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