On This Day 19 May

Page and Plant in Pensicola on this day in 1998 and a few days' break in 1975 for Led Zeppelin before the next three Earls Court shows.

1998 19 May On This Day Page & Plant - Pensacola, Florida at Pensacola Civic Center

There were two days of soundchecks and rehearsals at the venue prior to opening night in Pensicola.  The year-long tour took Page & Plant back and forth across the Atlantic several times.

• 1967 Yardbirds - Elizabethville (Paris) France at L'Hermitage
• 1968 Yardbirds - Santa Barbara, CA at Francisco Torres
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - Fort Worth, TX at Tarrant County Convention Center
• 1977 Led Zeppelin - Baton Rouge, LA at LSU Assembly Center
• 1986 The Firm Mean Business Tour- Houston TX at The Summit
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded North American Tour - Oakland CA at Oakland Coliseum 
• 1998 Page & Plant North American Tour - Pensacola FL at Pensacola Civic Center 
• 2011 Jimmy Page at Ivor Novello Awards where Paul Rodgers receives award for songwriting 

1986 The Firm (Mean Business Tour) Houston, Texas at The Summit

1998 Jimmy Page & Robert Plant promo photo for US Tour.  Mick Hutson photo

  

2011 19 May Jimmy Page, Cynthia Rodgers, Paul Rodgers - Ivor Novello Songwriting Award

2011 May Les Inrocks Magazine

2014 Jimmy Page and Jack White backstage of the Jimmy Fallon Show (episode aired May 21) - Photo Ross Halfin 

♪

♪  Dazed and Confused  (Led Zeppelin, Ft. Worth 1973) YouTube  
♪  Concert clips + arrival at airport (Led Zeppelin, Baton Rouge 1977) YouTube
♪  Full set (Page & Plant, Oakland 1995) YouTube
♪  Full set (Page & Plant, Pensacola 1998) YouTube

♪ Mage Music 1 playlist at YouTube
♪ Mage Music 2 playlist at YouTube
♪ Page & Plant playlist at YouTube

On This Day 02 April

Did those journalists really think Led Zeppelin needed to play France?

1973 02 April On This Day Led Zeppelin, Paris (day 2 of 2)

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Cardiff Wales atTop Rank Ballroom
• 1970 Led Zeppelin - Charleston WV at Charleston Civic Center Coliseum
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - Paris at Centre Sportif (day 2 of 2)
• 1986 The Firm- Mean Business album released

1969:

This show was a benefit in for the Biafran Relief Organisation. Led Zeppelin did their part, but in the middle of How Many More Times the revolving stage was engaged and cables suddenly were jerked out of the amps' sockets, some broken off. That was the end of that.

1973:

The band had already cancelled two shows in France because of the audiences. They came back to Paris (actually a suburb to the north of the city) to play the Palais des Sports de Saint Ouen. Roy Hollingworth of Melody Maker reported:  "Zeppelin kicked a great hole in the night..."  But it was too late for France. Led Zeppelin was done with that country.

1973 Led Zeppelin get more gold discs

1973 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin, Paris

1986 Mean Business, by The Firm

1986:

You're probably tired of my whining about The Firm, but tough. It's my blog and I'll whine if I want to. And here I go:

The problem with The Firm is there's too much of Paul Rodgers and not enough Jimmy Page. Hey, I'm not putting down Mr. Rodgers. He's a great singer. But, as I've described elsewhere in this blog probably too many time, Paul Rodgers isn't giving it up to the muse that Jimmy Page answers to. Unfortunate for The Firm, because Jimmy Page is the one channeling the magick.

Cadillac, from The Firm's 1986 Mean Business, is a good example of when Jimmy Page gets to open to that channel and let it flow. Paul Rodgers comes through in this one to deliver lyrics and melody that match the setting Jimmy Page has provided. But then on the same album we get Free To Live, which doesn't come up to those standards. 

Cadillac roils with Jimmy Page's dark twisty tones, gasping pauses, and shocking thrusts of high notes. Free To Live starts out with promise: Slade's thumping and the growly guitar in the intro really work nicely together to hint of... well, we never find out, because Paul Rodgers starts singing and the other members of the band just back off and support him. At 2:00 Jimmy Page comes back in and takes over and we get some good stuff working - and then the song recedes to that old band-supports-the-vocalist format, where the singer is making lyrics the music instead of letting words serve the music. That's traditional but it's also boring. And unfortunately, as good as the quartet was, traditional was too typical of The Firm's work. The band was very good, but it was not innovative. We had already heard it all before. And what a shame. It didn't have to be that way.

So I, for one, don't love The Firm as much as I might. That's why I'm hoping that Jimmy Page will soon put out new music that leaves him free of the anchor of a traditional vocalist and rather lets his guitar do the singing.

♪

♪  Dancing Days (Led Zeppelin, Paris 02 April 1973) YouTube
♪  Cadillac (The Firm, Mean Business 1986) YouTube
♪  Free To Live (The Firm, Mean Business 1986) YouTube
♫  Mean Business MTV promo 1986usiness 1986) YouTube

♪ Mage Music 1 playlist at YouTube
♪ Mage Music 2 playlist at YouTube
♪ Page & Plant playlist at YouTube

NOTICE: April 11 will be the last daily On This Day post as that will be a full year's worth.  I won't post any more unless Jimmy Page's website offers some new ones. Stay tuned for new posts here on the Mage Music blog about the music and Magick of  JIMMY PAGE and previews of new Mage Music projects!

On This Day 08 March

Jimmy gimmee the music!

1968 08 March On This Day The Yardbirds in Birmingham UK

• 1968 The Yardbirds - Birminham UK at Aston University
• 1970 Led Zeppelin - Munich, Germany at Circus Krone Bau
• 1985 Jimmy Page The Firm - Omaha, NE at Civic Center

1970 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin, Munich

1985 Tony Franklin, Paul Rodgers, Jimmy Page (Chris Slade not shown) of The Firm

1984-1986:
You know by now how I feel about The Firm.  Often referred to as a supergroup, this particular combination of musicians was very, very good and yet never lived up to expectations.

Part of the problem was that allof the musicians came to The Firm as already accomplished and experienced performers. The more set in their ways - and perhaps the more successful they've been - the tougher it is for them to give it up to a new musical effort that isn't who they already are. This is true about almost any area of performance requiring great skill, of course.  For rock bassists and drummers - and for a guitarist like Jimmy Page who spent years as a session man and who can play any which way the music requires - giving it up might not be as tough as it might otherwise be since blending in and supporting is part of what they are expected to do.

Still, the effort was crippled from the beginning when they didn't (or couldn't) offer their souls to the cause that was the band. Um... honestly?  The better way to put it is that Paul Rodgers didn't sell his soul to the devil that was Mr. Page.

But then, I think that Jimmy Page probably didn't expect that from his vocalist. Rodgers was already set firmly on his own musical path. A vocalist has to have a strong ego since the singer/frontman usually sets the tone for the band as the focus of the music. The rest of the band supports that focus.

That's not how Jimmy Page does music.  That's why The Firm never was greater than its parts. And that's why Jimmy Page has taken so long to create new music. He needs musicians who will sell their souls to his vision. And they have to be good enough to meet Jimmy Page standards. Unfortunately, if they're good enough to perform with Jimmy Page, they're probably never going to give it up as much as Jimmy Page really needs. Catch 22.

My opinion, of course.  But seriously, dear reader, just listen to the versions of Live in Peace (below), written by Paul Rodgers. Great song. Powerful if a bit ponderous. But it's Paul Rodgers and The Firm, isn't it? I mean, it's not The Firm undivided and greater than the sum of its parts. It's the traditional "singer sings and the band supports the singer" format. It's okay but it lacks that extra something that makes musical greatness.

That is, of course, until Jimmy Page takes over and finally, finally, the song takes off. Then there's magic.

♪

♪  Live In Peace (The Firm, Mean Business 1986) YouTube
♪  Live In Peace (The  Firm, Detroit 1986) YouTube

♪ Mage Music 1 playlist at YouTube
♪ Mage Music 2 playlist at YouTube
♪ Page & Plant playlist at YouTube

On This Day 19 May

Page and Plant in Pensicola on this day in 1998 and a few days' break in 1975 for Led Zeppelin before the next three Earls Court shows.

1998 19 May On This Day Page & Plant - Pensacola, Florida at Pensacola Civic Center

There were two days of soundchecks and rehearsals at the venue prior to opening night in Pensicola.  The year-long tour took Page & Plant back and forth across the Atlantic several times.

• 1967 Yardbirds - Elizabethville, Paris, France at L'Hermitage
• 1968 Yardbirds - Santa Barbara, California at Francisco Torres
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - Fort Worth,TX US/ Tarrant County Convention Center
• 1977 Led Zeppelin - Baton Rouge, LA US/LSU Assembly Center
• 1986 The Firm (Mean Business Tour)- Houston, Texas at The Summit
• 1995 Page & Plant (Unledded North American Tour) - Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, CA. 
• 1998 19 May On This Day Page & Plant (North American Tour) - Pensacola, Florida at Pensacola Civic Center 
• 2011 Jimmy Page at Ivor Novello Awards where Paul Rogers receives award for songwriting 

1986 The Firm (Mean Business Tour)- Houston, Texas at The Summit

1998 Jimmy Page & Robert Plant promo photo for US Tour.  Mick Hutson photo

  

2011 19 May Jimmy Page, Cynthia Rodgers, Paul Rodgers - Ivor Novello Songwriting Award

2011 May Les Inrocks Magazine

2014 Jimmy Page and Jack White backstage of the Jimmy Fallon Show (episode aired May 21) - Photo Ross Halfin 

On This Day 29 April

Jimmy Page's The Firm was at Purdue University, Indiana on this day. in 1986.

On This Day 1986 29 April The Firm at Purdue University, Indiana

• 1985 The Firm - Madison Square Garden, New York City NY USA
• 1986 The Firm - Purdue University Elliott Hall of Music, West Lafayette IN USA
• 1995 Page & Plant - Rosemont Horizon, Rosemont IL USA

On This Day 1986 29 April The Firm tour dates

Jimmy Page has stated that The Firm was never meant to put out more than the two albums they did. The albums' names give the idea of the deliberateness of the idea:  The Firm and Mean Business. Limiting the scope of their association would free them all to go on with other projects, which is actually a good idea for musicians -- if they're good enough to know there will be other projects.

The Firm: Jimmy Page, Chris Slade, Paul Rodgers, Tony Franklin

The vocalist is usually the frontman for a band.  Even though Paul Rodgers did that job for The Firm, it's cool to see Jimmy Page at the microphone more often than in the past.

1986 03 March The Firm at Daytona

♪ Dreaming (The Firm: Mean Business) YouTube

On This Day 25 April

Jimmy Page recorded the video portion of These Arms of Mine with Paul Rogers on April 25 1985.

1983 25 April These Arms Of Mine recorded

• 1968 Yardbirds - WUAB-TV Studios, Cleveland OH
• 1968 Yardbirds - Cleveland Palace Theater, Cleveland OH
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco CA
• 1977 Led Zeppelin - Freedom Hall Kentucky Fairgrounds & Expo, Louisville KY
• 1985 Willie & The Poor Boys -- album released
• 1986 The Firm - U.N.O. Lakefront Arena, New Orleans LA 
• 1995 Page & Plant - Riverfront Coliseum, Cincinnati OH

1983 [2020 edit]

It's complicated.  The first ARMS benefit took place at the Royal Albert Hall on September 20 of 1983.  Later, Bill Wyman asked Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers to contribute to a couple of the songs for the Willie & The Poor Boys album.

The audio recordings were done two weeks in November 1984, and one week in early January 1985 at Jimmy's studio, The Sol, in January 1985.  All records for the album show a release date in the UK on this day in 1985 and in the US two days earlier.

According to Wyman's website, the video was filmed afterwards, on June 24, 1985 at Fulham Town Hall . 

 
The band, Willie and the Poor Boys, is not to be confused with Willy & The Poor Boys, a 1970 album by Creedence Clearwater Revival. The Willie and the Poor Boys band was a side project of Bill Wyman's, formed in November 1974. Mr. Wyman explained to Dave Letterman on August 1985 "When we were at school, they used to call me little Willie. I never quite worked that one out, I didn't understand - it looked alright to me, you know..."



♪ Yardbirds (Cleveland Palace Theater, Cleveland OH, 1968 - audience recording, poor quality)YouTube

♪ 1977 Led Zeppelin (Freedom Hall Kentucky Fairgrounds & Expo, Louisville KY) YouTube

♪ These Arms of Mine YouTube