Wow, thank you all so much for the well wishes. My wife is making lasagna tonight (I don't eat meat or dairy anymore as they do not agree with me), so this will be interesting. I pull this a few times a year and though I wind up with a bit of discomfort (not too much) it is worth it. Again, thank you all very much, I FEEL the love!!! Peace and happy Sunday everyone.

Today is my birthday...happy birthday to ME!!!

Interesting Steve, I always wondered what the impetus was for Plant, who prior had been so adamant about NOT playing Zeppelin tunes in concert, suddenly had a change of heart for first Now & Zen and the subsequent tour. I can tell you this much, the attendance at the 88' gig I went to was larger and rowdier than the 85' Shaken n' Stirred tour and of course Now & Zen reached #6 and the singles Heaven Knows & Tall Cool One both hit #1 vs. Shaken n' Stirred only reaching #20. One would say Mr. Curbishley was wise council indeed. Fun Fact: Now & Zen did reach #1 on the CD only sales chart and was the first album to do so as it was a brand new rating system in response to CD's coming into prominence.

Kinda funny that Plant in 85' says Page would not be a good fit for his music, yet two years later records Now & Zen with Page adding guitar solos to Heaven Knows & Tall Cool One. I guess Mr. Plant changed his mind.

What about Too Loud??? Just joking.

Robert was a big fan of the Carry On sequence of camp films from the 60's. The film, Carry on Screaming was his favorite of the bunch and featured the line "frying tonight" when one of the main characters is thrown into a vat of acid. I believe the line in For Your Life was a reference to that film. Of course the song does reference cocaine and the dangers of hard drugs in general, but freebase was not popular in 1975 when this song was written, however, being musicians they could have been exposed to things such as freebasing coke before it became popular in the late 70's. My take is that Robert is juxtaposing cocaine addiction and winding up in a vat of acid as in the film as one and the same. Just my opinion.

You see I do not agree at all with your statement. Have you seen Page perform live post 73'? I have, several times and I can say his performance at the Chicago Stadium in 77' was just as good as his 73' performances. Further, his performance during the 98' P&P tour was, IMO, was easily as good as 73' if not better. Was he as fast in 98' as he was in 73'? No, but just a tad slower, however he was much more precise in his playing than he ever had been prior and he played with an emotional maturity that was beyond what he did in the early 70's. Not just my opinion, check out some of those 98' shows on YouTube and you be the judge. Page only went down hill as a live performer from 77'-83', after that he was fine except for the two shitty reunion shows (Live Aid & Atlantic 40th) and of those two only the Atlantic show was truly a bad performance. Also, I did not see any of the Coverdale Page Japan gigs but I hear his playing on that tour was even better than 98' PP.

I guess I was lucky because every time I saw Page live: Chicago 10th, 1977, 1985 W Firm in Phx, 1988 solo in Phx, 1995 & 98 P&P in Phx he was always an amazing player. In fact after all the talk of Page turning to shit as a player with the airing of the first ARMS gig in London in 83' I almost was going to skip the 85' Firm show...very glad I did not because his playing at that, and every other show I saw, was brilliant. Not saying Page did not have his bad nights or periods, I just think his live playing is scrutinized to a level no other guitarist in the history of music has been subjected to. Think about it, I have never heard about how EVH sucked live as a player at times yet I witnessed it myself twice, drunker than shit and made Page look brilliant at Tempe 77' by comparison yet this is rarely mentioned.

Funny, I always preferred Mean Business to the first album. Cadillac alone is worth the price of the album and Page's guitar work on Dreaming is sublime.

All kidding aside, I don't hate Collins and feel he is an amazing talent. The only problem with Collins is his appearance at selling out just to make the big cash grab. If Collins had been in a more mainstream band, or rather a band that was not so musically out there as Genesis was pre-1978, I don't think people would have really noticed. However, going from Suppers Ready and Dance on a Volcano to fucking Don't Lose My Number & Take Me Home was a massive shift in direction and perspective by Collins, and that was only the beginning. One could point out Genesis was moving in that direction beginning with And Then There Were Three and then fairly obvious by the time of Duke, but No Jacket Required was pure 80's pop, super safe, and in 1984 if someone asked a musician to write a guaranteed mid-80's success album with all the current trends and cliche's, you would be hard pressed to find a better example than both NJR & Genesis's self titled album from 83'. Collins was all over the place in the 80's, music, movies, and divorce via fax machine kinda made the man the poster child of selling out and just being a dick in general. In reality most of this is just blown out of proportion due to Collins roots in music, it's kinda like the lothario from college who beds hundreds of ladies only to come out later as a flaming queen, or more appropriately, Frank Zappa or Jon Anderson forming a rap group. I am sure Collins always had that commercial side to him and the ability to take good music and make it popular, but the masses only saw Collins as a sell out. Even though I don't like much of Collins output from 1883 on, I still respect him as a musician and applaud his success. After all, the starving artist may be viewed as the picture of integrity, but most people still want to pay the bills and have a comfortable life. As for the whole divorce by fax debacle, that was a personal matter, maybe his soon to be ex was a psychopath and Collins believed this was the best way to handle it, who knows. Good for Phil, I really hope he comes back and does so with style and grace.

Now that is what I call a lucky boy.

You betcha!

Lighten up? I was simply shedding some light on the topic in a rather benign, yet informative fashion. Man, I bet your teachers must have loved you.

Make that three. I really liked Jimmy's work with the B-Bender, he completely re-invented his playing style and approach to guitar in general with The Firm. Too bad he did not progress further with the B-Bender because he was doing things with that guitar I have never heard done in that fashion before or since.

Actually LIVIN, Samhain, or the Fall Festival is an ancient practice which goes back thousands of years, there is nothing satanic about it, In fact, All Saints' Day which the church put in it's place (Samhain was actually celebrated from sundown on the 31st until sundown on November 1st) is essentially the same thing, the honoring of those who passed from this world to the next. Of course the church focused on the saints' themselves and not on ordinary people who died as Samhain did. Samhain also was a thanksgiving of sorts for a bountiful harvest and the time when livestock were butchered for the winter season. So, despite catholic propaganda, Samhain never involved human sacrifice or any other nonsense. The closest comparison would be in Shintoism (Japanese) and the honoring of ones ancestors.

TIMMY!!!

Perfect for both Halloween and a four state killing spree as well.

"I am against Halloween, it is an evil, satanic holiday and I believe it should be against the law and all who participate executed..." At least that is what the Jehovah's Witness lady told me and my step-daughter a few years back when we knocked on her door Halloween night. You should have seen the look on my daughters face, better yet you should have seen the look on the JW's face when my daughter, politely said, "Then why did you open the door?" Thank god we did not get a Scientologist, little missy would not have had a retort for, "Xenu will damn you when he exiles you two to planet Epsilon Minor for your horrible costume choices."

HOORAY!!! I can hardly wait for Jason to jam out Sussudio and Hold on My Heart...Just epic!

Jung was right...synchronicity?

Luke is briefly in the trailer but you have to be quick with the eye. There is a very short, maybe half a second shot of a hooded figure kneeling with a mechanical right hand which is resting on R2D2's head. Me thinks Luke will be playing an Obi Wan / Yoda role to the new Jedi characters development. Also, regarding those damn Ewoks. Lucas could have easily pulled them off if he would have just gone all horror show with them. That is, they look cute and cuddly, but make them vicious killer / murderer cannibals that both sides had to contend with. A whole human kind vs. nature kind of thing. Of course if he would have done that his whole marketing to the kiddies would have come to a screeching halt. But damn, that would have made ROTJ an awesome movie...Lucas meets Carpenter sort of thing, except the Ewoks would be sans hockey masks.

Oh, I see, thank you. Don't know why I thought Blunt???

The source for that video claimed they rehearsed this several times before the performance, this was not some on the spot improv. Of course Beck and others can improvise to a degree within a known structure but I have never heard of or seen Beck completely improvise a whole section on the spot like Jimmy would do nightly. Beck is one of my favorite guitarist, in fact my playing technique more closely resembles Beck & Gilmour than it does Page as I prefer slower, more atmospheric solos and I do not use a pick, and Beck is IMO the greatest living guitar player today. However, Beck could not improvise live like Page could, very few guitarists can, not because they can't technically pull it off, but because out of fear of making a mistake. Beck could, can, and always will smoke Page insofar as technique, but you also know exactly what you will get with Beck, with Jimmy you never knew what you would get. Except for Hendrix, The Dead, and Phish I really cannot recall any other bands who would change songs to such a massive degree from night to night like Zeppelin did...sometimes it worked, other times, not so much, but it was always exciting. So, sorry if I worded that wrong, I did not mean to imply those other guitarist cannot improvise at all, just that they cannot improvise long passages and whole movements live like Page could.

Indeed, Hendrix is the master IMO and never declined, then again his drug usage was very exaggerated and typically did not play high or drunk. You are right, Hendrix played and practiced constantly, always had a guitar with him. Blackmore is another excellent player, the first of the classical shredders and just an amazing player. Blackmore's problem (if you can call it one that is), was that visually he was not an exciting player, usually just stood in one place and played, little to zero animation. What is kind of funny but a bit off topic is Geddy Lee has been asked to intro Yes into the RRHOF, however Lee specifically said he will not jam with Yes or anyone else. In his own words, "I don't jam, everything I play live is rehearsed to death, I don't do improv." That is the difference between perfect, technical players like Lee, Lifeson, Beck, etc. they cant improvise. Just the thought of an unknown structure and a possible bum note freaks them out.

I don't think that's what Blunt meant when he said that, I think he meant he was ahead of his time creatively and as a result when he played going off on a tangent and taking chances was more important than being note perfect every time. Page was one of the greatest improvisors in rock guitar in a live setting. I don;t know of any other guitarist outside of Hendrix & SRV who could improvise like Page. Of course Page had to be on his game and somewhat clear headed to pull that off, that is why he suffered at many shows in 77' - 80' because he was just to wasted to play. The fact is, just listen to him Play Heartbreaker at Rotterdam in 1980 and tell me Jimmy, when clear headed, was just as good as Hendrix in his prime. That is why Jimmy pisses me off so much (just like Tommy Bolin), he was one of the very best guitarist, ever in a live setting and just pissed it all away for a few years yet acts like it was no big deal. Well it was a big deal, people paid good money to see those shows and if you were one of the unfortunate ones who caught Jimmy on an off night I guarantee you would not be too happy. I was lucky, when I saw him on Easter, April 10th 77' in Chicago he was in brilliant Jimmy mode, most likely pretty sober (or about as sober as Page could be at that point) after crapping out the night before. But if I were in Tempe, I would not have been a happy camper. Question though to those who attended gigs from 77 - 80 (the bad ones that is). Do you recall if they just turned Jimmy's guitar up to 11 and added distortion in an effort to mask any mistakes? I knew this guy who like Jimmy was a brilliant guitarist but drugs and booze got the better of him. When he giged, when wasted, that is what he did, just distorted the hell out of the signal and added gain. Everyone was drunk, no one cared.