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Jimmy Page's'favorit authors


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Hello everyone,

It's' nice to be on board!

Just a simple question : does anyone remembers reading, seeing or hearing an interview in which Jimmy talks about the authors he likes. I remember Robert Plant saying they were into Dylan Thomas when they met and I know Jimmy hung out with William bourroughs a bit but that s'all I have.

Any help will be very much appreciated.

Best wishes to you all.

DT.

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Aleister Crowley and Machiavelli. Ars Magica Arteficii' (1557) by J Cardan,

Yeah yeah yeah. Poring over them EVERY night.

I want to know what his OTHER favourite authors are : anyone want to speculate ?

I'm starting with JK Rowling, EL James .....And Eric Clapton's autobiography ? :D

More realistic suggestions welcome ...

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Wasn't he pictured with a biography of a member of Kiss or something? So it's not heavyweight intellectual stuff all the way.

I can't remember him ever referring to a fiction writer, dramatist or poet he liked.

The number one book that made me think "I hope Jimmy's read this because I bet he'd adore it" was The Picture of Dorian Gray. I bet he'd also love Huysmans, especially The Damned and Against Nature. Just looking at pictures of the Tower House always makes me think of the magical private world Des Essientes tries to create for himself.

And Baudelaire...and Faust...hey, cool new game! I'm going to be thinking about this for ages now.

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Wasn't he pictured with a biography of a member of Kiss or something? So it's not heavyweight intellectual stuff all the way.

I can't remember him ever referring to a fiction writer, dramatist or poet he liked.

The number one book that made me think "I hope Jimmy's read this because I bet he'd adore it" was The Picture of Dorian Gray. I bet he'd also love Huysmans, especially The Damned and Against Nature. Just looking at pictures of the Tower House always makes me think of the magical private world Des Essientes tries to create for himself.

And Baudelaire...and Faust...hey, cool new game! I'm going to be thinking about this for ages now.

Yes I think all of the above, including the Kiss biog!

I suspect these are the tip of the iceberg but that he just doesn't advertise that side of himself. His book captions a photo "with allusions to Oscar Wilde" and I'm sure he must have read Dorian Gray.

He met William Burroughs and I'm sure he knew exactly who he was dealing with : he's spoken about Burroughs' influence and I just don't think he would unless he'd read some of it..

We know he loved the beat poetry of Royston Ellis, who he worked with in the very early Sixties ..

His generation were exposed to a huge explosion of literary ideas and some of the musicians among them made overt reference in their music to what they'd read. He didn't - but I'm convinced he knows his stuff.

Scylla, we need to recaption this thread: the Jimmy Page Reading List ..

We've been treated to images of his guitar collection and his room full of records. I'm betting that somewhere else there's a beautiful library, with many incredible editions but perhaps equally a number of 60s paperbacks, which would offer an entirely different perspective.

There's a lot we don't know about Jimmy. And I'm sure it brings a smile to his face to know that ...

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....Jimmy talks about his Bookstore, new interview in this link, posted by our Member andrzej....

This is an impressive location for an interview. Didn't you once own a bookshop around the corner from here?

I did. In Holland Street, just off Kensington High Street. It was in the 1970s. I had it for a few years and I published a few books as well, although not [ones] written by me. The idea was to set it up as a bookshop and then in the old tradition of book shops to be a publisher as well. It was one of these things that was a great idea, but people didn't necessarily have a lot of money in those days for books on yoga and Eastern mysticism. [Laughs]

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6288896/jimmy-page-led-zeppelin-future-interview

....His most recent fav. author is Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page...He is very proud of his journey in visual....

Friedrich Nietzsche reading in '77? - I am not very knowledable of this association with Jimmy or Led Zeppelin...

....

"In 1975 we were more into staying into our rooms and reading Nietzsche"

Here is actually a link and quote from Robert Plant:

http://books.google.ca/books?id=9eLmHEhq_9MC&pg=PA173&lpg=PA173&dq=Robert+plant+reading+Friedrich+Nietzsche&source=bl&ots=eO1T3apsgO&sig=fpple9uhGOJzhV8Nx4rU2d5Y4dg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jchBVOfsIouuogT7wYKoAw&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Robert%20plant%20reading%20Friedrich%20Nietzsche&f=false

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This is pure speculation on my part but I would not be surprised to learn that Jimmy Page has/had read "Helter Skelter" by Vincent Bugliosi at some time after the book was published. Being that the Tate/Labianca murders happened in Los Angeles in August of 1969 when Led Zeppelin was actually in Southern California at that time on their 3rd US tour.

That and the fact that years later Jimmy Page learned that one Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme had apparently come to the hotel that Jimmy was at and desperately tried to have an audience with him. A few weeks/months later Jimmy was informed that the woman who tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford was indeed the same woman who was so intent on speaking with Mr. Page.

Just because of this and that, like I said, I would not be the least bit surprised to learn that James Patrick Page had, at one time or another, read the biggest selling true crime book of all-time, titled "Helter Skelter".

Which, by the way, is one of the best written and most compelling books that I have ever read and I have read probably over 500+ different books so far in my life.

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Hi,

Been a lurker here for a couple of years, but this thread was so interesting I feel I have to post something.

How about Dennis Wheatley? I read his novel "The devil rides out" a couple of months ago.

This is very speculative, but the things I list below made me suspect that Jimmy read Wheatley:

-The main character, Duke de Richleau, has a house in Pangbourne, just like Jimmy once had:

"De Richleau shook his head [...] 'I have it! Do you think we could get her down to Pangbourne?'

'What? To that river place of yours?'

("The devil rides out", p. 63, 2007 Wordsworth edition)

-"The devil rides out" ----> Jimmy's album title "Outrider".

-The occult theme of this book, and some other books by Wheatley.

-Wheatley was read by Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler:

"Following that, Osbourne and Butler wrote the lyrics for a song called "Black Sabbath", which was inspired by the work of horror and adventure-story writer Dennis Wheatley"

(quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sabbath#Formation_and_early_days_.281968.E2.80.9369.29)

More about Wheatley:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Wheatley

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This thread had made me realize something I've never considered: Most of the British rockers from Page's generation are autodidacts. While the keyboard players often had some formal musical training, the guitarists, bassists, drummers and singers are mostly self taught. These are guys (and the occasional gal) who had the ability to teach themselves how to play an instrument, write songs, produce records, etc. It's no surprise that this trait carried over to their personal lives. So you get Jeff Beck who taught himself how to rebuild cars and Jimmy Page who is a self-taught connoisseur of Pre-Raphaelite art.

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