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Jimmy Page's 66th Birthday: Our Tribute to the Man


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Jimmy! Your inspiring talent self please my ears. Thank you for showing the world what a truly creative and greatest guitarist you are. I wish you the best of days and the years to come. Have a wonderful 2010 filled with happiness love and good health.

Thank you for all you have given us.

p.s. I'am baking you a cake wink.gif

Lo

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Dear Jimmy,

A birthday gift for you. When I was in high school I was for the most part in either a body brace or a full body cast, plaster 1&1/2" thick from the chin all the way down. Needless to say I was in constant pain for years. The worst time was when I was in the cast. I could not sit I had to stand or lay down, unless it was to you know. Constant pain and torture. I could not go to school, I lived in Arizona so I stayed indoors. Plaster body casts and 120 degrees do not go together. My only solace was books, movies and music they were my only escape. Anyway right about this time Physical Graffiti came out. The day it came out I begged my mom to please buy it for me. Please go get it please, she did. Now if you are in this situation you must know getting up from a prone position takes a lot of effort, it's quite annoying to get up and down every 22 minutes, so my dad put all my albums on tape for me. But the point here being that album more than any other album or even any other Led Zeppelin album helped me in a way you could never imagine. There is something about the way the songs were constructed that made my body respond to it the way it did. My muscles seemed to loosen, the cast didn't seen as constraining. Everything would ease up and I could forget about the pain for a while. I won't lie and say it was just that album there was the forth album. Dark Side Of The Moon, some Beatles, Wish You Were Here, even Hendrix. But no matter what I listened to, at the end I always played Physical Graffiti. So I could bear the pain of the day. That's the album that helped the most.

Jumping up a bit after the cast was off and I was able to go back to school a girl in my class I knew since the sixth grade decided she wanted to be friends with me. Lets call her Susan. We met before class, talked on the phone, she came over a few times and so on. As you do the conversation gets around to music. She would never shut up about Elton John and Cat Stevens. That's all I would ever hear out of her mouth. One day she came over and asked about my music collection. I of course started to rattle off "The List." She said, "I don't know too much about all that. My sister likes The Doors, she has a Jim Morrison poster." I thought to my self well if you are going to insist on being my friend you had better learn about some things. I took her into my room and showed her some of my albums, where to begin. I removed Physical Graffiti and said, "You need to listen to this." "I have to go study for a test. Can I borrow it?" "Well O.K. but you have to know some things." I began to teach her about the proper care of albums and made her demonstrate her new skill to me before she left with it. I had been to her house and had seen albums on the floor, albums left on her phonograph. Cats walking on albums. "Look I'm letting you borrow this until Thursday after school. But always remember this, this album is my life, so... your sister played frisbee with it, Fuck You pay me. Your mom used it as a coaster, Fuck You pay me. Your cat peed on it, Fuck You pay me."

Right about the time I expected her to show up, I looked out the window and there she was walking up to my house. "Good you're here." I said, "what did you think?" "I just can't believe it, I just can't believe it, I just can't believe it. This sounds just like the kind of music your dad plays, this sounds just like the kind of music you dad plays. I just can't believe it, it's so good I've never listened to any thing like this before. I love that really long song that never ends. Why does it sound just like the kind of music your dad plays?" "Well, I said it doesn't exactly sound like it, but what you are hearing is.." "Does your dad know about this?" "Well Susan we live in the same house, actually he had Whole Lotta Love on tape before I had the album." "He Knows about this?"

"How come it sounds, like the kind of music your dad plays.?" "Susan my dad's favorite person in the whole world is Muddy Waters so there is that, my dad plays a Les Paul so does Jimmy for the most part, the piano is very much like the way Muddy Waters piano player plays and my dad's got a Vox..." " I don't know what you are talking about, I have to go talk to your dad, What's he doing? "I don't know I think he's watching an old Steeler game." She left the room, my mom looked at me, I raised my hands. "I don't know what she's about. (So you know my dad does not sound just like Led Zeppelin he just plays blues for himself). Susan came back in the living room where I was, "I just can't believe how good this album is, I just can't believe how good this album is." "Jimmy has a guitar just like your dad's? "Well it's the same brand, different year he had one just like Jimmy's, but he traded it for a car." "I don't know anything about that."

"So Jimmy Page is the guitar player, yes?" "Are you sure?" "Yes." "Are you sure?" "Yes" "How do you know?" "Which one is he, show me his picture?" "Is it him?" "No that's John Bonham." "Are you sure?" "Yes." "Who is that?" "That is Robert Plant, he's the blonde with the curls." "Show me Jimmy." "There that one is Jimmy." "Are you sure?" "Yes." "Who is the other one?" "John Paul Jones." "What does he play?" "Bass and keyboards." "Look this is Jimmy, he plays Guitar, this is Robert, he sings, remember blonde curly hair. This is John Paul Jones, bass and keyboards, and this is John Bonham, drums." "You got it?" "How do you know, are you sure?" "Susan, when it's your favorite group you have a tendency to know who they are, what instruments they play and what they look like." Now you're sure about all this?" "Susan this is not the only Led Zeppelin album I have I have all of them except one." "Come on I'll show you my whole collection." "They are so sexy, these pictures make them look like shit, why are they so small, they should have better pictures of themselves, they should have big pictures of themselves, they're so sexy and these pictures make them look like shit." "Why are these pictures so small?" "It's the design of the album." "I don't know anything about that." "Don't worry there are better pictures out there and they all look sexy." I got out my Hendrix and Led Zeppelin four and we played out that whole scene again the following Sunday. She never looked back.

So guys, in answer to your question. Yes you did somebody some good. First by recording an album that helped relieve a girl of a tremendous amount of physical pain. I mean that more than I can express. Secondly after that Susan never brought up Cat Stevens or Elton John to me ever again and for someone who is more a Joni Mitchell, Al Stewart kind of girl I sincerely thank you. Thirdly, to this day In My Time of Dying, relaxes me. You really are the best.

Happy Birthday Jimmy.

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But always remember this, this album is my life, so... your sister played frisbee with it, Fuck You pay me. Your mom used it as a coaster, Fuck You pay me. Your cat peed on it, Fuck You pay me."

...and she never realized you were quoting from the film Goodfellas... wink.gif

Goodfellas.jpg

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