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Pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page Songs


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Pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page Songs that Jimmy had a hand in with various bands.

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Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images

Before Jimmy Page formed Led Zeppelin from the ashes of the Yardbirds, he was an in-demand session guitarist who played on songs by some of England's biggest stars, including Petula Clark, Marianne Faithfull, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones and the Who. At times, his distinct style is barely discernible; at other times, it blasts through with speaker-rattling singularity. Tracks like 'Whole Lotta Love' and 'Heartbreaker' made him a guitar hero, but the cuts on our list of the Top 10 Pre-Zeppelin Jimmy Page Songs prepped him for greatness.

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10

'I'm a Lover Not a Fighter'

The Kinks

From: 'Kinks' (1964)

Rumors have persisted for years that Page played the searing guitar solo on the Kinks' breakthrough hit. But several people, including Page, have denied his involvement. But Page did play an acoustic 12-string guitar alongside the Kinks' Dave Davies on two songs from the band's self-titled debut album: 'I've Been Driving on Bald Mountain' and the rave-up 'I'm a Lover Not a Fighter.'

Hear 'I'm a Lover Not a Fighter'

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9

'Baby, Please Don't Go'

Them

Single, 1964

One of Page's first sessions from his first year in the business (see No. 10 on our list of the Top 10 Pre-Zeppelin Jimmy Page Songs) was the A-side of a single that was immediately overshadowed by the song on the flip. 'Baby, Please Don't Go' was an old R&B cut by Big Joe Williams that dates back to 1935, but the B-side, featuring Them frontman Van Morrison's original song 'Gloria,' became the classic. Page didn't play the lead guitar on 'Baby, Please Don't Go,' but it got him started.

Hear 'Baby, Please Don't Go'

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8

'Stroll On'

The Yardbirds

From: 'Blow-Up Original Soundtrack' (1967)

'Stroll On' is basically a rewired version of 'Train Kept A-Rollin',' the '50s R&B number the Yardbirds turned into a fuzz-rock cover favorite with their 1965 take found on the 'Having a Rave Up' album. 'Stroll On' was included in the 1966 arthouse film 'Blow-Up,' and the Yardbirds (featuring Page and Jeff Beck) appear in a scene performing the song. Side note: 'Train' would be the first song zeppelin played together.

Hear 'Stroll On'

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7

'With a Little Help From My Friends'

Joe Cocker

From: 'With a Little Help From My Friends' (1969)

Cocker reworked the Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' classic as the showpiece of his debut album, which he named after the song. His simmering five-minute version of 'With a Little Help From My Friends' slows down the pace to a bluesy R&B crawl, which is punctuated by Page's stabbing guitar lines.

Hear 'With a Little Help From My Friends'

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6

'Happenings Ten Years Time Ago'

The Yardbirds

Single, 1966

Page's first appearance with the Yardbirds includes some ferocious guitar sparring with Beck, who left the band shortly after Page joined. Page was supposed to be the group's new bassist, but he soon stepped into the lead guitarist role alongside his old school pal. Bonus points for Zeppelin fans: John Paul Jones plays bass on the song.

Hear 'Happenings Ten Years Time Ago'

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5

'Season of the Witch'

Donovan

From: 'Sunshine Superman' (1966)

Page played on several songs from Donovan's third album, including the No. 1 title hit. But it's his scorching guitar work on 'Season of the Witch' that cuts through the Scottish singer-songwriter's occasional hippie drippiness. And like on the Yardbirds' 'Happenings Ten Years Time Ago' (see No. 6 on our list of Top 10 Pre-Zeppelin Jimmy Page Songs), 'Season of the Witch' pairs Page with his future Zeppelin bandmate John Paul Jones, who plays bass.

Hear 'Season of the Witch'

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4

'White Summer'

The Yardbirds

From: 'Little Games' (1967)

Page wrote the acoustic instrumental 'White Summer' for the Yardbirds' last album and often performed the song solo as a showcase at the band's concerts. The classically inspired piece — which includes minimal backing — recalls the pastoral themes of Led Zeppelin's third LP. 'White Summer' itself showed up on Zeppelin's 1990 box set as an outtake from their first album.

Hear 'White Summer'

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3

'Beck's Bolero'

Jeff Beck

From: 'Truth' (1968)

'Beck's Bolero' has a tricky history: The instrumental (based on Ravel's famous classical piece) was recorded in 1966 while Beck was still a member of the Yardbirds. It was released as the B-side of a single a year later, after Beck had left the band. It finally ended up on his debut solo album, 'Truth,' in 1968. The influential guitar number includes Keith Moon on drums, John Paul Jones on bass and Page on 12-string guitar. A monumental track.

Hear 'Beck's Bolero'

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2

'I Can't Explain'

The Who

Single, 1965

Like with 'You Really Got Me' (see No. 10 on our list of Top 10 Pre-Zeppelin Jimmy Page Songs), for years it was believed that Page played some of the guitar parts on the Who's breakthrough single. But unlike with the Kinks song, this turned out to be true. Who guitarist Pete Townshend has disputed Page's overall contribution to 'I Can't Explain,' but there's little doubt that the hit gave the future Zeppelin pilot his first rock-star moment.

Hear 'I Can't Explain'

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1

'Think About It'

The Yardbirds

From: 'Sweet Josephine' single (1968)

Just listen to the guitar solo that erupts at the two-minute mark on the B-side of the Yardbirds' final single and one of the last songs they ever recorded. Sound familiar? It should, because Page nicked its basic lick a year later for 'Led Zeppelin''s 'Dazed and Confused.' Before he changed their name, Zeppelin were known as the New Yardbirds. 'Think About It' signals where they were headed and plants the seeds for one of the planet's biggest and best bands.

Hear 'Think About It'

Here is some of Jimmys work before he joined and became part of the greatest band of all time,

Thumbnails attached FROM UCR

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Page played rhythm guitar on The Who's "I Can't Explain", but there are doubts whether Page's track was used in the final mix. The riff and solo were written by Pete Townshend.

Page was supposed to play the lead both on “I Can’t Explain” and “Bald Headed Woman”. However, in order to play the “I Can’t Explain” riff a twelve-string Rickenbacker was needed. Page didn’t have one. Townshend did. And he would have lost an arm before lending it to Page. So The Who’s frontman was the one who played the lead, while Page strummed along. I've also read Jimmy say that he knows his parts were definitely usde in the song but he doesn't know where.

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I found this article about Donovans song Hurdy Gurdy Man and as stated above by swandown Jimmy Page was not in the country at the time of the April 1968 session. Page had only been playing acoustic in his session work at the time.here is an article I found saying John Paul Jones was Arrangement/Musical Director and Bass Guitar and one of the engineers

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Did_Jimmy_Page_play_on_Donovans_Hurdy_Gurdy_Man

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Yes, John Paul Jones played on "Hurdy Gurdy Man". But that's a different song from "Season Of The Witch."

Also, it's a myth that Jimmy only played acoustic guitar at any point during his session career. He ALWAYS had his electric guitar with him, and was available to play whenever he was needed.

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Yes, John Paul Jones played on "Hurdy Gurdy Man". But that's a different song from "Season Of The Witch."

Also, it's a myth that Jimmy only played acoustic guitar at any point during his session career. He ALWAYS had his electric guitar with him, and was available to play whenever he was needed.

I realize that just trying to show how the rumours of Jimmy playing on any of those songs got started and turned out to be false
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JEFF BECK ON "BECK'S BOLERO"

One of Jeff's most popular tracks for fans and Beck himself, 'Beck's Bolero' was actually written by Jimmy Page. So how did Jimmy Page come to write 'Beck's Bolero'? 'Well, with some difficulty and largely without me! He had heard me play in the studio after hours - in those days there was a lot of naughty recording sessions going on late at night. We would do this crap single for someone in about ten minutes 'cause they didn't have enough money to pay for the studio, then we'd leave the gear set up and have some fun! I fell in love with Jim's playing 'cause we spoke the same language - we probably still do but I dunno. I think we're both still steeped in the old days. We were out to get the most out of the studio, bending the rules like using slap echo - doing all the things you weren't allowed to do on a session.

'It was decided that it would be a good idea for me to record some of my own stuff like 'The Nazz are Blue' with a view towards making a solo album - this was partly to stop me moaning about the Yardbirds. I went over to Jim's house and he had this 12-string Fender and he loved the idea of using a bolero-type rhythm for a rock record. He was playing the bolero rhythm and I played the melody on top of it, but then I said, "Jim, you've got to break away from the bolero beat - you can't go on like that for ever!". So we stopped it dead in the middle of the song - like the Yardbirds would do on 'For Your Love' - then we stuck that riff into the middle.

'I always try to do things wholeheartedly or not at all, so I tried to imagine what my ideal band would be. We had the right producer, Keith Moon on drums, Jimmy on guitar and John Paul Jones on bass. You could feel the excitement in the studio even though we didn't know what we were going to play. I thought, "This is it! What a line-up!" But afterwards nothing really happened 'cause Moony couldn't leave The Who - he arrived at the studio in disguise so no one would know he was playing with another band. That band was the original Led Zeppelin - not called "Led Zeppelin" but that was still the earliest embryo of the band.

I was using a Les Paul for the lead guitar and for the backwards slide guitar through a Vox AC30 - it was the only amp I had and it was covered with beer! Actually, I think it was the beer that gave it it's sound! You can hear Moon screaming in the middle of the record over the drum break. If you listen after the drum break you can only hear the cymbal afterwards 'cause he knocked the mic over! Wonderful!'

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Here is the source of this list..

Michael Gallucci has written about music, movies and other pop culture happenings for Diffuser.fm, Ultimate Classic Rock, PopCrush, Village Voice Media, the AV Club, Cleveland Scene, Baltimore City Paper, Detroit Metro Times, Paste, Spin, San Antonio Current, American Songwriter, Goldmine, All Music Guide, the Plain Dealer and Illinois Entertainer, among other publications and websites, for a long, long time. He lives in Cleveland.

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Thank you. That was interesting. I was totally jazzed to watch him played it with Jeff Beck. Watching it made me think of when I saw Page, Beck, and Eric Clapton perform at the A.R.M.S. concert.

I am still wondering, though, whether or not Jimmy Page has ever played Beck's Bolero as part of a solo performance.

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There are probably hundreds of songs Page played in and some we may never know for sure because we don't know which final mixes were used for some songs. Page supposedly played in Patula Clark's "Downtown", Marianne Faithfull's "As Tears Go By" Rolling Stone's "Heart of Stone", and possibly others like It's Not Unusual by Tom Jones, several Kinks songs. A few Yardbird songs.

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There are probably hundreds of songs Page played in and some we may never know for sure because we don't know which final mixes were used for some songs. Page supposedly played in Patula Clark's "Downtown", Marianne Faithfull's "As Tears Go By" Rolling Stone's "Heart of Stone", and possibly others like It's Not Unusual by Tom Jones, several Kinks songs. A few Yardbird songs.

thats a fact we will never know all the songs he played on...so many rumours out there...
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The album Joe Cocker-'With a Little Help from my friends' is awesome. Jimmy Page doesn't just play on the title track he also plays on:

Bye Bye Blackbird

Marjorine

Just like a woman

Sandpaper cadillac

and the two bonus tracks:

The new age of Lily

Something's Coming on

Just superb stuff.

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There are probably hundreds of songs Page played in and some we may never know for sure because we don't know which final mixes were used for some songs. Page supposedly played in Patula Clark's "Downtown", Marianne Faithfull's "As Tears Go By" Rolling Stone's "Heart of Stone", and possibly others like It's Not Unusual by Tom Jones, several Kinks songs. A few Yardbird songs.

Jimmy Page played on 81 released recordings by The Yardbirds, including 29 studio originals, 12 alternate takes, 31 live recordings, and 9 BBC recordings.

He probably didn't play on Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual", however. That was Jim Sullivan and Joe Moretti.

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