Lif Strand: Happy Thanksgiving

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Rambling On with Celebration Day Thoughts

Celebration Day movie report 

Tuesday, November 13, 2012.  I just got back to the motel room after having seen Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day (LZCD) at a theater in Albuquerque, NM.  I had been waiting for this with the kind of anticipation and excitement that I last felt as a kid at Christmas.  Now that it's over, I feel like I've had about 50 cups of espresso.  My cheeks are sore because apparently I was grinning from ear to ear the whole two+ hours of the movie, and I keep feeling like I want to cry.

What a totally awesome and profound experience LZCD is. I am so grateful that I got to see it (at last!), so happy I have the opportunity to see it over and over on the DVD that I pre-ordered and that will come in the mail in the next few days.  I am also so very thankful that Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham gifted the world with the music of Led Zeppelin one last time.

I hadn't expcted to feel quite as emotional about seeing the movie as I did.  After all, I was in a movie theater not a real concert, and there weren't thousands of people around me sharing their energy - just a small and very restrained audience this evening.  Just about everyone was grey haired, including me - but I was clearly the worst behaved one there.  I bounced in my seat like it was 40 years ago, little squeals of pleasure leaking out of my mouth.  Every time Jimmy Page smiled, I smiled.  Every time his guitar wailed, I melted. Every time the O2 audience cheered, I couldn't help but cheer - but quietly, darn it.  I was dazed and confused because I kept forgetting I was in a theater, five years after the actual event.

Commemoration, Proclamation, Solemnization

Every Led Zeppelin concert has always been its own unique experience, each providing  valuable clues as to the musical vision of the individual performers as well as the band itself.    LZCD is no exception.  The movie is a true celebration of the band that was, while not trying to duplicate the past.  As with all of the more than 600 other performances, this concert, too, was its own unique experience - but unlike the others, this one was a recapitulation (a musical term - a musical theme repeated in an altered form and the development is then concluded).

And this is why I keep feeling I want to cry.  Led Zeppelin has not been a band since that awful day in 1980 when the world lost John Bonham.  I know that in my head.  I have no reason to doubt Jimmy Page and Robert Plant when they say that there will never be another tour as Led Zeppelin.  But what stabbed me in the heart was the unavoidable fact that the 2007 concert was not just a tribute to Ahmet Ertegun, not just a great, fun showing off of extraordinary musical expertise and partnership - it was also, finally, a good-bye to all of us from the band that was Led Zeppelin.

O bittersweet music!

If there were going to be tears, they would be a mixture of sadness and joy, because the O2 performance was not just an ending, it was a joyous celebration of the artistic achievements of what many of us consider to be the world's best rock band, arguable a musical group worthy of being considered an example of the best of the best of any musical category.

Each of the 16 songs (14 set, 2 encore) was performed in the here and now of 2007, fully embracing the limitations and the added experience of the passage of nearly 30 years.  It was glorious music - not the music of 1968 or 1980, but the music of who and what Led Zeppelin was in 2007 - still extraordinarily emotional, complex, pure, simple, mysterious and Magickal.  It was an expression of the What Is of that music in that time and that place that could not have existed without what had come before it.

I might have chosen a few different songs - but this set list was about Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham, not about me or you.  What is important is that these songs were picked carefully by these musicians to make a statement of their choosing, something like This is who we were and this is who we still are.  No one like us then, now or ever again - ain't it grand!  


And then it was over

If I had not already known the set list, I still would have known that the last song was being played when I heard the opening notes of Kashmir.  Still the most mysterious and meaningful Led Zeppelin song, this 2007 version might actually have been the best performance of it, ever.  No Egyptian ensemble, no orchestra, just a few extraordinary musicians making Magick right there on stage.

For oh yes, there was Magick - there can be no doubt about it hearing what I heard.  Let me put it this way: My reality was absolutely changed.  I was pulled out of myself into another place and time.  My awareness of Self was replaced - willingly, with permission - by  music that filled up the vacancy that had been created.  It made me another person.  It changed who I am, if only for those hours.

If that isn't Magick, I don't know what is.

And then they were gone

And so, when the lights came up and the noise of commercial movie theater Muzak replaced the music of the gods that had filled my heart and soul for the past two hours, I was a conflicted emotional wreck: Happily high and miserable at the same time, mourning the end of something monumental while bouncing out of my skin from having been exposed to the music of the masters.

Zowie!

THE MOVIE
Because the movie is not even yet released for purchase as of the date of this post, I am not providing YouTube links to any videos of LZCD except what has been officially released.  Please support Led Zeppelin by buying the music, not just watching on YouTube. The choices below reflect differences in media format, content and packaging.

Officially released by Led Zeppelin on YouTube

Black Dog

Kashmir

Do What Thou Wilt

The choice is always yours

Mage Music 28


The Universe is bigger than the gods that humans cast in human form with human characteristics that are larger than life.  The reality is that the Universe is infinite.  For humans in physical form, that should mean that the Universe is profoundly and fundamentally unknowable, since physicality is a subset of the infinite and subsets don't encompass the whole - that's just the way it is.  But the human condition is more than physicality and if everything is a holograph of the Universe (a basis for Magick), then subsets are in a sense the whole and then humans can know something of the infinite.

The Universe is always offering
The Universe has no constraints (infinite, remember?) and does not hide anything.  Like a lighthouse's beams that shine out in the gloom, the Universe sends a message of What Is for any being capable of receiving it. Anyone capable of choice could receive the message - it is transmitted in an infinite number of forms - but not everyone makes the choice to do so.  Having the choice is part of the gift of being human in the first place.

Choice is a part of being alive.   No one is forced to heed the warning beam of a lighthouse.  Eyes can be shut, ears can be covered.  Refusing to choose is a choice, too.

Choice is so fundamental to being human that all our mythology and learning sagas are about it (the Garden of Eden being one of the more familiar examples) and most of our best music embodies it, because the choice offered by the Universe is always basically the same:  To remain the same or to open to enlightenment, to allow self to receive the message of What Is.

Magick in music
Some artists have chosen to be messengers.  Receive, transmit:  That's what an artist who is a messenger does.  The message is a truth that the artist chooses - be it a statement about the human condition (most common) or about the infinite.  In choosing to convey the What Is message an artist's job isn't to tell the Universe what to transmit, it isn't even to provide meaning to the message - it is simply to translate the message as captured into whatever medium the messenger speaks with:  Words, paint, stone, music.

Magick is what happens when the artist has got it right.  Whether or not you hear the Magick in music is not simply about whether the artist has got it right, though - it's about your choice to open or not to the message of What Is.

Do with that what you will.

♪

YouTube Playlist - Do What Thou Wilt 

♫

Individual songs

1967 Jimmy Page/Yardbirds, White Summer (studio) Little Games

1969 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin, White Summer/Black Mountain Side (studio) Album: Coda

1969 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin, White Summer/Black Mountain Side (live) Fillmore West San Francisco January 10, 1969

1969 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin, White Summer/Black Mountain Side (live) L'Olympia Paris, 10/10/69

1970 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin, White Summer/Black Mountain Side (live) Royal Albert Hall

1970 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin, White Summer/Black Mountain Side (live) Julie Felix show April 26

1977 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin, White Summer/Black Mountain Side (live) Cleveland, Ohio - April 27, 1977

1979 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin, White Summer/Black Mountain Side (live) Knebworth

1993 Page & Coverdale, White Summer/Black Mountain Side (live) Osaka Coverdale/Page Dec 20 1993

Kashmir Deja Vu

The more things change, the more they stay the same. 

                                      ~Alphonse Karr (1808-90)

Mage Music 27

The language of thought is language of words, but the language of experience is language made of music. Music immerses the listener in states of being.  Words tell stories, music lives the story.

Music infused with Magick raises the stakes. Truths can be conveyed that have never been imagined before, and can blast open even the most tightly protected hearts.  

Kashmir has brought forth Magick through music over and over again.  Time changes all, yet the essence of Kashmir is always the same. 

I can take you there, Robert Plant sings. Where? 

Kashmir is the experience of the essence of Led Zeppelin. Kashmir shares the heart and soul of a place that does not exactly exist yet you recognize. The language of music infused with Magick invokes the fifth element that Jimmy Page, Mage Musician, created with the desire, intention and ritual of Magick.

Let it take you there.

♪

Please forgive the brevity of this Mage Music post - life happens!

♫

YouTube Playlist - Kashmir Déjà Vu 

Individual songs

1975 Led Zeppelin, Kashmir (studio) Album: Physical Graffiti 

1975 Led Zeppelin, Kashmir (live) Madison Square Garden 02-12-75 

1975 Led Zeppelin,  Kashmir (live) Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada 3-19-5

1975 Led Zeppelin, Kashmir (live) LA Forum 3-27-75

1975 Led Zeppelin, Kashmir (live) Earls Court 5-24-75

1977 Led Zeppelin, Kashmir (live) MSG 06-07-77

1979 Led Zeppelin, Kashmir (live) Knebworth 1979

1995 Page & Plant, Kashmir (live) Irvine Meadows, Irvine California, 10-03-95

2007 Led Zeppelin/Jason Bonham, Kashmir (live) O2

Jimmy Page NEWS: Remastering back catalog

Peter Mensch, the manager of LED ZEPPELIN guitarist Jimmy Page, told the U.K.'s Sunday Times that the legendary axeman is holed up in a west London studio "remastering every LED ZEPPELIN LP."   More....

Alchemy: Led Into Gold (Part 5) Jimmy Page in the 21st Century

…from a juggernaut to a dragonfly in a moment...
~ Roger Taylor (Queen) UK Hall of Fame Induction of Led Zeppelin

Mage Music 26

Jimmy Page has been criticized for appearing to back off from music after the turn of this century, particularly compared to Led Zeppelin band mate Robert Plant, who was putting out albums and touring. That appearance would, of course, only be true if Mr. Page was simply a rock guitarist - but of course he is so much more than that: Besides the private and personal inner world of Mage, beyond composer and performer of music that is his public face, Jimmy Page has also always been the complete artist. Arranger, producer, engineer, dreamer - Mr. Page’s vision encompasses a complete experience, whether it be song, show, album, band or career.  Jimmy Page's interests are widespread, his passion is for perfection in all areas of his creations; given Mr. Page's well-known compulsion for perfection of detail, anything he produced would have to be hands-on, not just something he signed off on.

Add ingredients and mix well
Jimmy Page continued to keep his performance skills - and his public presence - honed by appearances with other musicians from 2000 on, while simultaneously working on other projects that required his time and attention. He produced the Led Zeppelin DVD of 2003 (choice concert material from over the years) and also in 2003 How the West Was Won (the "ideal" 1972 Led Zeppelin concert complied from the Los Angeles Forum and Long Beach Arena shows of that year). In 2007 Mothership was released, as was the remastered Led Zeppelin: The Song Remains the Same. During this time Jimmy Page also continued his work on behalf of two Brazilian charities dedicated to the welfare of the poverty-stricken children of Brazil, and was involved with more events (including ceremonies in which he received and presented awards) outside of performing music than most people are aware of - all of which required, and benefited from, Jimmy Page’s personal touch.

The biggie of 2007, of course, was the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert, better known as the Led Zeppelin O2 reunion. Not quite a reunion without John Bonham, of course, but Bonzo’s son Jason seemed to channel his father, allowing the three surviving members of the band to definitively demonstrate that the Led Zeppelin legacy was not only alive but vitally alive, and the talents of the Mage Musician still as powerful as ever.

Cook until done, serve when ready
It is instructive to note that Jimmy Page has always been committed to "everything in its own time - and only in its own time”.  This may explain why, in January of 2010 when asked about a DVD of the show, Mr. Page said, "I can't give you an answer on that” - yet we now know that just a year later he was involved in production of the movie, surely a task that was not spur of the moment. It has been made quite clear in the 2012 press conferences that prefaced the Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day movie release that Led Zeppelin would not be reuniting to tour as a band again. The full reasons for this will likely be revealed – if ever – well in the future, when the time is considered right and not a moment before.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Page forged on with new projects, including the 2008 Beijing Olympics closing ceremony (Whole Lotta Love with Leona Lewis), the It Might Get Loud documentary, a Genesis Publications limited-edition photo autobiography Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page, and a website at jimmypage.com, the latter two being fully controlled by Mr. Page, focused and concerned, as always, with the details.

Soul food
Ironically, the more Jimmy Page has seemed to open up to the world, the more mysterious he has become. While it is true that he has made his work more accessible and available, and while he has been willing to talk more about the music in terms of how it was done, the life of Jimmy Page as expressed by Jimmy Page remains limited to his life as a musician. Brad Tolinski says in his just published book, Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page, that Mr. Page considers creating music to be a transcendental endeavor.

We know this to be true by the music we hear; by his preference, however, the inner life of the Mage Musician may only be revealed through his work, not through words.  In 2011, Mr. Page released a sweet but fleeting solo piece on his website, called Summer's Day. His comment about it was simply:  "I had a day off."

♪

(Note: Led Zeppelin will be presented with an award for lifetime achievement in the performing arts on December 1, 2012. The 35th Kennedy Center Honors medals will be presented at a dinner at the State Department and will be followed the next day by a reception at the White House and a performance at the Kennedy Center. The event will be taped for a television broadcast on Dec. 26 at 9 p.m. on CBS. It is unknown at this time whether the Led Zeppelin/Jason Bonham band will perform.) 

♫

YouTube Playlist - Alchemy: Led Into Gold (Part 5)
Individual songs


2001 Page & Fred Durst & Les Scantlin, Thank You (live) MTV Europe Video Music Awards

2001 Page & Plant, Baby Let's Play House (live) Montreux Jazz Festival

2002 Jimmy Page, Dazed and Confused (live) with Paul Weller band, Feb 09, 2002 Royal Albert Hall, Children's Cancer Trust benefit

2005 Jimmy Page, Whole Lotta Love (live) NY Stock Exchange

2006  Led Zeppelin UK Hall of Fame Induction by Roger Taylor of Queen  (live)

2007 Led Zeppelin/Jason Bonham, Nobody's Fault But Mine (live) O2 Concert

2008 Jimmy Page, Kashmir (live) Kashmir chords

2008 Page, Jones & Foo Fighters, Rock and Roll (live) Wembley Stadium

2011 Jimmy Page & Donovan, Sunshine Superman (live) Royal Albert Hall

2011 Jimmy Page & Roy Harper, The Same Old Rock (live) Royal Festival Hall Onstage at 2:40

2011 Jimmy Page, Summer's Day (studio) unk - featured on JimmyPage.com 08/12/11

Alchemy: Led Into Gold (Part 4) The 1990s

The colours, the textures, the tones; the blood, the flesh, the bones ...

                    ~ Jimmy Page, jimmypage.com On This Day 14 October 1994

Mage Music 25

Alchemy is not an overnight-wonder kind of Magick. It is a process of methodical experimentation that takes time to not only perform – which is actually the last step in the process - but to think, design, experiment, analyze and rethink, and then reattempt the Work - repeating until the Magick has created the new reality. Alchemy is not a Magick for the weak-willed or undisciplined. It does not provide immediate gratification. It is unforgiving: Either it is performed perfectly or there is no Magick at all. “Almost” is not nearly enough for Alchemy.

Yoda: "Do or do not. There is no try."

Jimmy Page seemed to come out of the 1980s with a renewed enthusiasm for reincarnating himself. Mr. Page appeared onstage with numerous bands during that time, essentially auditioning while having a good time.

He was seeking a combination of musical components that would recreate or reinvent the Magick he had found so successfully with Led Zeppelin. The problem, of course, was that accomplished musicians of the caliber of Mr. Page would be already involved with established bands and not interested or able to experiment outside their comfort zones. These musical egos wouldn't want to have their own music challenged by proximity of a Master Mage who wasn't looking for musicians to musically follow or to be followed by, but to collaboratively engage in the a creative Magickal process that follows the Mage's vision.

It takes 100% to be successful in Magick. Trying doesn't make it – doing is all that counts. Of course, Yoda knew that just any old action – the “do” part – doesn't raise a spaceship out of the swamp; it has to be the perfect action. And the only real way to learn the perfect action is by trying - experimenting, testing, over and over and over until the perfect action is discovered - and then there is no more “try”. Luke had already received training, he knew what to do. He’d fallen into try and Yoda knew that. Believe me; even Yoda didn't raise a spaceship the first time he made the attempt.

And Jimmy Page wouldn't find the perfect components for post-Zeppelin musical Magick right away, either.

You can never go back 

In a 1993 MTV Most Wanted interview, Jimmy Page said of David Coverdale: "…within the creative side.... he's as passionate about the music as I am.” Coverdale had decided to retire, but the invitation to work with Jimmy Page was a rare opportunity not to be ignored and Coverdale tossed thoughts of retirement out the window.

In that same interview, Mr. Page admitted he had been totally uninspired prior to that point. The Whitesnake singer was a mature and accomplished musician whose abilities could help break Mr. Page out of his musical (and Magickal) stasis. Jimmy Page’s need was for artistic co-creators, strong musicians who would contribute to the music and thereby the Magickal process yet who would submit to the Mage’s Magickal vision.  David Coverdale was not only available, but qualified. 

“It was nice to present ideas - some pretty off the wall, chord sequences and things,” Jimmy Page said. “David would get an immediate grasp on them, and come in exactly with the right emotional factor, the right passionate factor.”

The subtext, given the post-Zep work Jimmy Page had done by that point with Robert Plant, was that the Page/Plant collaboration wasn't a viable solution. After David Coverdale took his musical rejuvenation back to Whitesnake, the disharmony of the musical goals of the two former band mates of Led Zeppelin became obvious. This is not surprising - Robert Plant had been going his own way musically for more than a decade. His voice and his musical vision had changed. Performing reworked versions of Zeppelin classics within Jimmy Page’s vision was no longer compelling to Mr. Plant - as the mid-1990s Page/Plant musical product clearly shows.

If nothing else demonstrates the impossibility of recreating successful alchemy with changed components, it is the music of Page and Plant in 1990 and in the subsequent No Quarter years. They couldn't go back. It couldn't be Led Zeppelin, and even if it was good music it wasn't Magickal. As Robert Plant put more of himself into the music, Jimmy Page increasingly seemed to fade. He seemed be in a holding pattern, an accompanist rather than a creator. By 1995 Kashmir had changed so much from the original vision that none of the Magick was left.

Change happens

Whether you want it to or not, nothing stays the same. The alchemist must make constant, if minute, changes in the process to account for every factor that is no longer the same as it was the last time the process was performed. The second round of Page/Plant collaboration that resulted in Walking Into Clarksdale revealed the beginnings of Jimmy Page’s finding his Magickal power again.

Sometimes, however, it pays to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Sometimes it takes radical change to forge ahead.  Jimmy Page had the desire and the will to change and so rather stay with something good musically but not pushing the Magickal envelope enough, the quest continued.

Although many fans decried the Page/Puff Daddy partnership, we know that Jimmy Page has been attracted to working with soundtracks in the past.  And although the musical presence of Mr. Page in this version of Kashmir is not obvious, the chance to play with a visual component adds a new twist to the Work - there is a strange scent of Magick to it. Kashmir and Godzilla? Who could have imagined it, yet it seems to fit its purpose.

Ultimately, even when a Mage is in a place that feels wrong, with sufficient desire and intention he will return to what feels right if he will allow the Magick to lead him. Although Jimmy Page continued to experiment with new partnerships into the next decade, the most Magickally touched of the Work still rested in the Music Mage himself. Behold the Master performing Domino: Rhythm and the Magick through the voice of a guitar. The Force was with him.

♫ 

♪ 

Future posts:

Led Into Gold (Part 5) Jimmy Page in the 2000s
The Chicken/Egg quandary (the neurophysics of music)

♫ 

YouTube Playlist - Alchemy: Led Into Gold (Part 4) Jimmy Page in the 1990s

Individual songs

1990 Page & Plant, Wearing & Tearing (live) Knebworth
1993 Page & Coverdale, Absolution Blues (studio) Album: Coverdale/Page
1994 Page & Plant, Kashmir (live) No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded with the London Metropolitan Orchestra & Hossam Ramzy Ensemble
1995 Page & Plant, Kashmir (live) Irvine Meadows, Irvine California, 3 October 1995
1995 Page & Plant, Thank You (live) Irvine Meadows, Irvine California, 3 October 1995
1996 Page & Plant, Thank You (live) Japan
1998 Page & Puff Daddy, Come With Me (Kashmir) Soundtrack, Godzilla
1998 Page & Plant, Whiskey From The Glass (studio) Album: Walking Into Clarksdale
1999 Page & The Black Crowes, What Is And What Should Never Be (live) US Tour
1999 Jimmy Page, Dazed and Confused (live) NetAid
1999 Jimmy Page, Domino (live) NetAid