Fake news is no news: Led Zeppelin reunion

I have a lot of trouble with fake news. "Fake" is too nice a word. Fiction is what it is, but when the "news" is presented as fact then what we have is lies.

Lies.

But what's more troubling to me is how so many people have lost their marbles -- excuse me, I mean their critical reasoning ability -- and gulp up fake news as truth. And then, like a flu, they spread it.

Let's talk about a Led Zeppelin "reunion"

First, what is a reunion? It's a regathering of people who have gathered before. So... a true Led Zeppelin reunion would require that John Bonham be sitting at the drum kit. Sorry, I'm not one of those folks who accepts Bonzo's son as a real member of the band. Yes, Jason's a great drummer... but he's not his father. He hasn't worked with the other three gentlemen to create new music. The music that he drums to is his father's music. Jason is a cover drummer. I love the man, but there it is.

Let's talk about "facts"

No, let's not. There are no cold facts. Videos that supposedly prove Jimmy Page intends to do Desert Trip 2017 are from years ago, before there even was a Desert Trip. Use your brains, people. No one who counts has made a definitive statement about a reunion in Nevada, in 2017, or anyplace/anytime.

Now let's talk about Desert Trip 2017 itself

A Led Zeppelin reunion would trash Desert Trip. How many million people tried for tickets for the last time Led Zeppelin got together? Over 20 million. There would be that many and more for another try to see the gentlemen on stage. So let's think about what happened to the Ahmet Ertegon Tribute (the actual name for the 2007 event at O2). Quickly now, who can tell us what other headliner bands were there - raise your hands. Um... I'm not seeing hands. Why? Because the Tribute is usually called the Led Zeppelin Reunion for a reason. When the gentlemen in question get together, that's all there is in the world. Back in 2007 Pete Townshend famously refused to show up, saying that with Led Zeppelin there, they didn't need him. What headliner band would want to be reduced to a supporting act that nobody came to listen to?

Some kind of festival that would be.

This is all stupid talk anyway. It's not like the the rumors that Led Zeppelin are reuniting to perform at Desert Trip 2017 could possibly be anything but fake news. These news articles that announce "insider sources" are reporting that Robert Plant has agreed to a reunion in 2017 because of the band's upcoming 50th anniversary.

Um. Do the math, people. Led Zeppelin was formed and first performed in 1968. So Desert Trip 2017 would be... the 49th anniversary.

But more logic

So let's suppose that Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones have agreed to a reunion and Jason Bonham has accepted an invitation to join them. And let's suppose that they decide to do this in 2017 instead of 2018. We know very well that the boys are perfectly capable of being sneaky about such decisions, and are perfectly capable of meeting for practice sessions without the slightest hint of a rumor getting out.

We know this. But suddenly these rumors. And not one bit of confirmation from the gentlemen in question. So what does this tell us?

It tells us that Desert Trip probably put an absolutely baseless rumor out there to begin with, because what this has done is created incredible publicity for them. But... do we see any announcement of dates in 2017? No. Do we see any confirmation of a lineup for 2017? No.

Uh huh. Sure Led Zeppelin's going to show up. Because if it's on the internet it must be true. And hey -- I've got a confounded bridge to sell you.

The Futility of Want

"Seems pretty unlikely, doesn't it?”
~Jimmy Page, October 2012 interview response to a reunion question. Mr. Page pointed out that the reunion concert had been five years prior and that if there was a chance they were reuniting, people would have heard about it.

“..just look at the facts: The O2 was seven years ago… there hasn't been any movement so it’s unlikely. It is what it is.”
~Jimmy Page, April 2014 BBC Radio 4 interview response to a reunion question.

Mage Music 82 

We never seem to change, do we? We who love the music of Jimmy Page are a greedy bunch. We want more, more, more – no matter what the man himself has to say about it.

Makes you wonder, doesn't it - why can’t we just use Magick to get what we want?

Sad news, friends: Magick isn't going to work if it is used on someone else to control them. There are no love potions that will make someone love you if they don’t already want to. There are no spells that will force a person to submit to your will. Contrary to what every sword-and-sorcery fantasy will tell you, it is futile to use Magick to get what you want by attempting to change someone else. If you keep trying, you are doomed to failure.

The power you get from Magick is to change your own reality. This may make it seem like Magick is a small, pitiful thing but it isn't. New discoveries in quantum physics are finally catching up to what humans have always known: A sentient being shapes the Universe by paying attention to it.

That is, frankly, damn powerful.

But did you notice:  It's not attention to other people and what they are or aren't doing - it's attention to the Universe. That’s where the energy of Magick is.

Attempting to change someone else is just spending that energy to build an insurmountable obstacle for yourself. You're trying to control something you have no control over. It’s like flooring the gas pedal and just spinning wheels. You use up fuel but you don’t get anywhere and you may end up by trashing your car. You have to work with the reality you've got, not try to impose your wants over the reality of others who have their own desires and will.

Feeling frustrated lately? You’re spinning wheels, my friend. Stop trying to change people around you. Use Magick to change your own reality.


But you still want that reunion!

If sheer numbers alone were sufficient to make Magick happen, then you’d think that there would be another Led Zeppelin reunion tomorrow because there are millions of us out here wishing and hoping for something just like that. Sure, we've got remasters coming but does that mean we are satisfied? No way. We want more.

But hey, Jimmy Page himself says it is unlikely we’ll see anything like O2 again. That doesn't mean there will never be a reunion, but Mr. Page is a realist. A good Mage has to be. Jimmy Page would be the last person to underestimate the power of one, but he also knows that as powerful as he is, he can only change his own reality and not that of anyone else.

So what would a reunion take? Nothing less than the desire of all parties to change their individual realities in tandem, to hold the same desire with the same will. With that, a reunion concert or tour would then be the ritual that would allow the Magick to shine through. The music we all hunger for insatiably.

While “all parties” includes you and me, obviously the most important participants in such a Work would be the musicians. But... just because they are really, really good at what they do and are key to the ritual doesn't mean that they can change how Magick works. Even Jimmy Page can't do that.

 

Co-creation 

Anyone can change reality with Magick to some degree or another.  A powerful Mage can create a big change in his reality that affects a lot of people who are open to the Magick.  But ritual of a band the caliber of Led Zeppelin requires co-creation: choosing alignment of desire and will to a common goal -- not just being on stage at the same time.

I have previously posted in this blog about how emotions control automatic biological processes, which in turn close or open the Mage to the energy of the Universe and thus to Magick. When it comes to co-creation this means that if any one party to a co-creative Work has no joy in it, if all parties are not in alignment of desire and will, then the desired reality is not going to happen, no matter how much any one (or the millions of us) want it to.

For some things in this world it doesn't matter if a group of people want to drive the same car, or even take the same road when they desire to reach the same goal at the same time. But if the process is Magick, if the ritual is music, then there had better be agreement on the fundamentals of means and path, because it's everyone's foot on the same gas pedal, everyone's hands on the same steering wheel.

So the chance of a reunion is what it is: unlikely. You can figure out why without knowing anything more than what you've read here.  It's futile to want something you have no control over.

What May Not Be Ever Again

“Everybody I know seems to know me well but they're never gonna know…”
~ What Is And What Should Never Be, Led Zeppelin II (1969)

Mage Music 71

The desire for another reunion of Led Zeppelin is a big topic of conversation for music lovers, and if it's not that, then the talk is about when Jimmy Page might come out with new music of his own. What follows is my personal opinion based on my own observations and conclusions and from the point of view of Magick. You may not agree, as is your right, and you are welcome to contribute your own opinions - but please keep them limited to the music and Magick aspects.  Also note that this is part one of a two-part post.  If you comment, I may steal your idea and use it to inspire thoughts for part two.  If I see farther it is by "standing on ye sholders of Giants"*.

The "just play with another band" theory

Jimmy Page has dropped in on many great bands over the past decades. He's worked with some pretty good musicians in his own groups, too, and people wonder why Mr. Page doesn't do an album with them. I say, how could he?

Sure, a musician of the caliber of Jimmy Page has got to have some highly talented people to work with. But as I see it, a major obstacle for Jimmy Page playing with other big-name musicians is that those guys are big-name musicians. They've got their own well established style, their own approach to music, their own feeling for what to say and how to say it musically. So does Jimmy Page.

So the real question would have to be who's going to yield the musical direction to the other?

Whose Magick is it anyway?

Jimmy Page basically started out his professional career as a session musician.  That means he was freelance, not with a regular band but hired to play individual studio recording sessions.  More importantly, this meant he had to match the needs of the music of the sessions and there was very little wiggle room to bring in his own musical vision.  Jimmy Page was very, very good at it, but playing other people's music wasn't where he wanted to do.  What he really wanted was to express what he had in him and that's why when the opportunity rose he set forth with that triumphant musical colossus, Led Zeppelin.

The beauty of Led Zeppelin was that Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham were basically at the same place at the same time in terms of music.  They were all very, very good - but the potential for greatness hadn't yet been expressed in any of them. Once they were together much of Led Zeppelin's music - not the lyrics, but the music - was driven by Jimmy Page, and the others in a sense yielded to Mr. Page's muse. Led Zeppelin wasn't all Jimmy Page, of course - the chemistry came from all of them, after all - but they were at the same place musically.  They created the Magick together, as indivisible components of one ritual.

Today that's not so.

Now things are very different. Robert Plant is following his own muse and has gone off to explore new musical territory for himself. I believe that for him to come back to a situation of being subsumed in a creative project over which he no longer had his own full musical expression, as he now does, would be very hard - and who could blame him?  This would be true for any other vocalists or guitarists who were of the equivalent level of experience and musical genius as Jimmy Page, and I think that this is a key point.

The best of the best musicians have all worked hard to get where they are, and why would they want their individuality, their unique musical vision and all they've achieved with it to be cast aside for something new, something in which they would not be the star?

And even if they would do it, could they do it?  Could they give up who they are to become something else?

Old dogs can learn new tricks

It is hard to do, but highly talented people can strike out in new directions. The problem with the music industry, though, is that audiences aren't always open to newness, and critics have not been bashful about expressing how they feel each time Jimmy Page has stepped off the beaten path.  From the very beginning with Led Zeppelin, to Lucifer Rising and carrying through to surprises such as Come With Me (with Puff Daddy), critics have been fast to complain although thank goodness, that hasn't stopped Mr. Page.

But finding musicians who could work with Jimmy Page to create new work today - that is a different story. This week's playlist was chosen partly because the title suited the subject here, but also because the versions provide examples of Jimmy Pages most exquisite techniques of fingering and timing. He squeezes some of the notes for so long that your heart wants to stop from the sweet torture of it.

This level of musicianship and creative artistry - this Magick that has been sustained for half a century - this is not something that anyone wants to see diluted by collaboration with lesser musicians, I think.  Only the best musicians.  But who are they that are that good yet willing to give themselves up for the Magick of the Master?

If there is to be any new music from Jimmy Page, I think he would have to find extraordinary new musicians who could joyfully bend to the Master's will while still being powerful in their own right. That's what Led Zeppelin was, after all. But is it even possible? We can dream, but I'm not holding my breath.


Thanks to Denise Smith for inspiring this post in one of her comments in a Jimmy Page group on Facebook.  This post has been part one of a two part thought, which I probably will continue next week.  

* Quote is attributed to Sir Isaac Newton but he wasn't the one who originated the thought.  He understood that he, too, "stood on ye sholders of Giants."

---

What Is And What Should Never Be  (♫ YouTube playlist ♫)

1969 (studio) Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions
1970 (live) Led Zeppelin
1994 (studio) Unledded
1998 (live) Page & Plant, Colorado
1999 (live) Live At The Greek