Sunday, August 12, 2012

Hammer of the Gods

“…it was the opening track on the album that was intended to be incredibly different”.
                                                                    ~ Robert Plant,  in Led Zeppelin by Chris Welch, p 55

Mage Music 14 

Immigrant Song is pretty interesting. Musically, it’s not one of my personal favorites, although it is compelling – it’s one of those “almost” songs for me, not quite carrying the Magick it seems to promise - and I have to wonder about that.  I find the studio version to be flat, leaving me unsatisfied, although the live versions – particularly the 1971 Paris Theatre performance that appears on BBC Sessions or the 1972 LA Forum performance that appears on How The West Was Won - are much more compelling.

Magick or no, the constant pounding pulse that drives this song very well supports the lyrics. You can’t help but feel the energy and want to shove a horned helmet on your head, pick up a hammer and go off with your friends for some good old raping and pillaging. When prefaced by the drone the anticipation builds to almost intolerable levels until the opening onslaught of guitar, drums and bass - and then we’re hit with Robert Plant’s cosmic war cry. We grab our weapons and our torches and off we go. Take no prisoners!


Subtle humor

Some sources claim that Immigrant Song was intended to be a bit humorous. I can sort of see the tongue in cheek aspect of it – after all, the soft acoustical side of Led Zeppelin is introduced in this album and yet the first song is about war and conquest and is anything but soft. Hindsight speculation is risky, but if this was intentional humor it seems that it might also be a joke at the band’s own expense, perhaps even a parody of their musical conquest of the US and their legendary on-the-road excesses.

Subtle humor, indeed, that offers a mighty war anthem album-opener that begs comparison of the mighty Led Zeppelin to the thunderbolt-throwing, mead drinking gods of old – and that then moves on to songs that, in the tradition of the bards of old, tell us stories - tales that were conceived at the primitive 18th century cottage, Bron-Yr-Aur. In an October 1977 interview in Trouser Press Magazine by Dave Schulps, Jimmy Page commented, "It was the tranquility of the place that set the tone of the album." This, about an album that opens with a paean to war, conquest and death.

Led Zeppelin III is a forging into new territory for the band. Perhaps what was being captured with Immigrant Song was the violence of breaking with the past and pushing into an unfamiliar future, with the song’s title an outright reference to a people moving into in new places. It takes strength of will, belief in self and considerable skill to conquer the unknown. We know that Jimmy Page has never had any fear of doing what it takes to push the envelope.  It could be that the Magick really is there after all, just delivered with an unaccustomed blunt force that serves all the better to bring out the contrast with all that follows.  A hammer blow of the gods, if you will, saying PAY ATTENTION.


Imitation (and cover), the sincerest form of flattery

In spite of, or maybe more because of the dynamic, aggressive tone of Immigrant Song, it seems to be highly desirable for use elsewhere, either in the original or covered by other musicians. We hope that Led Zeppelin receives plenty of royalties for this use.

Notable appearances of Immigrant Song (I’m sure there are many more examples):

  • 1973 Opening credits of the martial arts film, Young Tiger, starring Fei Meng and a young Jackie Chan
  • Professional wrestler Bruiser Brody (1946-1988), as entrance music to the ring
  • 1993 Jack Black filmed himself in front of a screaming audience begging Led Zeppelin for the use of Immigrant Song in his movie, School of Rock.
  • 1993 Denis Leary, MTV Unplugged special 
  • 1999 documentary about the 1972 Munich Olympic Games massacre, One Day in September
  • 1999 Vanilla Ice, the basis for "Power", a rap metal song
  • 2003 That ‘70s Show Season 5, Episode 24
  • Nirvana With The Lights Out box set (CD + DVD)
  • 2006-07 Trailers for the BBC1 drama series Life on Mars
  • 2007 Minnesota Vikings, during team introductions and before kickoffs. 
  • 2007 Shrek the Third: A schizophrenic Snow White begins her attack on the city gates with Robert Plant’s famous opening cry
  • 2010 Christmas episode of Doctor Who Confidential
  • 2011 Karen O, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  • 2011 Loud Music by Michelle Branch (a reference to “Zeppelin” and a very tame version of Robert Plant’s opening cry)
  • Late Night With Conan O'Brien, along with Kashmir
  • Winnipeg Jets opening song before play
  • Viking Kittens (see link below for the horrible video)
  • During credits for the French TV show 50 Minutes Inside.



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Trivia: On the first vinyl pressing of the album 'Led Zeppelin III' in 1970, Jimmy Page paid homage to Alastair Crowley by placing a quote in the dead wax (where the groove runs out in the middle of the disc).  On side A you can read, "Do What Thou Wilt..." and on side B, "So Mote Be It"

Further note:  Not much about Magick in this post, but I'll be getting back on topic next time.

♫


Immigrant Song

YouTube Playlist (Led  Zeppelin + Jeff Beck/Jimmy Page only)

Individual song links:

Bonus links:



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Friday, August 10, 2012

Light & Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page

Brad Tolinski's new book, Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page will be available October 23. Tolinski is the Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World Magazine and is Editorial Director of Future US’s music division, which includes Guitar Aficionado and Revolver magazines.

An August 9, 2012 Guitar World article states:  "Light & Shade is drawn from the best of more than 50 hours worth of conversations that touch on everything from the music scene of the ’60s; Page’s early years as England’s top session guitarist working with The Who, The Kinks and Eric Clapton; his time with The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin and his post-Zep projects. The book provides readers with the most complete picture of the media-shy guitarist ever published."

“Light & Shade illuminates the haunted genius of Jimmy Page in an original and completely satisfying way. The conversational dynamic between the author and the subject reveals a wealth of info about the man, the music, and the magic.” – Kirk Hammett, Metallica

Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page may be pre-ordered at Amazon.com now in Kindle or hardcover for the October 23, 2012 release date.




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Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Mage Music 15 Playlist for 08/12/12


Mage Music 15:  Hammer of the Gods

YouTube Playlist

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Individual song links:

Bonus links on 08/12/12!
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Sunday, August 5, 2012

Mage Music: Bolero, or, Haven’t I Heard This Before?


As a musician I think my greatest achievement has been to create unexpected melodies and harmonies within a rock and roll framework.
                                                                                    ~Jimmy Page, Guitar World 1993

Mage Music 14

Marcelle Lender Dancing the Bolero in "Chilpéric," 1895–96, by
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Who doesn’t love a bolero?  It can be clothing (a short jacket with long sleeves AKA a shrug), a dance, orchestral or rock or Latin music. Whatever its form, none of it is original and - depending on who is saying - if it's music, either all or none of it is stolen.

It started with a type of dance originating in the late 1700s in Spain.  Since then, from classical music to rock, the bolero form has been created by Ravel (originally as a ballet in 1928), Chopin, Debussy, Saint-Saëns, and in modern times by Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Emerson Lake & Palmer and Santana – not to mention Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page in the famous Beck’s Bolero.

Often imitated – of course!

Variations on a theme are a time-honored tradition in music and the other arts.  This is because everything in human culture is built on the past achievements of others, on the shoulders of not only the giants, like those mentioned above, but also on the everyday business of normal human life.  The doings of giants are just easier to notice.

Human culture – language, the arts, science, the whole of life – is extraordinarily different today from what it was back in the day of the caveman, but the changes that got us here are not unlike the kids’ game of crack the whip:  We hold hands, we spin around and the last person is shot like a spear off into the unknown.  

So, too, the dreamers and innovators of humanity are shot off into the unknown at the end of a long chain of what has gone before them.  That means that while there has always had to be a first person to make something, whatever was created was not created in a vacuum of human achievement.  Anything that so totally new as to be unrelated to anything else would be, essentially, unrecognized, since humans (like other species) are so heavily reliant on pattern recognition to interpret what they experience that if there is no pattern to recognize, then what has been produced is… nothing.


Tricky balance

Musical advances provide a good example:  New music that is not built on the tones, rhythms and other sound qualities we already know is simply perceived as noise.  We are incapable of recognizing music until we can identify the patterns of it, and we can’t recognize the patterns until we are familiar with them.

Jimmy Page, from his very first work, has been known for his musical innovation, yet even he cannot create unexpected melodies and harmonies that are too far outside the familiar musical framework.  Too far is just too far.

Thus there is no true ripping off of musicians by musicians:  The notion of total musical originality is a fantasy, and the idea that music must be that way is a concept developed by the economics of the music industry, not by the musicians.

Musicians must stand on the shoulders of the giants who have gone before them at the same time they create new music.  The successful incremental innovations are those that achieve the tricky balance between the familiarly old and the outrageously new.  We understand the world – and beyond – through creating new patterns, and it is the joy and embracing of the unexpected within familiar frameworks that leads us to personal and cultural transformation.


♪

Note: This is the post promised at the end of  Mage Music 12: Whence Magic and is a bonus post for August 5, 2012.


♫

YouTube Playlist -  Bolero

Individual songs:

Ravel Bolero 1928 London Symphony Orchestra
Roy Orbison  Running Scared 1961 Orbison fans claim Becks Bolero “stole” its distinctive sound - yet look at the transcript of Ravel's Bolero, below
Jeff Beck Group  Becks Bolero  1967
Beck's Bolero Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2009



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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 
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Thursday, August 2, 2012

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 
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Sunday, July 29, 2012

Mage Music: Whence Magick?

It was a very successful experiment.
-           Jimmy Page, Guitar World, 1993

Mage Music 12
How magical to get to use the word “whence” – never did I imagine I’d ever have reason to use it, but “Where Does Magic Come From?” is such a boring title for a blog post, don’t you think?

♪

Last week on the official JimmyPage Facebook page, Sara said she can’t listen to more than one version of Tea For One or any Led Zeppelin song one after another because they are so intense she feels like they would stop her heart - she said she has to pace herself. It’s easy to feel that way about such powerful music. For me it’s particularly tough when I first begin to hear a Led Zeppelin song. Like Sara I feel that the act of listening could cause my heart to falter, my blood to cease to circulate, my lungs to be unable to take in oxygen ever again. That’s intense!

Intense… but not mundane.
What we’re reacting to isn't just ordinary music - there's plenty of music out in the world that's really great but it doesn't make anyone feel like they're having a near-death experience.  What we're reacting to is pure Power, and so much of the stuff that it feels like it is too much for a merely physical human being to withstand. Power... but not mundane. It's Magickal Power.

So where does this Magickal Power come from? And how is it that Mage Musicians can not only withstand the Power, but do so performance after performance?

Whence?
Magick doesn't come from the Mage - let's get that straight. And so sorry, but Magick isn't a Super Power either.

Magick is a process that the Mage is a part of.

The process of Magick involves the Mage's engaging with and essentially becoming an active component of the evolution of the Universal Energy (you could call it Magickal Energy, Source, Great Spirit or just plain Power if you prefer) that everything that exists is made of, in order to bring about some change in the Mage's reality.

Desire, focus and ritual (conscious choice, will and action) bring about alignment with the Universal Energy that manifests as the change the Mage seeks. If the Mage fails in any part of the process, the whole process will fail. Failure means that something else will happen.  It could be good, bad or ugly - once the Mage falls out of alignment something will still happen, but it's the Universe, not the Mage, that "decides" what will happen.  

The Paradox of Control
The process of Magick is about control – having it and letting it go. The Mage has to have absolute control - not over other people or over things, but control of Self: Control of the Mage's own mind, thoughts, emotions and physical body. There needs to be so much control that the Mage can let it go; the goal is to move beyond it to as pure a state of simply being as possible.

In other words, the Mage's goal is to have no control of the process, of the Magick, at all.

This seemingly contradictory state of absolute control and absolute lack of control is like meditation - except that the Buddha had it easy: A Mage can’t do sitting meditation but must be able to perform the Magickal rituals while in the meditative state; a Mage Musician has to play a musical instrument while holding a pure state of being!

And to top it all, the Mage must also let the Power that results in the change in the Mage's reality do what it will.

To maintain sufficient control while giving Self to the music and the Magick and letting them manifest as they will is another seeming contradictory state of no will and free will, of control and no control. This is the true choice that a Mage makes: Choosing the end, then allowing the journey to happen; abandoning Self to the journey, trusting/knowing/believing that it will all come out the way it needs to; controlling to perfection and then letting it go… this is the choice that is made to allow the Power to pass through the Mage and into the Music, and it is the choice that means the Mage Musician is not burned out by the Magick.

A Mage Musician is a pure crystal lens that channels light without interference. No matter how strong the light, the lens is unharmed by it, but oh, beware when you are in the focus of that light! We mere mortal listeners to Mage Music risk frying our souls unless we, too, open ourselves and become lenses that pass the Light  through.


♪


Future post:
Comments on Jimmy Page's playing a bit of Beck's Bolero in How Many More Times


♫


Playlist for 07/29 post: How Many More Times
Please listen to these selections while contemplating what a Mage Musician is actually doing as he channels the Magick. 



Mage Music 12 Full Playlist on YouTube

Individual song versions:

Led Zeppelin Studio - Led Zeppelin 1969
Page & Plant Live Shepherds Bush Empire, London 1998 (How Many More Times begins at 7:00)
 

Links to other versions are appreciated.
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