with additions by others.
Black Mountain Side - "I ask Blunt, demoniac!" (Plant to Page on
phone)
Communication Breakdown - Demoniac Bowman Rock Unit (i.e. Led
Zeppelin)
- Demoniac Wombat Rock in U.N.
What Is and What Should Never Be - When he had but satan's evil
word.
The Lemon Song - The omen's long.
Bring It On Home - Hir'n' big root men
- Bong time, Rhino
Immigrant Song - I'm in Grant's mog
Since I've Been Loving You - Evil being evinces on you.
- Vince, you evil nose being!
Gallows Pole - Allow Gospel (?)
Tangerine - Great Nine (Zep destined to end after nine great albums)
Black Dog - Black God
Rock And Roll - An'l rock lord
Stairway To Heaven - Yow! Satan via Ether
Misty Mountain Hop - Inapt ominous myth
Four Sticks - Rock fits us - Rock sift us - For it sucks
The Song Remains The Same - I'm here: Satan's theme song
The Rain Song - Another sign - Gather on sin - Hit son, Anger!
D'yer Mak'er - Dyke Ream'r
The Ocean - Neat echo - At once: He. (about the phone that rings in
this song)
The Rover - Oh, revert!
Trampled Under Foot - Led: demon art up front
Kashmir - His Mark (Whose do you think?)
Down By The Seaside - Bye, death's side won - Death by wine doses
Achilles Last Stand - As Satanchild Tells
- Satan's child: all set!
- Stella, Satan's child
Nobody's Fault But Mine - Built out by Demon's Fan
- O! fun stubby demon tail!
Tea For One - Near To Foe
In The Evening - He in gin event - The nine given (the nine albums)
South Bound Saurez - As due, Bonzo hurt us
Fool In The Rain - Hail To Inferno
Carouselambra - A lamb or a curse
I'm Gonna Crawl - A malign crown.
Ozone Baby - A bye, Bonzo!
Darlene - Led near - real end. (They were at that time)
Bonzo's Montreux - Sex! Not rum, bonzo!
Custard Pie - Dustie crap
Royal Orleans - Eor (donkey noise) or anally
Travelling Riverside Blues - Drugs aren't evil, I.V. beer still
- evil drug blisters aren't evil
In My Time Of Dying & Bonzo's Montreux - Zoso demon! Fit rox in my
bum, entity, ne!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.15 - Nevaeh Ot yawriatS
The debate over whether "Stairway To Heaven" contains any back
masked messages from the Devil is rather a heated one. In order to
put this debate into perspective here are the full backwards lyrics
to "Stairway To Heaven", as transcribed by listmember Timothy
Lindsey, and posted to the list in December, 1993.
"Stairway to Heaven" - Backwards Version
Oh ask me of the wars of Beelzebub
Oh, I fear it, horrible demon
Ah, shall I go along all right?
I'll make it mine, I'll reach ya
Oh demon, hey do ya feel me?
Oh an eternity with the demon
Ah, it's not over when you die
Ah, the Ultimate Opponent!
Ah, this time there is no winnin'
My holy wand will fail me
Ah, Oh, they won't get me cause I live in church now
Hey look at that football player he attack a lady
When I hear the serpent holler
And as the shaky wall fall falls down ain't much to help
destroy
Oh, don't you give me that
Oh, here's to my sweet Satan
There was a little child who wore a great big laugh with
glorious Satan
Did you hear me, Lord? I first give to Satan
And, in a little school I shout, in the middle of a show,
"First Power is Satan!"
Wo wo wo
There was cat burglar, bit off my leg
I lay in true struggle, torn up
Another year I dont feel the same
The heater broke down in flame
A long, long crawl lead me to a better place to rest
Ah, I hear it too, "There is no escape, too"
But even God fears the ultimate plan
He hears to soon the the calling to lie down, go down to sleep
The Cosmic TV's gone bad, I lose the Light of any time to leave
I had
Gonna do, I'm Going to do
Favor, Oh Power of all on top mountain hidden under a moment
Look up at me, at me, and thee
After my only wish replenished is all used up, I saw it
happening
Give me an answer, all I see that we moved
Dont thank me, Easter Woman, who although followed me
What's that? I see you - dying
There was an eager picnic towards another demon-loft
Don't you hear me asking?
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This Month in
Led Zeppelin History
April 24, 1969 - 2nd US Tour begins (1st as headliners) at the Fillmore West
April xx, 1970 - Robert comments about the violence in the audience near the end of the fifth tour
April 04, 1970 - Jimmy Page performs White Summer/Black Mountain Side on the Julie Felix BBC show
April 16, 1970 - Whole Lotta Love was certified Gold in the US after selling over a million copies. The single had peaked at No. 4 on the US singles chart. In the UK, Atlantic Records had expected to issue the edited version themselves, and pressed initial copies for release on December 5, 1969. However, band manager Peter Grant was adamant that the band maintain a "no-singles" approach to marketing their recorded music in the UK and he halted the release.
April xx, 1971 - Untitled is rumored to be released this month
April xx, 1972 - Recording sessions for Houses Of The Holy at Stargroves and Olympic studios
April xx, 1973 - Led Zeppelin rehearse their new stage show in preparation for their huge 1973 US Tour
April xx, 1974 - Swan Song concentrates its efforts on signing new acts
April xx, 1975 - Jimmy does some mixing at Electric Lady studios for TSRTS soundtrack
April 19, 1975 - 51,000 tickets sell in two hours for three nights at Earls Court, two added dates see another 34,000 tickets sold
April xx, 1976 - The band decide they will release their film to theaters
April 30, 1977 - Led Zeppelin breaks the record for the largest attendance for a single-act show in the Pontiac Silverdome with 76,229 in attendance
April xx, 1978 - The band hold a meeting, this time with Robert, to discuss Zeppelin’s future
April 03, 1979 - Page, Bonham and Plant jam with Bad Company again in Birmingham
April 27, 1980 - The band rehearses at Rainbow Theater for an upcoming European tour
April 26, 1988 - James Patrick Page III’s birthday. He is named after his father is the only son of Jimmy and Patricia Ecker. Jimmy spoke of his son saying: "He is wonderful. He has made a big difference to my life."
