On this day 08 February

UNDER CONSTRUCTION FOR WHO KNOWS HOW LONG. I'm working on another (time consuming) project that takes precedence. Note that info on this page has not been fully updated yet and links may not work properly. Thank you for your patience.

Please listen to the song. And I don't mean the "popular" version.

2009 08 February On This Day a Grammy for Please Read The Letter
AUDIO: Please Read The Letter (Soundcloud)

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Chicago at Kinetic Playground
• 1975 Led Zeppelin - Philadelphia at The Spectrum
• 1996 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Tokyo at Nippon Budokan 

1969 Led Zeppelin at Kinetic Playground, Chicago

1975 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at The Spectrum, Philadelphia

1996:

Jimmy Page kind of bumbled his way into the two songs I've linked to below from the Tokyo show on this day. As Robert Plant said, though, about Tea for One it wasn't a song that Led Zeppelin had every played live in its entirety, and it was the first time that Robert Plant had performed it with Jimmy Page on guitar. 

Back in 1976 when Tea for One was recorded for Presence, Robert Plant's leg was still in a cast. Two versions were recorded at that session, one with a guitar solo and one without. I'm soooo glad that the one with the solo is the one that ended up on the album.  

2009:
I've provided links below to two versions of Please Read the Letter.  I fail to see why the Plant/Krauss version was the one that got the acclaim, but then, I am into rock music not syrupy folk love songs. No accounting for taste.

2010 January Ross Halfin and Jimmy Page

♪

♪  Rain Song (Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy 1973/2014) 
♪  Rain Song (Page & Plant, Tokyo 08 February 1996) 
♪  Tea For One (Led Zeppelin, Presence 1976)  
♪  Tea For One  (Page & Plant, Tokyo 08 February 1996) 
♪  Please Read the Letter (Page & Plant, Walking into Clarksdale 1998) 
♪  Please Read the Letter (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss) 

♪ Led Zeppelin (Philadelphia at The Spectrum, 08 February 1975)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a31SIfygbfM&list=PLf62FjbXtD1JI5oPg0Xe4aZnxtokP5Xl-&index=95&pp=gAQBiAQB8AUB

♪ Page & Plant Unledded Tour (Tokyo at Nippon Budokan, 08 February 1996)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wr5_HJn7bw&list=PLf62FjbXtD1LDupHDsQYI3arCDZ2klemr&index=28&pp=gAQBiAQB8AUB

On this day 07 February

 UNDER CONSTRUCTION - working on another (time consuming) project that takes precedence. Note that info on this page has not been fully updated yet and links may not work properly. Thank you for your patience.

Best in show - any show anytime anyplace!

1975 07 February Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden

• 1969 Led Zeppelin - Chicago at Kinetic Playground (day 1 of 2)
• 1975 Led Zeppelin - New York City at Madison Square Garden (day 2 of 3) 

1969 Led Zeppelin at Kinetic Playground, Chicago

1975:
The three MSG shows were not on consecutive days but involved some traveling back and forth from other venues. Robert Plant was still fighting the flu.

1975 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden

1975 Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden

♪

♪  Rock and  Roll / Sick Again (Led Zeppelin MSG 07 February 1975) 
♪ Led Zeppelin (NYC at MSG, 07 February 1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXOF0698joU&list=PLf62FjbXtD1JI5oPg0Xe4aZnxtokP5Xl-&index=94&pp=gAQBiAQB8AUB

On this day 06 February

 UNDER CONSTRUCTION - still!

ON this day 05 February

 UNDER CONSTRUCTION - working on another (time consuming) project that takes precedence. Note that info on this page has not been fully updated yet and links may not work properly. Thank you for your patience.

1965 05 February On This Day Marianne Faithfull's Come and Stay With Me, feat. Jimmy Page
AUDIO: Come and Stay With Me (Soundcloud)

• 1965 "Come and Stay With Me (Marianne Faithful feat. Jimmy Page) released
• 1996 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Tokyo, Japan at Nippon Budokan 

1965:

According to a Wikipedia article, Marianne Faithfull's former manager Tony Calder told Mojo magazine in September 2008 that the song was written in Los Angeles, where he was with Jimmy Page who was then having an affair with Jackie DeShannon: "One night I couldn't get into our hotel room because Jimmy and Jackie DeShannon were shagging. So I yelled, 'When you've finished could you write a song for Marianne?'" DeShannon came up with this song plus, with Page, an album track, "In My Time of Sorrow." 

2002 Jimmy Page (Ross Halfin photo)

2015

♪

♪ "Come and Stay With Me (Marianne Faithful feat. Jimmy Page)
♪ Page & Plant Unledded Tour (Tokyo, Japan at Nippon Budokan, 05 February 1996)

On this day 04 February

 UNDER CONSTRUCTION - working on another (time consuming) project that takes precedence. Note that info on this page has not been updated yet and links may not work. Thank you for your patience.

posted 2024 on jimmypage.com

Jimmy Page with sitar ca. 1967

♪ Led Zeppelin (Uniondale, NY at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum - Boston Gardens make-up show, 04 February 1975)
♪  Mellow Down Easy (Jimmy Page with The Black Crowes, Paris 1995) 

On this day 03 February

UNDER CONSTRUCTION - working on another (time consuming) project that takes precedence. Note that info on this page has not been updated yet and links may not work. Thank you for your patience.

I wonder if Joe Walsh ever inquires about the health and happiness of Jimmy Page's #1?

2001 03 February On This Day Jimmy Page went to Joe Walsh show in Miami FL

• 1975 Led Zeppelin - New York City at Madison Square Garden
• 1986 The Firm - Mean Business released 

1969:

Four shows in New York City were cancelled when John Bonham flew back to England because Bonham's three year old son, Jason, was ill.  The shows weren't rescheduled.  Jason, as we all know, recovered quite nicely.

1975:

Jimmy Page's smashed finger (he slammed his ring finger in a train door in England prior to leaving for the US Tour, breaking the tip) was well enough for the band to return Dazed and Confused to the set list, dropping How Many More Times.  

Madison Square Garden had the fastest sellout in their history with this show. People magazine declared: "Led Zeppelin are bigger than the Beatles".

Well yes. Yes, they were. And are.

1975 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden

1975 Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden

1986:

The Firm's Mean Business didn't shake the music world, but it's a solid album. Paul Rodgers is a great singer, but if you've been reading this blog all along, you know I've never felt he was right for Jimmy Page's music. According to Jimmy Page, The Firm had never been meant to stay together forever and that was just fine with me.

2001:

There are all kinds of stories out there about how the Gibson Les Paul guitar went from Joe Walsh's possession to Jimmy Page's. I'll say this, if the two men have been friends this long, whatever the details of the exchange it is fine with both of them today.  

"I like to give people equipment and stuff,” Walsh said in a 2012 Guitar World interview. “For me, it’s a kind of payback. Anyone who is an influence or hero for me, I’m always concerned with how I can balance the karma.”

♪

♪ Led Zeppelin (New York City at Madison Square Garden, 03 Feb 1975)

♪  Rocky Mountain Way (Joe Walsh 1973) 
♪  Tear Down The Walls (The Firm, Mean Business 1986) 

On this day 02 February

UNDER CONSTRUCTION - working on another (time consuming) project that takes precedence. Note that info on this page has not been updated yet and links may not work. Thank you for your patience.

"Jimmy Page is not yet in Eric Clapton's class".  I do believe Yorke's comment reflected more on him as a music critic than it did on Jimmy Page. 

1969 02 February On This Day Led Zeppelin at the Rock Pile, Toronto

• 1967 The Yardbirds - Auckland, New Zealand at Auckland Town Hall
• 1969 Led Zeppelin – Toronto Canada at The Rock Pile (two shows, one night)

1969:
There has been some discussion about Jimmy Page's reference to Ritchie Yorke as having capitalized from Led Zeppelin by writing an unauthorized book. In my opinion this was not a slur on Yorke, who was Led Zeppelin's "man in Toronto", who toured with the band, and was regularly granted interviews with them.

Ritchie Yorke (1944-2017) was a journalist and music critic. He wrote three books on Led Zeppelin (actually two, since one was just a new edit):  The Led Zeppelin Biography (1976), Led Zeppelin: The Definitive Biography (1994) and Led Zeppelin: the Definitive Biography (1999 update to the 1994 book). Although Yorke's 1994 book claims to be "authorized" (the word is in quotes on the back cover) that's not actually true. The band's having freely offered the interviews and not objecting to the book is not the same thing as Led Zeppelin's officially approving or endorsing it.

When it comes down to it, you could say that every book and website and blog (including this one) is actually capitalizing on Led Zeppelin or the individual members. Some, of course, are better than others.

Yorke's books are generally considered to be the most accurate and least fabricated of all the books written about the band, however, that Ritchie Yorke ever wrote "Jimmy Page is not yet in Eric Clapton's class" makes me have serious doubts about the journalist's aesthetic appreciation and critical thinking capabilities.

My personal favorite book is George Case's Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man: An Unauthorized Biography because it focuses on Jimmy Page rather than Led Zeppelin. I highly recommend it.

1969 Ritchie York review of Toronto show

1969 John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Toronto

1969 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin, Toronto

♪

♪  Led Zeppelin (Toronto Canada at The Rock Pile - second show, 02 February 1969)