Showing posts with label Emerald Eyes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Emerald Eyes. Show all posts

Thursday, October 19, 2023

On this day 19 October

Jimmy Page instrumentals are The Best!

1988 19 October On This Day Jimmy Page Outrider Tour, Cleveland
♪  Emerald Eyes (Jimmy Page, Cleveland 1988) 

  • 1966 The Yardbirds – Top of the Pops, Elstree, England at Elstree for 17 November broadcast
  • 1968 Led Zeppelin - Liverpool, England at University of Liverpool (as The Yardbirds)
  • 1969 Led Zeppelin - Chicago, IL at Kinetic Playground (two shows)
  • 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Cleveland, OH at Cleveland Public Hall
  • 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Buffalo, NY at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium
  • 1999 Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes - Los Angeles, CA at The Greek Theatre (day 2)
1966:as The Yardbirds
Top of the Pops (TOTP) was a BBC music show broadcast from 1964 to 2006. Each show featured the top bands of the week and ran down the music of the charts. While the show no longer exists as a weekly program, a special edition.is broadcast on Christmas Day and a weekly show airs performances from the BBC archives of the 1970s and 1980s.

A sample from Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love was used as the TOTP theme music for much of the 1970s, and from May 1998 to November 2003 a cover version was used.


1968  as The Yardbirds
It might come as a surprise to some, but Robert Plant can play musical instruments as well as sing. You might know about the harmonica, but there's a rumor he played a bit of bass on one of the earlier albums. I haven't tracked it down but if you know, please share!

1968 clipping about "Yardbirds" with Robert Plant on bass

1988 Jimmy Page, Outrider, Cleveland

2014 Jimmy Page on cover of November Classic Rock Magazine (Ross Halfin photo)

2014 Jimmy Page, November Classic Rock Magazine (Ross Halfin photo)

Saturday, June 24, 2023

On This Day 24 June

 


1969 24 June On This Day Led Zeppelin - London,England at Maida Vale Studios,Studio 4 - BBC Sessions Radio 1

  • 1966 The Yardbirds - Durham, England at University of Durham
  • 1969 24 June On This Day Led Zeppelin - London,England at Maida Vale Studios,Studio 4 - BBC Sessions,Radio One Session
  • 1980 Led Zeppelin - Hannover,Germany at Hannover Messehalle
  • 1984 Jimmy Page with Yes - Dortmund,Germany at Westfalenhalle 
  • 1995 Page & Plant- Unledded Tour - Schwalmstadt, Germany at Wildenrath Airfield,Wegberg Festival
  • 2000 Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes - Tinley Park, IL at New World Music Theatre 

Maida Vale Studios entry arch
1969:  
Maida Vale is a neighborhood in west London, part of the City of Westminster. First called Maida Hill. The name is named for the Hero of Maida Inn (no longer a pub, though the building still stands). The hero was General Sir John Stuart, Count of Maida.

The site of Maida Vale Studios started out in 1909 as the "Maida Vale Roller Skating Palace and Club". It was rebuilt (the roller skating palace's arches preserved) for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, which has been there since 1934. The studio complex was the centre of the BBC News operation during World War II.

There are seven studios, five of which are currently in use for recording and the others for rehearsals and tape archives. Studio MV4 was used for the John Peel sessions from 1967 to 2004, and is still used for those BBC Radio 1 sessions that replaced replaced John Peel's Top Gear.

Top Gear was a Radio 1 program that ran from 1967 to 1975. It was created to provide exposure for up-and-coming bands, and for musicians and bands to experiment with new material, non-album material, different sounds and guest musicians.

1984:
“Jimmy moved and bought a house in England near the house I was living in. So, we became neighbors and got together,” explained Yes bassist Chris Squire. “He was obviously pretty depressed about John Bonham’s death for awhile, and I kind of helped him out of that by saying ‘Let’s try to do some new music’ and that’s really what happened.”
Read More: 30 Years Ago: Jimmy Page Joins Yes on Stage to Cover the Beatles 

2000 24 June Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes - Tinley Park, IL
at New World Music Theatre (Photo Andrew Labis)

2000 24 June Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes - Tinley Park, IL
at New World Music Theatre (Photo Andrew Labis)
2000:
Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes became the first artists ever to crack the Top 10 with an internet-only single, Led Zeppelin's What Is and What Should Never Be, from Live at the Greek.

THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS - Music will be added at another time.  Thank you for your patience.

Monday, June 19, 2023

On This Day 19 June

 Led Zeppelin! Outrider! It Might Get Loud! All of it such rude sound!


1969 19 June On This Day Led Zeppelin in Paris at Antenne Culturelle du Kremlin-BicĂȘtre

1969 Led Zeppelin, Paris at Antenne Culturelle du Kremlin-BicĂȘtre

  • 1969 19 June On This Day Led Zeppelin - Paris, France at Antenne Culturelle du Kremlin-Bicetre
  • 1972 Led Zeppelin - Seattle, WA at Seattle Center Coliseum
  • 1977 Led Zeppelin - San Diego, CA at San Diego Sports Arena
  • 1988 Jimmy Page - Outrider Album Released
  • 2009 Premier of It Might Get Loud, Los Angeles

An outrider is someone who goes in front of or beside as an escort or guard, a forerunner, someone who announces or signals the approach of another. In his 1988 album, Outrider, Jimmy Page was saying he was still not part of the herd, was still out there pushing the envelope.

Jimmy Page recorded Outrider with a new label, Geffen Records, and at his own studio, The Sol (where he also recorded the soundtrack for Death Wish II and both of The Firm's albums).  He also used different vocalists, drummers and bassists for the songs, and one third of the tracks are instrumentals (my favorite tracks on the album).  The common thread on the various Outrider tracks, of course, is Jimmy Page's guitar. Jimmy Page is the outrider.

This was an entirely under-appreciated album. I suspect part of the problem was that Jimmy Page was riding out too far for the rest of the herd to keep up.

Side one
1. "Wasting My Time" (John Miles, vocals)
2. "Wanna Make Love" (John Miles, vocals)
3. "Writes of Winter" (Instrumental)
4. "The Only One" (Robert Plant, vocals)
5. "Liquid Mercury" (Instrumental)

Side two
6. "Hummingbird" (Chris Farlowe, vocals)
7. "Emerald Eyes" (Instrumental)
8. "Prison Blues" (Chris Farlowe, vocals)
9. "Blues Anthem (If I Cannot Have Your Love...)" (Chris Farlowe, vocals)
Outrider was to be a two album release but JimmyPage's house was broken into and burgled.  The early tapes for Outrider were stolen along with Led Zeppelin masters.  They have never been recovered.


1988 19 June Outrider released

1988 Promo shot for Jimmy Page's Outrider (Corbis Images)
The movie, It Might Get Loud, premiered in Los Angeles on 19 June 2009. Meant to be a documentary on the electric guitar from the point of view of three significant rock musicians, Jimmy Page steals the show.

2009 June Guitar World cover with Ross Halfin Photo

2009 19 June Beverly Wiltshire Hotel in Beverly Hills
 interview for It Might Get Loud (Photo Ross Halfin)

2009 17 June Jack White and Jimmy Page, LA (Photo: Ross Halfin)

2009 19 June Jack White, Jimmy Page and film director Davis Guggenheim (Photo: Ross Halfin)



THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS - Music will be added at another time.  Thank you for your patience.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

On This Day 21 October

Waiting for the Happenings One Year To Come.
1966 21 October On This Day Yardbirds Happenings Ten Years Time Ago

  • 1966 The Yardbirds release Happenings Ten Years Time Ago 
  • 1966 The Yardbirds - Worcester, MA at The Comic Strip
  • 1967 The Yardbirds - Dallas, TX at Studio Club
  • 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Dayton, OH at Hara Arena
  • 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Hartford, CT at Hartford Civic Center
1966:
You might want to listen to Jimi Hendrix's House Burning Down right after listening to Happenings Ten Years Time Ago. Seems to me pretty clear that Jimi was influenced by Jimmy, or at least by The Yardbirds' song, which was released two years prior to Hendrix's.

Not saying if it's true it's a bad thing. Not saying anything about anyone "stealing" a song, either. To me it just shows once again how a great musician stands on the shoulders of the musicians before him (or her). 


2010 Jimmy Page on cover of October Lid Magazine

2010 October issue of Lid Magazine's Jimmy Page article

2010 Lid Magazine Jimmy Page article (Ross Halfin photo, right)



♪  Happenings Ten Years Time Ago (The Yardbirds 1966) YouTube
♪  House Burning Down (Jimi Hendrix, 1968) YouTube
♪  Emerald Eyes (Jimmy Page, Dayton OH 1988) YouTube
♪  Black Dog (Page & Plant, Hartford CT 1995) YouTube


Monday, October 19, 2015

On This Day 19 October

It's good, isn't it?
1988 19 October On This Day Jimmy Page Outrider Tour, Cleveland
♪  Emerald Eyes (Jimmy Page, Cleveland 1988) 

  • 1966 The Yardbirds – Top of the Pops, Elstree, England at Elstree for 17 November broadcast
  • 1968 Led Zeppelin - Liverpool, England at University of Liverpool (as The Yardbirds)
  • 1969 Led Zeppelin - Chicago, IL at Kinetic Playground (two shows)
  • 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Cleveland, OH at Cleveland Public Hall
  • 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Buffalo, NY at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium
  • 1999 Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes - Los Angeles, CA at The Greek Theatre (day 2)
1966:
Top of the Pops (TOTP) was a BBC music show broadcast from 1964 to 2006. Each show featured the top bands of the week and ran down the music of the charts. While the show no longer exists as a weekly program, a special edition.is broadcast on Christmas Day and a weekly show airs performances from the BBC archives of the 1970s and 1980s.

A sample from Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love was used as the TOTP theme music for much of the 1970s, and from May 1998 to November 2003 a cover version was used.


1968:
Still The Yardbirds? Robert Plant on bass?
1968 clipping about "Yardbirds" with Robert Plant on bass

1988 Jimmy Page, Outrider, Cleveland

2014 Jimmy Page on cover of November Classic Rock Magazine (Ross Halfin photo)

2014 Jimmy Page, November Classic Rock Magazine (Ross Halfin photo)
2016:

Saturday, October 17, 2015

On This Day 17 October

So much to do. So little time.
Note: Updated 10/17/15
Note: Updated 10/17/15 again with players
1969 17 October On This Day Led Zeppelin at Carnegie Hall (2 shows)

  • 1969 Led Zeppelin - New York at Carnegie Hall (2 Shows: 8:30pm and 12:00 midnight)
  • 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Chicago, IL at UIC Pavilion
1969:
Eleven months. That's all it took for Led Zeppelin to go from embryo to Carnegie Hall. No rock band had played that venue since the Rolling Stones, five years prior, when rock performances were banned after a riot at the Stones' show. But Led Zeppelin had shot into the stratosphere like a rocket and could not be denied.
"This performance makes me realize we can be bigger than The Beatles and the Stones," Peter Grant told Richard Cole shortly after.
~ Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, Dave Lewis 2005

1969 Led Zeppelin at Carnegie Hall

1969 Led Zeppelin at Carnegie Hall

1969 17 October On This Day background image
2012:
43 years later, Jimmy Page was in Japan promoting the remasters, which have reached top ten on the charts once again. There won't be any more new Led Zeppelin - but Jimmy Page is, from his own account, working in his studio right now. New music from him sometime next year! What a gift!

2012 Jimmy Page in Japan (Ross Halfin photo)



I'm experimenting with a different media storage option for music files I can't find on the web. So far nothing I've found has made me happy. The two below are Amazon Web Services links. Do they work for you? I had trouble uploading, so don't know if I'll settle for AWS. Suggestions?


♪  Over the Hills and Far Away (Jimmy Page/Outrider, Chicago 1988) AWS
♪  Writes of Winter (Jimmy Page/Outrider, Chicago 1988) AWS

OK, let's try these (added 10/17/15 1:13 PM local):

♪ Prelude (Jimmy Page/Outrider, Chicago 1988) AWS


♪ Over the Hills and Far Away (Jimmy Page/Outrider, Chicago 1988) AWS


♪ Writes of Winter (Jimmy Page/Outrider, Chicago 1988) AWS


♪ Emerald Eyes (Jimmy Page/Outrider, Chicago 1988) AWS

Friday, June 19, 2015

On This Day 19 June

Led Zeppelin! Outrider! It Might Get Loud! All of it such rude sound!

1969 19 June On This Day Led Zeppelin in Paris at Antenne Culturelle du Kremlin-BicĂȘtre

1969 Led Zeppelin, Paris at Antenne Culturelle du Kremlin-BicĂȘtre

  • 1969 19 June On This Day Led Zeppelin - Paris, France at Antenne Culturelle du Kremlin-Bicetre
  • 1972 Led Zeppelin - Seattle, WA at Seattle Center Coliseum
  • 1977 Led Zeppelin - San Diego, CA at San Diego Sports Arena
  • 1988 Jimmy Page - Outrider Album Released
  • 2009 Premier of It Might Get Loud, Los Angeles

An outrider is someone who goes in front of or beside as an escort or guard, a forerunner, someone who announces or signals the approach of another. In his 1988 album, Outrider, Jimmy Page was saying he was still not part of the herd, was still out there pushing the envelope.

Jimmy Page recorded Outrider with a new label, Geffen Records, and at his own studio, The Sol (where he also recorded the soundtrack for Death Wish II and both of The Firm's albums).  He also used different vocalists, drummers and bassists for the songs, and one third of the tracks are instrumentals (my favorite tracks on the album).  The common thread on the various Outrider tracks, of course, is Jimmy Page's guitar. Jimmy Page is the outrider.

This was an entirely under-appreciated album. I suspect part of the problem was that Jimmy Page was riding out too far for the rest of the herd to keep up.

Side one
1. "Wasting My Time" (John Miles, vocals)
2. "Wanna Make Love" (John Miles, vocals)
3. "Writes of Winter" (Instrumental)
4. "The Only One" (Robert Plant, vocals)
5. "Liquid Mercury" (Instrumental)

Side two
6. "Hummingbird" (Chris Farlowe, vocals)
7. "Emerald Eyes" (Instrumental)
8. "Prison Blues" (Chris Farlowe, vocals)
9. "Blues Anthem (If I Cannot Have Your Love...)" (Chris Farlowe, vocals)
Outrider was to be a two album release but JimmyPage's house was broken into and burgled.  The early tapes for Outrider were stolen along with Led Zeppelin masters.  They have never been recovered.


1988 19 June Outrider released

1988 Promo shot for Jimmy Page's Outrider (Corbis Images)
The movie, It Might Get Loud, premiered in Los Angeles on 19 June 2009. Meant to be a documentary on the electric guitar from the point of view of three significant rock musicians, Jimmy Page steals the show.

2009 June Guitar World cover with Ross Halfin Photo

2009 19 June Beverly Wiltshire Hotel in Beverly Hills
 interview for It Might Get Loud (Photo Ross Halfin)

2009 17 June Jack White and Jimmy Page, LA (Photo: Ross Halfin)

2009 19 June Jack White, Jimmy Page and film director Davis Guggenheim (Photo: Ross Halfin)

>> Note that the excerpt from IMGL doesn't have sound in the last half, but it's just a repeat of the first half. 

Saturday, March 9, 2013

It's Your Magick Too

"A rock concert is in fact a rite involving the evocation and transmutation of energy."
~ William Burroughs, Crawdaddy Magazine, June 1975. Rock Magic: Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin, And a search for the elusive Stairway to Heaven 


Mage Music 43: Your Magick  jimmypagemusic.blogspot.comMage Music 43

This week's Mage Music came about because of a birthday playlist request.  You may have noticed I stopped doing playlists in these posts.  I realized how much time choosing the right music takes and, as important as this blog is to me, I nevertheless decided I needed to use that time for other things.  That makes this playlist a little more special.

I wanted to pick songs that have Magick for me personally (even though the list is meant for someone else), not just songs that are well performed.  The songs are not necessarily beautiful, the playlist doesn't even flow well from one song to the next.  I picked the songs because it seems to me in each one Jimmy Page was pushing, exploring, reaching for something deeper and more meaningful than ordinary music conveys.  I chose these particular songs, too, because the more closely I listen, the more they prompt me to join in that reaching.

This made me think about Mr. Burroughs' comment about what a rock concert is about, and what music brings to us, the audience - or, more specifically, about the Magick from the audience point of view whether or not the audience is at a live concert.

But I'm not going to talk about any of that this week.

You'll have to forgive me - or be PO'd if you prefer - for my not going further with these ideas right now.  I'm taking a little time off for other work.   Perhaps some of you have thoughts on this - I welcome them.  Right now, though, I'm leaving you with the birthday playlist and getting back to my other work.  Enjoy!





PLAYLIST

Note:  I recommend not looking at the visuals, and not paying attention to lyrics.  These songs are about the vision of Jimmy Page as expressed through the music produced by his own guitar.

White Summer Black Mountain Side  1969 (live)  Led Zeppelin June 27, 1969 London's Playhouse Theatre First released on LZ 4-disc boxed set 11/08/90
Lucifer Rising Outtake 2 1972 (studio) Jimmy Page, Album: Lucifer Rising
Guitar Solo 1977 (live)  Led Zeppelin  May 30, 1977 Landover MD (from bootleg Double Shot - sorry, the end of the song is cut off for some reason)
Cadillac 1986 (studio)  The Firm, Album: Mean Business
Emerald Eyes 1988 (studio)  Jimmy Page, Album:  Outrider
Saccharin 1993 (studio)  Jimmy Page, David Coverdale.  Unreleased.
Domino 1999 (live)  Jimmy Page, NetAid Benefit Concert.  Unreleased.
Nobody's Fault But Mine 2007 (live)  Led Zeppelin + Jason Bonham, Celebration Day O2 Concert
Ramble On 2008 (live) Foo Fighters, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones.  Wembley Stadium.
Summer's Day 2011 Happy birthday, Sue Clement.  Hope your day is special.




Sunday, August 19, 2012

Whole Lotta Love Notes

"Music is magic. Magic is life. "
                                             ~ Jimi Hendrix

Mage Music 16

Before you read any further, watch the first video the playlist below, the1997 Warner Music Group Mothership promo video of Whole Lotta Love.  Yes I said "watch".  Although the other songs in the playlist are in order of when they were performed and this one isn’t, and even though I generally recommend that you listen only - not watch - the music videos I suggest, this time I’m saying … watch this one. It’s meant to prime you for understanding what this post is about.

Oooh Baby
Sex: Ask some people (advertising agents, botanists, behaviorists, psychiatrists, religious zealots, lyricists and students of Magick just to name a few) and they’ll probably tell you that sex is the motivator for everything in life (maybe some would say the bane of everything in life, but that’s another discussion someone else can pick up someplace else).

Sex? The motivator for life? That isn’t really true. It’s desire that is the motivator for life.

Sex is only one way of satisfying desire. There’s a whole lotta desire out there, much more than there is for merely love. Without desire no living thing would do anything at all, not even bother to initiate sex. That’s because desire is required to initiate action of any kind – even the most inconsequential, meaningless action.

Desire is wanting something other than what exists: A different situation, a different experience. True desire is kind of like an itch or a sneeze – it starts out little and the next thing you know, it’s irresistible. You gotta have it. Now. And by the time you act on it there’s no question of what it is you’re going to do.


Desire: Deep Down Inside
There is the desire and there is the desired: The want and the thing wanted. The desire to reproduce and the pleasure from it is a primitive, lizard brain thing – but then so is music. It’s no wonder that sex and music are so closely linked.

Like good sex, music begins with wooing, igniting the flame. It can be hard or gentle, depending on what suits the mood. Either way, the heat builds to a climax (when it's good, sometimes more than one climax!) but once you're there, climax is the end of the desire:  That's what it is for. Satisfaction is the sating of desire or, put another way, the desired outcome of any act is not the scratching of the itch but the cessation of the itch – the fulfillment of desire is to no longer have desire.

Magick works the same. It begins with a wooing, it builds to a climax that results in the manifestation of the change the Mage desires - and therefore the end of the desire itself.

Sex and Magick come from the same source. Their root is desire. Their end goal is fulfillment: satisfaction and completion. They are parallel in many ways, but they are only parallel, not the same.  Most people don't have any pattern recognition for Magick, so the brain substitutes the nearest explanation. You experience desire of any sort deep down inside, but that doesn't make it about sex. You don’t need sex for Magick, you need desire, but most people can’t really tell the difference.


Hungry for Power
When you recognize Magick in the music, what you are sensing - beyond what your ear captures - is Power, the life energy of the Universe. Power is so very sexy, though it isn’t actually sexual. It is the Real Thing:  A link to the Force, to the energy of life and because it is so Big, so Much, because it’s the highest high, the brightest Light, the best of the best, we compare it to things that we can experience that are similar (pattern recognition again). Good sex that takes us out of ourselves is what we know, and so we compare Power to sex and we believe that sex itself is a property of Magick when it isn’t, really.

So.  Music that is not only about sex but also carries Magick is a double whammy. Mage Music doesn’t have to even be sexy to be Sexy. It’s all about desire: We taste a bit of that Power and we want more. We're hungry for it - we desire it.

Mage Music is sound sex. It is what the essence of the sexual experience is without the sex. Magick connects desire to Power and culminates in a change in the world. And what a powerful tool desire is for Magick - a good thing since desire is one of the main components of Magick. Imagine what it must feel like for the Mage.


Does it Quack for You?
When the infinite part of you – your soul – is connected to the Infinite that is the Universe and resonates with it during the experience of music, then you’re feeling the Magick. That's the good news.  The bad news is that while souls can resonate with the Infinite, ordinary humans can’t fully participate in the experience of the Infinite and still remain in finite bodies (the result is insanity… or death. We’re just mere humans, we listeners to music – we aren’t Mages, and even Mages court insanity and death as I'm sure you've observed).

The Magick in Mage Music isn’t for us or about us – the Magick is the Mage’s, not ours. The Mage's role is the connection to the Infinite.  Our role is that of the witness. Still, we can’t help but notice – and react to – the powerful desire that the Mage uses in the Magickal process. We are pulled to Mage Music, and we especially love sexy Mage Music. Heck, any Mage Music is sexy, when you come down to it. We can't help ourselves.

If it feels like a duck and it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it is a duck. Mage Music feels sexy, so it is sexy.  The music in the playlist below is in no way the only sexy music Jimmy Page created.  Just because the songs happen to be (mostly) about ordinary sexy stuff isn’t why they are on the list – they’re there in spite of the ordinary sexy stuff. They are there because they are Mage Music, not because they’re sexy music - and these songs are Mage Music because of the Power manifested by the desire of the Mage creating the music.

Obviously a Mage who chooses music to perform publically intends for us to perceive the Magick – we get to be voyeurs in a very personal process but at least we've been invited. A Mage Musician uses the feedback of the audience’s resonation with the Magick as part of the Mage’s Magickal process - but even so, we still are each just witnesses, not the one creating the Magick, and we are not who the Magick is for.  The Mage doesn't need us for Magick, he just desires us.


Hot/Cold Desire
You ever play the game of hot/cold or charades where your the others guide you by telling you if you’re aiming in the right direction or the wrong one? That is feedback, and a Mage Musician uses audience feedback just like any ordinary musician or artist does. Music reflects a search - for desire and for climax. In the kids' game, “hot” is getting closer, “cold” is going away from the goal. In Magick and Mage Music – and sex - getting closer feels good, going away from the goal feels bad… or at least neutral (which is actually bad because you aren't getting where you want to be). It’s all about feeling your way to the emotion of desire: You may not know what you want - quite - but you recognize it when you feel it.

Artists in the act of creating are driven by desire. Whatever their medium - paint, words, music, dance, stone or pixels – artists in the act of creating feel the pull of desire.  Recognizing it, they act, they feel the hot/cold of results, they adjust and act again, sometime with lightening speed, sometime with a snail's pace of deliberation. They play us for the feedback only to serve their own desire.

The Mage works with the un-physical medium of Magickal process. At once both freer and requiring the highest discipline, desire is still the driving force, and the fulfillment of desire is still the end goal. No matter to the Mage Musician that the audience is witness and feedback mechanism, only tangential to the Magickal outcome - the Mage will do what the Mage will do whether there's an audience or not.  But you know, so what?

We hear it, we feel it.  We get a whole lotta deep down, too.  





Future post: First there is desire, but intention makes it all happen.



Individual Songs

Whole Lotta Love Led Zeppelin Warner promo video for Mothership (while I normally advise listening only - this promo video is worth looking at as support for the Sunday MAGE MUSIC post)
Baby Come On Home Led Zeppelin (studio) 1968  Album: Coda
You Shook Me Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions 1969
Since I've been Loving You  Led Zeppelin  (live) LA 1972 Album: How The West Was Won
In The Light Led Zeppelin (studio) 1975  Album: Physical Graffiti
I'm Gonna Crawl  Led Zeppelin (studio) 1979 Album: In Through The Out Door
Emerald Eyes  Jimmy Page (live) 1988 Outrider Tour
Whole Lotta Love A few seconds from It Might Get Loud 2008

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Playlist for Sunday 08/19/12

Whole lotta love notes
Mage Music 16: Whole Lotta Love Notes

YouTube Playlist



Individual Songs

Whole Lotta Love Led Zeppelin Warner promo video for Mothership (while I normally advise listening only - this promo video is worth looking at as support for the Sunday MAGE MUSIC post)
Baby Come On Home Led Zeppelin (studio) 1968  Album: Coda
You Shook Me Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions 1969
Since I've been Loving You  Led Zeppelin  (live) LA 1972 Album: How The West Was Won
In The Light Led Zeppelin (studio) 1975  Album: Physical Graffiti
I'm Gonna Crawl  Led Zeppelin (studio) 1979 Album: In Through The Out Door
Emerald Eyes  Jimmy Page (live) 1988 Outrider Tour
Whole Lotta Love A few seconds from It Might Get Loud 2008

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Mage Music: Ritual is not Magick


A black robe with a black cat looking on, a few candles and props, a chanted spell and a pass with the wand:  Magic?  No way!  On stage, maybe - but that's not real magick at all.

The truth:  Even when they use tools, today’s occult magicians and most other reality transforming professionals don't perform rituals like they did in the olden days.  In spite of what you may have learned from Harry Potter, real magic doesn’t require wands, spells, magic potions and powders, pentangles, crystals or any other prop to make the connections with the energy that will do the heavy lifting.  Still, all those things and more can be used to create magic - even if they are just tools that make the job easier.

The need to use specific tools of magic is indirectly proportionate to the skill of the mage. What this means is that a powerful mage can use anything – or nothing at all – to bring about transformations in the world, whereas a lesser magician can become dependent upon ritual, on the use of tools in a formulaic way to focus the mind and keep the will of the magician on task.

The reason rituals and magical props are not intrinsically necessary is because rituals are not the magic itself.  The fact is, anyone can use the recommended magical tools and perform the prescribed rituals with them, but only some will get the desired magical results.  Even the most highly skilled practice of ritual can never achieve the same level of results as a gifted mage who isn’t even half trying, because magical success resides not in the ritual but in the person performing the magic.

Lascaux, France paleolithicave painting

A little history
One theory of art history is that cave paintings, petrographs and petroglyphs were not art so much as summonings, blessings, and/or entreaties to the spirit world for success in the hunt.  The Lascaux cave paintings are around 17,300 years old and petroglyphs sites in Australia have been dated at 27,000 to 40,000 years old.  Undoubtedly the first human music consisted of humming, whistling, and singing; rhythm-keeping in the form of clapping or drumming must have occurred early on as well.

Music is powerful.  We don’t need science to tell us that music can evoke strong emotions and changed states of awareness (although science can, in fact, tell us how that works).  Shamanic drumming has its modern-day counterpart in trance music; a young child can tell the difference between happy and sad music; words that are used to describe music also are used to describe spiritual experience.  There has always been something magical about the application of paint to canvas or stringing one word or one musical note after another and having the end result be something that has meaning above and beyond the physical object.  For some practitioners of the various arts, the result is also magick.


Performance vs. creation

Jimmy Page is often referred to as “The Master” or “Mage”.   Magick or music - the honorifics acknowledge the quality and quantity his gift and his expression of it.  Yet performance itself, no matter how dazzling and technically excellent, does not a Master make.

Jimmy Page is definitely a master musician.  The YouTube playlist provided here includes selections of original music of Mr. Page's over a 15 year period from 1983-1998.  These songs were chosen to provide a powerful example of the skill of a musician at the level of mage.  Please note that some songs have solos that I have identified for particular consideration (also scroll down for individual links).

While any search of YouTube will yield numerous young guitarists (and some not-so-young or unknown) who have performed Jimmy Page’s tracks from various songs, none carry the magic of Mr. Page’s own work as he performs it.  Many can play the works of Jimmy Page's with technical excellence that may surpass his own technical skills, but none of it is magic.

“Music is an outburst of the soul.”  Frederick Delius

Jimmy Page, as has often been noted by his detractors, can be a sloppy guitarist and even off-pitch, yet somehow the magic is still there.  This is because ritual – musical technique – is not the magic.  You can listen to far more technically accomplished guitarists and be left cold.  Magic comes about as a result of the desire and will of the mage, not technique.  Jimmy Page plays music and makes it his own - he is always creating, not simply performing.  The music he produces is the result of focus of his desire and will; he is not merely producing a sequence of notes on his guitar that he has produced before, that anyone can produce – he is creating a new state in the world that matches his inner vision.

Each of the songs in the playlist is different, but each at its core expresses a certain Truth.  The expression of that Truth is magic.


It is highly recommended that you do not watch the videos while listening to the selections below. Concentrate on the sound for there lies the magic.


1983  Midnight Moonlight Live, ARMS concert with Paul Rogers [note particularly 3:23 – 5:15]
1988  Emerald Eyes Studio version, Outrider
1988  Writes of Winter Studio version, Outrider 
1993  Saccharin Unreleased, Coverdale/Page  [note particularly 2:50 – 3:16]
1998  Walking Into Clarksdale Live,  La Cigale Paris March 30 [note particularly 4:22 – end]