Note: Updated noonish, 10/15/15
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| 1994 15 October On This Day Page & Plant press conference, Paris |
- 1974 Jimmy Page records Scarlet at Island Records (unreleased song)
- 1994 Page & Plant – press conference, Paris at Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione
- 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour – Detroit at Palace of Auburn Hills
- 2012 Jimmy Page – Tokyo, Celebration Day movie premiere
The elusive Scarlet. There's some confusion about the origins of this never-released song and perhaps who's song it is: Jimmy Page's or the Rolling Stones'?
What we do know is that Jimmy Page, Keith Richards (yes, the same Keith Richards who doesn't love Jimmy Page's music these days), Ian Stewart (the "Stu" of Boogie With Stu), Rick Grech and Bruce
Rowland recorded a song on this day in 1974 that is called Scarlet.
Rick Grech (1946-1991), a bassist and violinist, had been wit Eric Clapton's one-shot band, Blind Faith, in 1969 (with Steve Winwood and Ginger Baker). He was later with Traffic and then performed with various groups that did or did not put out albums but that were the movers and shakers of the music world at that time.
Drummer and songwriter Bruce Rowland (1971-2015), was best known for his work with The Grease Band (Joe Cocker's backing band) and Fairport Convention, and drummed for Ronnie Lane.
In Cameron Crowe's famous interview of 1975 for Rolling Stone, Jimmy Page said about Scarlet, "It was Rick Grech, Keith and me doing a number called "Scarlet." I can't remember the drummer. It sounded very similar in style and mood to those Blonde on Blonde tracks. It was great, really good. We stayed up all night and went down to Island Studios where Keith put some reggae guitars over one section. I just put some solos on it, but it was eight in the morning of the next day before I did that."
The "staying up all night" took place at Ron Wood's house, The Wick (the house is currently owned by Pete Townshend). Island Studios is where Led Zeppelin IV was recorded in 1970. Jimmy Page would know the place well. An Ian Stewart blogger says the recording took place at Olympic Studios, but every other source supports Island Studios. I do wonder, though, why they didn't just record it at The Wick, since Ron Wood had built a studio in the basement where he recorded his two solo albums, and where the Stones' single version of It's Only Rock 'n Roll was originally recorded. A fascinating point of Jimmy Page's history that we likely will never know the actual facts of.
But the recording studio isn't what we really want to know about. What we want to know is where, oh where, is Scarlet today? Who's got the tape, who's got the rights? Has Jimmy Page's daughter, for whom the song was named, ever gotten to listen to it?
Will we ever get to hear it?
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| 1994 Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, Paris press conference |
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| 1994 Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, Paris press conference |
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| 2012 "Mr. Jimmy" Sakurai and the Original |
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| 2012 Jimmy Page, Tokyo, for Celebration Day movie premiere (Ross Halfin photo) |
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Sorry, no playlist today.
