~ Jimmy Page (from Brad Tolinski's Light & Shade)
Rock and roll was was born from blues, country, jazz and the big band sound. It was shaped for the teens and young adults of the 1950s and 1960s whose interests were very different from those of their parents' generation. The lyrics addressed topics that teens cared about - young love, young lust, young broken hearts, young loneliness - but the music itself was old and wise from the beginning, shivering with hidden meaning that was more enduring and universal than the immediate concerns of teenagers.
Rock as a musical genre has matured since then and so have the musicians who play it today - particularly those who were young when rock and roll first hit the airwaves and who have allowed themselves to grow up since then. Lyrics aside, the music has become more sophisticated, capable of conveying nuances and meaning well beyond the simple desires of youth.
And the Magick has changed, too.
Redefinition
As I write this week’s post, I’m listening to the audio of the O2 Concert yet again, paying close attention to the meaning-beyond-words conveyed through music by Jimmy Page. The evolution and maturity of the guitar work is obvious, something that is possible not only as a result of constant practice but also because of more than 25 years of life experienced between John Bonham’s death and those hours on stage in 2007.
No, it didn't sound exactly like 1980 or any other prior year in the active reign of Led Zeppelin - and why should it? After all, the music of Led Zeppelin was that night just what it had always been: A musical expression of that moment in time, as individuals and as a band. When they stepped onto the stage that night they weren't the same people they had been before and neither was the music.
The O2 Concert was the Led Zeppelin of 2007 - not 1977. And, wow.
Wow because the music was great, of course - but even bigger wow because the Magick was not only still there, but better - richer, deeper, broader and more complex - then ever before.
The Led Zeppelin of 2007 had matured into something it could never have been 25 years ago. Led Zeppelin - and Jimmy Page in particular - had always offered grace and depth and meaning (not to mention raw emotion and a violence and exultation of spirit), but never in such full bloom as they had on the O2 stage. Like wine that had always tasted very, very good but that had finally aged to something extraordinary, in 2007 the music had evolved to a new plane of musical excellence.
And the Magick had evolved with it.
And the Magick had evolved with it.
Evolution
There can be no Magick without the human component for Magick is solely a human thing. It is a relationship and process and experience that is shared between Mage and the life force energy of the Universe. Even when absorbed by multitudes through music, Magick is the personal experience of the Mage. Quantum mechanics tells us that at the level of energy itself - which is the level where true Magick takes place - the observer must be considered part of the system being observed. Thus the Mage is a component part of the process of Magick, not external to it.
This means that every instance of Magick must necessarily be unique from all others, because a living human is changed by life from moment to moment as it is lived. As the Mage changes over time due to constant new input that life itself brings, the Magick must necessarily change.
Mage and Magick evolve, and yet The Song Remains The Same.
