Showing posts with label In The Evening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label In The Evening. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

On This Day 20 June

 Dr. Rock God.

2008 20 June On This Day Honorary Doctorate from University of Surrey
  • 1969 Led Zeppelin - Newcastle upon Tyne, England at Newcastle City Hall
  • 1980 Led Zeppelin - Brussels, Belgium at Vorst Nationaal
  • 2008 20 June On This Day Honorary Doctorate from University of Surrey

2008 Jimmy Page at Guildford Cathedral
after receiving an Honorary Doctorate from the University o f Surrey

1969

1980


1980 Led Zeppelin Tour Over Europe, Brussels (Photo Mark Staples)

Pat's Delight was named for John Bonham's wife Pat. The song evolved into Moby Dick, which was named by Jason Bonham, and later morphed into Over The Top. Jimmy Page's guitar riffs changed for the various versions as well. 



THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS - Music will be added at another time.  Thank you for your patience.

Sunday, June 18, 2023

On This Day 18 June

 Fans of Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin are still willing to travel to other countries to hear the music.  


1965 18 June On This Day Jimmy Page attends John Mayall and Bluesbreakers concert,
jams with Eric Clapton at home
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, a British blues band, was founded by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist John Mayall.  In its on-again-off-again history, there have been more than 100 different combinations of musicians performing under that name. Mayall started the band in 1963 and that iteration, which lasted until 1967, included Eric Clapton from April to August 1965 and November 1965 to July 1966.  

In a 2013  interview John Mayall was asked about recording the single I’m Your Witchdoctorproduced by Jimmy Page: 
Q:  Do you have any memories from this time of Jimmy?
Mayall: Not really, I mean I had known him before we did that because he used to play at The Marquee Club in a trio situation so I ended up seeing him quite a few times but he was just one of the guys really.
If I had been the interviewer I'd have wanted to know if Mayall had any regrets about not working more with Jimmy Page.  Of course, Jimmy Page shot into the musical stratosphere so quickly after then that everyone who wasn't with him was left far, far behind.

  • 1965 18 June On This Day Jimmy Page attends John Mayall and Bluesbreakers concert, jams with Eric Clapton at home
  • 1967 The Yardbirds - London, England at Saville Theatre
  • 1972 Led Zeppelin - Seattle, WA at Seattle Center Coliseum
  • 1980 Led Zeppelin - Cologne (Köln), Germany at Köln Sporthalle
  • 1995 Page & Plant - Unledded Tour - Luneburg, Germany at New Music Festival

The 1972 Seattle Led Zeppelin concert was the concert that wasn't supposed to happen.  It wasn't the band's fault. Originally scheduled for Vancouver BC, Canadian authorities decided to not grant Led Zeppelin a license to perform before the band even got a chance, due to previous troublemakers at other bands' shows.

Led Zeppelin fans ended up being bused down to Seattle for the show.
1972 Led Zeppelin show is moved from one country
to another and fans show up anyway
1980 Jimmy Page & Dave Lewis


2005 Jimmy Page meets Chris Cornell for the first time.
Good things have already resulted from this introduction.
We all wonder of there is more to come. (Photo Ross Halfin)

2005 Tommy Iommi and Jimmy Page on the way to Holland (Photo Ross Halfin)

A WORK IN PROGRESS - Music will be added on another day. Thank you for your patience.

Friday, March 11, 2016

On This Day 11 March

Whole lotta love for Led Zeppelin means gigantic venues

1971 11 March On This Day Led Zeppelin at Southampton University, England

  • 1970 Led Zeppelin - Hamburg, Germany at Hamburg Musikhalle (day 2)
  • 1971 Led Zeppelin - Southampton, England at University of Southampton, West Refectory
  • 1975 Led Zeppelin - Long Beach, CA at Long Beach Arena (day 1)
  • 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - New Orleans, LA at U.N.O. Lakefront Arena (day 2)

1971:
The "Back to the Clubs Tour" was less than a month (05 March - 01 April), but it wasn't an easy month for the band. The reasons were noble but the experience was less than so.

Before:
"The audiences were becoming bigger and bigger but moving further and further away. They became specks on the horizon and we were losing contact with people - those people who were responsible for lifting us off the ground in the early days. We are playing those clubs like the London Marquee for exactly the same amount as we did in the old days, as a 'thank you' to those promoters and the audiences alike. By doing this we will be able to tour the entire of Britain and not just those cities who are fortunate enough to contain large venues. We will establish contact with tour audience and re-energise on their reaction while they have a chance to see a group which the accepted tradition would be appearing only at high prices in large auditoriums."
~ Jimmy Page, Record Mirror, Feb. 1971

During:
In his book, Stairway to Heaven, Richard Cole quotes Jimmy Page as feeling less noble as they waited to go on stage at the Mayfair Ballroom in Newcastle, "Once you have played in the big places, these small clubs are murder. It's nice to be near the audiences, but you forget how small the dressing rooms are. At this point in our careers, I think we're entitled to more luxury than this."

Additionally, Led Zeppelin was just too famous by this time for a small club tour. Thousands of fans flocked to the venues but were shut out of the shows because there just was no room for them.

1971 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin, Southampton, England

1975 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin, Long Beach CA




♪  Full set (Led Zeppelin, Long Beach 11 March 1975) YouTube
♪  In The Evening (Page & Plant, New Orleans 11 March 1995) YouTube

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




Saturday, December 19, 2015

On This Day 19 December


1978 19 December On This Day In Through The Out Door at Polar Studios
  • 1968 Led Zeppelin - Exeter, England at Exeter Civic Hall
  • 1974 Jimmy Page & John Paul Jones encore with Bad Company & Duster Bennett - London, at Rainbow Theatre
  • 1986 Jimmy Page joins Robert Plant during Honeydrippers benefit show, Stourport at Civic Center


♪  In The Evening - Rough Mix (Led Zeppelin In Through The Out Door  Remastered) YouTube
♪  All My Love (Led Zeppelin, In Through The Out Door) YouTube
♪ I'm Gonna Crawl (Led Zeppelin, In Through The Out Door) YouTube

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

Sunday, November 15, 2015

On This Day 15 November

A day of rest across the years.  Or, if not rest, then at least out of the spotlight.
1978 15 November On This Day Jimmy Page producing In Through The Out Door at Polar Studios
Ozone Baby (audio)

  • 1966 The Yardbirds- Bowling Green, KY at University of Kentucky 
  • 1978 Jimmy Page at Polar Studios to produce In Through The Out Door 

1978:
Ozone Baby, Darlene, and Wearing and Tearing were recorded during the Polar Studio sessions. The tracks were not included on In Through The Out Door but appeared on 1982's Coda.

1979:
Led Zeppelin's eighth studio album was originally titled Look.  It was released as In Through The Out Door with album artwork designed by Hipgnosis. Both music and artwork reflect who Led Zeppelin really was at the time. Never, ever, predictable. Never, ever going to explain. 

Then and now: If you don't get it, you won't get it.

In Through The Out Door covers






♪  Ozone Baby (Led Zeppelin 1978 / 1982 / 2015) YouTube
♪  In The Evening / Rough Mix (Led Zeppelin, 1979 / 2015) YouTube



Sunday, August 2, 2015

On This Day 02 August

 Sometimes you just have to think about it a little harder.
1967 02 August The Yardbirds travel... but see more below
♪  Think About It (The Yardbirds) Soundcloud
  • 1967 The Yardbirds - Ellsworth, WI at Proche's Popular Ballroom
  • 1969 - Led Zeppelin - Albuquerque, NM at Civic Auditorium
1967:
Believe me, its easy to screw up dates when you're doing research and digging into old records. JimmyPage.com had posted this Yardbirds travel date originally as 1968, but this year corrected it to 1967 because The Yardbirds had split up in the early part of July.  

But even so, The Yardbirds would have been traveling to Ellsworth, Wisconsin for their gig that night rather than to Ann Arbor, where they were to perform on August 8, 1967.  

1969:
Phil, roadie, on the Albuquerque show (note that the creative spelling below is Phil's, not mine)

This most amazing band was, hands down, Led Zepplin. I was backstage helping out at first..... Vanilla Fudge was the main draw and the Zep of course. 1969.

We cleared the stage and their guys were pulling out the equipment and we went front row center. Pretty soon the curtains were moving, cause someone was trying to find the break so they could get through. Plant come out, says hello to everybody and says "Hi, I'm Robert Plant and we are Led Zepplin and we'd like to play some music for ya". The curtain opens and they go to it for about 1/2 hour. He says "that's the first side of our album . Here's the second side" They used to do an incredible riff where Paige would strum the lowest fret and Plant would match it exactly (I mean EXACTLY) in tone. They would go up the scale until Paige was leaning on the wah-wah pedal while sliding up and down and Plant keeping up with him the whole time. Never heard that matched before or since. Then Plant said " we are working on a second album, would you like to hear it?" Duh....... They played about four more songs and Plant said "That's all we got, thanks a lot".

1969 02 August Led Zeppelin in Albuquerque

1969 Led Zeppelin in Albuquerque

Because I don't have any music for you from the above dates, here are some links to In The Evening that I used in a previous Mage Music post to track the evolution of magic in the song, and I've added the rough mix from the In Through The Out Door remaster companion disc (I got mine, did you get yours?)

♪  In The Evening – Studio: Led Zeppelin In Through The Out Door – 1979 
♪  In The Evening – Live: Led Zeppelin Knebworth August 4 1979
♪  In The Evening – Live: Led Zeppelin Berlin July 7 1980
♪  In The Evening – Live: Page & Plant Glastonbury - June 25 1995
♪  In The Evening - Rough Mix (from remaster companion disc)

Saturday, June 20, 2015

On This Day 20 June

Dr. Rock God.
2008 20 June On This Day Honorary Doctorate from University of Surrey
  • 1969 Led Zeppelin - Newcastle upon Tyne, England at Newcastle City Hall
  • 1980 Led Zeppelin - Brussels, Belgium at Vorst Nationaal
  • 2008 20 June On This Day Honorary Doctorate from University of Surrey

2008 Jimmy Page at Guildford Cathedral
after receiving an Honorary Doctorate from the University o f Surrey

1969

1980


1980 Led Zeppelin Tour Over Europe, Brussels (Photo Mark Staples)

Pat's Delight was named for John Bonham's wife Pat. The song evolved into Moby Dick, which was named by Jason Bonham, and later morphed into Over The Top. Jimmy Page's guitar riffs changed for the various versions as well. 

♪ Pat’s Delight (Led Zeppelin, Newcastle City Hall, 1969) YouTube

Thursday, June 18, 2015

On This Day 18 June

Fans of Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin are still willing to travel to other countries to hear the music.  

1965 18 June On This Day Jimmy Page attends John Mayall and Bluesbreakers concert,
jams with Eric Clapton at home
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, a British blues band, was founded by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist John Mayall.  In its on-again-off-again history, there have been more than 100 different combinations of musicians performing under that name. Mayall started the band in 1963 and that iteration, which lasted until 1967, included Eric Clapton from April to August 1965 and November 1965 to July 1966.  

In a 2013  interview John Mayall was asked about recording the single I’m Your Witchdoctorproduced by Jimmy Page: 
Q:  Do you have any memories from this time of Jimmy?
Mayall: Not really, I mean I had known him before we did that because he used to play at The Marquee Club in a trio situation so I ended up seeing him quite a few times but he was just one of the guys really.
If I had been the interviewer I'd have wanted to know if Mayall had any regrets about not working more with Jimmy Page.  Of course, Jimmy Page shot into the musical stratosphere so quickly after then that everyone who wasn't with him was left far, far behind.

  • 1965 18 June On This Day Jimmy Page attends John Mayall and Bluesbreakers concert, jams with Eric Clapton at home
  • 1967 The Yardbirds - London, England at Saville Theatre
  • 1972 Led Zeppelin - Seattle, WA at Seattle Center Coliseum
  • 1980 Led Zeppelin - Cologne (Köln), Germany at Köln Sporthalle
  • 1995 Page & Plant - Unledded Tour - Luneburg, Germany at New Music Festival

The 1972 Seattle Led Zeppelin concert was the concert that wasn't supposed to happen.  It wasn't the band's fault. Originally scheduled for Vancouver BC, Canadian authorities decided to not grant Led Zeppelin a license to perform before the band even got a chance, due to previous troublemakers at other bands' shows.

Led Zeppelin fans ended up being bused down to Seattle for the show.
1972 Led Zeppelin show is moved from one country
to another and fans show up anyway

2005 Jimmy Page meets Chris Cornell for the first time.
Good things have already resulted from this introduction.
We all wonder of there is more to come. (Photo Ross Halfin)

2005 Tommy Iommi and Jimmy Page on the way to Holland (Photo Ross Halfin)

♪  Miles Road (Jimmy Page Eric Clapton 1965) Soundcloud
♪ I'm Your Witchdoctor (John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, prod. by Jimmy Page 1965) YouTube
♪  Intro announcement & LA Drone (Led Zeppelin, Seattle, 1972) YouTube
♪  LA Drone YouTube
♪  Since I've Been Loving You (Led Zeppelin, Seattle, 1972) YouTube
♪  In The Evening (Led Zeppelin, Cologne (Köln) Germany, 1980) YouTube
♪  In The Evening (Page & Plant, Luneburg Germany, 1995) YouTube



Saturday, September 22, 2012

Mage Music 21: The Devil Made Me Do It

Have sympathy for the devil, for he does not exist...

How many times have you read that rock & roll is connected with devil worship?  How many times have you read that Stairway to Heaven involves satanic backmasking?*   Black magic is scary, isn't it -  especially when it’s the music you love that is delivering the soul-eating content.  But, ahem…

I know this will break some hearts and maybe crush a few cherished beliefs (or fears), but the truth is that there is no such thing as Black Magick.  For that matter, there’s no such thing as White Magick, either.  I will wait while you wipe the tears from your eyes.

Magick Is Not 'Just Like Magic'
Quite early on I posted that Magick is not about stage shows or illusion, but rather is about transformation of a Mage’s personal reality through supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws.  The word “occult” means, among other things, “hidden”.  In the case of Magick - although a lot of people like to believe that this means secret - in fact it just refers to the fact that the unknowable of the infinite is hidden from finite human senses.  A Mage is a person who can access the normally unknowable through use of a process incorporating desire, focus and ritual.  No tricks, no illusions… just Reality.

How simple it would be if all a would-be Mage had to do was sell his/her soul to the devil to gain the power of transformation, but alas, it isn’t so.  In fact, Magick turns to seem an awful lot like <gasp> work.

Yes, Magick is Work
I’m fond of definitions because they help us to stay on the same page when we're trying to communicate.  So let’s start with the definition of work: "Activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result”.  This is, of course, a human-centric definition that includes not just the common tasks humans do in everyday life to bring home the bacon, but also the process and end result of an artist's or Mage's efforts (e.g. the work of Picasso or Beethoven, the Works of Aleister Crowley).  Not only that, but the word is used in physics to describe the transfer of energy in the known (to humans) universe - and in Magick it describes the same process in the hidden universe.

Work describes the process of change, regardless of what it is applied to.  Work requires energy - a basic law of the Universe that there is no way around.  It is also a law - and mystery - of the Universe, that although energy appears to be consumed, it is actually never used up.  It only changes form.  From the human-centric point of view of life on this planet it can be said that all things eat, all things are eaten.  Who's doing which matters to individuals involved, but the sum is no energy loss. It takes energy to live - one must eat to live, to live means to change (for example: repairing, replacing, growing cells), which means consuming energy.  Even the sun consumes energy as it burns its own gasses - but that energy is put out as heat and light.  No gain, no loss, just change.

You are there... somewhere
In metaphysical terms - Magick - work is the same.  The exchange of energies obeys the same laws of the Universe.  A Mage has the ability to affect how the energies change in the Universe, and thereby brings about change in the Mage's reality.  The core/central concept to Magick - and life - is that it is all transformation of energy.  In the Big Picture, the Universe knows that everyone who's eating is going to be eaten eventually so it doesn't ultimately matter much about the details.  So far, no devil involved here.


You Say Tomatoes, I say …

Bad boys are not evil boys. 

The notion of good and evil is a human one, used for convenience's sake so we can make sense of what each other is talking about.  These words are descriptions of our preferences, not about the actual properties of the things we’re describing.  A “good” thing is something a person has positive feelings about; a “bad” thing is something a person has negative feelings about.  Unfortunately, humans have a tendency to take the descriptors for their internal preferences and transfer them to external reality.  It doesn't make any difference.

A fact of life is that in a zero sum universe everything has a duality about it:  What’s good for one thing may be bad for another.  When a zebra is killed by a pride of lions, it’s “bad” for the zebra but “good” for the lions because they need to eat.  Nothing lives forever – death is not “bad”, it’s just something humans don’t happen to like very much, although studies of Near Death Experiences (NDEs) now challenge even that point of view.

Human preferences aside, the change from living to dead, from here to there, from young to old, from silence to guitar solo is ultimately just work, the change of form of energy.  When Mages change the nature of their own reality, that’s just work, too, even if we put a capital W on the word.  There is no law of the universe, like that of gravity (okay, okay, I know it's all theory) for good and evil.  Just look once more at that photo of our small, lonely planet Earth, then turn around and look at the next nebula over.  Human preferences only apply when there are humans present.  And thus while there is energy throughout the universe, there is no good or evil there.  That means that there is nothing intrinsically good or bad about a Mage's Work since Magick is a process for using the energy of the Universe, which itself is neither good nor bad – it just is.

Humans: Tool Users

What Mages or musicians or mathematicians plan to do with their work is something else entirely.  It’s all about intent, that is, why they are doing the work and what the desired outcome is.  A surgeon uses a knife to slice open a person to save a life; a murderer uses a knife to take a life.  The good or bad is not in the tool but in the intent of the tool user.  The gift of Lucifer was that of knowledge, symbolized by light.  We know Jimmy Page to be a deliberate and exacting musical artist - it can be no accident that he chose The Hermit, bearing light, to represent him in The Song Remains The Same. If this isn't a clear message about intent, then what is?

Intent is part of the Magickal process; the Mage’s intent is what determines the outcome – and it is up to the individual impacted by it to decide whether it is good or bad, black or white.  Devils?  Demons?  If they exist at all, they are the outcome of a Mage’s choice - not the source of the Magick.  Angels?  Fairies? Beauty, after all, is in the eye of the beholder.

And that, my friends, is why we all should have sympathy for the devil, for aside from human choice, there is no such thing.  Aside from human intention, there is no evil.  There is only energy of the Universe that Magickal processes use to perform work.  Whatever flavor of Magick it might appear to be, Magick is much, much more than the little labels humans give it.

[Note: Backmasking is a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backward to convey a subliminal message.  Ironically, Led Zeppelin isn't one of the groups listed as backmasking satanic content in Wikipedia’s list of same.  And even more ironically, the one song that is constantly cited for backmasking of satanic content everywhere else is Stairway to Heaven - the only song of Led Zeppelin's other than Houses of the Holy that has anything in its title containing spiritual words (good or evil).] 



Future post Hmmm.  I'm thinking maybe it's time to talk about alchemy.  But I might change my mind between now and next week.




This playlist: A little bit of naughty, then to heaven and beyond.

YouTube Playlist - The Devil Made Me Do It


Individual Songs 

1969  Led Zeppelin The Lemon Song (studio) Album: Led Zeppelin II

1975 Led Zeppelin Custard Pie (studio) Album: Physical Graffiti

1976 Led Zeppelin For Your Life (studio) Album: Presence

1977 Led Zeppelin In My Time Of Dying (live) Cleveland

1971 Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven (studio) Album: Led Zeppelin IV

1979 Led Zeppelin In The Evening (live) Knebworth August 4 1979  (Jimmy Page's every note here seems to be the cry of a living animal!)

1986 The Firm Dreaming (studio) Album: Mean Business (I'm not a Paul Rogers fan, but Jimmy Page's guitar work here is a nice close to this sequence of songs)


Saturday, June 30, 2012

Mage Music: The Sorcerer’s Apprentices Part 2


Mage Magic 08:  The Sorcerer’s Apprentices Part 2
In the time that has passed, each of the three [surviving members of Led Zeppelin] has continued to evolve musically, but not together.  They have each kept moving forward, but not on the same path.  They may somehow arrive in the same place, but their musical stories will not sound the same.

Today, only one of them retains the pure vision that drove Led Zeppelin, because it was his vision all along.  The question is, how can he now bring forth that vision to the world?”

The Question
Can one powerful mage-class musician, without apprentices or partners, be expected to bring forth a vision that in the past had taken the full partnership and musical strength of four to create?  
  
In a word:  No.  And in a few more words:  Probably impossible; very likely a bad idea.

Why?  Because to be alive is to change.  Nothing can remain the same if it is living, and to attempt to stop that change only results in something very much like death.  Magic needs life to exist.

Musicians, if they are creators and not just performers, cannot prevent the music they make from evolving.  It is the nature of the artist to change the art being created.  No matter how perfect the song, the need to let it grow into something new is a pressure that cannot be ignored.  To not allow music to change is to play music without life - dull music. 

Sometimes songs are so tweaked and reshaped that years after the first performance they are barely recognizable as the song started out with.   What keeps the songs recognizably the same is not the lyrics, not even the melody, but the vision and intent of the performers to convey the essential meaning of the song.

When the vision changes and when the essence is not shared, then the song will evolve into something very different.   When, as is my belief, one of the musicians is also a mage and drives magic into a song – whether on purpose or unknowingly led by the muses to do so – if the vision and essence of that song change sufficiently, the magic will not follow.

We can never know what leads one person to do what he does.  Some of the changes brought about by a person’s choices are so miniscule as to be virtually indiscernible, yet we are surprised with how big the changes are in the end even as we marvel how it could have happened (“like magic”).  Many choices are made without conscious thought, driven by unknown or unacknowledged fears or desires, and the person makes the choices without even realizing choices have been made at all. 

We may never know what truly goes on in a person’s mind or how they got to any point in the evolution of his life, but we can see the results in the real world.  Each of the selections of this week’s playlist reveals the results of choices made by Jimmy Page – whether consciously or not – about his music and vision.  We may not know what led Mr. Page to those choices, but we can begin to see the story of the musical struggle involved when shared vision falters. 

Just because a mage is involved doesn’t mean the magic is inevitable.  And just because a vision was true doesn't mean it should not change.

Evolution of Magic in a Song
In the following sequence of performances of In The Evening, we can hear the changes in Jimmy Page’s musical voice as with each version his guitar gets more expressive and individualistic, at times overwhelmingly filled with non-verbal information and so heavily burdened with meaning as to be almost painful listening. Make no mistake - this is not poor guitar, it is mage music that is thwarted:  its energy having no outlet, it turns on itself.  Thankfully most ears can perceive merely the smallest range of frequencies of a potentially infinite range of magic, for magic with no outlet is unhappy magic.

Studio version 1979
In The Evening appeared on Led Zeppelin’s eighth and final studio album, In Through The Out Door.  A work in progress, this studio version begins with an unworldly feel, the guitar hinting at themes.  It is clear that the full magical potential of this song has yet to be revealed, as the magic stutters in fits and starts: Breathless pauses of anticipation; sudden thunder when John Bonham channels Thor (3:43 and 4:01); the sweet clarity of Jimmy Page’s guitar; abrupt changes in mood and sound; and a dreamy sequence (4:21) that appears in each of the various incarnations of this song, and that could be understood as the canary in the mine of Jimmy Page’s vision. 

Knebworth 1979
Heavy magic reminiscent of Lucifer Rising has been embedded in the song as performed at the Knebworth concert with trippy, phasing drums and the use of the e-Bow and Jimmy Page's powerful and strange chords that usher in Robert Plant’s first vocals.  The guitar is speaking with an insistence in this version, an alien insectoid voice that clamors for attention, the emphasized notes on the cusp of language begging for understanding.   Thor's crash of drums has gone and the soft, dreamy interlude (4:50) is now primarily keyboard.  During the last minute or so, Jimmy Page plays to John Bonham with extraordinary intensity that abruptly ends, as if the guitarist had been suddenly woken from a dream. This version is hard, uneasy music, with uncertain, confused, but powerful magic.

Berlin 1980
A year later in Berlin the magickal beginning of In The Evening is similar to that of Knebworth, even more reminiscent of Lucifer Rising with phasing drums and shards of thin guitar laid over a pulsing drone in advance of Robert Plant’s vocals.  Jimmy Page’s guitar has lost the insistent emphasis of Knebworth, but retains the insectoid tone with a harder glassy edge, while John Paul Jones emulates an orchestra with keyboards.  The dreamy interlude (4:53) now includes a flute, keyboards-as-orchestra and Mr. Page is relegated to a few notes.  Jimmy Page’s later solo is not as integrated into the whole of the song or with Robert Page’s vocals as we are used to.  At the end, the guitar speaks in a language we strain to understand, bringing the song full-circle - but as much as we deny it the magic is failing.

Post-Led Zeppelin 1995
And then John Bonham is dead and In The Evening’s evolution as a vehicle for magic is ended, for by the 1995 Page & Plant performance In The Evening has become Robert Plant’s song.  This is not a value judgment, but rather a description that explains something about the magic.  The opening drone and Bonham’s psychedelic, phasing drums have been replaced by Moroccan drummers and John Paul Jones’s keyboards by violins.  Mr. Plant opens as a muezzin, going in a musical direction that had always been played with by Led Zeppelin and that his voice is well suited to.  Jimmy Page’s guitar is small here; he adds musical quality but no more than music to this performance.  The song has become ponderous instead of wondrous and has completely abandoned the quest for magic that was begun 16 years before.  Robert Plant is a magnificent musician, but he is not a mage, and in 1995 he was not supporting Jimmy Page’s vision.

The song is still powerful, melodic, surprising and compelling – but it has lost the magic that it had.  It is just… music. 

Moving On
An artist-mage can stop creating, but he can’t stop being an artist or mage.  Jimmy Page has always been a private person who has not shared much about the motivations and drives of his personal creative life, yet we know that as he lives and breathes, he is still a musician and still a mage.  These are not things one has a choice about.

Jimmy Page has worked with quite a few musicians since the end of Led Zeppelin, the results for some of which has resulted in powerful and magically loaded music - but his mage music progress has been most evident when playing solo, when the clarity of the magic and the vision are so dramatically and undeniably evident.

Still, no matter how powerful a mage-class musician is there sometimes are just no apprentices or partners who fully give themselves to the Work or who create the alchemical mix that yields Led rather than merely gold. Mr. Page presumably has little need to work in order to earn a living, and possible little desire to play music on a regular basis simply for the sake of playing ordinary music.  There has been no recently created Jimmy Page original music released in years – yet we would be wrong to assume that there is no Work being accomplished.  Visions change but Purpose does not.

The imperative of the muses are ignored at the peril of an artist’s sanity.  The mage musician’s Purpose is to satisfy his soul’s desire to connect to the infinite and thereby to bring light into this world.  As a mage and a musician, what might make Jimmy Page most satisfied and bring him most joy could very likely require reinventing himself as an artist and mage and, not coincidentally, as a human being as well – not a task for the faint of heart or the weak of will, and not one that comes with an instruction manual.    




YouTube Playlist - all versions
As always, because this is about the music - not the musician or even the Mage himself - it is recommended that you listen to, not watch, the videos.

Individual versions