On this day 14 September

 Friends

1988 14 September On This Day Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Austin, TX at Frank Erwin Center
♪  How Come (Ronnie Lane) Soundcloud

• 1968 Led Zeppelin - Stockholm (Knivsta), Sweden at Angby Park
• 1971 Led Zeppelin - Berkeley, CA at Berkeley Community Center
• 1974 Jimmy Page & John Bonham with David Crosby, Neil Young, Graham Nash & Stephen Stills - St. James Place, London at Quaglino's Restaurant 
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Austin, TX at Frank Erwin Center

1971

Originally the reviewers whined about how loud the band was, but the Berkeley Community Center show is immortalized in the bootleg, Going to California and is now considered a classic.

1974

After the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Joni Mitchell show at Wembley in London, all four members of Led Zeppelin joined in at the party at Quaglino's Restaurant in St. James Place.  The in-house band was determined to be no good, so Young, Nash and Stills took the stage.  They were joined by Jimmy Page and John Bonham for a jam that included Vampire Blues and On The Beach. Supposedly Robert Plant also joined in on guitar and vocals. If there are recordings of the jam, I haven't come across them. If you have, please share!

1974 Neil Young, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills & Jimmy Page
jam at Quaglino's in London after CSNY concert at Wembley.   (Photo Joseph Stevens)

1988:
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Ronnie Lane was the driving force in the British bands the Small Faces and later, the Faces with Rod Stewart and Ron Wood. In 1973 he quit the Faces and formed his own band, Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance. They toured England in a caravan for a few years, playing in small towns like bards of old, complete with a circus tent, jugglers and clowns.

Lane also established a mobile studio after he left the Faces. Kashmir was recorded there. It was around this time that Lane was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, rendering him incapable of playing his instruments or singing. Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Joe Cocker, Steve Winwood and other musicians put together and performed the ARMS Tour in the UK and US in 1983 to raise awareness of MS and to promote a cure.  Lane died in 1997 from the disease.

1988 Jimmy Page with Bucks Burnett in Texas

1988 Jimmy Page with photographer Mark Bowman in Texas

2013 Jimmy Page with Bucks Burnett in London

♪

♪  Led Zeppelin (Berkeley CA at Berkeley Community Theater, 14 September 1971) 
♪  Jimmy Page Outrider Tour (Austin TX at Frank Erwin Center, 14 September 1988) 

Plagiarism revisited

Plagiarism.  An ugly word, especially when applied to a band we love.  But what about when it is applied to a band that has plagiarized Led Zeppelin?


Lucifer's Friend was formed from the German band Asterix is 1970.  According to Discogs, Ride in the Sky was recorded/released November 1970 at Tonstudio Maschen & Windrose-Dumont Time Studio.

According to Dave Lewis in Led Zeppelin: The Concert File (a must-have book!) Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song was initially worked on in May and June of 1970 at Headley Grange and was premiered at the Bath Festival 28 June 1970.  Led Zeppelin began opening their shows with Immigrant Song in July 1970, starting with -- pay attention here -- Germany.  Led Zeppelin III was released in October 1970

So... which band could claims of plagiarism be thrown at?  I think it's pretty clear.  Just sayin'.

We are your overlords.

On This Day 25 May

Three and a half hours of show this last night at Earls Court in 1975. 

1975 25 May On This Day Led Zeppelin final performance at Earls Court Exhibition Hall

Dave Lewis says in his book, Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, "..there was no holding Jimmy back tonight. He soloed as if his life depended on it." More from Dave Lewis' TBL on this last night at Earls Court

• 1968 The Yardbirds - San Francisco,CA at Fillmore Auditorium
• 1969 Led Zeppelin – (opens for a Who concert) Columbia,MD at Merriweather Post Pavillion
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - Denver,CO at Denver Coliseum
• 1975 25 May On This Day Led Zeppelin final performance at Earls Court Exhibition Hall
• 1977 Led Zeppelin - Landover, MD at Capital Centre
• 1986 The Firm - Concord,CA at Concord Pavilion
• 1995 Page & Plant - Unledded Tour - Tacoma,WA at Tacoma Dome

1975 after the final Earls Court performance, Page & Plant left for Morocco (posted 25 May On This Day)

1975 a few days after the final Earls Court performance, Page & Plant left for Morocco (posted 25 May On This Day)

1975 Dave Lewis' tickets for Earls Court

1975 Earls Court stage - such a small thing for such a big event (Photo Steve Selwood)

1975 Jimmy Page at Earls Court (photo H. Mylett)

1975 Earls Court - The final bows (photo source Dave Lewis)

1975  Jimmy Page takes last bows at Earls Court (photo Chris Walter)

1986 The Firm, Concord CA

♪  No Quarter (Led Zeppelin, Earls Court 05/25/1975) YouTube
♪  The Song Remains The Same (Led Zeppelin, Landover 05/25/1977) YouTube
♪  Yallah (Page & Plant, Unledded 1995) YouTube

Jimmy Page biography by Martin Power (2016)

Chris Charlesworth on the forthcoming Jimmy Page biography by Martin Power:
Via Dave Lewis

Here’s a piece via Chris Charlesworth’s excellent Just Backdated blog about the forthcoming Jimmy Page biography by Martin Power – due out via Omnibus next year. I met with Martin a few months back to discuss the book – he is very thorough on the music and his credentials include the much acclaimed Jeff Beck book Hot Wired Guitar -The Life of Jeff Beck.

Over to Chris:

While editing the early chapters of a forthcoming biography of Jimmy Page this week, three of which are devoted to his work as a session player between 1963 and 1966, my attention was drawn to the guitar playing on ‘My Baby Left Me’ by Dave Berry and ‘Leave My Kitten Alone’ by First Gear, just two examples of the casual brilliance Jimmy brought to records that weren’t even hits. Guitar playing like this certainly hadn’t appeared on records by The Beatles or Rolling Stones up to this point.

Of ‘My Baby Left Me’, author Martin Power writes: “Alongside the likes of drummer Bobby Graham, bassist Alan Niven and, on occasion, legendary big band trombonist Don Lusher, Jimmy Page and Big Jim Sullivan helped form the crack team that Dave Berry had dreamed of. By the autumn of 1963, some of them had also cut Berry’s own favourite of all his studio recordings, a sterling cover of Elvis’ ‘My Baby Left Me’. ‘Yep, that’s the one I’d like to be known for,’ he said ‘Nothing like the Arthur Crudup original, nothing like Elvis, just our own version of the song. Jimmy Page on lead guitar, Alan Niven on slap bass – there were actually two basses on that, you know. But yes, a good song. I’m happy with that and really glad Jimmy was on it.’ Page was actually all over it. Providing a master class in snappy riffs and clattering chords throughout the verse and chorus before letting fly with a quite superb solo, Jimmy took Berry’s already spirited reading of ‘My Baby Left Me’ to another level.  ‘I remember the great solo that Jimmy did on that session,’ Sullivan later recalled. ‘It’s one of the best constructed rock solos on record.’”

Here’s a link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqL71rZjb2s

Of ‘Leave My Kitten Alone’, Martin writes: “Page’s performance on First Gear’s ‘Leave My Kitten Alone’ must surely rank as one of the finer guitar solos of the sixties. Signed to Pye records and managed/produced by Shel Talmy, First Gear were at the time tipped for big things, their North eastern cocktail of Elvis-style rock’n’roll and Mersey-approved beat pop as gritty, energetic and potentially promising as Van Morrison’s Them. With Talmy at the helm, the band entered the studio in the autumn of 1964 to record a single version of Ernie K-Doe’s ‘A Certain Girl’. In itself no slouch, ‘A Certain Girl’ motored along nicely on the back of lead singer Dave Walton’s behind-the-beat falsetto, some pleasing female backing vocals and Jimmy’s countrified string bends.

“But it was when First Gear and Page ran through the B-side, a cover of Little Willie John’s ‘Leave My Kitten Alone’ that Shel Talmy’s interest was truly peaked.  ‘Jimmy was about 18, 19 at the time, with bushy black hair, and very quiet,’ Dave Wilton recalled to the BBC. ‘But then he did this off the cuff, lightning guitar break on ‘Leave My Kitten…’. Well, Shel came racing down from the control room and said, ‘What did just you do to get that!’ So, he (told) Jimmy he was going to take it again. First take, Jimmy played it note-for-note perfectly.’ The resultant solo really was a thing of beauty. All twists, turns and racing speed pick work, Page’s contribution to ‘… Alone’ distilled all he had learnt from James Burton, Scotty Moore and Buddy Guy into just 23 seconds. Yet, there was also something else that was utterly distinctive and unique. At the start of his solo intrusion, Page’s guitar actually sounded like it was riding a wave of electricity. No distinct notes per se, more a wash of undulating sound. Quite unlike anything else Jimmy (or anybody else) had recorded up to that point, it was the first real pointer of where Page’s muse would take him in later years.”

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezPQBv32kBo

The book, entitled No Quarter: The Three Lives Of Jimmy Page, will be published in the spring of next year. Updates on its progress and further extracts will appear on Just Backdated over the next few months.

Chris’s blog link:

http://www.justbackdated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/jimmy-page-session-man.html

Mage Music note:  Chris tells me that the biography is not authorized by Jimmy Page.

On This Day 25 May

Three and a half hours of show this last night at Earls Court in 1975.

1975 25 May On This Day Led Zeppelin final performance at Earls Court Exhibition Hall

Dave Lewis says in his book, Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, "..there was no holding Jimmy back tonight. He soloed as if his life depended on it." More from Dave Lewis' TBL on this last night at Earls Court

• 1968 The Yardbirds - San Francisco,CA at Fillmore Auditorium
• 1969 Led Zeppelin – (opens for a Who concert) Columbia,MD at Merriweather Post Pavillion
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - Denver,CO at Denver Coliseum
• 1975 25 May On This Day Led Zeppelin final performance at Earls Court Exhibition Hall
• 1977 Led Zeppelin - Landover, MD at Capital Centre
• 1986 The Firm - Concord,CA at Concord Pavilion
• 1995 Page & Plant - Unledded Tour - Tacoma,WA at Tacoma Dome

1975 after the final Earls Court performance, Page & Plant left for Morocco (posted 25 May On This Day)

1975 a few days after the final Earls Court performance, Page & Plant left for Morocco (posted 25 May On This Day)

1975 Dave Lewis' tickets for Earls Court

1975 Earls Court stage - such a small thing for such a big event (Photo Steve Selwood)

1975 Jimmy Page at Earls Court (photo H. Mylett)

1975 Earls Court - The final bows (photo source Dave Lewis)

1975  Jimmy Page takes last bows at Earls Court (photo Chris Walter)

♪  No Quarter (Led Zeppelin, Earls Court 05/25/1975) YouTube
♪  The Song Remains The Same (Led Zeppelin, Landover 05/25/1977) YouTube
♪  Yallah (Page & Plant, Unledded 1995) YouTube

On This Day 26 April

Led Zeppelin played day two of a two day engagement at Winterland on 26 April 1969.

1969 26 April Led Zeppelin at Winterland

• 1968 Yardbirds - Cincinnati Convention Center, Cincinnati OH
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, CA
• 1985 The Firm - Joe Louis Arena, Detroit MI
• 1995 Page & Plant - Market Square Arena, Indianapolis IN

Theremin

According to Dave Lewis' Led Zeppelin: The Concert File (a book every Zep fan should have) this show was Led Zeppelin's biggest of their career to date. Jimmy Page was now using the Theremin during Dazed and Confused.

The Theremin was invented by Léon Theremin. An electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact, two metal antennas sense the relative position of the musician's hands and send electronic signals to an amplifier based on the position of the hands. The distance from the antenna determines frequency (pitch) and amplitude (volume). Higher notes are played by moving the hand closer to the pitch antenna. Louder notes are played by moving the hand away from the volume antenna.

Because of the way the Thermin is played, the musician must actively control the rests (space between the notes) as well as the notes themselves.  The Theremin is an instrument well suited for a musician like Jimmy Page who has always been concerned with visual arts as well as musical, and who understands the value of light and shade.

Jimmy Page plays Theremin 1975 03 February MSG 

Lev Termen (Léon Theremin) demonstrating Termenvox, c. December 1927

Contest info!

Mage Music Contest Description and Rules

1. This is supposed to be a fun contest. Emphasis on fun, okay? Anyone who’s a quibbler, nitpicker or general grump should not bother even starting it.
2. The prize for this contest is a TBL Gift Pack. If Dave Lewis is really sweet about it (and he is a sweet guy) he’ll autograph it. I might decide to add additional prizes, but maybe not.
3. All decisions about who wins the prize/s are up to me. I’ll follow my own rules, but if there’s a problem in some way and I feel like it, I will change the rules. So pay attention here: This contest is just like real life - the rules you start with may not be the rules you end with. Unlike real life, though, I will let you know what the new rules are. 
4. The rules will be also posted on a page of its own on this blog, so you don't have to hunt for them. The posted rules will always be the official rules for the whole contest, regardless of what rules existed before them.
5. I’m going to post one or more new questions or challenges at least once a week starting November 16 until at least the end of the month. This means these questions/challenges might appear any day of the week, not just the usual Saturday posts. If there are too many potential winners at the end of the month, I may call for another round, or maybe I’ll just put finalists’ names in a hat and pick one. My rules, remember?
6. To have a chance to win, you must answer all questions/challenges correctly and you must follow all the rules.
7. This contest will use all pages on this site, not just the blog posts themselves. 
8. All answers will either be found on this site or can be deduced by information provided on this site.
9. I will provide an email address at some point for you to send your answers. Or maybe a website. I haven’t figured that out yet. But at that point, responses to all questions or challenges must be submitted, along with contact info. Incomplete submissions will just be tossed out – it’s an easy way for me to figure out who the winner will be.
10. You must be at least 18 years of age and have been born on planet Earth to win a prize.  If you are the winner, you will have to certify to the truth of those two items.
11. If you are Jimmy Page, you can’t win the prize. Sorry, but that would just be unfair to everyone else.

Let the Games Begin.

Alchemy: Led Into Gold (Part 2)

..when it is cast ... does fully perfect them in the very projection...

~The Mirror of Alchemy, by Friar Roger Bacon  

Mage Music 23

A table of alchemical symbols
from Basil Valentine's
The Last Will and Testament, 1670

Alchemy was the forerunner of chemistry, with a metaphysical twist that modern chemists eschew. Like any good scientist, an alchemist researches to find out what might work and what might not, and why. After gathering the tools and the raw materials, both chemist and alchemist combines and manipulates the components in precise ways with the intention of producing a specific end product.

Today chemists might be trying to create the world's next greatest breakthrough in personal deodorant or the ultimate biodegradable plastic. Alchemists, on the other hand, seek to create perfection in life and soul via discovery of a catalyst (an Elixir, according to Roger Bacon, a.k.a. the Philosopher's Stone) that takes imperfect matter and makes it perfect. The methodology of the alchemist is like today's chemist, in that it is very calculated and precise, and many records are made of every step so the process can be duplicated. Unlike today's chemists, however, alchemists' intentions are not merely to produce gold, but to produce a catalyst that will perfect anything, including the human soul.

Microcosm vs Macrocosm
Chemists intentionally limit their focus to the task at hand. Issues of the larger world are basically irrelevant to the chemical processes. Theirs is a microcosmic view.

Alchemists, on the other hand, take the macrocosmic view. Their physical labors are intended to impact the world of the non-physical and their work is multi-layered (multi-realitied) and complex. Far from experimenting to simply discover chemical reactions that produce a single physical property or object, the alchemist chooses each alchemical element not only for its physical properties but because the element embodies other qualities in the Universe, and the intention is to generate results on many levels. The physical generation of gold simply provides evidence of success in creating perfection from the imperfect components, and the catalyst that has been generated can then be used to create perfection of the soul.

The Alchemy of Music
Mage musicians are obviously not alchemists - at least as far as their music is concerned. They don't stand on the stage with flasks and burners, boiling and steaming noxious chemicals - but they are mixing components with the intention of creating perfection from imperfection.

2007 O2 Concert
movie trailer image

Jimmy Page spent many years as a session musician and with various bands sampling materials, practicing techniques and assessing other musicians, as revealed in Dave Lewis' playlist from Part 1, last week on this blog. This week's playlist, also from Dave Lewis' book, Led Zeppelin: A Celebration (Omnibus Press, 1991) is entirely Led Zeppelin music.  It represents the results of years of research, an alchemical-like selection of components that are meticulously blended and heated to the perfect temperature to create the elixir of Mage Music, music that is transformed to something more.

Through the careful selection of gifted musicians who could and would push the envelope, with the added ingredient of Jimmy Page's own incredible talent with guitar and in the studio, and with Mr. Page's powerful desire and intention, Led Zeppelin opened an alchemical door and Mage Music stepped through.

♪ 

Future post :
Led Into Gold (Part 3), with more of David Lewis’s History of Guitar Master list
The Chicken/Egg quandary (the neurophysics of music)

♫ 

YouTube Playlist - Led Into Gold - The Led Zeppelin Years

Individual songs 

1969 Dazed and Confused (studio) Album: Led Zeppelin. Dave says: "From its sonic signalling intro, right through to its mesmerising climax, 'Dazed And Confused' remains one of [Jimmy Page's] most complete performances."
1969 Whole Lotta Love (studio) Album: Led Zeppelin II. Dave says: "Every inch of drama is compressed into the arrangement... "
1970 Since I've Been Loving You (studio) Album: Led Zeppelin III. Dave says: "...[Jimmy Page] had by now switched from the Telecaster back to a Gibson Les Paul guitar and the choice of instrument brings a sustained fluency to his playing, particularly during the tortured solo, that is quite breathaking. "
1970 Tangerine (studio) Album: Led Zeppelin III. Dave says: "A perfect illustration of the light and shade of [Jimmy Page's] expansive style. "
1973 No Quarter (live) No Quarter MSG -The Song Remains The Same. Dave says: "...this track took on an extra dimension when played live as it became an extended vehicle for John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page not only to flex their respective talents but to play off each other by weaving melodies together."
1975 In My Time Of Dying (studio) Album: Physical Graffiti. Dave says: "...a showcase for Page's bottleneck banshee wailings. "
1975 Kashmir (studio) Physical Graffiti. Dave says: "...a clear example of the potency of the Led Zeppelin chemistry..."
1976 Achilles Last Stand (studio) Album: Presence. Dave says: "...a new level of urgency and intensity..."

Alchemy: Led Into Gold (Part 1)

…all went into the melting pot...  ~ Jimmy Page, Interview Musician Magazine November 1990

The Alchemist in Search of the Philosopher's Stone, 

by Joseph Wright, 1771

Mage Music 22

From saints to scientists, some of the world’s most brilliant thinkers also studied alchemy, including St Thomas Aquinas, Pope Innocent VIII, Martin Luther, philosopher and Franciscan friar Roger Bacon, and Sir Isaac Newton. Philosophers, scientists, physicians, religious theorists and occultists round the world have studied and practiced the art and science for thousands of years. 

From chemistry, medicine and nuclear physics to psychology and the arts, alchemical-like research still goes on today. The goal of transmutation (changing of the form, appearance, or nature of something, especially to a higher form) is all, in a sense, the search for a Philosopher’s Stone, an object (or some other, depending on who’s answering the question) that can turn base metals into silver or gold.

Why Bother?

You would think with all those great minds invested in alchemy, there would have to be more to it than just making expensive metals. After all, you have more likelihood of success with panning for gold in a stream than you do creating it using Magick. Even the gold produced by physicists who have converted platinum atoms via nuclear reaction has only lasted for a few seconds: A lot of effort for not much result.

Of course, true Magickal alchemy is not really about gold, but rather is about something very different. Like with so many of the other Magickal traditions (shamanism, Kabbalah, Thelema, Wicca, divination, etc.), when practiced by the most advanced Mages, what you think you are seeing of the Magickal alchemy is not what is really happening.

More than just the transmutation of lead into gold, alchemy’s core is spiritual. The Magick is in the personal transmutation of the human soul to a higher, more perfect and enlightened state.

The Philosopher’s Stone is not unlike the Grail and other transformational objects, such as the Cup of Jamshid, in that they all represent hidden spiritual truth or power that enables the Mage to change not just the outer world, but the inner. The difference between the Philosopher’s Stone and the Grail or Cup, however, is that the alchemist has to discover how to create the Stone - and that, too, is hidden knowledge, just as the locations of the Grail and Cup are.

While there have always been those alchemists who just wanted to create a Stone that would enable them to transmute gold from base metal, the great thinkers understood the terminology and apparatus of alchemy to be symbolic of the higher quest, a way of talking about the search for knowledge and enlightenment without sharing the information with the rest of the world.

Remember the lesson of Lucifer: Throughout human history people have been broken on the rack and burned at the stake for using Magick openly. Being secretive has often been the safest bet for the brilliant.

The Alchemy of Music

Many of the arts have used the quest for the Philosopher’s Stone as a basis for their work, as subject and plot devices as well as a Magickal alchemical process of transmutation. Painters and other visual artists have incorporated alchemical thought and symbols in their work. Music, too, has been influenced by alchemy. In fact, of all the arts, music is perhaps the most suitable for transmutation of the soul.  That is why, in the hands of a Mage, music can be such powerful Magick.

Kimiya-yi sa'ādat (The Alchemy of Happiness)
a text on Islamic philosophy and spiritual alchemy
by Al-Ghazālī (1058–1111).

A masterful selection of the components of any substance and the artistic touch in combining the components is part of the task of the alchemist. The alchemy of any group of people – such as in a band, and yes, I’m talking about Led Zeppelin – is such that if there is the right selection of people and an artistic touch in combining their musical output, the music can be transformed from pitch, volume, tone, rhythm and all the other acoustic factors into something much greater. In the vision of a Mage, alchemical process transmutes sound into Magick.

Although he was talking about the rapport between a bass player and a drummer, when John Paul Jones said it was “…quite uncanny sometimes; we would both pick an off-the-wall phrase and put it in at exactly the same time and it would end up totally in synch….”, he was talking about successful alchemy (Musician Magazine interview, November 1990). We know that Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones were extraordinary musicians as part of Led Zeppelin, however it was the Mage Musician in the form of the guitarist Jimmy Page, who selected and mixed using his vision and his art, that created a musical Philosopher’s Stone of their music.

Rather than provide my own playlist, here the first ten of a playlist recommended by Dave Lewis in his book, Led Zeppelin: A Celebration (Omnibus Press, 1991). Mr. Lewis selected these songs “…to demonstrate the achievements of Jimmy Page as a guitar player.” These selections are meant to provide examples of Jimmy Page’s work spanning every stage of his career. “You will discover an aural history of a guitar master and his art,” wrote Mr. Lewis.  This first half of the playlist provides the search for the components. The second half of the playlist will appear in this blog next week and will contain the artistic touch that creates the Philosopher’s Stone.

Don’t listen to lyrics, don’t listen to style - don’t listen to anything but the guitar to get a glimpse into the evolution of this alchemist’s Mage Music. All of it went into the alchemical melting pot.

♪

Future posts:

Led Into Gold (Part 2), with more of David Lewis’s History of Guitar Master list
The Chicken/Egg quandary (the neurophysics of music)

♫

YouTube Playlist - Led Into Gold (Part 1)

Individual songs (URLs)

1963 "Your Mamma's Out Of Town", Carter Lewis and The Southerners.  Dave says:  "…young Jimmy can be heard subtly undercutting the innocent pop beat of the day with some clever acoustic picking."

1963 "Money Honey", Mickie Most.  Dave says:  "…an early and aggressive flexing of the Gibson Les Paul custom guitar Page used during his session days…"

1964 "I Just Can't Go To Sleep", The Sneekers.  Dave says:  "…Page's early deployment of guitar effects.  Fuzz, distortion and wah-wah…"

1964 "Once In A While", The Brooks.  Dave says:  "…Jimmy injects a series of sizzling runs culminating in a brief but quite brilliant solo that is years ahead of its time."

1965 "She Just Satisfies", Jimmy Page.  Dave says:  "… early example of Page's ability to manipulate a simple guitar riff and stretch it over the framework of an entire song. "  Jimmy Page plays all the instruments on this song except drums, and it appears that he sings as well.

1966 "Happenings 10 Years Time Ago", The Yardbirds. Jimmy Page sharing guitar duty with Jeff Beck.  Dave says:  "…largely responsible for the song's arrangement [Page] takes credit for the jerky rhythmic chording and the eerie police siren effects…"  The solo is Jeff Beck.  Dave further says:  "… a yardstick for some of the adventurous and unorthodox guitar arrangements that were to follow…"  John Paul Jones, bass.

1967 "Little Games", The Yardbirds. Dave says:  "…represents the subtle beginnings of the Page/Jones guitar/stricg section interplay that would manifest itself years later and to much great effect on their composition, 'Kashmir'."  Also, "On the fade-out Page, by now using a Fender Telecaster, plays a beautifully sustained note that echoes above the strings."

1967 "Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor", The Yardbirds.  Dave says:  "…concentrate on the slashing simmering guitar chordings that drive the song along.  It's very similar to the layered effect on Zeppelin's own 'The Song Remains The Same'".  Note the use of the bow to produce "… the atmospheric, almost majestic, sound that was to become the highlight of almost every live Zeppelin concert during 'Dazed And Confused'".

1967 "White Summer", The Yardbirds.  Dave says:  "…the first flowering of Jimmy's flirtation with a finger-picked acoustic guitar," and "…the first master-stroke on a trilogy of Page studio performances that would continue with 'Black Mountain Side' and climax with 'Kashmir'".

1968 "Think About It", The Yardbirds.  Dave says "…a stepping-off point from which Jimmy Page was able to transfer his musical identity and relocate it within the framework that was to become Led Zeppelin's first album."

Mage Music: No Shortcuts No Substitutions

There’s only one way to do magick – the right way

Mage Music 11:  No Shortcuts No Substitutions

The Mage business is a lonely business. The quest for enlightenment is a one-person job involving one person’s life and soul. Even a Mage Musician performing in front of immense crowds, surrounded by a band, the venue’s crew, the entourage, the groupies and fans, is a solitary figure; the others cannot share directly in the Mage’s ultimate quest.

A musician needs to be in a relationship with music – it’s often a love/hate relationship, but it is a personal one of high intensity. A musician needs also to be master of the instrument used to create the music, be it guitar or voice, drums or keyboard, flute or didgeridoo, and to move beyond the techniques of the music to the artistry of it.

As has been discussed in previous MAGE MUSIC posts, the Mage needs to generate a powerful desire and focus, and to be the master of the ritual used to bring about the magickal transformation. The specific ritual is not the carrier of the Magick, but a way of focusing the Mage’s desire; even so, the ritual must be pure enough that it allows the Mage to focus without distraction, for the Mage, too, must move beyond the techniques in order to achieve the Magick.

The greater the mastery of the instrument and the ritual, the less attention the Mage Musician needs to spend on them, allowing for greater focus on the desire. The music itself is a Mage Musician's ritual.  For any kind of Magery, ritual can be as simple or complex as it needs to be to create the focus. There’s no one perfect ritual for any circumstance, and as discussed in Sorcerer’s Apprentices, Part 1, a Mage can even have help performing rituals.

Still, there are no shortcuts or substitutions for all the required parts. Weak desire cannot be made up for by powerful focus and ritual. No one part can be lacking to generate the Magick. Still, there are ways to multiply a Mage’s efforts to build power where, for instance, apprentice/partners are not available and where the Mage alone cannot generate sufficient power.

Multiplying power 

Like an artist layering paints, a Mage can layer rituals to create one powerful ritual that can carry the desired Magick. When this is done, however, each layered ritual must be as perfect and powerful as possible, so that even though it only focuses a portion of the desire of the Mage, it still does so perfectly: In Magick, the sum can be greater than the parts, but only when the parts are great in themselves.

Tea For One from the studio album, Presence (1976), when compared to a later version of the song by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant in Tokyo in 1996, provides an instructional example of this principle (see playlist below). According to Led Zeppelin expert, Dave Lewis in The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin, Omnibus Press, 1994* Tea for One was never played live in its entirety at Led Zeppelin concerts. This is simply because Mr. Page layered multiple guitar parts in the studio version, a technique that couldn't be duplicated on stage by the four musicians alone.

More importantly for the understanding of Mage Music, the 1996 version, although masterfully performed by Mr. Page and Mr. Plant and the other musicians, is a very different song - it lacks the Magick. Why? Because instead of layering the Magickal riffs of Jimmy Page one on the other as with the studio version, an orchestra is used as a substitute for the multiple guitar parts.

M.C.Escher: Circle Limit IV
(Heaven and Hell)

"My vocation is more in composition really than anything else - building up harmonies using the guitar, orchestrating the guitar like an army, a guitar army."  Jimmy Page Interview by Steven Rosen , Modern Guitar Magazine, 1977 Tea For One is a clear example of that orchestration, and a powerful example of the difference between music overlaid with and bearing Magickal ritual and music as entertainment.

In the 1976 studio version, Jimmy Page is playing guitar with the very best, including, through his own studio orchestration magic, performing duets with himself. Tea For One is blues at its most classic, loaded with pain and loneliness.  It is a song that carries Magick, which is made clear in comparison to the 1996 version where the immediacy of the pain and loneliness - and the added layer of Magick that uses and amplifies that emotion - is missing. The difference between the songs is that in the two decades later version, the orchestra detracts rather than adds to the Magickal aspect because what the orchestra replaces is not just some guitar layers, but Jimmy Page's layered guitar Magick. 

This is a piece of Mage Music that the Mage cannot carry alone, and where no substitutes will do - not if Magick is going to be accomplished.

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Mage Music  YouTube Playlist – Tea For One

Tea For One - Studio: Presence 1976 

Tea For One - Live:  Tokyo 1996 [47MB]  

As always, additional links are appreciated

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*Now available: Updated complete guide to Led Zeppelin, From A Whisper To A Scream by Dave Lewis
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Mage Music: Magickal Interlude

Take a deep breath of enlightenment...


Mage Music 10: A Magickal Interlude

I turned on the radio while driving home from Colorado last weekend, after getting within range of a decently strong station.  I had forgotten to bring my iPod so was otherwise without music for most of the 12 hour drive as I can’t stand commercial radio, but after this many hours on the road I was getting tired and needed something to keep me going.  As usual I was listening for hints of Mage Music – it’s something I always do, though of course I rarely come across it.  Doesn't mean that the music I hear carries no hint of Magick – it could be there, it’s just that I'm not open to hearing it from those sources.  We all have favorite bands, after all!

Anyway, I'm listening hour after hour to stuff that sounds pretty much the same: That fuzzy, high-gain guitar distortion effect, the vocalists belting out lyrics that are a full stop musically, not meant for more.  Song after song, the music was so much the same that it all ended up being white noise after a while.  Truly - I was hearing the same music no matter what the song and what the band, all of it sounding like it could be one group with one big playlist, some songs marginally better than others at best.

The annoyance factor alone was keeping me awake.

Then, a couple hours into this drek, I heard the first chords of Kashmir.  It was like an electric shock. It was like the whole world stopped and took a cleansing breath.  It was clarity, precision, meaning, all there in one soaring, wide-open, no-fooling around Magickal package.  I felt like the sun had come out when I hadn't realized it was cloudy.  I felt like I could breathe again freely when I hadn't known I had been holding my breath.    I felt emotions loosen that had been wound up tightly, and a crazy grin plastered itself across my face.

I felt like I had been sucker punched in the psyche.  It felt good.

I've always loved Kashmir; even though there's no extensive Jimmy Page solos in it.  Still, the melody is based on Mr. Page’s unique and immediately identifiable chord progression, a riff so gripping that it entrances and practically pries open the soul of the willing listener to the Magick.  A riff so powerful, too, that it has been adopted by other guitarists who play it in their own songs, never realizing that that the Magick isn’t in the notes but in the soul of the Mage who conjures the music.

Physical Graffiti
album cover

I've always felt Kashmir is Led Zeppelin's best work ever, and an example of a Mage Musician's work beyond the guitar - precise and incredibly powerful orchestration and production that supports the higher-level content above the notes to produce music that is On Purpose.  Led Zeppelin expert Dave Lewis describes Kashmir as “the finest example of the sheer majesty of Zeppelin's special chemistry”.  [Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin (1994)]

"Let me take you there. Let me take you there..." Robert Plant sings.  I heard the lyrics totally differently as I drove down the road.  I realized it wasn't an offer to take me to some mythological Shangri-La at all, but rather to a much higher plane. I all but stopped my truck and let myself go.

And then it was over, the silly grin still pasted on my face as the next awful muddle of metal pedal buzz came on.  The ray of light shining through the spiritual cloud of music had been obscured again.  But I had heard.  I had been taken through both time and space for a few moments while driving down the freeway.

YouTube Playlist for this post 

Direct links to Kashmir

Physical Graffiti (studio) 1975 

Live LA Forum 1975 

Live Knebworth 1979 

No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded with the London Metropolitan Orchestra & Hossam Ramzy Ensemble 1994 

TBL Plug - Thanks, Dave Lewis!

Dave Lewis will be guest blogger for MAGE MUSIC for Sunday, May 27, 2012.  Thank you Dave!

Tight But Loose issue 32 –once again taking you closer to the world of Led Zeppelin…

The new issue of the Tight But Loose magazine is simply one of the best issues ever with a host of news, views and features, all guaranteed to take you closer to the world of Led Zeppelin.

If you are new to TBL – this is the ideal issue to step on board!

If you a past subscriber - don’t miss out –re-subscribe now!

TBL 32 kicks off the three issue TBL 2012 subscription. By subscribing  to the magazine you will never miss out (past sold out back issues are in regular demand on eBay) and each issue will be sent to you as published (TBL 32 May –TBL 33 September and TBL 34 January 2013).  

Tight But Loose – The essential Led Zeppelin Magazine 32 page all colour content. Beyond mere websites – this is the tangible printed word you will want to collect and read again and again…

Here’s the expansive line-up for the new issue:

TBL Investigates: Exactly when and where did Led Zeppelin stage their first band rehearsal? Mike Tremaglio gathers the facts in an extensive research feature that offers the most accurate timeline ever published of The Yardbirds transistor into Led Zeppelin. Plus the TBL Two step out onto the streets of Chinatown in search of more proof of when history was made in August 1968.  The end result is one of the most insightful features in this magazine’s long history.

Warren Grant: ‘’My father was the man who Led Zeppelin - these are my memories’’: Warren Grant relays his memories of being right in the centre of the world of Led Zeppelin as the son of the man who just happened to be their manager and one of the most powerful figures in the music industry. In the first part of the interview, Warren recalls his early years at their Horselunges manor house in East Sussex as his family reaped the rewards of their father’s many years of hard work plus his experiences of being at the curtailed Tampa show and Oakland Coliseum show in 1977 –all illustrated with photos from warren’s personal collection.

Led Zeppelin 1972: Thunder Down Under: Mike Tremaglio tracks Zep on tour in Australia and New Zealand 40 years on – every show of the tour analysed and illustrated with rare photos and images.  Plus Gerard Sparaco highlights the unofficial CD releases that capture key Zep live on the road moments during their Australian and New Zealand tour dates.

The Taping of The Thunder Down Under - The Live in Sydney TBL interviews: A revealing insight into how the Led Zeppelin February 27th 1972 Sydney Showgrounds concert was recorded by a member of the audience on a National Panasonic tape deck – and how the tape was  subsequently restored nearly 30 years later.

John Paul Jones: The TBL Interview: Talking Led Zep, bass guitars, opera and guest appearances and the Kettle’s Yard Composer Portrait event in an exclusive TBL interview.

John Paul Jones News Reports: At  the London Bass Guitar Fair, Floating in Warwick with Robyn Hitchcock, down under with Seasick Steve, at the John Cage Musicircus and the Kettle’s Yard Cambridge Composer Portrait event.

JimmyPage.com Website Watch: Simon Cadman reports on the Jimmy Page web site activity of the past three months.

Jimmy Page Lucifer Rising and other Soundtracks: Dave Lewis steps in through the soundscapes to dissect the recently released great lost Page soundtrack album of the 1970s.

Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters in Gloucester: The live debut of Robert Plant new ad hoc line up caused the biggest Zep related ticket rush since the 02 reunion. Dave Lewis reports from down the front on the  welcome returned of the old witchdoctor.

Plus Justin Adams in another exclusive TBL interview relays his thoughts on the Gloucester Guildhall gig, Ju Ju summer festival dates & a decade of working with Robert Plant.

Multi-tracking Led Zeppelin 11: Ian Avey dissects the recently surfaced multi-track recordings of four songs from the Led Zeppelin II album.

Jeff Strawman’s Instrument Watch: The first of a regular TBL series focusing on the instruments and gear deployed by the members of Led Zeppelin. In this issue, Jeff chronicles Jimmy Page’s Gibson EDS 1275 double neck guitar.

Underground Uprising: Gerard Sparaco rounds up the latest underground CD releases including Berkeley Daze First Night, LZ Riders in AZ and The Calm & the Storm.

From A Whisper To A Scream –the Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin: Details of the new book by Dave Lewis via Omnibus Press, This is an extensive album by album track by track analysis of every Led Zeppelin recording. The book is guaranteed to take you make to the music with fresh perspective and there is –with news of the exclusive TBL edition due for publication in July – signed by the author and only available via the TBL website.

Plus News Round Up: Jimmy Page in attendance at Genesis David Bowie book launch and comments on his plans ahead to BBC 6 Music, : Ross Halfin Jimmy Page photo the 100,00 digitised shot in National Gallery, Neal Preston’s Gods And Rockers London Exhibition, BCC Live In Europe CD and Bonzo’s Birthday Bash all star rock drumming event, Mica Ertegun Oxford Scholarship, Peter Grant memorial Scholarship and latest Robert Plant news roundup -  Plus Loose Talk – a quick snapshot of latest Zep related happenings

Here is just one of many satisfied subscriber feedback comments:

‘’I’m an avid reader of Mojo, Q, Uncut, Record Collector and Rolling Stone but my subscription to TBL is far and away the best value for money.’’ Michael Rae, Australia


To order the TBL 2012 Subscription which commences with TBL 32 - go to the TBL 2012 Subscription link here and follow the instructions to pay via paypal.
http://www.tightbutloose.co.uk/tblweb09/?page_id=1469

You can also order TBL 32 as a single issue on its own at this link

http://www.tightbutloose.co.uk/tblweb09/?page_id=14475

Get on board for the Zep Fix you can rely on!