On this day 20 October

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

• 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 
• 2020 Jimmy Page: The Anthology released worldwide

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:

JP's website says 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: 

The $25,000 proceeds from the world premiere of The Song Remains The Same (TSRTS) that went to the Save the Children Foundation would be $135,000 in today's dollars. 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

2020

From JP's website: "Jimmy Page: The Anthology*. Both reflective and revealing, it is quite simply the legendary musician’s most comprehensive and fascinating account of his life to date."

*As an Amazon Associate, I earn a teeny tiny commission from qualifying purchases.

♪

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

On this day 19 October

Jimmy Page instrumentals are The Best!

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:as The Yardbirds

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  as The Yardbirds
It might come as a surprise to some, but Robert Plant can play musical instruments as well as sing. You might know about the harmonica, but there's a rumor he played a bit of bass on one of the earlier albums. I haven't tracked it down but if you know, please share!

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)

♪

♪  Jimmy Page/Outrider Tour (Cleveland OH at Cleveland Public Hall, 19 October 1988) 
♪  Page & Plant/Unledded Tour (Buffalo NY at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, 19 October 1995) 

♪ Soundcheck, Greek Theater day 2 

♪ Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes ( Los Angeles CA at The Greek Theatre (day 2), 19 October 1999)

On this day 18 October

Under construction.

Thank you for your patience.

SMILE!

 

On this day 17 October

Eleven months...

1969 17 October On This Day Led Zeppelin at Carnegie Hall (2 shows)

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - New York at Carnegie Hall (2 Shows: 8:30pm and 12:00 midnight)
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Chicago, IL at UIC Pavilion

1969:
Eleven months. That's all it took for Led Zeppelin to go from embryo to Carnegie Hall. No rock band had played that venue since the Rolling Stones, five years prior, when rock performances were banned after a riot at the Stones' show. But Led Zeppelin had shot into the stratosphere like a SpaceX rocket and could not be denied.

Two performances that night, the second starting at midnight. Donovan was at Madison Square Garden that night, a sold-out show. Led Zeppelin tickets had been sold out for weeks and were being scalped at twice the box office price.

"This performance makes me realize we can be bigger than The Beatles and the Stones," Peter Grant told Richard Cole shortly after.
~ Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, Dave Lewis 2005

"Travelling en mass, we managed to miss our plane out of Heathrow, so we caught the next available flight which got us into New York just a few hours before we were due to play this prestigious venue.  Nevertheless, we played a blinding concert but this was the one and only time we ever got to play Carnegie Hall."

~ Jimmy Page

1969 Led Zeppelin at Carnegie Hall

1969 Led Zeppelin at Carnegie Hall

1969 17 October On This Day background image

1988

Jimmy Page was 44 years old. Outrider was his first solo album, and it was not received well. People were stuck in the Led Zeppelin rut and couldn't seem to hear Jimmy Page if Robert Plant wasn't singing. Reviewers constantly lamented that Jimmy Page wasn't Led Zeppelin anymore.

And yet... in Chicago JP  took 15 minutes to speak "through his guitar deliberately, angrily and with enough raunch to electrify the crowd", according to the Chicago Tribune's lukewarm review. The Trib reviewer noted that the band didn't show strength as a unit, which of course was Led Zeppelin excelled at as no other band has, the whole of them being greater than the sum of its parts (Aristotle).

Today, those who revere Jimmy Page, the mage musician, do appreciate Outrider for its glorious guitar work, if not for the band.

2012:
43 years after Carnegie Hall, Jimmy Page was in Japan promoting the remasters, which had reached top ten on the charts once again. JP was talking about working in his studio, but sadly we haven't gotten to hear any of it yet.

2012 Jimmy Page in Japan (Ross Halfin photo)

♪

♪  Led Zeppelin (New York NY at Carnegie Hall - first show, 17 October 1969)
♪  Jimmy Page/Outrider Tour (Chicago IL at UIC Pavilion, 17 October 1988)

On this day 16 October

 Awards, guest guitarists, and a toast

chris robinson video link

1999 16 October setlist

• 1970 Led Zeppelin receive Gold and Platinum disc awards at London’s Savoy Hotel
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Bloomington, MN at Metropolitan Sports Center
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Cleveland, OH at Gund Arena
• 1999 Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes - Worcester, MA at The Centrum Center 

1970:
For the second time in less than 12 months, Led Zeppelin received awards for record sales. On this day, Peter Grant, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant received Gold and Platinum disc awards from Anthony Grant (no relation to Peter Grant), the British Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade. The awards were for U.S. sales in excess of one million copies of Whole Lotta Love and for European sales of Led Zeppelin II, released in December 1969.

The previous year the boys had been awarded gold discs by a different parliamentary secretary, Gwyneth Dunwoody, who quipped, "you seem to be gas rockets rather than Led Zeppelins".

She was wrong. Led Zeppelin was beyond rockets by that point. They had already achieved warp speed.

1970 Led Zeppelin receive gold, platinum discs

1970 Led Zeppelin receive gold, platinum discs from Anthony Grant, UK parliamentary secretary for Board of Trade

1999:
In the video of Chris Robinson talking about working with Jimmy Page, Robinson says:  "Jimmy had done his thing with Robert and the Egyptian orchestra and stuff, but I don't think he maybe was fully satisfied with that..."

See?  I'm not the only one who thinks so.

On this day in 1999, Joe Perry showed up on stage to join in with the encore numbers, You Shook Me and Oh Well.  It wasn't the first time, but it's always special.

2012 Jimmy Page with Ian Hunter at Mott the Hoople film premiere (Ross Halfin photo)

♪

♪ Jimmy Page Outrider Tour (Bloomington, MN at Metropolitan Sports Center, 16 October 1988)
♪  Page & Plant (Cleveland OH at Gund Arena, 16 October 1995) 

♪  Jimmy Page/The Black Crowes (Worcester MA at Centrum Center, 16 October 1999)

♫  Chris Robinson on playing with Jimmy Page

On this day 15 October

Jimmy and friends fooling around

1994 15 October On This Day Page & Plant press conference, Paris

• 1974 Jimmy Page records Scarlet at Island Records (released 2020)
• 1994 Page & Plant – press conference, Paris at Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione
• 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour – Detroit at Palace of Auburn Hills
• 2012 Jimmy Page – Tokyo, Celebration Day movie premiere

1974:
The elusive Scarlet. Led Zeppelin was on a 18 month sabbatical, so Jimmy Page, Keith Richards (yes, the same Keith Richards who claimed for many years that he didn't love Jimmy Page's music), Ian Stewart (the "Stu" of Boogie With Stu), Rick Grech and Bruce Rowland recorded a song on this day in 1974..

Rick Grech (1946-1991), a bassist and violinist, had been wit Eric Clapton's one-shot band, Blind Faith, in 1969 (with Steve Winwood and Ginger Baker). He was later with Traffic and then performed with various groups that did or did not put out albums but that were the movers and shakers of the music world at that time.

Drummer and songwriter Bruce Rowland (1971-2015), was best known for his work with The Grease Band (Joe Cocker's backing band) and Fairport Convention. He also drummed for Ronnie Lane.

In Cameron Crowe's famous interview of 1975 for Rolling Stone, Jimmy Page said about Scarlet, "It was Rick Grech, Keith and me doing a number called "Scarlet." I can't remember the drummer. It sounded very similar in style and mood to those Blonde on Blonde tracks. It was great, really good. We stayed up all night and went down to Island Studios where Keith put some reggae guitars over one section. I just put some solos on it, but it was eight in the morning of the next day before I did that."

The "staying up all night" took place at Ron Wood's house, The Wick, which Wood sold to Pete Townshend in 1996. Island Studios (now called Basing Street Studios) is where Led Zeppelin IV was recorded in 1970. Jimmy Page would know the place well.  An Ian Stewart blogger says the recording took place at Olympic Studios, but every other source supports Island Studios. I do wonder, though, why they didn't just record it at The Wick, since Ron Wood had built a studio in the basement where he recorded his two solo albums, and where the Stones' single version of It's Only Rock 'n Roll was originally recorded. A fascinating point of Jimmy Page's history that we likely will never know the actual facts of.

But the recording studio isn't what we really want to know about. What we want to know is why it was called Scarlet ("our" Scarlet was just three years old back then), how Jimmy Page ended up hanging out with the other boys all night long, why it's a Rolling Stones song, and why it took so long to eventually be released in 2020 on the Stones' Goats Head Soup album..


1994

1994 Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, Paris press conference

1994 Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, Paris press conference

2012

2012 "Mr. Jimmy" Sakurai and the Original

2012 Jimmy Page, Tokyo, for Celebration Day movie premiere (Ross Halfin photo)

♪

♪ Scarlet (Rolling Stones feat. Jimmy Page, Goats Head Soup, recorded October 1974)
♫ Page & Plant press conference, Paris at Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione, 15 October 1994
♪  Page & Plant Unledded Tour (Detroit at Palace of Auburn Hills, 15 October 1995)

On this day 14 October

 Jimmy Page Jimmy Page.  Can't get me enough Jimmy Page.

On this day on jimmypage.com 2023

2014 14 October On This Day Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page open edition released

• 1966 The Yardbirds- Blowup scene filmed in London, England at Elstree Film Studios
• 1967 The Yardbirds - Cocoa Beach, FL, Fisher Park & Melbourne, FL at unknown venue
• 1988 Jimmy Page Outrider Tour - Kansas City, KS at Memorial Hall
• 1994 Page & Plant - No Quarter released
• 1999 Jimmy Page - The Black Crowes - New York,NY at Roseland Theater (day 3)
• 2014 Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page, open edition released 

1966:
The Yardbirds performed Stroll On in Michelangelo Antonioni's movie, Blowup, though they weren't the director's first choice. Steve Howe, the late guitarist for Yes and at the time with a band called Tomorrow (a.k.a The in Crowd) later told Pete Frame in Frame's book, Complete Rock Family Trees (1993), "We went on the set and started preparing for that guitar-smashing scene in the club. They even went as far as making up a bunch of Gibson 175 replicas ... and then we got dropped for The Yardbirds, who were a bigger name. That's why you see Jeff Beck smashing my guitar rather than his!"

Antonioni had wanted The Who for Blowup. If he couldn't have Pete Townshend, he still wanted the guitar-smashing routine. Ironically, although that scene was staged, Beck's violent temper-tantrums onstage would contribute to his leaving The Yardbirds less than two years later.

1966 Jimmy Page with The Yardbirds in Blowup

1988:
"We're going to do tunes from the past, the very distant past, the present and the future." Jimmy Page said at the Kansas City show.

At one point a sweat soaked Page raised the body of his guitar for all to see. Then he kissed it. The image shared significance with that of the Greek Olympian of antiquity, who would ceremoniously place the wreath of victory on his own head.
~ Kansas City Star, by Brian McTavish 10/16/88

1988 Outrider poster for Kansas City gig

1994:
No Quarter: Unledded. Robert Plant's project. I will say no more.

1994 No Quarter:Unledded promo poster

2014:
On this day the open edition of Jimmy Page's pictorial autobiography was released*.

From his website:  "Jimmy has chosen every one of the 650 photographs. There are many rare finds, such as Led Zeppelin playing an impromptu gig in a nightclub in Jersey, or double-exposure shots of Jimmy and Brian Jones by Ian Stewart. Jimmy chose one of his favourite portrait shots for the book cover: a 1977 passport photo, shot by Neal Preston on board Led Zeppelin's private tour plane."

Back in 2014 I couldn't afford an autographed copy, so I got the open (unsigned, ordinary) edition. More thoughts on the book from a blog post in 2014.

2014 Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page

♪

♪  Blowup (Yardbirds scene, 1966) YouTube

♪  Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes (New York NY at Roseland Ballroom day 3, 14 October 1999)

Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page, Amazon

*Note: I get teensy tiny commissions for purchases made through links in this post but the commissions are NOT added to the listed price.