On this day 15 September

 Jam Sandwich.  Yeah.

1981 15 September On This Day Jimmy Page records main title music for Death Wish II
♪  Synth Track (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II soundtrack) Soundcloud

• 1968 Led Zeppelin - Goteborg, Sweden at Liseberg Amusement Park (billed as The Yardbirds)
• 1981 Jimmy Page records main title music for Death Wish II
• 1998 Page & Plant - West Valley, UT at E Center

1968:

Still billed as Yardbirds.

Photo taken by a fan outside a club on September 15, 1968

1968 Led Zeppelin - Goteborg, Sweden at Liseberg Amusement Park

1981:
Death Wish II is a soundtrack album by Jimmy Page, released (vinyl) by Swan Song Records on 15 February 1982, to accompany the late Michael Winner's film Death Wish II. Recorded at Sol Studio in Berkshire, UK, it was the first major work Jimmy Page had done since John Bonham's death.  Session drummer Dave Mattacks, who had worked with Jimmy before Led Zeppelin and was friends with Bonzo, was the drummer for the soundtrack and worked with Jimmy Page at Page's Sol Studio.

  “I set up in the middle of this room. Jimmy set up a little guitar amplifier beside me initially; then at one point told me he was going to place the amp in another room. He told me, ‘I don’t want to ruin your drum sound’. I went, ‘You’re not ruining my sound; we’re working on this together’. I realized later on that he was using ambient room mics to make the drums louder and he didn’t want them to pick up the guitar; he wanted separation. He’d do a guide guitar track with me, sometimes replacing it or overdubbing numerous times…what John Paul Jones termed ‘the army’. Jimmy was using a lot of different amplifiers.
  “Jimmy had just gotten the Roland guitar synth and there were occasions he couldn’t reach all the pedals and controls, so he’d be overdubbing another pedal, helping him get all these bizarre sounds, which you can hear on the soundtrack."
  ~ Dave Mattacks, drummer for Death Wish II, interview by T Bruce Wittet, 2012

The soundtrack was released in CD format in 1999.  To mark its 30th anniversary Jimmy Page released a limited remastered vinyl edition on 1 December 2011, of 30 autographed copies and 1000 individually-numbered, non-autographed copies of the soundtrack.  This anniversary version included previously unreleased material, updated artwork and new sleeve notes.

Roger Ebert gave the movie a "no star" rating (awarded only to movies that he considered "artistically inept and morally repugnant").  He didn't mention the soundtrack in his review.  I've never seen the movie, but the music gets four stars from me.

Track identification log for "Synth Track" for Death Wish II

Jimmy Page in his Sol Studio, Berkshire UK, recording Death Wish II

2017

Jimmy Page and Scarlett Sabet attended English celebrity photographer Richard Young's 70th birthday party at Langan's Brasserie, London.  Actress Joan Collins was there, too. 

♪

♪ Title music for Death Wish II (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II soundtrack 1982) 
♪ Who's To Blame outtake  (Jimmy Page, 1982) 
♪ City Sirens (Jimmy Page with Steve Winwood, Death Wish II soundtrack,  ARMS 1983) 
♪ Jam Sandwich  (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II soundtrack 1982) 
♪ Chopin's Prelude  (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II soundtrack 1982) 
♪ Closing scenes and credits for Death Wish II (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II soundtrack 1982) 

On This Day 01 March

1982 01 March On This Day Death Wish II soundtrack released

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Plymouth, England at Van Dike Club
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Atlanta, GA at The Omni
• 1996 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Melbourne, Australia at Tennis Centre
• 1998 Page & Plant - Bucharest, Romania at Sala Polivalenta

2008 Jimmy Page (Ross Halfin photo)

♪

♪  Prelude (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II soundtrack 1982) YouTube
♪  Who's To Blame (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II soundtrack 1982) YouTube

♪ Mage Music 1 playlist at YouTube
♪ Mage Music 2 playlist at YouTube

On This Day 01 December

I have a very live wish. I've surely wished it 2 million times. You know what it is.

2011 01 December On This Day Death Wish II soundtrack collectors edition released
(2011 post)

• 1972 Led Zeppelin - Newcastle Upon Tyne, England at Newcastle City Hall
• 1983 Jimmy Page - ARMS Charity Concert Tour,  Daly City, CA at Cow Palace 
• 1984 Jimmy Page with The Firm - Lund, Sweden at Olympen
• 1998 Page & Plant - Gent, Belgium at Gent Exhibition Hall 

1972 01 December Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin at Newcastle

1983 
This was the first of three nights for the ARMS US Tour at the Cow Palace.  The ARMS US Tour setlist was heavily weighed towards Jimmy Page's music.

1. Prelude
2. Who's To Blame
3. City Sirens
4. Boogie Mama
5. Bird On A Wing (a.k.a. Midnight Moonlight)
6. Stairway To Heaven
7. Layla
8. With A Little Help From My Friends
9. Goodnight Irene 

1983 Jimmy Page, Paul Rodgers, ARMS at Cow Palace

♪

♪  Prelude (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II 1982) YouTube
♪  Who's To Blame (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II 1982) YouTube
♪  Closer (Jimmy Page with The Firm, Lund Sweden 1984) YouTube
♪  Full set (Page & Plant, Gent 1998) YouTube

On This Day 15 September

Jam Sandwich.  Yeah.

1981 15 September On This Day Jimmy Page records main title music for Death Wish II
♪  Synth Track (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II soundtrack) Soundcloud

• 1968 Led Zeppelin - Goteborg, Sweden at Liseberg Amusement Park (billed as The Yardbirds)
• 1981 Jimmy Page records main title music for Death Wish II
• 1998 Page & Plant - West Valley, UT at E Center

1968:

Still billed as Yardbirds.

1968 Led Zeppelin - Goteborg, Sweden at Liseberg Amusement Park

1981:
Death Wish II is a soundtrack album by Jimmy Page, released (vinyl) by Swan Song Records on 15 February 1982, to accompany the late Michael Winner's film Death Wish II. Recorded at Sol Studio in Berkshire, UK, it was the first major work Jimmy Page had done since John Bonham's death.  Session drummer Dave Mattacks, who had worked with Jimmy before Led Zeppelin and was friends with Bonzo, was the drummer for the soundtrack and worked with Jimmy Page at Page's Sol Studio.

  “I set up in the middle of this room. Jimmy set up a little guitar amplifier beside me initially; then at one point told me he was going to place the amp in another room. He told me, ‘I don’t want to ruin your drum sound’. I went, ‘You’re not ruining my sound; we’re working on this together’. I realized later on that he was using ambient room mics to make the drums louder and he didn’t want them to pick up the guitar; he wanted separation. He’d do a guide guitar track with me, sometimes replacing it or overdubbing numerous times…what John Paul Jones termed ‘the army’. Jimmy was using a lot of different amplifiers.
  “Jimmy had just gotten the Roland guitar synth and there were occasions he couldn’t reach all the pedals and controls, so he’d be overdubbing another pedal, helping him get all these bizarre sounds, which you can hear on the soundtrack."
  ~ Dave Mattacks, drummer for Death Wish II, interview by T Bruce Wittet, 2012

The soundtrack was released in CD format in 1999.  To mark its 30th anniversary Jimmy Page released a limited remastered vinyl edition on 1 December 2011, of 30 autographed copies and 1000 individually-numbered, non-autographed copies of the soundtrack.  This anniversary version included previously unreleased material, updated artwork and new sleeve notes.

Roger Ebert gave the movie a "no star" rating (awarded only to movies that he considered "artistically inept and morally repugnant").  He didn't mention the soundtrack in his review.  I've never seen the movie, but the music gets four stars from me.

Track identification log for "Synth Track" for Death Wish II

Jimmy Page in his Sol Studio, Berkshire UK, recording Death Wish II

♪

♪ Title music for Death Wish II (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II soundtrack 1982) YouTube
♪ Who's To Blame outtake  (Jimmy Page, 1982) YouTube
♪ City Sirens (Jimmy Page with Steve Winwood, Death Wish II soundtrack,  ARMS 1983) YouTube
♪ Jam Sandwich  (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II soundtrack 1982) YouTube
♪ Chopin's Prelude  (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II soundtrack 1982) YouTube
♪ Closing scenes and credits for Death Wish II (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II soundtrack 1982) YouTube


 

On This Day 22 April

In 1960 (or was it 1961?) Jimmy Page persuaded Chris Farlowe and The Thunderbirds to record at RG Jones - a demo Studio in Putney.

In 2019 On This Day says the Farlowe studio session was in 1961

1960 Jimmy Page at RG Jones Studio with Chris Farlowe

• 1961 Jimmy Page - produces Chris Farlowe's Money
• 1985 The Firm, Market Square Arena, Indianapolis IN

1961

R.G. Jones is one of the longest running studios in Britain.  The facility was located at Morden Manor when Jimmy Page was there with Chris Farlowe (it was moved to Wimbledon in 1969 where it operated until 2001). The studio produced demo records for the Yardbirds, Eric Clapton, David Bowie, Springfields, Englebert Humperdink, Tom Jones, the Bee Gees and others.

Jimmy Page's On This Day says the studio session happened in 1960 and in 1961, depending on which On This Day you are looking at.  However, let's go with 1961.  Page, at that point 17 years old, would go on to work for Immediate Records for several years as the label's in-house producer.

Chris Farlowe sang on three tracks from Jimmy Page's Death Wish II soundtrack (1982), as well as Hummingbird, Prison Blues and Blues Anthem on Page's album Outrider (1988).

Farlowe is considered by some to be one of the most underrated British soul & blues influenced singers ever.  I consider Outrider to be one of the most underrated albums ever.  


♪ Money (Chris Farlowe and the Thunderbirds 1960 or 1961) YouTube
♪ Hypnotizing Ways (Oh Mamma) (Death Wish II 1982 YouTube 
♪ Prison Blues (Outrider 1988 YouTube 

Jimmy Page: Sound Tracks links

Tracks and links to music clips

LUCIFER RISING

1 Lucifer Rising - Main Title 20:32
2 Incubus 01:45
3 Damask 02:03
4 Unharmonics 02:06
5 Damask - Ambient 02:05
6 Lucifer Rising - Percussive Return 03:21

LUCIFER RISING - THE SECOND COMING

1 Lucifer Rising Early Mix 18:59
2 Sonic Textures 1 - Earth 04:33
3 Sonic Textures 2 - Air 03:02
4 Sonic Textures 3 - Fire 01:45
5 Sonic Textures 4 - Water 01:05
6 Sonic Textures 5 - Ether 01:04


DEATH WISH II

1 Who's To Blame 02:41
2 The Chase 05:50
3 City Sirens 02:01
4 Jam Sandwich 02:35
5 Carole's Theme 02:50
6 The Release 02:36
7 Hotel Rats and Photostats 02:46
8 A Shadow In The City 04:02
9 Jill's Theme 04:00
10 Prelude 02:20
11 Hypnotizing Ways 02:48
12 Main Title 02:44


DEATH WISH II - EXPANSION

1 Jill's Orchestral Theme 04:04
2 Alternate Jill's Theme 01:26
3 9M1 02:07
4 City Sirens 02:00
5 Baby I Miss You So 03:12
6 Hey Mama / Swinging Sax 03:13
7 Carole's Theme - Strings 01:25
8 Prelude 02:13
9 Country Sandwich 02:37
10 A Minor Sketch 05:24

Info on ordering from Jimmy Page's website

JIMMY PAGE: SOUND TRACKS

JIMMY PAGE: SOUND TRACKS

Text from the Jimmy Page website

Introducing Sound Tracks by Jimmy Page: a special edition box set bringing together JP’s extraordinary compositions for the films Lucifer Rising and Death Wish II along with additional archive material for the first time.

The quadruple box set is available to pre-order now and new discs Lucifer Rising: The Second Coming and Death Wish II: Expansion include rare, never-before-heard tracks.

Recorded at Jimmy's home studio in Plumpton and The Sol studio in Cookham in the late seventies and early eighties, Sound Tracks features an all-new booklet containing a written track-by-track insight by Jimmy Page for the archive material amidst a stunning collection of original artwork across 36 pages.

Available to pre-order now, Sound Tracks will be released on Friday, March 06 2015.

There are three versions of Sound Tracks available to pre-order now:

4 x CD Edition
4 x Vinyl Edition
Signed Deluxe Edition [Mage Music note:  Limited to 109 copies, selected by ballot]

http://www.jimmypage.com/news/jimmy-page-sound-tracks

Alchemy: Led Into Gold (Part 3) Jimmy Page in the 1980s

The important parts of alchemy are invisible

Mage Music 24

Very little that anyone has or creates is original. Almost all "innovation" is built on the work of others, even when the work is the artist's own. Nevertheless, to take one step beyond, to go where no one has gone before, is by definition original - and few have ever knowingly taken such a step.  Forging on, no matter how broad the shoulders of those whose work you have stood on, is hard work with no guides, few clues, and no guarantees of success.

Alchemy limits as well as enables
Contrary to popular belief, Magick doesn't actually require any specific rituals to work.  Rituals simply provide focus and boundaries for the Mage.  Whatever ritual works best for the Mage is the best ritual to use, although some ritual may call to or be easier to use than other ritual for any given Mage.

Alchemy however, as it is more like a science than an art, does require specific formulas to work - formulas that can be repeated by the alchemist or apprentices or, theoretically, anyone else with sufficient desire and will.  In its fixed approach, alchemy both makes the search for the Philosopher's Stone both easier and extraordinarily limiting at the same time.  Alchemy applied to music makes it difficult to create Magick outside of the established formulas and rituals.

The post-Zeppelin challenge
With Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page was more of an alchemist than pure Mage. He combined the unique ingredients of sound of his bandmates with his own musical abilities using formulas he had developed over time and rituals he invested tremendous desire and will in; the resulting alchemical mix infused the music with Magick. 

On his own after Led Zeppelin, however, the framework and ritually harmonious input provided by the other musicians that had stood Jimmy Page so well was no longer there.  In a new era of experimentation, in a renewed search for the musical Philosopher’s Stone, Mr. Page’s search for the unique ingredients of sound produced mixed results and his Magick could not be routinely evoked. The technique was still there, the music still as extraordinary as one had come to expect from a master musician, but the reliable formula was lost when the ritual circle was broken with John Bonham's death.

The songs in this week's playlist, chosen by Dave Lewis in his book, Led Zeppelin: A Celebration (Omnibus Press, 1991), are all from the 1980s and all represent a new epoch for Jimmy Page, a time when he was perhaps not quite as certain as he had been, when he was unable to wield his powers as Mage or musician as easily as he had.

The Death Wish II pieces pick up themes that Jimmy Page had explored 10 years before and carry them forward. The ARMS version of Stairway is an extraordinary demonstration of willingness to forge on, a statement that he could - and would - stand alone in his own powerful Magick. Midnight Moonlight and Radioactive push the musical envelope with eerie chords and soaring guitar sequences, and the use of tonal light and shade ( for instance, soft, acoustic classical guitar melodies flowing into heavy fuzz metal electric guitar tones). Emerald Eyes is a gem in truth – a deceptively simple melodic song in which, like the ARMS version of Stairway, there are no vocals; Jimmy Page does not need a human voice to carry the message that has always been in his own hands and soul. In Blues Anthem, once again, we are given the softer acoustic guitar sound when Mr. Page accompanies the vocals, and then his own solo, a lovely but brief interjection of his own instrumental voice in a pretty song.

We know that Jimmy Page had other challenges in his life during the 1980s, and that he did not need to generate more music or Magick to keep his title of Master Mage.  Still, throughout those ten years he did keep searching for the perfect mixture of components that would enable him to manifest his personal musical vision.  Like a phoenix rising from ashes but not yet ready to fly, Jimmy Page had yet to find his musical self in new ritual, new Magick.  His quest, begun in the 1960s, taken up again in the 1980s, was to continue into the next decade.

♪

 
Future posts:

Led Into Gold (Part 4), 1990s.  Or maybe I won't.  Depends on what I feel like writing!

The Chicken/Egg quandary (the neurophysics of music)

 

♫

 
Playlist for Alchemy: Led Into Gold (Part 3)
 
Individual songs

1982 Who's To Blame (Main Title) (studio) Japanese issued single/Swan Song. Dave says of Who's To Blame: "...the use of a Roland synthesiser guitar, a curious device with a rod linking the body and fretboard, which adds yet more colour to the canvas." Note: The two Death Wish II excerpts recommended by Dave are not on the soundtrack album; the links provided here are outtakes.

1982  Carole's Theme (Dave bundles this with Who's To Blame) (studio) Japanese issued single/Swan Song. Dave says: "..a poignant instrumental over which Jimmy stretches and slides a guitar solo of immense purity."  The guitar part of Carole's Theme begins at 1:06

1984 Stairway To Heaven (live) ARMS concert video soundtrack. Dave says: "...one quarter of Led Zeppelin alone in the spotlight for the first time, paying homage to their most famous song..."

1984 Sea Of Love (studio) Album: The Honeydrippers.  Dave says:  "The solo which graces this Fifties do-wop cover is a lovely string-bending affair..."  Solo at 1:39

1985 Midnight Moonlight (studio) Album: The Firm.  Dave says:  "...originally conceived on the ARMS tour when it was known as 'Bird On  A Wing'... [it] harks back to the adventurous spirit of his previous quartet."

1985 Radioactive (studio) Album: The Firm. Dave says: "...a total off-the-wall descending chord sequence that swivels across the speakers with delightful regularity. Pure James Patrick..."

1988 Emerald Eyes (studio) Album: Outrider. Dave says: "...differing approaches and textures of his playing... signaled a return to the guitar diversity of the Zeppelin era."

1988 BluesAnthem (If I Cannot Have Your Love) (live) Arizona 1988 (Note: Dave recommends the studio version from the album: Outrider, which I could not find on YouTube, so if you have Outrider listen to that version like I have!).  Dave says: "A reassuring example of the emotional quality Jimmy Page can still attain in terms of both performance and composition."

♫

Bonus:  I'm Down (live) Jimmy Page joins Yes, June 24, 1984. Dortmund, Germany.  Just for fun!