On This Day 23 October

The song remains...

1966 23 October On This Day The Yardbirds San Francisco at Fillmore Auditorium

1966 The Yardbirds - San Francisco, CA at Fillmore Auditorium
1976 Led Zeppelin – TSRTS promo, US television debut on Don Kirshner's Rock Show
1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Boston, MA at Fleet Center

1966 The Yardbirds San Francisco at Fillmore Auditorium
(Gordon Linden photo)

1966:

Ed Denson (Berkeley Barb, 28 October 1966):

'Eleven amplifiers, eleven amplifiers, the Yardbirds have 11 amplifiers, Jesus Christ -- the words seemed to spring from the air in the Fillmore last Sunday as the other groups on the afternoon show waited for the Yardbirds, the stars, and the amplifiers, and their equipment to arrive. Standel advertises that 10 of theirs have the power to kill anyone standing in front of them ... [The Yardbirds'] first note reveals the meaning of the eleven amplifiers. The guitar has a power, a fullness of tone, a depth that has not been often heard outside a recording studio. The sound moves out of the three amplifiers and possesses you, driving the normal impulses out of your nervous system and replacing them with music. But not a music that you've ever heard before. It has the textures and rhythms of Chicago blues, like almost all rock now, but as they play the bass player turns his body so that his instrument is facing the 27 square feet of amplifier and speakers that stand behind him, taller than he, and the feedback tones fill the room with a sound more powerful than anything before it, and touching more on what is happening, and then the lead guitarist goes into an incredible distorted nm with notes and feedback blending into a beautiful new sound ... No other group has been as close to it as the Yardbirds --Beatles, Stones forget it. At the back of the hall it is too loud, muddy, much of it inaudible and the sound system has utterly failed to match the eleven amplifiers. Not a word can be heard.... I am convinced, I am converted, the Yardbirds are the best group in the world. It took a day to come down from that idea. After it was over I watched them leave, clear smiles on their faces and plane schedules on their minds, and I remembered what they had done to my favorite music, and how my mind ached with the glory of today [but] all the songs sounded the same ... They don't have the variety or didn't choose to on stage that day. Like Butterfield they did one thing, and really well.'

1976: 

Don Kirshner’s Rock Show website says that the TSRTS footage was aired on 29 September 1976. I tend to doubt that. Given that the movie hadn’t been released yet and Swan Song’s news release was dated October 15, I’m going with the 23 October 1976 date.

"Although they never appeared live on the show, footage from Zeppelin’s 1976 film, The Song Remains the Same, was aired on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert on September 29, 1976.  Featured selects included performances of “Rock and Roll”, “Bring It On Home”, “Wear Flowers In Your Hair”, “Black Dog”, and “Dazed and Confused.”  The astounding 25 minute performance of “Dazed and Confused” showcased some of the band’s wildest stage antics, particularly Jimmy Page’s technique with a violin bow. " 

1976 Swan Song press release for TSRTS

Jimmy Page playing Stairway To Heaven, from the TSRTS movie

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♪  Stairway To Heaven (Led Zeppelin, from TSRTS movie 1976) YouTube

♪  Full set (Page & Plant, Boston 1995) YouTube

Jimmy Page biography by Martin Power (2016)

Chris Charlesworth on the forthcoming Jimmy Page biography by Martin Power:
Via Dave Lewis

Here’s a piece via Chris Charlesworth’s excellent Just Backdated blog about the forthcoming Jimmy Page biography by Martin Power – due out via Omnibus next year. I met with Martin a few months back to discuss the book – he is very thorough on the music and his credentials include the much acclaimed Jeff Beck book Hot Wired Guitar -The Life of Jeff Beck.

Over to Chris:

While editing the early chapters of a forthcoming biography of Jimmy Page this week, three of which are devoted to his work as a session player between 1963 and 1966, my attention was drawn to the guitar playing on ‘My Baby Left Me’ by Dave Berry and ‘Leave My Kitten Alone’ by First Gear, just two examples of the casual brilliance Jimmy brought to records that weren’t even hits. Guitar playing like this certainly hadn’t appeared on records by The Beatles or Rolling Stones up to this point.

Of ‘My Baby Left Me’, author Martin Power writes: “Alongside the likes of drummer Bobby Graham, bassist Alan Niven and, on occasion, legendary big band trombonist Don Lusher, Jimmy Page and Big Jim Sullivan helped form the crack team that Dave Berry had dreamed of. By the autumn of 1963, some of them had also cut Berry’s own favourite of all his studio recordings, a sterling cover of Elvis’ ‘My Baby Left Me’. ‘Yep, that’s the one I’d like to be known for,’ he said ‘Nothing like the Arthur Crudup original, nothing like Elvis, just our own version of the song. Jimmy Page on lead guitar, Alan Niven on slap bass – there were actually two basses on that, you know. But yes, a good song. I’m happy with that and really glad Jimmy was on it.’ Page was actually all over it. Providing a master class in snappy riffs and clattering chords throughout the verse and chorus before letting fly with a quite superb solo, Jimmy took Berry’s already spirited reading of ‘My Baby Left Me’ to another level.  ‘I remember the great solo that Jimmy did on that session,’ Sullivan later recalled. ‘It’s one of the best constructed rock solos on record.’”

Here’s a link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqL71rZjb2s

Of ‘Leave My Kitten Alone’, Martin writes: “Page’s performance on First Gear’s ‘Leave My Kitten Alone’ must surely rank as one of the finer guitar solos of the sixties. Signed to Pye records and managed/produced by Shel Talmy, First Gear were at the time tipped for big things, their North eastern cocktail of Elvis-style rock’n’roll and Mersey-approved beat pop as gritty, energetic and potentially promising as Van Morrison’s Them. With Talmy at the helm, the band entered the studio in the autumn of 1964 to record a single version of Ernie K-Doe’s ‘A Certain Girl’. In itself no slouch, ‘A Certain Girl’ motored along nicely on the back of lead singer Dave Walton’s behind-the-beat falsetto, some pleasing female backing vocals and Jimmy’s countrified string bends.

“But it was when First Gear and Page ran through the B-side, a cover of Little Willie John’s ‘Leave My Kitten Alone’ that Shel Talmy’s interest was truly peaked.  ‘Jimmy was about 18, 19 at the time, with bushy black hair, and very quiet,’ Dave Wilton recalled to the BBC. ‘But then he did this off the cuff, lightning guitar break on ‘Leave My Kitten…’. Well, Shel came racing down from the control room and said, ‘What did just you do to get that!’ So, he (told) Jimmy he was going to take it again. First take, Jimmy played it note-for-note perfectly.’ The resultant solo really was a thing of beauty. All twists, turns and racing speed pick work, Page’s contribution to ‘… Alone’ distilled all he had learnt from James Burton, Scotty Moore and Buddy Guy into just 23 seconds. Yet, there was also something else that was utterly distinctive and unique. At the start of his solo intrusion, Page’s guitar actually sounded like it was riding a wave of electricity. No distinct notes per se, more a wash of undulating sound. Quite unlike anything else Jimmy (or anybody else) had recorded up to that point, it was the first real pointer of where Page’s muse would take him in later years.”

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezPQBv32kBo

The book, entitled No Quarter: The Three Lives Of Jimmy Page, will be published in the spring of next year. Updates on its progress and further extracts will appear on Just Backdated over the next few months.

Chris’s blog link:

http://www.justbackdated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/jimmy-page-session-man.html

Mage Music note:  Chris tells me that the biography is not authorized by Jimmy Page.

On This Day 22 October

Whole lotta lotta.

1969 22 October On This Day Led Zeppelin II released
♪ Whole Lotta Love (SoundCloud)

• 1966 The Yardbirds - Westport, CT at Staples High School Auditorium
• 1967 The Yardbirds - Wichita, KS at Cotillion Club
• 1969 Led Zeppelin II released
• 1976 Led Zeppelin - Los Angeles at Fox Wilshire, premier of The Song Remains The Same 
• 1988 Jimmy Page - Outrider Tour - Detroit, MI at Joe Louis Arena
• 1997 Led Zeppelin releases Whole Lotta Love as a single in the UK 
• 2014 Jimmy Page - London at Paul Smith Led Zeppelin Limited Edition Scarves launch 

1976:

There is conflicting information about the exact dates of the Led Zeppelin premieres in New York and Los Angeles. Some say October 19 and 21, respectively, and others - including Dave Lewis - say October 20 and 22. I'm going with Dave.

1976 The Song Remains The Same movie premiere, LA

1976 LA premiere of The Song Remains The Same

1988:
Jimmy Page just got better and better at interpreting Chopin's Prelude. It's the first song on the full set video for the Detroit show (playlist below).

1988 Jimmy Page, Outrider Tour, Detroit (Ben Roberts photo)

1997:

Whole Lotta Love was released as a single in the UK on this day - the first ever single released there. The occasion was the 30th anniversary of the band. The video is hot, hot, hot. 

If you'd never heard one Led Zeppelin song and this was your first, it would knock your socks off. For those of us who've been listening since day one, it was a reminder that every single Led Zeppelin song is a masterpiece in its own right.

2014:
Having met with fashion designer Paul Smith in Tokyo earlier this month in 2014, on this day Jimmy Page attended the launch of the Paul Smith Led Zeppelin scarf line in London.

2014 Paul Smith & Jimmy Page in London

2015:
More and more movies are using Led Zeppelin songs in their trailers and as part of their soundtracks. I've included a trailer for The Big Short, to be released this December.  When The Levee Breaks is the music for the trailer.

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♪  Whole Lotta Love / promo (Led Zeppelin, 1969/1997) YouTube

♪  Full Set (Jimmy Page Outrider Tour, Detroit 1988) YouTube

♪  The Big Short (movie trailer 2015) YouTube

On This Day 21 October

Waiting for the Happenings One Year To Come.

1966 21 October On This Day Yardbirds Happenings Ten Years Time Ago

• 1966 The Yardbirds release Happenings Ten Years Time Ago 
• 1966 The Yardbirds - Worcester, MA at The Comic Strip
• 1967 The Yardbirds - Dallas, TX at Studio Club
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Dayton, OH at Hara Arena
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Hartford, CT at Hartford Civic Center

1966:

You might want to listen to Jimi Hendrix's House Burning Down right after listening to Happenings Ten Years Time Ago. Seems to me pretty clear that Jimi was influenced by Jimmy, or at least by The Yardbirds' song, which was released two years prior to Hendrix's.

Not saying if it's true it's a bad thing. Not saying anything about anyone "stealing" a song, either. To me it just shows once again how a great musician stands on the shoulders of the musicians before him (or her). 

2010 Jimmy Page on cover of October Lid Magazine

2010 October issue of Lid Magazine's Jimmy Page article

2010 Lid Magazine Jimmy Page article (Ross Halfin photo, right)

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♪  Happenings Ten Years Time Ago (The Yardbirds 1966) YouTube
♪  House Burning Down (Jimi Hendrix, 1968) YouTube
♪  Emerald Eyes (Jimmy Page, Dayton OH 1988) YouTube
♪  Black Dog (Page & Plant, Hartford CT 1995) YouTube

On This Day 20 October

"It’s a pity we hadn’t done a commercial for Mercedes."  Or Gibson.

1966 20 October On This Day The Yardbirds record for Great Shakes commercial

• 1966 The Yardbirds - London at IBC Studios to record for Great Shakes
• 1967 The Yardbirds - San Antonio, TX at Pusi-Kat Club
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Seattle, WA at Seattle Paramount Theatre (unconfirmed)
• 1976 Led Zeppelin - New York City at Cinema 1, premier of The Song Remains The Same 

1966:

Great Shakes was a General Foods product used to make milkshakes at home.  It included a shaker cup with lid, and a flavored powder to mix with milk.  The marketing was advanced for its time, and included one-minute radio spots recorded by the most popular bands of the day, generally reworks of existing songs. The commercials were released by Columbia Special Products on two volumes with four tracks each, as Great Shakes Shake-Out and Great Shakes Shake-Out 2.  A 1990s edition, Great Shaken' was also released (Mo-Donna EP), with the The Yardbirds' contribution, Over Under Sideways Down.  That EP also included a Pepsi song (by Stone Poneys) and a H.I.S. song (The Troggs).

The Who, The Byrds, Dusty Springfield and other musicians and bands from that era also did spots for Great Shakes.

1969:

Dave Lewis and others say Led Zeppelin performed at the Seattle Paramount Theater on this day, but I can find no confirmation of this - no setlist, no recordings, no photos, no promo, no ticket stubs.

1976: 

Proceeds from the world premiere of The Song Remains The Same (TSRTS) went to the Save the Children Foundation.  The party thrown by Swan Song after the premiere was attended by Ahmet Ertegun (in a neck brace), Mick Jagger, Ron Wood and Linda Ronstadt, among others. 

1976 Jimmy Page at The Song Remains The Same movie premiere, New York City

1976 Jimmy Page at The Song Remains The Same movie premiere, New York City

The Song Remains the Same

In The Song Remains The Same movie Jimmy Page's fantasy sequence opens with him sitting on the lawn overlooking the moat that surrounds his Plumpton Place manor. He climbs up a mountain near his Boleskine House on Loch Ness in Scotland during the nights of a full moon. He seeks the Hermit, which turns out to be himself. The music that accompanies this is a monumental and powerful bow sequence of Dazed and Confused.

The Hermit, according to most tarot traditions, represents the turning away from the outer world and tuning in to the inner life, in order to search for a deeper, higher reality. The tarot card stands not just for seeking, but for maintaining independence as well as guiding others to the higher knowledge.

The image of the hermit with the lantern is based on Diogenes, the Greek ascetic, who was searching for an honest man - a metaphor for searching for higher truth. That depiction of Diogenes, in turn, could well be based on the Greco-Roman understanding of the Celtic Druid, described by Julius Caesar as highly educated and powerful priests who believed in the immortality of the soul and the transmigration of it into other lives (reincarnation). In modern-day illustrations Druids are often depicted as carrying a staff and a light.

According to the Thoth deck, designed by Aleister Crowley, the Hermit is also the Lord of Time whose lantern shines the light of his wisdom and who leans on the staff of his experience.

Lucifer, bringer of light.

Had Jimmy Page been exposed to a different culture, he might have portrayed himself as a shaman, who uses altered states of consciousness to access and interact with the energies of other planes of reality, and to channel those energies into this world.

Give the man a guitar, after all, and that's what he does.

Jimmy Page, The Song Remains The Same

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♪  Great Shakes Commercial (the Yardbirds, 1966) YouTube
♪  TSRTS movie trailer (Led Zeppelin 1976) YouTube
♪  Dazed and Confused (Led Zeppelin, The Song Remains the Same 1976) YouTube

On This Day 19 October

It's good, isn't it?

1988 19 October On This Day Jimmy Page Outrider Tour, Cleveland
♪  Emerald Eyes (Jimmy Page, Cleveland 1988) 

• 1966 The Yardbirds – Top of the Pops, Elstree, England at Elstree for 17 November broadcast
• 1968 Led Zeppelin - Liverpool, England at University of Liverpool (as The Yardbirds)
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Chicago, IL at Kinetic Playground (two shows)
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Cleveland, OH at Cleveland Public Hall
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Buffalo, NY at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium
• 1999 Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes - Los Angeles, CA at The Greek Theatre (day 2)

1966:

Top of the Pops (TOTP) was a BBC music show broadcast from 1964 to 2006. Each show featured the top bands of the week and ran down the music of the charts. While the show no longer exists as a weekly program, a special edition.is broadcast on Christmas Day and a weekly show airs performances from the BBC archives of the 1970s and 1980s.

A sample from Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love was used as the TOTP theme music for much of the 1970s, and from May 1998 to November 2003 a cover version was used.

1968:
Still The Yardbirds? Robert Plant on bass?

1968 clipping about "Yardbirds" with Robert Plant on bass

1988 Jimmy Page, Outrider, Cleveland

2014 Jimmy Page on cover of November Classic Rock Magazine (Ross Halfin photo)

2014 Jimmy Page, November Classic Rock Magazine (Ross Halfin photo)

2016:

"My new solo album? It's good, isn't it?"

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♪  Emerald Eyes (Jimmy Page, Cleveland 1988) YouTube
♪  Full set (part 1)  (Jimmy Page, Cleveland 1988) YouTube
♪  Full set (part 2)  (Jimmy Page, Cleveland 1988) YouTube
♪  Full set (Page & Plant, Buffalo 1995) YouTube

On This Day 18 October

Celebration Day is any day Jimmy Page is playing his guitar

On This Day published 18 October 2020

1999 18 October On This Day - Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes, Greek Theatre (day 1)
posted pre-2020

• 1968 Led Zeppelin - London, England at Marquee Club (as The Yardbirds)
• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Detroit, MI at Olympia Stadium
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Montreal, Canada at Montreal Forum
• 1999 Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes - Los Angeles, CA at Greek Theatre (day 1) 

1968 Led Zeppelin - London, England at Marquee Club (as The Yardbirds)

1969 Led Zeppelin - Detroit, MI at Olympia Stadium (Getty Images)

1969 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin - Detroit, MI at Olympia Stadium (Getty Images)

1999:
Jimmy Page and The Black Crowes played two nights at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.  While the set-lists included songs from both, the double CD released didn't include any of The Black Crowes' material due to contractual constraints.  No loss, far as I'm concerned.  Jimmy Page's contribution to the partnership was more valuable to the band than their musical contribution was to him. He raised them up, not the other way around. Don't get me wrong - The Black Crowes put out some good music - Jimmy Page wouldn't have toured and recorded with them otherwise - but they were reaching hard to keep up.

Still, you can hear that Jimmy Page was having fun. That's worth a lot right there.

The double CD was released by TVT Records nearly a year later, with a different track order than the concert setlist.  It included a bonus extra song, a video, and still shots of the Greek Theatre performances.  A Japanese version of the album includes Misty Mountain Hop and In the Light, recorded in 2000.

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♪  Full set (Page & Plant, Montreal, 1995) YouTube

♪  Celebration Day (Jimmy Page/The Black Crowes Live at The Greek 18 October 1999) YouTube

♫  Mat Snow review (text from On This Day)