Is Jimmy 'not up to it'?

[Disco Duck]

Honest, no shit...a few years ago I was at a local coffee shop with some friends when one of my "friends" spies an an acoustic guitar in the corner, picks it up and hands it to me. So, I go to play a tune and literally the strings were rusted and the action was horrible. I tried the best I could but the song was shit, I could not play that damn guitar. My friends had a good laugh and asked how could I play so well in concert yet play like a 5 year old with his fingers stuck in the strings now. The tools of the trade do matter.

BTW the song I was attempting to play was Ramble On :-)

I guess it's like figure skaters and their skates. Competitive figure skaters spend months breaking in their skating boots. Each skater has his or her skate blades sharpened to their particular specification. You couldn't hand Patrick Chan another skaters' skates and expect him to go out there and land triple axels.

[Patrycja]

Is there any evidence whatsoever that there was anything wrong with the acoustic guitar? That they were trying to trick Jimmy? I mean, it's possible, but a bit of a reach. If the action, or tuning, or gauge is off, some comments are surely made, no? It didn't sound out of tune IIRC, can't comment on the other two factors, but come on ladies and gents, we're listing a lot of reasons for why a few chords played were substandard to dance around the one obvious reason why they likely were. Ockham's razor.

[Dr Death]

Is there any evidence whatsoever that there was anything wrong with the acoustic guitar? That they were trying to trick Jimmy? I mean, it's possible, but a bit of a reach. If the action, or tuning, or gauge is off, some comments are surely made, no? It didn't sound out of tune IIRC, can't comment on the other two factors, but come on ladies and gents, we're listing a lot of reasons for why a few chords played were substandard to dance around the one obvious reason why they likely were. Ockham's razor.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I never said they were trying to trick Jimmy. Who knows where that guitar comes from? Maybe somebody working there had an idea... "Hey guys, I have an acoustic, why don't I bring it in and you guys can have Jimmy play it? Imagine... Jimmy Fucking Page playing MY guitar!!!"

Maybe that's how the idea started... but maybe that guy just fools around with it and doesn't really know about setting a guitar up or when to change strings. Who knows.

I'm not making excuses for Jimmy... he certainly should have been able to do something to satisfy no matter how uncomfortable the situation. Heck, if he had just played the opening stanza to Stairway, I'm sure the crowd would have gone nuts. But, as I have stated prior and many others have concurred, there are multiple reasons for him not sounding so hot... 1: Lack of practice 2: Being thrown under the bus like that... {and yes, I know that many will say he should be able to handle it, he's Jimmy Page, but Page has admitted countless times how nervous he gets before a gig... and in those few seconds when they brought out the second guitar, you could see the horrified look on his face... he clearly wasn't prepared for it} 3: It's not a guitar that he's ever played before... again, this is a huge deal... 4: He chose, for whatever reason, to play a song on an acoustic that he's never played that he's been playing since... what... 1995??? And he's always played that on an electric. His Les Paul. Look at him doing the same song in It Might Get Loud... night and day...

I know that most non-musicians don't get it, but every professional guitarist that I know of likes his/her guitar(s) set a certain way. Think of it this way... you're a runner and you've been training for a marathon for months. You show up the day of the race and the person standing next to you wants to switch shoes. Suddenly, you're out of your element. You've never worn these shoes, the ones you have been wearing fit your feet - and your feet only - perfectly and now you've got to run 26 miles in someone else's shoes.

That's just one example. Another could be a car with a manual transmission. You know your car and your transmission, but get into someone else's car that you've never driven before and it's going to force you to think instead of just drive. And that thinking will cause hesitation and probably force you to drive slower until you get a proper feel for the car and how it shifts.

And playing guitar, in front of a live audience and, I would assume since it's on video that it was on TV or going to be aired on TV, now suddenly that relaxing chat about your book and reissues turns into... Holy crap! These people expect me to entertain them! And suddenly he gets nervous and you get what we saw. He was actually doing okay in the beginning, the crowd was clapping along and then he flubbed the chord and just abruptly stopped. And trying to listen to the interview was so frustrating since I don't speak French, but when the second guy came out and was asking him about guitars and they showed the Les Paul on the screen, I think - key word here is: think - but I think Jimmy said that each guitar is so personal for him... he mentions three marriages but that he still plays that Les Paul. So he's giving them some insight as to how a guitarist views their instrument.

The least these people could have done is asked him ahead of time if it would be okay to do that. Then he could have brought an acoustic that he's comfortable with and played it in his hotel room prior to the show. Even an hour of playing would have significantly helped him and having his own guitar would have been a much better thing as well.

So... just desperately trying to express how important it is to have a guitar that you know... and Jimmy's guitars... heck, he's been playing most of them since 1969! His Gold Top Les Paul he got in either 1991 or 1992, it was when he was working with David Coverdale, but he's been playing that one - or had that one - now for over 20 years.

I don't really see why people are so freaked out by it though. It was a few seconds on a guitar he's never seen or played until he was put on the spot. If he wants to perform live or record a new album and then perform live, he will be at least as good as he was on the 1998 Page/Plant tour. People are freaking out over... basically nothing, as I see it...

[Stairway is NOT stolen]

But when you look at the crap called "Pink Floyd's" last album and the mediocre rehash that the Eagles have been torturing their fans with, you cannot help but think that LZ has something to prove here by kicking their butts. Plant has made a number of derogatory comments about the eagles touring with no material to back it up, and Henley responded that Plant can't sing worth shit any more which is why he isn't doing a LZ reunion.

But i liked 'The Endless River'

[Charles J. White]

I guess it's like figure skaters and their skates. Competitive figure skaters spend months breaking in their skating boots. Each skater has his or her skate blades sharpened to their particular specification. You couldn't hand Patrick Chan another skaters' skates and expect him to go out there and land triple axels.

I'm not bragging, but I'm an expert skier, and have been since I was a kid. If you put me on a double black diamond run loaded with moguls with skis that don't belong to me, I will look like a complete and total ass, and here is the reason why: My skis are beveled to my liking, and I have the right degrees for edges, and the right ski with a tight turning radius with just the right flex/stiffness. I have had people offer me to try out there skis, and I generally say no thanks, because my pride is important to me. I'm sure when it comes to guitar picks, strings, and guitar the same thing applies, in that to sound good, you got to have the right stuff.

[mack]

I'm not bragging, but I'm an expert skier, and have been since I was a kid. If you put me on a double black diamond run loaded with moguls with skis that don't belong to me, I will look like a complete and total ass, and here is the reason why: My skis are beveled to my liking, and I have the right degrees for edges, and the right ski with a tight turning radius with just the right flex/stiffness. I have had people offer me to try out there skis, and I generally say no thanks, because my pride is important to me. I'm sure when it comes to guitar picks, strings, and guitar the same thing applies, in that to sound good, you got to have the right stuff.

More than the right stuff - YOUR stuff

[Reggie29]

A bad tradesman always blames his tools.

[in_the_evening]

So it looks like the thread has gone down the route of "JP sounded lame because it wasn't his equipment".

And there is no doubt that he would have KILLED this song (hopefully) on his own gear that he is super comfortable with. But really, if you go into a guitar store, you can pick any one of 20 guitars off the wall and you'll sound OK. Not drop dead gorgeous, and it is possible someone hands you a real piece of crap with action skyscraper high, and it's impossible to play.

But he still should have done better, IMHO. Of course, I will play devil's advocate and say the whole part of JP playing is what, ten seconds? So we don't get a real taste of what he could do.

[SteveAJones]

I'm not bragging, but I'm an expert skier, and have been since I was a kid. If you put me on a double black diamond run loaded with moguls with skis that don't belong to me, I will look like a complete and total ass, and here is the reason why: My skis are beveled to my liking, and I have the right degrees for edges, and the right ski with a tight turning radius with just the right flex/stiffness. I have had people offer me to try out there skis, and I generally say no thanks, because my pride is important to me. I'm sure when it comes to guitar picks, strings, and guitar the same thing applies, in that to sound good, you got to have the right stuff.

So you're essentially saying "It's gotta be the shoes". Good grief.

[SteveAJones]

Of course, I will play devil's advocate and say the whole part of JP playing is what, ten seconds? So we don't get a real taste of what he could do.

There's this video of Jimmy in London this week:

[Stairway is NOT stolen]

in a recent interview, jimmy has said he's been playing the guitar at least once a week, so at least he is still playing

[truth and beauty]

he also goes on to 'alledge' that Jimmy didnt break his finger falling in the garden at all before the gig and it was all a smoke screen while he got extra practice in so he didnt embarass himself and the Zep legacy.

Has anyone else heard this and/or do you think there could be some truth to it? I thought he played pretty bloody well for his age and lack of recent stage time.

Sorry , not up to date on this thread.

But a friend of mine has family members who are neighbours of Jeff Beck and who shared a cup of tea with him at the time ( Nov 2007). He'd told them that Jimmy's broken finger was just a pretence, and my friend ( who wasn't there ) was convinced, and very conspiratorial about it too.

Some years later I briefly met Jeff Beck myself, and although he didn't know me, he launched into a story which, perhaps a bit starstruck, I swallowed hook line and sinker. "Really?" I said, wide-eyed ... before, when he'd left, I realised how he'd had me, how ridiculous in fact the story had been, and what it said about his sense of humour. He'd wound me up, harmlessly, and for a bit of fun, and I was all the more persuaded that he'd wound up my friend's family in the same way.

I'm sure with so much money and expectation riding on the o2 concert there would have been many cynics in the music business who would have speculated that the broken finger was a pretence .

No one can tell. And I do think that Jimmy's loyalty to himself and his reputation is ultimately greater than his loyalty to his fans and his marketing machine. But to do that for a mere two weeks of extra practice, when he'd had much longer to pace himself? And as we've heard him repeat in his latest interviews, this is the man who was schooled in session work, where he had to turn up on time, and in shape: that was the template. Plus he's a Capricorn.

On balance, I can't know, but I don't believe it, and I didn't then.

[truth and beauty]

At the 14:10 mark take a look at his face when he see's the other guitar being brought up, its obvious he does not want to get involved. He gives it the ole college try but he knows he cannot 'play' effectively enough to go on and he ends it before he really cheeses it up.

I hate to say it but if Jimmy couldn't even bend one note and hold it during the end jam at jeff Beck's second induction the the R&RHOF back in 2012 I highly doubt he could play even one full song with a solo today or in the future.

That 14:10 moment is fleeting and I'm not sure it expresses what you say - though you may have described what he actually felt.

Jeff Beck's induction was in fact in 2009, not 2012.

Since then, I saw him play with Roy Harper in November 2011. I've posted this before I'm sure, but so telling.

\

He was electric, proficient as hell and with all the emotional expression you'd expect from him. To the best of my knowledge, that was his last live performance apart from the French TV ambush, and it was totally up to scratch.

That's what exists, three years ago now, for him to follow up on. Crossing fingers.

[juxtiphi]

Hey if Jimmy does indeed release an album I will be the first to eat my hat but I'm sure I wont be eating it any time soon

[Ddladner]

That 14:10 moment is fleeting and I'm not sure it expresses what you say - though you may have described what he actually felt.

Jeff Beck's induction was in fact in 2009, not 2012.

Since then, I saw him play with Roy Harper in November 2011. I've posted this before I'm sure, but so telling.

\

He was electric, proficient as hell and with all the emotional expression you'd expect from him. To the best of my knowledge, that was his last live performance apart from the French TV ambush, and it was totally up to scratch.

That's what exists, three years ago now, for him to follow up on. Crossing fingers.

Thanks for the post, truth and beauty! Crossing my fingers, too!

[SteveAJones]

On balance, I can't know, but I don't believe it, and I didn't then.

I have what is purportedly the x-ray. Having said that, all one needs to do is watch the 02 concert dvd. He clearly makes a concerted effort to minimize using the pinky on his left hand throughout the show.

[Daniel]

In the first place, I have a hard time being critical of anything that I've ever heard Jimmy Page play--I guess that I am one of those. But, I bet if Jimmy had taken a few minutes before the interview to warm up just a bit, his performance would have been much better. Maybe we would have got a longer taste, or maybe we'd have gotten no taste at all. IMHO Jimmy was a great sport to even accept the guitar. I believe that Jimmy still has it and I really, really, (REALLY) hope he does it this coming year!

[juxtiphi]

Why would a hospital release a patient's x-ray? That's a serious breach of medical ethics. It takes almost an act of God for even the patient to get a copy of their own diagnostic films.

Not where I live. All I have to do is go down to the office and ask for any records or pictures including x-rays. I have pictures of my intestines, lungs and esophagus. if you want all your medical records sent to you or another doctor it costs like 50 bucks.

[IpMan]

Not where I live. All I have to do is go down to the office and ask for any records or pictures including x-rays. I have pictures of my intestines, lungs and esophagus. if you want all your medical records sent to you or another doctor it costs like 50 bucks.

That may be so but it begs the question how anyone outside of Jimmy Page and his doctors would have Jimmy Page's confidential medical records. Not calling anyone a liar but such a claim is dubious at best and just plain silly. I have no clue who Steve is, maybe he is Jimmy's butler or second cousin twice removed, maybe he is that troll Ross Halfin incognito, no idea. Regardless of how he knows Jimmy or even if he knows Jimmy, why the hell would Jimmy be showing anyone his x-rays? The guy is almost 71 years old, I would think if anyone questioned an injury he would simply tell them to piss off. Pulling out an x-ray as proof seems rather juvenile and immature, not to mention extremely insecure.

Wait, I now know, the answer was right there all along...Steve is Jimmy's x-ray tech at the local hospital (by way of Tokyo of course), therefore he would have access to these records. Ah ha, mystery solved. Sorry for doubting anything you post Steve, I must have been temporarily delusional.

[juxtiphi]

That may be so but it begs the question how anyone outside of Jimmy Page and his doctors would have Jimmy Page's confidential medical records. Not calling anyone a liar but such a claim is dubious at best and just plain silly. I have no clue who Steve is, maybe he is Jimmy's butler or second cousin twice removed, maybe he is that troll Ross Halfin incognito, no idea. Regardless of how he knows Jimmy or even if he knows Jimmy, why the hell would Jimmy be showing anyone his x-rays? The guy is almost 71 years old, I would think if anyone questioned an injury he would simply tell them to piss off. Pulling out an x-ray as proof seems rather juvenile and immature, not to mention extremely insecure.

Wait, I now know, the answer was right there all along...Steve is Jimmy's x-ray tech at the local hospital (by way of Tokyo of course), therefore he would have access to these records. Ah ha, mystery solved. Sorry for doubting anything you post Steve, I must have been temporarily delusional.

Well he did use the word "purportedly" which is a lot different than saying he has absolute proof. But seeing as he is one of the biggest Zeppelin collectors around its not out of the realm of possibility that he may have obtained it from someone close to Jimmy.

[woz70]

Well he did use the word "purportedly" which is a lot different than saying he has absolute proof. But seeing as he is one of the biggest Zeppelin collectors around its not out of the realm of possibility that he may have obtained it from someone close to Jimmy.

Rescheduling the o2 gig will have involved a hefty insurance claim. The under-writers will have demanded physical proof, as well as a diagnosis from more than one doctor, so it's not beyond the realms of possibility that a copy of the x-ray that had been sent to an insurer was copied by a staff member who was also a fan. Much the same way that the rehearsal audio for celebration day was leaked. If someone can copy something that might be of value to the right people, they probably will.

[IpMan]

Rescheduling the o2 gig will have involved a hefty insurance claim. The under-writers will have demanded physical proof, as well as a diagnosis from more than one doctor, so it's not beyond the realms of possibility that a copy of the x-ray that had been sent to an insurer was copied by a staff member who was also a fan. Much the same way that the rehearsal audio for celebration day was leaked. If someone can copy something that might be of value to the right people, they probably will.

If that is indeed the case that is seriously fucked up. Medical records and bootlegged concerts are not even in the same universe much less ball park. That is private, confidential information, there is no excuse for that.

[Reggie29]

"I've got your picture, I've got your picture
I'd like a million of you over myself
I want a doctor to take your picture
So I can look at you from inside as well"

Turning Japanese, The Vapors.

Coincidence!?

[the chase]

Ok so he is a bit rusty right now... We get it. He might have had a broken finger before the 02 show too. Might not. Someone that knows someone that met Jeff Beck said it was bullshit. I don't care either way. Actually if he cared enough to deliberately delay the 02 to sharpen up some more, that would have been fine with me. Poor Jimmy has had more injuries to his hands than most. 73 75 77 07. Yes 77. I vividly remember a picture of him with a towel wrapped on his hand because some goofball threw an m80 at the stage. Either way, the scrutiny and criticism he gets by some on his own bands web page is odd. But we had just better not insult more God like players on Led Zeppelin.com. ... That just isn't acceptable..

[the chase]

'The Chase': Jimmy had alot of spunk to play an encore after the m80 exploded near his hand. You know that had to have hurt like heck, not to mention having his nerves frayed. It was like he was getting the message across that he didn't loose his hand and that some idiot was not going to control how the concert ended.

Absolutely!