MAGE MUSIC: Led Zeppelin

Showing posts with label Led Zeppelin. Show all posts

Thursday, March 10, 2016

On This Day 10 March

Please Mr. Page: let it be instrumental, let it be all you!

1967 10 March On This Day Jeff Beck released Hi Ho Silver Lining & Beck's Bolero
AUDIO: Beck's Bolero

1968 The Yardbirds - Paris at L'Olympia Music Hall and at a private party for the head of Barclay Records, Eddie Barclay
1970 Led Zeppelin - Hamburg, Germany at Hamburg Musikhalle
1971 Led Zeppelin - Canterbury, England at Rutherford College
1975 Led Zeppelin - San Diego, CA at San Diego Sports Arena
1981 Jimmy Page with Jeff Beck - London, at Hammersmith Odeon, encore
1985 The Firm - Denver, CO at McNichols Sports Arena
1995 Page & Plant - New Orleans, LA at U.N.O. Lakefront Arena

1967:

I've always wanted to hear a version of Beck's Bolero that was Jimmy Page solely. I think he could put even more majesty into a work that is already majestic. Jimmy Page wrote the piece for Jeff Beck's first solo release and no doubt Mr. Page meant it to showcase what Jeff Beck could do, but we know who could do better because we've heard Mr. Page play snippets of it here and there over the years. The 1967 recording includes John Paul Jones on bass.

Read more about Beck's Bolero in a Mage Music post from 2012.

1971 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin, Canterbury

1975 John Paul Jones & Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin, San Diego
(Gary Morgan photo)

1981:

On this day Jimmy Page stepped onstage with a guitar for the first time since John Bonham's death to join his friend, Jeff Beck, in an encore number at Beck's show at the Hammersmith Odeon. If there is a recording of the song he played, I'm Going Down, I haven't come across it, but someone must have recorded it and I wanna hear it!

1985 Jimmy Page / The Firm, Denver

1995 Jimmy Page / Page & Plant, New Orleans

2005 Jimmy Page at Jeff Buckley photo exhibit, Proud Gallery, London

♪

♪ Becks Bolero (Jeff Beck Group 1967) YouTube
♪ How Many More Times medley (Led Zeppelin, Hamburg 10 March 1970) YouTube
♪ Dazed and Confused (Led Zeppelin, San Diego 1975) YouTube
♪ Full Set (Page & Plant, New Orleans 10 March 1995) YouTube

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

Monday, October 5, 2015

On This Day 5 October

An eye for art of all kinds

1970 05 October On This Day Jimmy Page visited and photographed Rock (Roch) Castle in Wales

1969 Led Zeppelin -Amsterdam, Netherland at Concertgebouw
1970 Led Zeppelin III Released
1970 Jimmy Page visits and photographs Roch Castle in Wales
1972 Led Zeppelin - Nagoya, Japan at Kokaido
1976 BBC2/Old Grey Whistle Test airs Black Dog clip from The Song Remains The Same movie.

1969 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin, Amsterdam

1970:
The level of work over the first two years of Led Zeppelin's existence was incredible, yet when it was time for a vacation another album was born. Led Zeppelin III, released on this day in 1970, was composed at Bron-Yr-Aur in Wales, a stone cottage with no electricity or running water, and recorded at Headley Grange, a mansion with few amenities. The band could have afforded anyplace, but they wanted something different. And they got it.

Although Led Zeppelin III was hardly a collection of acoustic songs, the album was a departure from Led Zeppelin's signature rock and blues sound. Even so, over a million pre-orders for the album were placed.

"After the intense touring that had been taking place through the first two albums, working almost 24 hours a day, basically, we managed to stop and have a proper break, a couple of months as opposed to a couple of weeks. We decided to go off and rent a cottage to provide a contrast to motel rooms. Obviously, it had quite an effect on the material that was written... It was the tranquility of the place that set the tone of the album."
~ Jimmy Page, interview by Dave Schulps for Trowser Press, 1977

Reviews at the time were not so glowing, but some of Led Zeppelin's most-played and most-loved songs today are from that album.

1970 Rock (Roch) Castle through the lens of Jimmy Page

And as for out of the way places....Rock (Roch) Castle was begun in the 12th century as one of the outer defenses of the boundary between the English and Welsh halves of Pembrokeshire. Over time it has been used as a prison and a governor's house.

The castle's builder, the knight Adam de Rupe, feared the prophecy that he would be killed by a viper's bite, or so it is said, and he sought to live somewhere isolated. The castle, on top of a rock formation, apparently seemed like a safe enough place from the adder (viper), the UK's only venomous snake. Although adders are not considered aggressive, it seems that de Rupe prophecy came true. A viper got into the castle and bit him.

Rock Castle was purchased in 2008 by the Griffiths-Roch Foundation who restored it for the Retreats Group, which specializes in high-end luxury corporate escapes for relaxation or business, and for weddings, events and vacations.

In 1970 Jimmy Page visited the castle, which was for sale, and took exterior and interior photos. We don't know why he didn't buy it, for the photos do make the place seem like something that would have well suited his aesthetic senses. Instead he purchased Boleskine house the following year.

1970 Rock (Roch) Castle through the lens of Jimmy Page

1970 Jimmy Page at Bron-Yr-Aur

♪

♪ Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin 1970) Soundcloud
♪ Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions 1971) YouTube

♪ Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin, L.A. Forum 1971) YouTube
♪ Immigrant Song (Karen O/Trent Reznor cover) YouTube
♪ Immigrant Song (Foo Fighters and friends at Dave Grohl's birthday party 2015) YouTube

Sunday, August 23, 2015

On This Day 23 August

All in a day's work

1966 23 August On This Day The Yardbirds - Avalon, CA at Catalina Casino Ballroom

1966 The Yardbirds - Avalon, CA at Catalina Casino Ballroom
1969 Led Zeppelin - Dania, Fl at Pirates' World
1970 Led Zeppelin – San Antonio, TX at HemisFair Arena
1971 Led Zeppelin - Fort Worth, TX at Tarrant County Convention Center
1994 Page & Plant – London, England at London Television Centre for band rehearsals with cameras in studio
1998 Page & Plant - Cologne, Germany- Bizarre Festival
2008 Jimmy Page with Leona Lewis - Beijing, China National Stadium, Olympic rehearsal

Jimmy Page's experience as a session man made him ready and able to perform under all kinds of circumstances: using borrowed equipment, dodging firecrackers, playing on a rotating stage or one that was being demolished by fans or while standing on a rising industrial scissors lift. Somehow I doubt he gave much thought to these sorts of things when he first laid hands on a guitar.