Jimmy Page Interview

Bill Rowlett · From: Russellville, AR, USA

This quote came from a 1977 interview Guitar Player interviewer with Jimmy Page of Led Zepplin fame.

"On "Tangerine" [Led Zeppelin III] it sounds as if you're playing a pedal steel.

I am. And on the first LP there's a pedal steel. I had never played steel before, but I just picked it up. There's a lot of things I do first time around that I haven't done before. In fact, I hadn't touched a pedal steel from the first album to the third. It's a bit of a pinch really from the things
that Chuck Berry did. Nevertheless, it fits. I use pedal steel in "Your Time is Gonna Come" [Led Zeppelin]. It sounds like a slide or something. It's more out of tune on the first album because I hadn't got a kit to put it together."

Greg Vincent · From: Folsom, CA USA

Yep!

"Tangerine" and "That's the Way" from III both have some very effective (if novice) pedal steel playing by Jimmy. He's right, though, the stuff on "Your Time is Gonna Come" is kinda painful.

But the stuff on Zep III is real nice. Jimmy is something special.

GV

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

The first album used to be my fave Led Zep album, but now that I've got another copy (on CD this time), I'm suprised at all the compression and effects that where all over the tracks, plus there's a sort of novice feel. All in all it's good, but kind of cold.

The guitar solo is Dazed & Confused is straight out of the last Yardbirds single 'Think About It' (actually the B-side to the Yardbirds last release in 1968).

I still like it, but I prefer the second and third albums where Page, etc had discovered a more organic sound.

Steve England · From: Austin, TX

Sorry guys dred zeppelin are one of my pet hates. They took plagarism to a new level. (I didn't know they wrote all those great Muddy Waters, Willy Dixon songs until I saw them credited to Page/plant). And Pages lack of modesty in that interview makes me puke. Yeeuuccchhhh!

Listen to Jeff Becks first two albums and some old small faces albums to see where zeppelin ripped off the other stuff that they never ripped off from the old blues guys

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

True, but i would argue that the Jeff Beck Group first two album where basically all covers, and in some cases even more thinly disguised than Led Zep's.

The first JBG album is basically a blueprint for the heavy blues thing, but they really lacked a strong identity, sure Zep and the JBG ripped of heaps of riffs, songs and tunes, but the Led Zeppelin 2 album was an amazing record and the transition they made to their third was something that Beck never had the flair for. (Rod Stewart could handle the folk thing just fine, his early solo albums are great).

CrowBear Schmitt · From: Ariege, - PairO'knees, - France

J. Beck wins hand down in my book compared w: J. Page.
Heck, Beck is one guitar innovator compared to J. Page.( and still at it !)
i believe that Yes is more a ref as to Steelin than LedZep.
i still prefer Muddy Waters and Willy Dixon tho'...
Steel can't please everybody !

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

CrowBear I totally agree that Beck is a more refined and innovative guitarist than Page, however I think that Page's group were far better at constructing albums and keeping forcus on their projects.
As a point of reflection, the first Led Zeppelin album was recorded over a couple of weeks in late 1968 with a steady group who'd been refining their sound on the road for less than six months, while Beck pulled together his group in late 1966 and suffered from continual line-up changes, their debut album was cut over a longer period with a few ring-ins as he pulled together the classic line-up of the group.

If it's early 'heavy' music I personally prefer the first four Black Sabbath albums, if you like white boy blues then I'd suggest the first four Fleetwood Mac albums with Peter Green at the helm.

Page and John Paul Jones from Led Zep were interesting in that they tried various instruments and used them in a very basic form to get an interesting sound.
I'm sure there are mandolin pickers who laugh when they hear some of the work they did on the fourth album.

Getting back to Jeff Beck, I'm a big Yardbirds fan and I love their weird 1966 album 'Roger The Engineer' with Beck all over it. I have the mono and stereo version, CD and vinyl. A tad obsessive I think.

John Macy · From: Rockport TX/Denver CO

The first Zep record was a big influence on me. It came out during my junior year of high school, and I easily burned through 3 or 4 copies--I think I survived school via that record. I kept up with them through 2 and 3, before taking a turn into country music sometime thereafter, though it had nothing to do with Jimmy's steel playing.

An interesting sidenote though--I ended up playing steel a couple of years ago on a remake of "Tangerine" with Big Head Todd and the Monsters for the Atlantic release of "Encomium--A Tribute to Led Zepplin". They liked it so much I ended up on a live record with them for that cut also. I still don't think they fully grasped how deep the connection went with me, though. They were fairly recent Zep fans themselves.

John Macy
www.johnmacy.com

[This message was edited by John Macy on 21 July 2001 at 08:43 PM.]

Geoff Brown · From: Nashvegas

Interesting thread. The matter of LZ and the plagarism of blues songs is certainly a topic that's been bantered about thru the years. Steve, your views are shared by many. However, I respectfully disagree with them. Blues (and jazz) is perhaps the most derivative of any musical idiom. Always been that way, always will be. Take a song, change a lyric or two...change a chord here and there and put your stamp on it. It's been done repeatedly, and is as much a part of the character of that music as the words and notes themselves. If Jimmy Rodgers had sold millions of records, perhaps he would have drawn the same criticisms that apply to LZ. Some of his Chess recordings contain songs that many say he took from artists like Memphis Slim, Sleepy John Estes, and others. Willie Dixon, who sued LZ over the songs "You Shook Me" and "I Can't Quit You Baby" was not above lifting songs either. I recall reading an old interview with Muddy Waters. Someone asked him to play the first song he ever wrote. I don't recall now what the song was, but it was a Robert Johnson song, I believe. Maybe not. Point is, it wasn't his. LZ did nothing that hadn't been going on in the Delta and in Chicago, in Texas and elsewhere for decades before by countless musicians. The same applies to countless other UK bands, who couldn't get enough of American blues music.
To compare Beck and Page as guitarists seems kind of a dead end so I'm not going there. However, I think it's interesting to compare their approaches to making music. Beck's moodiness and sometimes dominant ego are pretty well documented. The JBG albums I think pretty much illustrate Beck's focus. Despite working with talent like Ron Wood and Rod Stewart, they were pretty much a backdrop for him to display his guitar work. Tough to argue with the results..it's great music. But Beck has never been known as a real team player, and this probably influenced the numerous personnel changes in spme of his bands. He was one of my idols growing up, and I love his playing. Conversely, Page was very much into the concept of a "band". He organized LZ, and recognized the abilities that each member brought to the table. His vision very much focused on a "team" approach, and he was a master at making it work. He was the leader of the band, but it was never evidient in their sound. He produced all of their records. That to me is amazing. The first record was recorded in 30 hours, with Page producing it and paying for the studio time. They were not signed to a major label at the time. They took it to Atlantic and the rest is history. He created sounds in the studio using techniques that were innovations at that time. I think that his work as a producer on those records is largely ignored. His ideas...the Celtic, Arabic, and Indian influences..coupled with the folk, blues and rock and roll upbringing and the varied influences of his bandmates made for some pretty interesting music. Certainly it stands the test of time. LZ never experienced personnel changes..a rare occurance in rock and roll. I think Page deserves a portion of the credit for that.
The PSG from the 1st record is a Fender 800 (10-string). He also used a '58 Tele, and who knows what else. I don't know what he used on the 3rd album.

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

Wow, what a cool post, and some interesting pints for sure.
Actually when you mentioned the holy of holies (Robert Johnson), the seemingly favourite of the blues scholars, well, didn't he borrow some great tunes that Son House and others had popularised some five years earlier?

Geoff Brown · From: Nashvegas

Probably so, Jason. When you go back that far, it's just a big mishmosh of musical cross-breeding. There are a lot of grey areas and speculation. Johnson's "Travelin' Riverside Blues" is an example of a song made up of parts of several different songs...that is the speculation anyway. "32-20 Blues" is a reworking of Skip James' "22-20 Blues". Everyone took each other's tunes and put their own spin on them. These guys didn't usually care (and probably didn't know much) about copyright laws. They were lucky if they were playin juke joints, and a good nite usually meant good corn whiskey and/or a woman to go home with. Johnson spent a lot of time with Son House. Listening to Son's music, it is pretty safe to assume that Robert probably copped a few songs along the way. Go back a bit further, and it's likely that Son probably did the same with Charlie Patton. Johnson hung around with both of them and was heavily influenced by them, as well as Lonnie Johnson (no relation). His unique guitar style was also influenced in large part by piano players of the day, like Skip James (also a big influence on Jimmy Page, who liked his boogie-style percussive rhythms). With only 29 songs recorded, it's amazing that Johnson remains the influence that he is today. His guitar playing remains unrivaled, (although John Hammond comes pretty damned close). As you mentioned, a lot of folks point to Robert Johnson as the standard for Delta-style blues. Not much to dispute there, I guess...but I place Patton and House right there as well. I wish I could have lived then. Imagine seeing those 3 together. Patton's stage antics (pre-dating Chuck Berry by 3 decades) Johnson's guitar mastery, and House's other-worldly voice. I might sell my soul to the devil to see that show

BTW, if anyone is interested in listening to some of this music, there are several good stations at www.live365.com. A couple are dedicated to just Robert Johnson's work.

Bill Cutright · From: Akron, OH

Yea, I gess this is all a bit off topic, but, as someone b4 mentioned, LZ1 had a big impact on me. I remember, distinctly, listening to it for the first time. I played all of side one and turned it over and was sorta let down by YTIGC (probably the out of tune steel) and the tabla drum thing, but I never made it past "communication breakdown". Imusta played that thing 20 times over and over-I couldn't believe how cool that lead break sounded. And the interplay, when the vocal came in...

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