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A guitar and the police in Seattle 75


Bozoso73

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Following a marathon Moby Dick, Plant tells the crowd "there's a little bit of a discrepancy about a guitar and a man who's being held by the police and all sorts of things, quite a story going on behind the scenes" before dedicating Dazed and Confused to "the innocent party" and "the difference and the balances between law and order." Page shreds wildly  during the lead-in to the bow solo . . This is taken from TYOLZ on the return to Seattle 3/21/1975. . Can anybody explain the details of what Percy was talking about ? Was the situation resolved?

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10 hours ago, Bozoso73 said:

Following a marathon Moby Dick, Plant tells the crowd "there's a little bit of a discrepancy about a guitar and a man who's being held by the police and all sorts of things, quite a story going on behind the scenes" before dedicating Dazed and Confused to "the innocent party" and "the difference and the balances between law and order." Page shreds wildly  during the lead-in to the bow solo . . This is taken from TYOLZ on the return to Seattle 3/21/1975. . Can anybody explain the details of what Percy was talking about ? Was the situation resolved?

I believe this is referring to the incident of Page's stolen Black Beauty from the 1970 tour which was nicked in Vancouver that year. Supposedly some kid showed up at the Seattle 3-21-75 gig with the guitar to repatriate with Page explaining he found it or something. Page was thrilled, for about 15 minutes which is when the fuzz showed up stating the young man stole the guitar from his music teacher. Now supposedly, Page claimed that was indeed the stolen BB but the cops sided with the local music teacher and the guitar was returned to the teacher. If this story is correct, it appears the music teacher was the thief, or knew the thief who stole it from Jimmy in the first place. Pretty messed up IMO and I would assume the likely reason Page could not keep the guitar is because whoever stole it likely removed the serial number from the headstock. So, even if Page still retained the original sales receipt it would not matter since no serial number = no substantial proof of ownership. 

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13 minutes ago, IpMan said:

I believe this is referring to the incident of Page's stolen Black Beauty from the 1970 tour which was nicked in Vancouver that year. Supposedly some kid showed up at the Seattle 3-21-75 gig with the guitar to repatriate with Page explaining he found it or something. Page was thrilled, for about 15 minutes which is when the fuzz showed up stating the young man stole the guitar from his music teacher. Now supposedly, Page claimed that was indeed the stolen BB but the cops sided with the local music teacher and the guitar was returned to the teacher. If this story is correct, it appears the music teacher was the thief, or knew the thief who stole it from Jimmy in the first place. Pretty messed up IMO and I would assume the likely reason Page could not keep the guitar is because whoever stole it likely removed the serial number from the headstock. So, even if Page still retained the original sales receipt it would not matter since no serial number = no substantial proof of ownership. 

Surely the removal of the serial number would arouse suspicion, maybe cast doubt upon the music teachers claim of ownership. Nah, I don't believe this story..

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5 minutes ago, JTM said:

Surely the removal of the serial number would arouse suspicion, maybe cast doubt upon the music teachers claim of ownership. Nah, I don't believe this story..

That would be if all things were equal, they are not. Page is a visiting musician from England while the teacher is a local. The teacher possesses the guitar and the student admitted to stealing it from the teacher. So, in the eyes of the law it would be up to Page to prove it was indeed his stolen guitar. No serial number and the police are not going to side with Page, an outsider, they will stick with their own and to be honest, if I were a cop I would have done the same thing. Unless Page had the proof, legally the guitar would have to be returned to the teacher.

BTW my source for this is LZ75, a pretty shitty book by all accounts but it does have a few interesting stories.

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The forums existed, but not the internet(joke). Always get additional information on somebody's humor abilities.

 

Anyway, we should stop this, it's a bit insulting to Page and Grant, not just because it's basically their forum!

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20 hours ago, IpMan said:

That would be if all things were equal, they are not. Page is a visiting musician from England while the teacher is a local. The teacher possesses the guitar and the student admitted to stealing it from the teacher. So, in the eyes of the law it would be up to Page to prove it was indeed his stolen guitar. No serial number and the police are not going to side with Page, an outsider, they will stick with their own and to be honest, if I were a cop I would have done the same thing. Unless Page had the proof, legally the guitar would have to be returned to the teacher.

BTW my source for this is LZ75, a pretty shitty book by all accounts but it does have a few interesting stories.

I understand what you are saying but why would some rich rock star lie about a Les Paul when he could go out & buy as many guitars as he wants?

I'm not 100% convinced by the story either although it's certainly not implausible.

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2 hours ago, Mook said:

I understand what you are saying but why would some rich rock star lie about a Les Paul when he could go out & buy as many guitars as he wants?

I'm not 100% convinced by the story either although it's certainly not implausible.

No, you misunderstood, I was not claiming Jimmy was lying just to get his hands on a guitar he could have easily buy 1,000 over. I believe this was in fact Jimmy's stolen BB and was rightfully Jimmy's, however if the serial number had been removed there would be no way for Jimmy to prove it was his unless he flew in Joe Jammer to authenticate the guitar since Joe was the guy who did all of the mods. Jimmy now has his stolen BB back as it was returned to him a couple years back and, if memory serves me correctly, it is the same guitar that kid brought to Jimmy in 75'. The music teacher died a few years ago and that is how the guitar made it back to Jimmy...again, if memory serves me correctly, it was one of his relatives who returned the guitar.

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4 hours ago, IpMan said:

 Jimmy now has his stolen BB back as it was returned to him a couple years back and, if memory serves me correctly, it is the same guitar that kid brought to Jimmy in 75'. The music teacher died a few years ago and that is how the guitar made it back to Jimmy...again, if memory serves me correctly, it was one of his relatives who returned the guitar.

Rubbernecking here. Jimmy Page had his Black Beauty returned? Gosh, I thought I was hip to all the Zep but this news must have passed me by or something. That's quite amazing, given the length of time. A nice finish to the strange story. I wonder what the music teacher's relatives thought of the whole affair.

Update: http://www.guitarplayer.com/artist-videos/1436/jimmy-pages-long-lost-gibson-black-beauty-has-been-found/57856

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18 hours ago, IpMan said:

No, you misunderstood, I was not claiming Jimmy was lying just to get his hands on a guitar he could have easily buy 1,000 over. I believe this was in fact Jimmy's stolen BB and was rightfully Jimmy's, however if the serial number had been removed there would be no way for Jimmy to prove it was his unless he flew in Joe Jammer to authenticate the guitar since Joe was the guy who did all of the mods. Jimmy now has his stolen BB back as it was returned to him a couple years back and, if memory serves me correctly, it is the same guitar that kid brought to Jimmy in 75'. The music teacher died a few years ago and that is how the guitar made it back to Jimmy...again, if memory serves me correctly, it was one of his relatives who returned the guitar.

Apologies, I meant from the Police perspective, not yours.

Anyway, I see the guitar was recovered so we're all good :D

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