On This Day 24 January

Smashed up but not beaten down

2009 24 January On This Day Jimmy Page visiting Myanmar

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Adelaide, Australia at Centennial Hall
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Boston, MA at Boston Tea Party (day 2 of 4)
• 1970 Led Zeppelin - Leeds, England at University of Leeds, The Refectory
• 1975 Led Zeppelin - Richfield, OH at Richfield Coliseum 

1969 jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin Boston Tea Party

1970 Led Zeppelin Leeds University

1970 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin Leeds University

1975:
Jimmy Page was playing with 3 fret fingers, having slammed his ring finger in a train door in England prior to leaving for the US Tour, breaking the tip.  He was getting used to his new technique by this point, although Dazed and Confused had been dropped from the setlist because of the injury.  That song was next performed at MSG on 03 February.

1976: 
Led Zeppelin was scheduled for a show at the Rose Bowl that had been rescheduled from September due to Robert Plant’s car accident.  The recovery took longer than  anticipated, so this and other shows through the middle of March were rescheduled to later dates or, like the Rose Bowl stadium gig, cancelled.

2009 Jimmy Page passport stamp

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♪  Rock And Roll (Led Zeppelin, Richfield OH 1975) YouTube
♪  In My Time of Dying (Led Zeppelin, Richfield OH 1975) YouTube
♪  The Song Remains the Same - Led Zeppelin, Richfield OH 1975) YouTube
♪  Trampled Under Foot - Led Zeppelin, Richfield OH 1975) YouTube

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

On This Day 23 January

When "The Tea Party" meant something different than it does today

1969 23 January & 1996 23 January On This Day

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Sydney, Australia at Sydney Stadium (day 2, 2 sets)
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Boston, MA. at Boston Tea Party (day 1 of 4)
• 1996 Page & Plant - Unledded Tour at Vina del Mar,Chile at Estadio Sausalito
• 2008 Jimmy Page with Jack White & The Edge - Burbank,CA at Warner Brothers Studio to record “The Summit” scenes for It Might Get Loud 

1969: 

Today was the first of four shows at the Boston Tea Party.  This set was only 40 minutes because of equipment problems.  The On This Day photo (above) is from Led Zeppelin's return to the Boston Tea Party in May, not from the January shows.

1969 January Led Zeppelin Boston Tea Party

1969 January Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin Boston Tea Party

2008:
"There's always that point when it might happen to you, when you're too old to pick the guitar up. And we're just trying to keep that day far, far away, and out of sight."
~ Jimmy Page, It Might Get Loud

Thankfully Jimmy Page has not at that point yet.

2013 Rolling Stone Germany article "The Last Magician" (Ross Halfin photo)

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♪  It Might Get Loud Premiere (Black Tree TV coverage, 2009) YouTube
♪  Full set (Page & Plant, Chile 1996) YouTube

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

On This Day 22 January

1973 22 January On This Day Led Zeppelin at Southampton University

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Sydney, Australia at Sydney Stadium
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - Southampton,UK at Southampton University
• 1975 Led Zeppelin - Chicago, IL. at Chicago Stadium (day 3 of 3)

1971:
Note that the source for the one minute intro to Four Sticks (link below), with John Bonham's setting up the timing, may have been from a session at Headley Grange between 1970 December and 1971 January or from the 1971 February sessions at Island Studios in London.  Rumor has it that this and other outtakes were found in trash.

1973 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at soundcheck, Southampton University

1973 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at Southampton University

1973 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at Southampton University

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♪  Four Sticks / intro only (Led Zeppelin, rehearsal 1971) YouTube
♪  Dancing Days (Led Zeppelin, Southampton 1973) YouTube
♪  Full set (Led Zeppelin, Southampton 1973) YouTube

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

On This Day 21 January

Wanton music.  More, please.

1967 21 January Yardbirds at Sydney Stadium

1973 Led Zeppelin, Southampton England

1975 Robert Plant & Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at Chicago Stadium

1975 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at Chicago Stadium

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♪  The Wanton Song ((Led Zeppelin, Chicago 21 January 1975) YouTube
♪   No Quarter (Led Zeppelin, Chicago 21 January 1975) YouTube

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

On This Day 20 January

What a voice.

1964 20 January On This Day Rocks The House by Etta James
Audio: Baby What You Want Me To Do SoundCloud

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Wheaton, MD at Wheaton Youth Center (unconfirmed rumor)
• 1975 Led Zeppelin - Chicago, IL at Chicago Stadium
• 1996 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - San Paulo, Brazil at Pacaembu Stadium

2012:
Before there was Janis, there was Etta.

The legendary Etta James was a musician Jimmy Page could admire for many reasons.  A hell-raiser who wasn't afraid to sing about sex in a period when the Beatles were still just wanting to hold hands, Ms. James wasn't afraid to tackle music and life in its fullest.

"The bad girls ... had the look that I liked," she wrote in her 1995 autobiography, Rage to Survive. ''I wanted to be rare, I wanted to be noticed, I wanted to be exotic as a Cotton Club chorus girl, and I wanted to be obvious as the most flamboyant hooker on the street. I just wanted to be."

She is remembered as a blues singer, but Etta James wasn't afraid to work in many musical genres, from gospel to R&B, and from jazz to ballads. She might have been a "bad girl", but her At Last has been used by many a bride walking down the aisle.

Brian Ray (a session musician and Paul McCartney's bass player) recalls Etta James at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1975.

"When I get there the band they got together was Rick Wakeman [Yes] on keyboards, John Paul Jones [Led Zeppelin] on bass, David “Fathead” Newman and “Pony” Poindexter on horns. I go to rehearsal and I’m just a kid, I didn’t know what I needed to do. I knew the material so I’m teaching them what I know and it’s coming together well, and in walks Jimmy Page and Robert Plant [Led Zeppelin]. They listened to a few songs and then Jimmy Page says “I feel like I’ve known you before, man. Like maybe in another life,” so I’m having an Aleister Crowley discussion with Jimmy Page, and they took me out to dinner in a chalet up in the Alps near Montreux."
~ Brian Ray, interview 2009

In 1984, coming back from hard times due to heroin abuse, Ms. James sang the national anthem at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, boosting her return to music. She was inducted into the Rock Hall in 1993, was awarded Grammys in 2003 and 2004.  She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Etta James died on this day in 2012.

1975 Led Zeppelin at Chicago Stadium

1975 Led Zeppelin at Chicago Stadium

1996 Page & Plant,  São Paulo Brazil

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♪  Baby What You Want Me To Do (Etta James, Rocks the House 1964) YouTube
♪  I'd Rather Be Blind (Etta James feat. John Paul Jones bass, Montreux 1975) DailyMotion
♪  When the Levee Breaks (Led Zeppelin Chicago 1975) YouTube
♪  Full set (Page & Plant, Hollywood Rock São Paulo, 1996) YouTube

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

On This Day 19 January

2001 19 January On This Day Jimmy Page attends Iron Maiden show in Rio

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Detroit, Michigan at Grande Ballroom (day 3 of 3)

1969:
Apropos of nothing, here are some excerpts from a June 1969 Guitar Player article on Jimmy Page I came across on Beat Patrol blog.

“Led Zeppelin’s music never duplicates itself,” [Jimmy Page] insists. “We might use the same pattern, but it’s always changing. By now a tune may be entirely different from when we first started. The only thing which will remain the same is the first couple of verses. Although we’ve got cues when we cut in, the idea is to get as much spontaneity as possible. But to get yourself out of trouble, you’ve got certain keys you can use to come in. Otherwise it can be chaotic. Usually we just start the song off and then go in different tangents, change it four or five times, and then come back to the original song.”

Jimmy wouldn’t call what they do during rehearsal a practice. “We jam,” he says. “Once we’ve got a number, everything is happy, but getting there is another thing. That is why it is so easy using an old blues number. You know it, and then you go on from there. I think most groups must have the same trouble.

“How original our work is depends upon how you want to classify it. You might say it’s 80% original if you want to exclude the words. In fact, it would be 90% original, because our numbers would be ten or fifteen minutes whereas the original number would only be three minutes long. So basically we are making it up all the time.”

Sounds like something Jimmy Page could say today.

2001 Jimmy Page and Iron Maiden auctioning autographed guitar

2001 Jimmy Page & guitarist/photographer Jimmy Appudurai-chua

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

On This Day 18 January

Everybody needs some Jimmy Page

1969 18 January On This Day Led Zeppelin at Grande Ballroom, Detroit

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Detroit, Michigan at Grande Ballroom
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - Bradford, England at Bradford St. George's Hall
• 1975 Led Zeppelin - Bloomington, Minnesota at Metropolitan Sports Center

1969 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin, Detroit

1975:
"Page has developed into an energetic, exciting performer, prancing about and exchanging knowing smiles with Plant while he tosses out a succession of stupendous solos, each more incredible than the one before."
~Free Press, 23 January 1975

1975 Led Zeppelin at Bloomington, Minnesota

1975 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at Bloomington, Minnesota

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♪  Everybody Needs Somebody To Love (Led Zeppelin, Bradford UK 1973) YouTube

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