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| Jimmy Page guitar on Joe Cocker's 1969 album, With a Little Help from My Friends |
- 1969 Jimmy Page - release of Joe Cocker album feat. Jimmy Page, guitar
- 1970 Jimmy Page - JulieFelix Show BBC TV Studios, Lime Grove, London
- 1977 Led Zeppelin - The Omni, Atlanta GA
- 1985 The Firm - Metropolitan Sports Center, Bloomington MN
- 1986 The Firm - The Omni, Atlanta GA
In the brief time after the Yardbirds and before Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page did a little session work, including this first studio album of Joe Cocker's. What's interesting in this particular song is how his approach to this kind of work had changed since the early days. A proper session musician didn't (and still doesn't) steal the show from the main attraction, and in this song, of course, the main attraction is the vocalist and the lyrics.
Even so, in With a Little Help from My Friends you can hear that guitar, can't you. While Jimmy Page never lets himself out, while there are soaring riffs, the pure tone and perfectly positioned support has a presence all its own. You know Jimmy Page has totally got this.
Joe Cocker died December 2014, singing practically to the end. He was a wild man back in the day and was always hard for me to watch - he let the music take him so fully that he looked like he was having seizures - but his gritty voice was well suited to the rock, blues and soul that I loved him for. Some of his Beatles covers are better than the original, if you ask me, and of course, there's a bunch of soundtracks with Joe Cocker singing the songs that help make the movies the box office hits they were.
He [Cocker] was a lovely northern lad who I loved a lot and, like many people, I loved his singing. I was especially pleased when he decided to cover "With a Little Help from My Friends" and I remember him and (producer) Denny Cordell coming round to the studio in Savile Row and playing me what they'd recorded and it was just mind-blowing, totally turned the song into a soul anthem and I was forever grateful to him for doing that."
~ Paul McCartney on Joe Cocker's death1970
Julie Felix is an American born, British-based folk recording artist and show host. During her singing career she performed at Royal Albert Hall, among other venues. In 1966 Felix became the resident singer for a BBC television show and hosted her own shows for the BBC from 1968 to 1970. Felix currently lives in England, and is still recording and performing
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♪ With A Little Help From My Friends (Joe Cocker, playlist of tracks featuring Jimmy Page, 1969) YouTube
♪ White Summer (Jimmy Page, Julie Felix Show BBC 1970) YouTube
♪ Led Zeppelin (The Omni, Atlanta GA 1977) YouTube
