On this day 12 August

It was the summer of our smiles

12 August On This Day, photo taken at Jimmy Page's Plumpton Place house

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Monticello, IN at Indiana Beach Ballroom -and- Hamilton, IN at Cold Spring Resort
• 1967 The Yardbirds - Holyoke, MA at Mountain Lake Ballroom
• 2000 Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes - Mesa AZ 

Plumpton Place, restored by Sir Edwin Lutyens (designer and builder of a part of New Delhi in India), is an Elizabethan manor house in Plumpton village, East Sussex, England. The original structures on the property were constructed in the mid-16th century. The separate entrance is made of two cottages connected by a porch with a long path leading to the main house.  The manor house has six bedrooms, five en-suite bathrooms, a tennis court and its own moat.  Jimmy Page bought the house in 1972 and sold it ten years later.  His studio was located on the upper floor level.

1973 Jimmy Page in his Plumpton Place house studio

Plumpton Place house is surrounded by a moat

For your laid-back summer acoustical listening pleasure:

♪ Summer's Day (Jimmy Page) YouTube
♪ Only The Black Rose (Jimmy Page) Soundcloud
♪ Black Mountain Side (Jimmy Page, Julie Felix show 1970) YouTube

On This Day 22 May

Awards, accolades and just plain fine music on this day.

2006 22 May On This Day Led Zeppelin receive Polar Music Prize

2006 22 May On This Day Led Zeppelin receive Polar Music Prize

• 1967 Yardbirds - London at BBC Radio
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - San Antonio TX at HemisFair Convention Center Arena
• 1977 Led Zeppelin - Fort Worth TX at Tarrant County Convention Center
• 1985 The Firm – London at Wembley Arena
• 1986 The Firm - Inglewood CA at The Forum
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded North American Tour - Landover MD at Air Arena 
• 1998 Page & Plant North American Tour - Miami FL at Miami Arena
• 2006 Led Zeppelin receive Polar Music Prize
• 2014 Jimmy Page attends the Ivor Novello Awards at The Grosvenor House Hotel in London, England.

1973 Led Zeppelin - San Antonio Photo: Carl Dunn

1973 Led Zeppelin - San Antonio Photo: Carl Dunn

1985 Jimmy Page with The Firm at Wembley 

The Times review of The Firm – 22 May 1985 London at Wembley Arena

2006:
The Polar Music Prize was founded in 1989 by Stig ”Stikkan” Anderson, publisher, lyricist and manager of ABBA.  The prize was named for Anderson´s record label, Polar Music. The Polar Music Prize is one of the most prestigious and unique music prizes in the world, awarded to individuals, groups and institutions in recognition of exceptional achievements.

Led Zeppelin recorded In Through The Out Door at Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden November - December 1978.

2014 Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck at Beck's Ivor Novello Award  Photo: Dave J Hogan

♪

♪ Dazed and Confused (The Yardbirds 1967) YouTube
♪ 1977 White Summer/Black Mountain Side (Led Zeppelin, Fort Worth 1977) YouTube
♪  Full set (Page & Plant, Miami 1998) YouTube
♫ Jimmy Page & Jeff Beck PRS interview, Ivor Novello Award


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

On This Day 12 August

It is the summer of our smiles

12 August On This Day, photo taken at Jimmy Page's Plumpton Place house

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Monticello, IN at Indiana Beach Ballroom -and- Hamilton, IN at Cold Spring Resort
• 1967 The Yardbirds - Holyoke, MA at Mountain Lake Ballroom
• 2000 Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes - Mesa AZ 

Plumpton Place, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens (designer and builder of a part of New Delhi in India), is an Elizabethan manor house in Plumpton village, East Sussex, England. The original structures on the property were constructed in the mid-16th century. The separate entrance is made of two cottages connected by a porch with a long path leading to the main house.  The manor house has six bedrooms, five en-suite bathrooms, a tennis court and its own moat.  Jimmy Page bought the house in 1972 and sold it ten years later.  His studio was located on the upper floor level.

1973 Jimmy Page in his Plumpton Place house studio

Plumpton Place house is surrounded by a moat

For your laid-back summer acoustical listening pleasure:

♪ Summer's Day (Jimmy Page) YouTube
♪ Only The Black Rose (Jimmy Page) Soundcloud
♪ Black Mountain Side (Jimmy Page, Julie Felix show 1970) YouTube

On This Day 22 May

Awards, accolades and just plain fine music on this day.

2006 22 May On This Day Led Zeppelin receive Polar Music Prize

 

2006 22 May On This Day Led Zeppelin receive Polar Music Prize

The Polar Music Prize was founded in 1989 by Stig ”Stikkan” Anderson, publisher, lyricist and manager of ABBA.  The prize was named for Anderson´s record label, Polar Music. The Polar Music Prize is one of the most prestigious and unique music prizes in the world, awarded to individuals, groups and institutions in recognition of exceptional achievements.

Led Zeppelin recorded In Through The Out Door at Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden November - December 1978.

• 1967 Yardbirds - London, England at BBC Radio
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - San Antonio, Texas at HemisFair Convention Center Arena
• 1977 Led Zeppelin - Fort Worth TX US at Tarrant County Convention Center
• 1985 The Firm – London at Wembley Arena
• 1986 The Firm - Inglewood, California at The Forum
• 1995 Page & Plant (Unledded North American Tour), Landover MD at Air Arena 
• 1998 Page & Plant (North American Tour) - Miami, FL at Miami Arena
• 2006 22 May On This Day Led Zeppelin receive Polar Music Prize
• 2014 Jimmy Page attends the Ivor Novello Awards at The Grosvenor House Hotel in London, England.

♪ 1977 White Summer/Black Mountain Side (Led Zeppelin - Fort Worth 1977) YouTube

1973 Led Zeppelin - San Antonio Photo: Carl Dunn

1973 Led Zeppelin - San Antonio Photo: Carl Dunn

1985 Jimmy Page with The Firm at Wembley 

The Times review of The Firm – 22 May 1985 London at Wembley Arena

2014 Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck at Beck's Ivor Novello Award  Photo: Dave J Hogan

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

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.

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