Jump to content

In what month (days) was the Dragon Telecaster Painted?


Recommended Posts

Trying to determine what Month / week period when the Dragon was painted.

Through mid April of 1967 Jimmy Page's Telecaster had mirror reflective circles on it as evidenced of the shows in Denmark with the last that I've seen by Jorgen Angels photographs on April 15th.
Assuming on April 16th in Lolland Denmark the guitar was the same, sometime between April 17th and April 29th the guitars circles were removed and the custom clear perspex scratch plate was added that is newly visible at the April 30th 1967 Chaville France show.   

596bff59b0341_NewScratchPlateApril30th1967.jpg.0eef572a48d7aafe7797dd44ba61acdf.jpg

30 April France.    Did Page return to UK before May 20th France show. –
NO CIRCLES NEW SCRATCH PLATE
 

The next photo I have is from July 22nd 1967 with the Dragon Painted.   Being that this is coming up on the 50th anniversary of the first photo I have of the Dragon,
I'm dying to find out when it could have been painted.


6 May 1967 » ChippenhamEngland @ Royal Agricultural College
8 May 1967 
» Cannes Film Festival Personal Appearance for Blow Up.

14 May 1967 » Stratford, London, England @  
18 May 1967 » Versailles, France @  
19 May 1967 » Elizabethville
, Paris, France @ L'Hermitage 
20  May 1967 Sat Jouy en Josas, France HEC Business School  Note: HEC Business School end-of-year party; Billed with Joe Dassin, Jimmy James, Jean-Luc Ponty and Dexter Gordon
22 May 1967 » London, England @ BBC Radio 
23 May 1967 » Bristol, England
 @ The Corn Exchange 
 

26 May 1967 » London, England @ Tiles Club 
27 May 1967 » Ramsgate, Kent, England
 @ Supreme Ballroom

29 May 1967 Monday Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England @ Cambridge City Football Club Stadium

June 1967 » Canterbury, Kent, England @ University of Kent
2 June  1967 Fri Canterbury, England University of Kent

5 June 1967 Mon Bath, England Pavilion
6 June 1967 » Malvern Wells, Worcs, England @ Winter Gardens 

June 1967 » Worthing, West Sussex, England @ Worthing Assembly Hall 
9 June
 1967 » Margate, Kent, England @ Dreamland Ballroom
10 June
 1967 » Torquay, Torbay, England @ Town Hall 

16 June 1967 » Norwich, Norfolk, England @ Student Union, University of East Anglia 
17 June 1967 Sat Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England Royal Air Force (RAF) Waddington - Raven Club
18 June 1967 Sun London, England Saville Theater
Note: Charity pop concert presented by Brian Epstein; with Manfred Mann, The New Vaudville Band, The Zombies, The Settlers
[ 11 Days Off ] June 22nd Summer Solstice  

My guess is that the Dragon was painted during this 11 day period considering he was in England and it was the Summer solstice, a perfect time to Consecrate the Telecaster as Page describes...

"During my time with The Yardbirds, I had taken the decision to Consecrate my guitar by painting it in psychedelic color opposites and employing diffraction grating beneath the clear Perspex scratch plate."      Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page 
J

June 30 1967 Shrewsbury, Shrops, England @ Shrewsbury Music Hall 
July 1 1967 Sat Chalk Farm, London, England
Roundhouse

TRAVEL FROM UK TO US FOURTH NORTH AMERICAN TOUR

July 7 1967 Fri Vancouver, British Columbia Kerrisdale Arena
July 8 1967
Sat Vancouver, British Columbia Kerrisdale Arena (41st Avenue & West Blvd.)
Note: Both billed
with Magic Fern, Painted Ship, Family Tree and Tom Northcott (pm) Two performances

July 10 1967 Mon Theinville, WI USA Teensville
July 11 1967 Tue
Algonquin, IL USA New Place
July 12 1967 Wed Aurora, IL USA Crimson Cougar

July 19 1967
Wed Lakeside, CO USA Lakeside Amusement Park

July 21 1967 Fri Santa Rosa, CA USA Santa Rosa Fairgrounds
July 22 1967 Sat Santa Monica, CA USA Shrine Exhibition Hall or Civic Auditorium – DRAGON TELECASTER Photographed.

 

ANY Photos of any of the above dates would be awesome.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes you are right, as it only sometimes falls on the 20th for Summer and typically the 22nd for Winter.   My bad.

This site also lists it wrong, so in trying to make sure I was accurate for 1967 I may have gotten it off the web incorrectly.
http://www.drikpanchang.com/seasons/season-summer-solstice-timings.html?year=1967

Interestingly in 1967 it was also a full moon (Strawberry Moon) as it was for for the first time last year. 

 

Considering you are Jimmy Page and have Prerequisite,  what month / week did you paint the Dragon?  
Also considering it looks to me like it was done with Stencils, did anyone help you make those?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, TheEyeOfZoro said:

Yes you are right, as it only sometimes falls on the 20th for Summer and typically the 22nd for Winter.   My bad.

This site also lists it wrong, so in trying to make sure I was accurate for 1967 I may have gotten it off the web incorrectly.
http://www.drikpanchang.com/seasons/season-summer-solstice-timings.html?year=1967

Interestingly in 1967 it was also a full moon (Strawberry Moon) as it was for for the first time last year. 

 

Considering you are Jimmy Page and have Prerequisite,  what month / week did you paint the Dragon?  
Also considering it looks to me like it was done with Stencils, did anyone help you make those?

I'll tell you the story behind my "I'm Jimmy Page, I have Prerequisite" signature.  Back in 2003? it's a day or two before the release of ''How the West Was Won'', I being impatient, can't wait until Monday when said album (and DVD) will be released so I downloaded HTWWW a  track at a time from a now defunct file sharing site called WIN MX. When a track had finished downloading I would stop seeding and move on to the next track, I could see who the seeders (uploaders) were and who the leechers (downloaders) were, so I could block other users from leeching from me if they were not also seeding and there was this one guy who had the screen name "Jimmy Page" who was doing a lot of leeching and no seeding, so every track he leeched onto that I was seeding I blocked him. After half a dozen track or so I messaged him about his lack of etiquette (take a little, give a little) I can't remember exactly what I said to him, nothing rude though, his reply to me was "I'm Jimmy Page, I have Prerequisite".  So, did the tracks that had been leaked have a fingerprint and was it Jim who was out to identify the source of the leak, I doubt it. Anyway Monday arrives and I'm at the door of HMV before it opens and I'm first in to get my new Zeppelin goodies, the tracks I downloaded and the CDR's I'd burned them to, deleted and binned..

So there you go, just a sig..  "I'm not Jimmy Page, I do not have Prerequisite"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe Jimmy painted the Tele with the help of his good friend from art college, Earl during the last week of June 1967. Earl charged Jimmy only $19.95, no ups, no extras, for his contribution to the guitar.

Ps. Earl also accidentally painted the neck, scratch plate, and tuners as well but Jimmy cleaned off the over-spray.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, IpMan said:

I believe Jimmy painted the Tele with the help of his good friend from art college, Earl during the last week of June 1967. Earl charged Jimmy only $19.95, no ups, no extras, for his contribution to the guitar.

Ps. Earl also accidentally painted the neck, scratch plate, and tuners as well but Jimmy cleaned off the over-spray.

 

1967 was also the year Clapton got the SG and had the Dutch design collective known as The Fool paint it. (Made its debut March 25 1967 in Manhattan) So there probably was some inspiration there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/17/2017 at 11:02 AM, IpMan said:

I believe Jimmy painted the Tele with the help of his good friend from art college, Earl during the last week of June 1967. Earl charged Jimmy only $19.95, no ups, no extras, for his contribution to the guitar.

Ps. Earl also accidentally painted the neck, scratch plate, and tuners as well but Jimmy cleaned off the over-spray.

 

Well that fits very nicely with the longest stretch of time off between gigs.   This is the first I've ever heard this information.   Was this ever published or did you hear this first hand from Jimmy?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/17/2017 at 11:02 AM, IpMan said:

I believe Jimmy painted the Tele with the help of his good friend from art college, Earl during the last week of June 1967. Earl charged Jimmy only $19.95, no ups, no extras, for his contribution to the guitar.

Ps. Earl also accidentally painted the neck, scratch plate, and tuners as well but Jimmy cleaned off the over-spray.

 

Accidentally painting the tuners takes some serious effort.   Overspray?  As in clear protective coat?   There are some live shots that I see a reflective glare over the bare wood areas and it moves as the angle moves.   The accidentally painting it part sounds similar to the "mystery person story" who supposedly destroyed it.

This painting looks stenciled.   No way was it "Sprayed" without a stencil if sprayed at all.  Every attempt at recreating it with a brushes looks terrible.
Plus the clear straight lines and the super thin lines tell me it was stenciled.    I would even venture to guess that Page still has the stencils because he as alluded that he wants to resurrect the guitar.   

$19.95 is an odd amount between friends and in Dollars I doubt,  I would imagine you mean pounds.   

On 7/17/2017 at 7:44 PM, sixpense said:

1967 was also the year Clapton got the SG and had the Dutch design collective known as The Fool paint it. (Made its debut March 25 1967 in Manhattan) So there probably was some inspiration there.

Yes in 1977 when interviewed by S. Rosen he said: "Yes. There was work done on it but only afterwards. I painted it; everyone painted their guitars in those days. And I had reflective plastic sheeting underneath the pick guard that gives rainbow colors."

This supports the above statement by sixpense, that the fool may have inspired Jimmy to paint "The Dragon" and if anything I think he out did "The Fool" "mystically".
 

[From:  http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/The-Tale-Of-Eric-Clapton-Fool-Gibson-SG.aspx]

Marijke Koger described the overall theme of the design as “good versus evil, heaven versus hell, and the power of music in the universe to rise above it all as a force of good.
The Fool’s graphic was as weird as it was wonderful. There’s that winged cherub with curls of fire sat astride a candy cloud: the big hair on the head of the cherub, the centerpiece of The Fool’s artwork, was inspired by Clapton’s own white-‘fro of the time. The cherub’s left hand is grasping a triangle, while his right hand holds a spoon-shaped beater. The arch of his right foot is balanced on top of the rear tone control. Six-sided yellow stars orbit around him. Swirling circles of blues, greens, and yellows adorn the rest of the body, with a sun and mountain range on the pickguard.

 

Many have insisted to me that the Dragon was an abstract or psychedelic painting.   I disagree. 
Knowing now that someone had contributed to it technically furthers my opinion that it was full of mystical meaning.

Would love to know more about Earl.

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

cf0af7aff1fa886d4cd76f57585e237d.jpg

88ca76d7753469972d85d20d64eee97d.jpg

Jimmy Page with The Yardbirds at Fifth Dimension Club, Ann Arbor is a perfect example of the "Clear Coat" overspray washing out the painting in the first shot on the paint but not on the upper wood part.   If the upper part was also protective coated I would imagine that it would have flashed out in them image like in the top pic. [Love the Behind the nut bending here, pre-heart breaker] 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...