On this day 21 October

Waiting for the Happenings A Year To Come, but oh well...

1966 21 October On This Day Yardbirds Happenings Ten Years Time Ago

• 1966 The Yardbirds release Happenings Ten Years Time Ago 
• 1966 The Yardbirds - Worcester, MA at The Comic Strip
• 1967 The Yardbirds - Dallas, TX at Studio Club
• 1976 Premiere of "The Song Remains the Same" movie, Los Angeles CA
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Dayton, OH at Hara Arena
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Hartford, CT at Hartford Civic Center

1966:

You might want to listen to Jimi Hendrix's House Burning Down right after listening to Happenings Ten Years Time Ago. Maybe it's just me, but I feel a connection there, like maybe Jimi was influenced by Jimmy, or at least by The Yardbirds' song, which was released two years prior to Hendrix's.

Not saying anybody else will hear it. Not saying it's a bad thing, if it's actually a thing. Not saying anything about anyone "stealing" a song, either. To me it just shows once again how a great musician stands on the shoulders of the musicians before him (or her). And if Hendrix never ever heard the Yardbirds 

1976

Just ten years later, Led Zeppelin was premiering their movie, "The Song Remains the Same". An amazing journey.

2010

Jimmy Page in Lid Magazine

2010 Jimmy Page on cover of October Lid Magazine

2010 October issue of Lid Magazine's Jimmy Page article

2010 Lid Magazine Jimmy Page article (Ross Halfin photo, right)

♪

♪  Happenings Ten Years Time Ago (The Yardbirds 1966) 
♪  House Burning Down (Jimi Hendrix, 1968) YouTube
♪  Jimmy Page (Dayton OH at Hara Arena, 21 October 1988) 
♪  Page & Plant (Hartford CT at Hartford Civic Center, 21 October 1995) 

On this day 18 September

 FIRMly under control and Satisfaction Guaranteed

1984 18 September On This Day Jimmy Page with The Firm, Sol Studios

• 1970 Page/Plant press conference New York, Savoy Hotel
• 1984 Jimmy Page recording at Sol Studio with The Firm
• 1998 Page & Plant - Laguna Hills, CA at Irving Meadows Amphitheatre

1970:

In New York for the two Madison Square Garden sets the next day, on this day Jimmy Page and Robert Plant sat down for a press conference at their hotel.  

Interviewer: How does it feel to be number one?
Plant: A shock...
Page: We knew we were appreciated by the fact that people were coming to along to see us in such great vast numbers all over the place - England and the continent and wherever... but no one expected this.

Perhaps Robert Plant was shocked, but somehow I've got a suspicion that Jimmy Page had vast numbers of appreciative audience in mind all along.

On this day in 1970 - likely unbeknownst yet to Jimmy Page or Robert Plant or anyone at the conference given all the laughter - Jimi Hendrix, the extraordinary left-handed guitarist and musician, had died. Led Zeppelin never played more than a few phrases of any of Jimi Hendrix's body of work other than The Killing Floor (below). It's extraordinary how uniquely different the two takes are. For Led Zeppelin, that song morphed into The Lemon Song. For Jimi Hendrix The Killing Floor is one of many monuments to his incredible talent.  The original, of course, was by Howlin' Wolf, in 1964.

RIP Jimi Hendrix (27 November 1942 - 18 September 1970)

1984:
One of the fun things for me in doing the Mage Music blog is the research involved with each On This Day post. I enjoy the challenge of searching the internet and my many books and magazines to find what I'm looking for. The research requires sifting out facts from all the copy/paste inaccuracies and fuzzy memories, hunting down obscure references, and learning new tidbits that I hadn't come across before, which I then share with you, my readers.

Most of all, though, this labor of love means I get to listen to lots of music every day.

In seeking out the various songs and their live performance versions I'm forced to listen to music I might otherwise pass over. That's not an onerous task mind you.  Far from it, in fact.

For instance, I tend to relegate The Firm and Mean Business to the background of my musical preferences, rarely calling them up to listen to - but that's a mistake on my part. Listening only to absolute favorites means always listening to the same stuff. As wonderful as that seems, doing so reduces contrast - the light and shade that Jimmy Page has so often referred to over the years. It means losing the perception of musical nuances.

The funny thing about listening to less-favorite music, though, is that I wind up with new appreciation for it because of the greater listening experience that I bring to it. And like Magick, what was not-so-interesting is transformed to very cool stuff after all.

So yeah, I'm hearing both of the albums and The Firm's live performances with new ears. And I'm liking it.

Why shouldn't I? After all, it's Jimmy Page: Satisfaction's guaranteed.

1986 Jimmy Page with The Firm, New Orleans (Mark Bowman photo) 

2013

Jimmy Page with a fan in Bangkok 

♪

♪  The Killing Floor (Jimi Hendrix, Stockholm 1969)  YouTube
♪  The Killing Floor (Led Zeppelin, LA 1969) YouTube
♪  Full set (The Firm, Hammersmith Odeon 1984) YouTube
♪  Satisfaction Guaranteed (The Firm, promo video 1984) YouTube
Les Paul appearing as The Bartender; May Pang (John Lennon's former girlfriend) making a 2-second cameo appearance; and Jimmy Page hamming it up for the camera.
♪  Page & Plant (Laguna Hills CA at Irving Meadows Amphitheatre, 18 September 1998)

On This Day 21 October

Waiting for the Happenings One Year To Come.

1966 21 October On This Day Yardbirds Happenings Ten Years Time Ago

• 1966 The Yardbirds release Happenings Ten Years Time Ago 
• 1966 The Yardbirds - Worcester, MA at The Comic Strip
• 1967 The Yardbirds - Dallas, TX at Studio Club
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Dayton, OH at Hara Arena
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Hartford, CT at Hartford Civic Center

1966:

You might want to listen to Jimi Hendrix's House Burning Down right after listening to Happenings Ten Years Time Ago. Seems to me pretty clear that Jimi was influenced by Jimmy, or at least by The Yardbirds' song, which was released two years prior to Hendrix's.

Not saying if it's true it's a bad thing. Not saying anything about anyone "stealing" a song, either. To me it just shows once again how a great musician stands on the shoulders of the musicians before him (or her). 

2010 Jimmy Page on cover of October Lid Magazine

2010 October issue of Lid Magazine's Jimmy Page article

2010 Lid Magazine Jimmy Page article (Ross Halfin photo, right)

♪

♪  Happenings Ten Years Time Ago (The Yardbirds 1966) YouTube
♪  House Burning Down (Jimi Hendrix, 1968) YouTube
♪  Emerald Eyes (Jimmy Page, Dayton OH 1988) YouTube
♪  Black Dog (Page & Plant, Hartford CT 1995) YouTube

On This Day 18 September

Firmly under control and Satisfaction Guaranteed

1984 18 September On This Day Jimmy Page with The Firm, Sol Studios

• 1970 Page/Plant press conference New York, Savoy Hotel
• 1984 Jimmy Page recording at Sol Studio with The Firm
• 1998 Page & Plant - Laguna Hills, CA at Irving Meadows Amphitheatre

1970:

In New York for the two Madison Square Garden sets the next day, on this day Jimmy Page and Robert Plant sat down for a press conference at their hotel.  

Interviewer: How does it feel to be number one?
Plant: A shock...
Page: We knew we were appreciated by the fact that people were coming to along to see us in such great vast numbers all over the place - England and the continent and wherever... but no one expected this.

Perhaps Robert Plant was shocked, but somehow I've got a suspicion that Jimmy Page had vast numbers of appreciative audience in mind all along.

On this day in 1970 - likely unbeknownst yet to Jimmy Page or Robert Plant or anyone at the conference given all the laughter - Jimi Hendrix, the extraordinary left-handed guitarist and musician, had died. Led Zeppelin never played more than a few phrases of any of Jimi Hendrix's body of work other than The Killing Floor (below). It's extraordinary how uniquely different the two takes are. For Led Zeppelin, that song morphed into The Lemon Song. For Jimi Hendrix The Killing Floor is one of many monuments to his incredible talent.  The original, of course, was by Howlin' Wolf, in 1964.

RIP Jimi Hendrix (27 November 1942 - 18 September 1970)

1984:
One of the fun things for me in doing the Mage Music blog is the research involved with each On This Day post. I enjoy the challenge of searching the internet and my many books and magazines to find what I'm looking for. The research requires sifting out facts from all the copy/paste inaccuracies and fuzzy memories, hunting down obscure references, and learning new tidbits that I hadn't come across before, which I then share with you, my readers.

Most of all, though, this labor of love means I get to listen to lots of music every day.

In seeking out the various songs and their live performance versions I'm forced to listen to music I might otherwise pass over. That's not an onerous task mind you.  Far from it, in fact.

For instance, I tend to relegate The Firm and Mean Business to the background of my musical preferences, rarely calling them up to listen to - but that's a mistake on my part. Listening only to absolute favorites means always listening to the same stuff. As wonderful as that seems, doing so reduces contrast - the light and shade that Jimmy Page has so often referred to over the years. It means losing the perception of musical nuances.

The funny thing about listening to less-favorite music, though, is that I wind up with new appreciation for it because of the greater listening experience that I bring to it. And like Magick, what was not-so-interesting is transformed to very cool stuff after all.

So yeah, I'm hearing both of the albums and The Firm's live performances with new ears. And I'm liking it.

Why shouldn't I? After all, it's Jimmy Page: Satisfaction's guaranteed.

1986 Jimmy Page with The Firm, New Orleans (Mark Bowman photo) 

♪

♪  The Killing Floor (Jimi Hendrix, Stockholm 1969)  YouTube
♪  The Killing Floor (Led Zeppelin, LA 1969) YouTube
♪  Full set (The Firm, Hammersmith Odeon 1984) YouTube
♪  Satisfaction Guaranteed (The Firm, promo video 1984) YouTube
Les Paul appearing as The Bartender; May Pang (John Lennon's former girlfriend) making a 2-second cameo appearance; and Jimmy Page hamming it up for the camera.


 

Form Follows Function

"It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human and all things superhuman, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law." 

~  Louis H. Sullivan

Mage Music 54

Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) wasn't an occultist, though you might think so from the above quote. He wasn't a theologian or philosopher, either. Mr. Sullivan was an architect. 

Mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright and called "father of the skyscraper", Mr. Sullivan was a visionary who coined the phrase "form ever follows function". The shortened version we are more familiar with, "form follows function", is fully stated as the aesthetic credo quoted above. Things are known by how they manifest in the world.  

When Louis Sullivan put forth his ideas in his article "The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered"(Lippincott's Magazine, March 1896: 403-409), he was discussing a new approach to architecture that addressed the engineering problems associated with buildings that went up, way up. He understood that the old ways of doing things could literally not support the new needs.

Form follows function means that to bring about the true manifestation of a thing, the shape should express what its purpose is, but Louis Sullivan was also talking about much more than skyscrapers. New function goes hand in hand with new aesthetic freedom as well. 

More or Less

Obviously the forms of things don't have to be shaped by their functions. We love all the embellishments - the different colors and looks and sizes - knowing they're all just icing on the cake and that none of it has anything to do with the function of the objects that have been so decorated. If we didn't love the flash and the bling, the meaningless difference, we wouldn't crave - much less put up with - all the options for cars, computers, clothes or covers for iPhones.   

In the world of true manifestation, though, even the ornamentation needs to be in alignment with function. Sometimes even a little more is just too much. This is true with music as well as Magick.

I remember thinking, back in the late 1960s, how amazing it was that Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience could put out such a rich and complete sound with just three musicians each. I also remember being very disappointed with bands whose music was full and deep on their albums, but that on stage came across like skim milk compared to the recordings. For them, what was created using multiple tracks and engineering in a studio was not duplicable live. Needless to say, Led Zeppelin wasn't like that - there was just as much live as there was on the albums, if not more.

That's because every component of Led Zeppelin's music, whether on stage or recorded, was an expression of the function of the ritual of the music.  Every beat, every riff was an expression of the song's purpose. Every component of each performance was essential.  And every musician's input was crucial to the construction of the ritual.   

In his comment on the Page/Plant tour of 1998 on jimmypage.com (On This Day, May 18), Jimmy Page said: "With a stripped-down line-up ... it gave us more freedom to explore and re-work the songs, without the orchestra and supplementary musicians ..."

Not only can more be too much, more can't always make up for a missing essential.  The Magick of Led Zeppelin was in the alchemy of those four musicians, and adding more musicians down the line could not recreate the true manifestations of the missing members of the band. Life is recognizable in its expression. It can't be simulated; it must be a true manifestation of the purpose.

Designing Ritual

While objects and actions of ritual - Magick or music - that come from elsewhere can be used as inspiration, in fact true manifestation comes from expression of the Mage's own desire and will. That means that using ritual from some other source, no matter how successful it is for the other source, is not necessarily going to manifest anything for the Mage that he intends until all the objects and actions become his own.

Thus, creating a ritual starting from scratch is in a way easier - or at least less risky - than starting with a pre-existing design. When all component parts have to have meaning and form within the function of the intended purpose, using enough of the wrong ones leads to failure.  The notes, pitch and all components of the melodies, riffs and rhythms of music and the ceremonial objects and actions of Magick have to be the right ones in the right quantities and they have to express the function of the performing musician's or Mage's intended purpose - not some other band's or Aleister Crowley's.   

No substitutions!  Original work only!  No grading on a curve!  According to Louis Sullivan, it's the law. 

♫

Note:  As always, use of the masculine gender is not meant to exclude the feminine.

  

Mage Music: Simply The Best

SE Redhill Sonnetta,
not drinking

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make her drink

Mage Music 13

• A musician can offer the music but can't make you like it.
• A Mage can offer the Magick but can't make you feel it.
• Borgs bring change but it's not an offer:  Resistance is futile.
• Lucifer brought Light - but that actually was an offer, not an obligation to accept.

Whaa?

First, for reference:  Rolling Stone Magazine published a list of what they consider to be the 100 greatest guitarists ever in November 2011, and recently came out with a special collectors print edition (October 25, 2012).  Both online and print versions provide justification for placement of each guitarist by one of the judges.  The panel of fifty some odd “top guitarists and other experts” who did the ranking named Jimi Hendrix number one, Eric Clapton number two and Jimmy Page as number three.  Ninety seven other guitarists were listed - some of whom I just couldn't figure.  A few pretty darned good ones didn’t appear at all.  <Shaking head in puzzlement>.  

Jimmy Page number THREE?  Really?

Really:  In the opinion of the people doing the judging, Jimmy Page came out number three.  Thus the aphorisms at the top of this page, because what is most important about the Rolling Stone Magazine list is that it doesn’t matter one bit.  “Best guitarist” doesn’t equal Mage Musician, and the only true judge of who might be a Mage Musician that matters for you is you.

I’m giving myself a little break this week, so am cutting it short.  Below are links to Rolling Stone’s idea of “key tracks” for Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, followed by my own suggested alternatives for your consideration.  I'm not saying anything about who's the best guitarist, but I am suggesting that there is another way to think about music.  But don’t take my word for it – you be the judge.

♪

Bonus: The promised more info on Beck's Bolero coming right after this - no waiting a week for the next post!

♫

Mage Music 13 Playlist: Simply The Best

YouTube Playlist for Mage Magic 13:  Simply The Best 

Individual tracks:

Jimi Hendrix 
Rolling Stone "key track:

 Purple Haze 1967 (studio) Album: Are You Experienced 

 Purple Haze 1967 (live)
Mage Music suggestion:

 All Along the Watchtower  1968 (studio) Album: Electric Ladyland 

1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be) 1968 (studio) Album: Electric Ladyland

 Star Spangled Banner1969 (live) , Woodstock 

Eric Clapton 
Rolling Stone "key track:

 Crossroads 1967 (studio) Album: Disraeli Gears 

 Crossroads 2005   (live) Cream Reunion, Royal Albert Hall
Mage Music suggestion:

 Layla 1970 (studio) Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs   

 Cocaine 2004 (live) Crossroads Guitar Festival 

Jimmy Page
Rolling Stone "key track:

 Stairway to Heaven 1971 (studio) Album:  no name (Led Zeppelin IV) 

 Stairway to Heaven 2007 (live) O2 Reunion London

Mage Music suggestion:

 Achilles Last Stand 1976 (studio) Album:  Presence 

 Instrumental 1986 (live) Jimmy Page & Safe Sex at Heartbreak Hotel, Ibiza

 Since I've Been Loving You 1995 (live) Jimmy Page & Robert Plant Irvine California

Oh, and the following - just because I I liked the title of this song for my blog post and because this song is such an ear worm:

Tina Turner 

 Simply The Best 

Mage Music 13 Playlist: Simply The Best

YouTube Playlist for Mage Magic 13:  Simply The Best 

Individual tracks:

Jimi Hendrix 

Purple Haze 1967 (studio) Album: Are You Experienced 

Purple Haze 1967 (live) 

All Along the Watchtower  1968 (studio) Album: Electric Ladyland
1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be) 1968 (studio) Album: Electric Ladyland

Star Spangled Banner1969 (live) , Woodstock 

Eric Clapton 

Crossroads 1967 (studio) Album: Disraeli Gears 

Crossroads 2005   (live) Cream Reunion, Royal Albert Hall 

Layla 1970 (studio) Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs   

Cocaine 2004 (live) Crossroads Guitar Festival 

Jimmy Page

Stairway to Heaven 1971 (studio) Album:  no name (Led Zeppelin IV) 

Stairway to Heaven 2007 (live) O2 Reunion London  

Achilles Last Stand  1976 (studio) Album:  Presence
Instrumental 1986 (live) Jimmy Page & Safe Sex, Ibiza

Since I've Been Loving You 1995 (live) Jimmy Page & Robert Plant Irvine California 

Oh, and just because I like the title for the 08/05/12 blog post and this song is such an ear worm:

Tina Turner 

Simply The Best