On This Day 19 September

Jimmy Page, from sea to shining sea

1998 19 September On This Day Page & Plant at Hollywood Bowl

♪  The Window (Page & Plant 1998) Soundcloud

• 1970 Led Zeppelin - New York, NY at Madison Square Garden- 2 Shows
• 1998 Page & Plant - Hollywood, CA at Hollywood Bowl

1970:

A little over one year from their first concert, Led Zeppelin not only was the only act on the bill, the band was booked for two shows in a row at Madison Square Garden.  At both shows Robert Plant spoke about the death of Jimi Hendrix on the previous day.

Jimi Hendrix death announcement by Robert Plant at MSG 

1970 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin at MSG

1998:

Most High is from the studio album Walking into Clarksdale, released through Atlantic Records in 1998. By May 1998 it reached #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. In 1999, the song won a Grammy for Page and Plant for Best Hard Rock Performance. Most High was released as a single. To me the real winner is the song on the B side, The Window.

Text from 19 September On This Day

1998 Hollywood Bowl setlist

2015:

A little fun at jimmypage.com today, with an interactive image. I've posted a few views from it for you, though none of them contain Jimmy Page or Robert Plant.

♪

♪  What Is and What Should Never Be (Led Zeppelin, MSG 1970) YouTube

♪  Full set (Page & Plant, Hollywood 1998) YouTube

♪  Most High (Page & Plant, Walking Into Clarksdale) YouTube

♪  The Window (Page & Plant, B-side of Most High single 1998) YouTube

On This Day 18 September

Firmly under control and Satisfaction Guaranteed

1984 18 September On This Day Jimmy Page with The Firm, Sol Studios

• 1970 Page/Plant press conference New York, Savoy Hotel
• 1984 Jimmy Page recording at Sol Studio with The Firm
• 1998 Page & Plant - Laguna Hills, CA at Irving Meadows Amphitheatre

1970:

In New York for the two Madison Square Garden sets the next day, on this day Jimmy Page and Robert Plant sat down for a press conference at their hotel.  

Interviewer: How does it feel to be number one?
Plant: A shock...
Page: We knew we were appreciated by the fact that people were coming to along to see us in such great vast numbers all over the place - England and the continent and wherever... but no one expected this.

Perhaps Robert Plant was shocked, but somehow I've got a suspicion that Jimmy Page had vast numbers of appreciative audience in mind all along.

On this day in 1970 - likely unbeknownst yet to Jimmy Page or Robert Plant or anyone at the conference given all the laughter - Jimi Hendrix, the extraordinary left-handed guitarist and musician, had died. Led Zeppelin never played more than a few phrases of any of Jimi Hendrix's body of work other than The Killing Floor (below). It's extraordinary how uniquely different the two takes are. For Led Zeppelin, that song morphed into The Lemon Song. For Jimi Hendrix The Killing Floor is one of many monuments to his incredible talent.  The original, of course, was by Howlin' Wolf, in 1964.

RIP Jimi Hendrix (27 November 1942 - 18 September 1970)

1984:
One of the fun things for me in doing the Mage Music blog is the research involved with each On This Day post. I enjoy the challenge of searching the internet and my many books and magazines to find what I'm looking for. The research requires sifting out facts from all the copy/paste inaccuracies and fuzzy memories, hunting down obscure references, and learning new tidbits that I hadn't come across before, which I then share with you, my readers.

Most of all, though, this labor of love means I get to listen to lots of music every day.

In seeking out the various songs and their live performance versions I'm forced to listen to music I might otherwise pass over. That's not an onerous task mind you.  Far from it, in fact.

For instance, I tend to relegate The Firm and Mean Business to the background of my musical preferences, rarely calling them up to listen to - but that's a mistake on my part. Listening only to absolute favorites means always listening to the same stuff. As wonderful as that seems, doing so reduces contrast - the light and shade that Jimmy Page has so often referred to over the years. It means losing the perception of musical nuances.

The funny thing about listening to less-favorite music, though, is that I wind up with new appreciation for it because of the greater listening experience that I bring to it. And like Magick, what was not-so-interesting is transformed to very cool stuff after all.

So yeah, I'm hearing both of the albums and The Firm's live performances with new ears. And I'm liking it.

Why shouldn't I? After all, it's Jimmy Page: Satisfaction's guaranteed.

1986 Jimmy Page with The Firm, New Orleans (Mark Bowman photo) 

♪

♪  The Killing Floor (Jimi Hendrix, Stockholm 1969)  YouTube
♪  The Killing Floor (Led Zeppelin, LA 1969) YouTube
♪  Full set (The Firm, Hammersmith Odeon 1984) YouTube
♪  Satisfaction Guaranteed (The Firm, promo video 1984) YouTube
Les Paul appearing as The Bartender; May Pang (John Lennon's former girlfriend) making a 2-second cameo appearance; and Jimmy Page hamming it up for the camera.


 

On This Day 17 September

"This is my invitation, I want to change your destination..."

~ Cadillac, from The Firm's Mean Business album

1984 17 September On This Day Jimmy Page with The Firm – finished recording Long Black Cadillac at The Sol

• 1968 Led Zeppelin - Malmo, Sweden at Folkets Park 
• 1971 Led Zeppelin - Honolulu, HI at Honolulu Civic Auditorium
• 1984 Jimmy Page with The Firm – finished recording Long Black Cadillac at The Sol
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Mesa, AZ at Mesa Amphitheatre
• 2013 Jimmy Page attends Queens of the Stone Age concert

1971 Led Zeppelin - Honolulu, HI at Honolulu Civic Auditorium (day 2)

1984:
Given the experience of all the members of Jimmy Page's band, The Firm, it's no wonder they were able to record songs in one take. Recorded and mixed at Jimmy Page's Sol Studios in Berkshire, England, Cadillac appeared on The Firm's second album released in 1986, Mean Business.  There, it is just plain Cadillac, not to be confused with various versions of The Long Black Cadillac performed by other artists, light-years different from The Firm's song. Jimmy Page's Cadillac is dark and dirty. Magick oozes from his guitar.

As far as that version of "Cadillac" goes, we were lucky to get it. Because it was a live number and you can't do that in a room with a couple of takes because it has to be alive...
~ Jimmy Page, Guitar World July 1986, page 87

The Firm and Mean Business never did take off, though they were decently high on the charts. People still were expecting the Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, when in fact there was - and is - much more to Jimmy Page than that. A shame, to be so blind to that lovely musical Magick.

2013 Jimmy Page backstage at Queens of the Stone Age (Ross Halfin photo)

2013 Jimmy Page with Josh Homme and Troy Van Leeuwen backstage at
Queens of the Stone Age concert (Ross Halfin photo)

2013 Jimmy Page and Troy Van Leeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age

♪

♪  Cadillac (Jimmy Page The Firm, Mean Business 1986) YouTube
♪  Cadillac (Jimmy Page The Firm, Birmingham England 1985) YouTube
♪  Full set (Jimmy Page Outrider Tour, Mesa 1988) YouTube

 

On This Day 16 September

Awards, weddings and an On This Day mystery.

1970 16 September On This Day Led Zeppelin awarded top Melody Maker poll spots
Melody Maker review 

• 1970 Led Zeppelin tops Melody Maker poll
• 1971 Led Zeppelin - Honolulu, Hawaii at Honolulu Civic Center
• 1978 Jimmy Page at weddings of Richard Cole & Tracy Heron-Weeber and Simon Kirke & Desiree Serino
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - El Paso, TX at Special Events Center
• 1998 Page & Plant - Denver, CO at Red Rocks Amphitheater

1970:
Just a year after their first shows, Led Zeppelin was topping the Melody Maker poll. All four band members plus Peter Grant attended the award ceremony at the Savoy Hotel in London. Led Zeppelin was number one Group, number one UK Album and number two International Album with Led Zeppelin II; Robert Plant was number one Male Singer; Jimmy page was number two in the guitar category.

1970 Led Zeppelin at Melody Maker Awards in London

1971:
Honolulu was hot and sticky, with an obnoxious audience. This first of two nights' shows got poor reviews. Still the best band on the planet.

1971 Honolulu - nice shot of Bonzo's kit (photo Robert Knight)

1971 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin in Honolulu

1978:
What an incredible collection of talented folks at this joint wedding celebration.

2013:
Here's the On This Day mystery.

2013 16 September On This Day post - Ofra Haza

Ofra Haza (1957 - 2000) was an Israeli singer, actress and international recording artist. Born in the slums of Tel Aviv, her music rose above political boundaries to reach a broad international audience. Haza received numerous platinum and gold discs and she performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo in 1994. 

In 1995 she covered Led Zeppelin's Kashmir on her album, Queen In Exile. The song appears twice on the album with different approaches.  Haza died of AIDS-related pneumonia, reportedly due to a blood transfusion in a Turkish hospital following a miscarriage. 

The mystery is why Jimmy Page posted this when he did. As far as I can tell, the date and the year are not connected to any specific event associated with Ofra Haza. Maybe someone else can tell me. Maybe Jimmy Page would be so kind as to contact me and let me know.

♪

♪  Kashmir (Ofra Haza, 1995) YouTube
♪  Kashmir (Ofra Haza, 1995) YouTube
♪  Full set (Page & Plant, Red Rocks 1998) Panicstream

 

On This Day 15 September

Jam Sandwich.  Yeah.

1981 15 September On This Day Jimmy Page records main title music for Death Wish II
♪  Synth Track (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II soundtrack) Soundcloud

• 1968 Led Zeppelin - Goteborg, Sweden at Liseberg Amusement Park (billed as The Yardbirds)
• 1981 Jimmy Page records main title music for Death Wish II
• 1998 Page & Plant - West Valley, UT at E Center

1968:

Still billed as Yardbirds.

1968 Led Zeppelin - Goteborg, Sweden at Liseberg Amusement Park

1981:
Death Wish II is a soundtrack album by Jimmy Page, released (vinyl) by Swan Song Records on 15 February 1982, to accompany the late Michael Winner's film Death Wish II. Recorded at Sol Studio in Berkshire, UK, it was the first major work Jimmy Page had done since John Bonham's death.  Session drummer Dave Mattacks, who had worked with Jimmy before Led Zeppelin and was friends with Bonzo, was the drummer for the soundtrack and worked with Jimmy Page at Page's Sol Studio.

  “I set up in the middle of this room. Jimmy set up a little guitar amplifier beside me initially; then at one point told me he was going to place the amp in another room. He told me, ‘I don’t want to ruin your drum sound’. I went, ‘You’re not ruining my sound; we’re working on this together’. I realized later on that he was using ambient room mics to make the drums louder and he didn’t want them to pick up the guitar; he wanted separation. He’d do a guide guitar track with me, sometimes replacing it or overdubbing numerous times…what John Paul Jones termed ‘the army’. Jimmy was using a lot of different amplifiers.
  “Jimmy had just gotten the Roland guitar synth and there were occasions he couldn’t reach all the pedals and controls, so he’d be overdubbing another pedal, helping him get all these bizarre sounds, which you can hear on the soundtrack."
  ~ Dave Mattacks, drummer for Death Wish II, interview by T Bruce Wittet, 2012

The soundtrack was released in CD format in 1999.  To mark its 30th anniversary Jimmy Page released a limited remastered vinyl edition on 1 December 2011, of 30 autographed copies and 1000 individually-numbered, non-autographed copies of the soundtrack.  This anniversary version included previously unreleased material, updated artwork and new sleeve notes.

Roger Ebert gave the movie a "no star" rating (awarded only to movies that he considered "artistically inept and morally repugnant").  He didn't mention the soundtrack in his review.  I've never seen the movie, but the music gets four stars from me.

Track identification log for "Synth Track" for Death Wish II

Jimmy Page in his Sol Studio, Berkshire UK, recording Death Wish II

♪

♪ Title music for Death Wish II (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II soundtrack 1982) YouTube
♪ Who's To Blame outtake  (Jimmy Page, 1982) YouTube
♪ City Sirens (Jimmy Page with Steve Winwood, Death Wish II soundtrack,  ARMS 1983) YouTube
♪ Jam Sandwich  (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II soundtrack 1982) YouTube
♪ Chopin's Prelude  (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II soundtrack 1982) YouTube
♪ Closing scenes and credits for Death Wish II (Jimmy Page, Death Wish II soundtrack 1982) YouTube


 

On This Day 14 September

If you're a friend of Jimmy Page's, you're a friend for life

1988 14 September On This Day Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Austin, TX at Frank Erwin Center
♪  How Come (Ronnie Lane) Soundcloud

• 1968 Led Zeppelin - Stockholm (Knivsta), Sweden at Angby Park
• 1971 Led Zeppelin - Berkeley, CA at Berkeley Community Center
• 1974 Jimmy Page & John Bonham with David Crosby, Neil Young, Graham Nash & Stephen Stills - St. James Place, London at Quaglino's Restaurant 
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Austin, TX at Frank Erwin Center

1974:

After the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Joni Mitchell show at Wembley in London, all four members of Led Zeppelin joined in at the party at Quaglino's Restaurant in St. James Place.  The in-house band was determined to be no good, so Young, Nash and Stills took the stage.  They were joined by Jimmy Page and John Bonham for a jam that included Vampire Blues and On The Beach. Supposedly Robert Plant also joined in on guitar and vocals. If there are recordings of the jam, I haven't come across them. If you have, please share!

1974 Neil Young, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills & Jimmy Page
jam at Quaglino's in London after CSNY concert at Wembley.   (Photo Joseph Stevens)

1988:
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Ronnie Lane was the driving force in the British bands the Small Faces and later, the Faces with Rod Stewart and Ron Wood. In 1973 he quit the Faces and formed his own band, Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance. They toured England in a caravan for a few years, playing in small towns like bards of old, complete with a circus tent, jugglers and clowns.

Lane also established a mobile studio after he left the Faces. Kashmir was recorded there. It was around this time that Lane was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, rendering him incapable of playing his instruments or singing. Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Joe Cocker, Steve Winwood and other musicians put together and performed the ARMS Tour in the UK and US in 1983 to raise awareness of MS and to promote a cure.  Lane died in 1997 from the disease.

1988 Jimmy Page with Bucks Burnett in Texas

1988 Jimmy Page with photographer Mark Bowman in Texas

2013 Jimmy Page with Bucks Burnett in London

♪

♪  Since I’ve Been Loving You (Led Zeppelin, Berkeley 14 September 1971) YouTube
♪ Dazed and Confused (Led Zeppelin, Berkeley CA 14th September 1971) YouTube
♪  Stairway To Heaven (Led Zeppelin, Berkeley 14 September 1971) YouTube

♪ Mess O' Blues (Led Zeppelin, Berkeley 14 September 1971) YouTube

♪  The Lemon Song (Led Zeppelin, Berkeley 14 September 1971) YouTube
♪  Who's To Blame (Jimmy Page Outrider Tour, Austin 1988) YouTube

On This Day 13 September

What's in a name?

~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

1971 13 September On This Day Led Zeppelin at Berkeley Community Theater

• 1968 Led Zeppelin - Stockholm, Sweden at Inside Club
• 1971 Led Zeppelin - Berkeley, CA at Berkeley Community Theatre

1968 Led Zeppelin at Inside Club, Stockholm (as Yardbirds - not even "new")

1968:

   “It has been up and down for the Yardbirds. A couple of years ago, they were on top. For a while, a lot of people thought that the Yardbirds would lead the developing English pop but their efforts led nowhere.
   The members changed and the Yardbirds currently touring Sweden have very little in common with the original line-up. It is not only the line-up that has changed. The style of music is different, as is the quality - only the name is the same.
   Friday night they played the Inside. They were so loud it almost hurt. Sometimes playing loud has an important role in pop, but here it was just superficial effect”.
~ Stockholm Daily News Press Review:  9.14.1968 (transcription:LZ The Press Reports, 1997)

The question is, would the review have been the same if the band billed as Yardbirds was already known by their proper name, Led Zeppelin, or even The New Yardbirds? Would the volume have been the only thing the reviewer managed to comment on?

1971:
"...loud, boisterous and very deafening..."  (Oakland Tribune)  Perhaps the problem was that Led Zeppelin was always meant to play humongous venues - to play to the world, not to a small crowd in a high school theater. Perhaps Berkeley was too cool for Led Zeppelin, too much in love with what they considered their own house band, the Grateful Dead. Whatever the reason, today it seems incredible that the audience was so unresponsive.

1971 Led Zeppelin, Berkeley (G Smith photo)

1971 Review of Led Zeppelin's Berkeley show

♪

♪  Immigrant Song  (Led Zeppelin, Berkeley 13 September 1971) YouTube
♪  Dazed and Confused  (Led Zeppelin, Berkeley 13 September 1971) YouTube
♪  Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin, Berkeley 13 September 1971) YouTube
♪  Celebration Day  (Led Zeppelin, Berkeley 13 September 1971) YouTube