Interviews with Jimmy Page,2014.

[kirchzep27]

As a listener of npr radio and soundcheck, have to say, john shaefer there, is doin a good job and a true blue music fan..without a doubt

[Patrycja]

Shakespeare & Company Bookshop - Here is the rest of the interview...enjoy:-)

http://www.wonderingsound.com/feature/jimmy-page-led-zeppelin-photographic-autobiography-interview/

Sorry for just a link, to long for me to copy. Back to work:-)

Well done, Deb, thanks for posting! No need for apologies about not posting the whole thing. Very intersting interview. Jimmy is insightful when it comes to fine nuances of music and composition and production. I've been struck by how often Jimmy has used religous/spiritual language throughout these interviews. He referred to HOTH title as the four memebrs being houses of the Holy Spirit, hence the album name, consecreation, resurrection, dragon -- kidding! , manifesting, etc. Obviously he is well known ot have spiritual interests, and maybe it`s just all the recent exposure, but I`m noticing it a lot more. Not making a `thing`out of it; just an observation of word choice and connection to music.

It`s endearing how much of a fan he comes across as - like us when speaking about or meeting Jimmy, Jonesy or Robert - when he talks about William S. Burroughs. Very relatable.

I sincerely hope that his master plan of playing new live music comes to fruition.

[PlanetPage]

Well done, Deb, thanks for posting! No need for apologies about not posting the whole thing. Very intersting interview. Jimmy is insightful when it comes to fine nuances of music and composition and production. I've been struck by how often Jimmy has used religous/spiritual language throughout these interviews. He referred to HOTH title as the four memebrs being houses of the Holy Spirit, hence the album name, consecreation, resurrection, dragon -- kidding! , manifesting, etc. Obviously he is well known ot have spiritual interests, and maybe it`s just all the recent exposure, but I`m noticing it a lot more. Not making a `thing`out of it; just an observation of word choice and connection to music.

It`s endearing how much of a fan he comes across as - like us when speaking about or meeting Jimmy, Jonesy or Robert - when he talks about William S. Burroughs. Very relatable.

I sincerely hope that his master plan of playing new live music comes to fruition.

.....very well understood...Jimmy is Musician's Musician...Led Zeppelin remains "Greatest Gift From God"...he is truly himself, as always, "Colors and Textures" of his artistic vision ever present, I am truly grateful to the Creator for this great musical journey with Jimmy...we are experiencing a very rare musician...

[PlanetPage]

NPR Soundbites

Jimmy Page: On a Lifetime in Rock 'n Roll

https://www.wnyc.org/radio/#/ondemand/412933

Interview from 2:40-33:00

You will all be mostly annoyed by the interviewer.

For future remaster pressers, may I humbly suggest, fewer geeky fan boys...more just journalists.

(And in case you're wondering, Dimi Mint Abba.)

....This was very informative interview with many details of photograps, the '79 photos, these photos I hold in high regard, as they were influential in my youth; many details that Jimmy discusses about Bombay '72, I thought to be powerful, these experimentation sessions will remain part of HIm, (I do not think they will be released alone, but perhaps will take on as some colors and textures of his future extended Project solo or companion disc, that will showcase him as "Timeless Visionary Musician" ...

...not edited...

[Charles J. White]

Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page still rocks

CNN | Added on November 11, 2014

The guitar god talks his strangest show, hand care tips and what he believes is classic rock really is.

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/showbiz/2014/11/11/jimmy-page-led-zeppelin-guitar.cnn.html

What I found interesting in that short clip, was Jimmy referred to Led Zeppelin in the present form, something like 'I'm a member of Zeppelin' not 'was in Zeppelin' or something along those lines. On an emotional and mental level he still wants it.

[Deborah J]

Not really an interview..but it is a nice article and I was hoping he and Walsh would get together while he was on the west coast:-) I adore Joe Walsh!!

Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page Celebrates Book With Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, Joe Perry

If you’re a fan of rock music from the last few decades of the 20th century, you’ll snap to attention at the sight of a Beatle, a Zep, an Eagle, an Arrowsmith and a Top. Those durable music artists were the center of attention at the Sunset Marquis in West Hollywood Thursdaynight for the private dinner celebrating the release of Genesis Publications’ “Jimmy Page” by the Led Zeppelin guitarist and sonic maestro himself.

Rock music legends Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, Joe Perry and Billy Gibbons were among the guests who helped Page mark what Page called “the last stop on my promotional tour for the book.”

Given the hotel’s indelible association with rock music acts over the past half century, it’s easy to imagine the assembled rockers once behaving here in a manner altogether more raucous than the respectable evening of exquisite wines, fine cuisine and calm, convivial dining.

Walsh introduced Page with warm words recalling the two guitar virtuoso’s early days when Walsh was in the James Gang and Page a key player in the Yardbirds. “It was around 1968,” said Walsh, “when Jimmy asked me, ‘Do you know anyone who might have a Les Paul?’” If you’ve ever banged your head on a dashboard while listening to any of the rock masterpieces Page and his Zeppelin bandmates created, you know that question got answered affirmatively and for the good of mankind.

Or as Walsh summarized the sentiments of the evening, “As a musician, we all want to thank Jimmy Page for showing us how to do it.”

Page got up and graciously thanked his publisher, Genesis, noting, “They’re celebrating their 40th anniversary this year,” adding with a knowing nod to the passing of time, “And I’ve been at it even longer.” Maybe, but for the enthralled fans joining Page for dinner, memories and the appreciation of timeless rock classics, “The Song Remains The Same.”

(Pictured: Kirk Hammett, Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, Jimmy Page and Joe Perry)

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/s/led-zeppelin-jimmy-page-celebrates-book-ringo-starr-155257020.html

[Deborah J]

Another article with a few more details. Must have been an amazing night:-)

Go Inside Jimmy Page's Rock All-Star Dinner With Ringo Starr, Kirk Hammett, Joe Walsh & More

By Steve Baltin

| November 14, 2014 2:49 PM EST

Never one for a big media blitz, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page has probably done more interviews in the last six weeks promoting the Zeppelin remasters and his new book, Jimmy Page On Jimmy Page, than he did throughout the entirety of the '70s.

Last night, Page put the finishing touches on the promotional campaign with a private dinner at the iconic Sunset Marquis hotel, a place that has seen more rock and roll gatherings than maybe any other hotel. The evening featured so much guitar power that before we all sat down for the four-course meal, Metallica's Kirk Hammett told Billboard, "I'm one of the luckiest motherf--kers in the guitar slinger's universe."

If ever there was an event to just sit and be a fan, it was in this intimate setting for 45 or so friends and associates of Page and the hotel. Observing the conversations as Page, Joe Perry and Chris Cornell sat side-by-side during the dinner left any music lover awestruck.

At one point during a champagne reception prior to the sit-down meal Page, Hammett, Perry, Ringo Starr and Joe Walsh posed for photos together. That's like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame all-star class.

Even Hammett, who had to stop during our brief interview to take greetings from Perry, was in awe. "It's insane. I was thinking earlier, ‘How fucking lucky am I?' I really did my time in my bedroom listening to Jimmy Page on vinyl sitting there with my guitar."

We had to get his Zeppelin memories, like the first record he picked up from the band. "I can't remember if it's Song Remains The Same or Physical Graffiti, 'cause they came out relatively the same time, in my mind," he said. "I think it wasPhysical Graffiti, I remember hearing it and it was incredibly different than anything else I was listening to. This was different from Elton John. That album, along with Thin Lizzy Jailbreak, ZZ Top Fandango, Lynyrd Skynyrd, One More For The Road."

After the champagne reception, everyone sat down for the dinner, which began with a performance by Tyler Bryant and Graham Whitford (son of Aerosmith's Brad Whitford). Faced with the monumental task of playing an acoustic medley of Zeppelin hits in front of the man himself, the two -- who normally perform as Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown -- did an admirable job, drawing praise from Page himself.

After the dinner, Whitford and Bryant told Billboard that Page complimented their medley, which included "Stairway To Heaven" and "Nobody's Fault But Mine," among others, and asked them for a record.

Walsh rhapsodized about Page to the room at one point. "I first met Jimmy around 1968, I would go see the Yardbirds every chance I got," he recalled. "We would see each other every now and then and talk shop. I had two Gibson Les Paul's at the time and Jimmy couldn't get one. I told him, 'I have two. I'll give you one to try out and if you like it it's yours. And that opened a big old can of whoop ass. He came back with a new band a year later and proceeded to change history."

He then spoke for every musician in the room when he said, "Thank you for all the music, from all of us. Thank you for showing us how to do it."

Page seemed moved by the affection in the room. "I feel totally overwhelmed, it's really touching," he said. "We're all here tonight and it's a result of Genesis Publications. They've been going 40 years and I've been going a lot longer."

But he kept it very brief. "If I stop talking you all can eat, so I should stop talking."

For fans of Zeppelin, or the Beatles, or Aerosmith, or ZZ Top, or Soundgarden, or just rock and roll, it was enough to sit in the room and soak up the history.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6319752/jimmy-page-led-zeppelin-book-private-all-star-dinner

[sam_webmaster]

CBS News | November 18, 2014

"Jimmy Page rides Led Zepplin's 2nd wave"

Jimmy Page in concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain Jun. 03 2011 Rex Features/ AP Images

Led Zeppelin is riding a new wave of popularity, decades after being one of the most influential bands on the planet. But the legendary group has no plans to get back on the road for a reunion tour.

The band broke up more than 30 years ago, but Jimmy Page -- its founder and lead guitarist -- hasn't stopped re-mastering the music that first dominated the airwaves throughout the 1970s, reports CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason.

He made his first TV appearance in 1957 in a Skiffle band, when he was just 13 years old.

"There's always some sort of skeletons that will come out of the closet to haunt you, and that's one," Page said. "I'd rather it wasn't around. I'm sure it brings a lot of mirth for people to see it."

Page became one of the most influential guitarists of the rock era. By the mid '70s, Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham were the biggest rock band in the world.

"All four of us were really good musicians in our own right, but once we played together, it just went into the stratosphere, really," Page said.

Page tells the story in "Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page," a biography in photographs that begins with a picture of a choirboy, who'd just taken up the guitar.

"So even though I looked angelic I was already, you know, it had already -- rock and roll music had already infected me," he said.

By 17, Page was the most sought after session guitarist in Britain.

"I did sessions with Shirley Bassey," he said. "I did Goldfinger, and with solo singers, Tom Jones for example. I mean I played on The Who's 'I Can't Explain.'"

He said it's quite probable he played on half the tracks that were coming out of Britain.

Page grew up in Epsom, England, about a dozen miles from two other British guitarists; Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck:

"Well, something in the water, or what?" Page said. "We were all self-taught. We all would've learned from playing records and moving the stylus back over a solo and trying to play it."

They didn't actually know each other in the beginning, but Page was later asked to replace Clapton in the Yardbirds. He would join Beck in the band, but then had the idea to form a group of his own.

"It wasn't a band that would go out and play the songs note for note, if you knew them on the record," Page said. "Once those songs went into the set, they would change, they would mutate, they would grow."

Page has just remastered Led Zeppelin "IV" and the band's 5th album, "Houses of the Holy" both of which are near the top of the charts again -- 40 years after they were recorded.

Led Zeppelin broke up in 1980, after John Bonham's death, and fans have long hoped for a reunion tour. But lead singer Robert Plant has resisted, except for a one-night-only concert in London in 2007.

Although Plant only agreed to that one event, Page never thought it would be the last gig.

"No, because it was intimated that we were going to be doing more shows," he said "But as it was, it was the last gig, so. Seven years ago, it's a long while, isn't it?"

While Page said he thinks now that was their final performance as a group, he joked, "I could always take vocal lessons."

Led Zeppelin, meanwhile, is fighting off a lawsuit that accuses the group of stealing the intro to "Stairway to Heaven" from the band Spirit.

Page has only one word to say about that, "Ridiculous."

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/led-zeppelin-jimmy-page-on-career-chances-of-reunion-tour/

© 2014 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[Deborah J]

^^ Thanks Sam. I had the DVR ready and recorded the interview this morning:-)

Here are a couple of short videos from the SiriusXM interview:-)

Jimmy Page's Influence on "Black Dog" // SiriusXM // Classic Vinyl

Jimmy Page on the Untitled Album (Led Zeppelin IV) // SiriusXM // Classic Vinyl

http://blog.siriusxm.com/2014/11/18/guitar-hero-jimmy-page-talks-black-dog-and-the-untitled-album-on-classic-vinyl/

[Strider]

Thanks Sam, Deb, ANONYMOUS, et al for all the latest Jimmy interview tidbits. Don't look now but Jimmy Page will be appearing on "Ellen" of all places this Friday Nov. 21. That is Ellen Degeneres' afternoon tv talk show for the uninitiated. I have no idea what channel or time it is on...check your local listings or Ellen's website. Bizarrely, the other guest Friday is that obnoxious boy-band One Direction. According to Sam, Jimmy's appearance was taped last Monday while he was in Los Angeles for his book promotional duties.

http://www.ellentv.com/episodes/one-direction-jimmy-page/

[sam_webmaster]

Jimmy Page talks a life in guitars "That Les Paul was a beauty. It wanted a new home, so I took it home."

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

next

Introduction

Jimmy promoting his autobiography earlier this year

Jimmy Page’s autobiography is a labour of love that charts the Led Zeppelin icon’s musical journey through over 600 photographs, including many from his private archive. Here, in an exclusive new interview with Guitarist, one of rock guitar’s true giants talks about the instruments that shaped his early path from teenage pretender to star of the London session scene, Yardbird and beyond...

Jimmy Page is sitting in a London hotel talking about the book that tells the story of his musical life. He leafs through the copy on the table in front of us and points to one of the many photographs. He’s about 20 years old, frozen in black and white while recording one of the innumerable studio sessions he took part in back in the 1960s.

“Do you know what’s really interesting?” he asks. “There’s all these pictures in here of me in the studio doing sessions with various people, and yet when it comes to Led Zeppelin, the only time that we’re in the studio being photographed is across the second album. Isn’t that interesting? So, pro rata, there’s more of me at those studio sessions, when you wouldn’t think there’d be anything. I just find it ironic. But it was interesting, sieving for gold...”

The 70-year-old Page looks dapper - all in black, silver-haired - in a wafer-thin, ageing gracefully, rock star kind of way. He’s very enthusiastic about his book, very proud, and he’s intrigued by the idea that its procession of pictures can also tell the story of his guitar life.

“That’s what we’ve got to do,” he says with a grin as he turns more pages and reveals the sequence from Grazioso to Les Paul to Telecaster. “We’ve got to try and explain what it is and why it is.”

The early material in Jimmy’s book is especially interesting. There are fascinating connections and links during the decisive years from the period in which he acquires his first guitars, through the studio sessions, and on to The Yardbirds and the first months of Led Zeppelin.

Page turns to a picture of himself playing live with Neil Christian & The Crusaders, supporting Cliff Richard, probably in 1960. He’s got his Grazioso electric and he’s on his knees with it at the front of the stage.

"I got used to big bass drums before hearing John Bonham"

“The interesting thing here,” he says, “is that my body language is exactly the same as something from 1977 in the white poppy suit, pictured later in the book. And we had a superb drummer in that band, a drum major in the army.

"He had a load of swing, he loved all the big-bands. Look at the size of that bass drum! So I got used to big bass drums before hearing John Bonham - someone else who had an amazing swing to his playing.”

There’s a lovely picture in the book of you as a teenager in front of someone’s fireplace with a Grazioso or Futurama...

“Isn’t that great? That’s the first electric guitar I got. The one before it, a Hofner, my dad bought, but... maybe he was psychic, and he knew what was coming. Because there’s a whole procession of guitars that come into my life over the next few years. I’m either 14 or 15 in that picture, it’s 1958, or probably 1959, and that’s the first one, the Grazioso. It looked and felt like an electric guitar, even though it wasn’t a Fender.

"In fact, it had a tremolo arm on it, and I’ve got recordings of me playing on this thing, but you’d think this arm would break, actually. I heard somebody, a sort-of record collector, he told me, ‘You’ve got to hear this Carl Perkins stuff ’ - and it’s terrific guitar playing, he’s a real stylist.”

Were you thinking, ‘Actually, I really want an American guitar’?

“Oh, this is a result of seeing and drooling over Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps, by the time they’re doing Hot Rod Gang [1958 movie] and they’ve got all those Fenders. It was oh... my... god.

"The Fenders were sexy - just beautiful, sculptural designs"

"I’ve seen Bruce Welch talk about when he saw the Fender with Buddy Holly on The Chirping Crickets album, and he describes it exactly the same way as I felt, too, which is: that thing looks like it’s from outer space! What is it?!

"So, you find out, and then you see them, and they’ve been sprayed in almost hot-rod colours, and they’re all matching. It just looked so damn sexy! The Fenders were sexy to begin with, just beautiful, sculptural designs. Then when you saw a whole nest of them, with the bass and the guitars and Gene Vincent standing there, well...”

What was the first American guitar you got your hands on?

“I did get a Strat along the way. But guitars in those days, they weren’t all user-friendly, you know? Just because it was a Strat, didn’t mean to say it was like a Strat we know now. Then it goes from that to one of those orange Chet Atkins Gretsches, and then pretty much from there through to the Les Paul Custom.

"In [2008 documentary film] It Might Get Loud, that was nothing to do with me whatsoever where they’ve got [the caption] ‘Jimmy Page’s first electric guitar’ and they show a picture of a Strat. I don’t know whose Strat it is. The reality of it is, that Grazioso was the first electric guitar.

"Here I am with these guys, but up in Liverpool, there’s pictures of George Harrison playing one, too. So, that guitar was as good as you were going to get around that point of time.”

here’s a picture with you posing with your Les Paul Custom and some Selmer and Fender amps...

“None of it was mine apart from the Les Paul Custom - and I’m wearing clothes from John Stephen in Carnaby Street.

"It was just such a gorgeous-looking thing. It just sounded so wonderful"

"Anyway, I went in this shop, and they asked me to do a photograph with all the amps that they were promoting. I guess I must have had enough of a reputation for them to want to take a picture of me with their amps, even though I was just a studio musician. I was doing both, art college and sessions.”

There weren’t many Les Pauls in Britain at that point in time...

“No, there weren’t. It was just such a gorgeous-looking thing. It just sounded so wonderful. The middle setting wasn’t what you’d expect it to be, it was a spiky sound that was really superb.

"It’s the one that got stolen later, and eventually Gibson said to me ‘what sort of guitar shall we make you?’ And I said ‘I know exactly what guitar: we’re going to do a Custom so you can get all the pickup combinations.’ I played it at the O2, and it sounded bloody marvellous. Everyone was saying that guitar sounded the best of anything that night.”

You used the Custom on many sessions in the 60s...

“Yes, and also I introduced my semi-acoustic Danelectro into the world of sessions. The first session was when Glyn Johns put me in the Jet Harris & Tony Meehan thing, Diamonds, but I was really young then, it was way before that.

"Later, I was at art college and I was playing in the interval band in the Marquee, when the Marquee was on Oxford Street, and somebody there said, ‘Do you want to play on a record?’ I said ‘yeah, absolutely’. So I went along and took my DeArmond [tone and volume] pedal and all the rest.”

Did you have to read music?

“At one point, they came along and gave me a piece of music, and it had dots on it. Just a little bit. And I thought, ‘uh-oh. This obviously means either: we’re going to kick you out, or: you better bloody well learn to read music a bit sharpish because we’ve got things which are more demanding of you.’

"I’d be playing on film scores, on television adverts, on folk sessions, I’d be playing middle-of-the-road music, playing with groups, I’d be playing with singers that were from groups where they’d substituted group members with session musicians. I’d have people coming in from France, from America, right across the board, all kinds. And now I’ve got the hint: you better learn to read music!

"[session work] was an apprenticeship, and I became so accepted behind that closed door."

"So I sort of did, I got to read music. In the early days, there were some sympathetic arrangers who would actually give you your part first, so you’d have a chance. But I’ve got to tell you - reading the sort of fluent notes, that was all right, but when it was chords written, it was ‘oh my god, why don’t they just write down the chord names?’ That was testing.

“And here’s the key to it. I’d played so many different styles of guitar, I’d played fingerstyle on my Harmony acoustic, and I’d played blues, and I knew how to play rock - I knew where the roots of these things came from.

"Also, I learnt to be able to ask a lot of questions, to the engineers, about certain things that I’d heard. I’d play things to people, say ‘what’s that? How’s that done?’ It was an apprenticeship, and I became so accepted behind that closed door. I’m experimenting with the bow, too, although I’m not doing anything on pop records with that.

"I’m doing all of this, all my friends are off having a great time, and I’m faced with f**king muzak. And it’s like, ‘okay, this is it, this is the moment, it’s time to go.’ Everyone’s been really kind, and you think: thanks so much, but I really want to be on my way. I just had so much that I wanted to do.”

You joined The Yardbirds, and Jeff Beck had his Sunburst Les Paul, so you got his Telecaster...

“He came round one day in a brand new [Corvette] Stingray and gave me that guitar. It’s the Yardbirds guitar, but I wanted to make it my own, and that was when I painted it.

"I met Jeff [beck] when we both had homemade guitars, so we go back that far"

"That’s the only area that tells you the boy went to art college, the only thing that illustrates that, the fact he painted his Telecaster. Well [laughs], it wasn’t a wasted opportunity, then, was it?”

What was your musical relationship like with Jeff?

“It was really good, great. I don’t know how old he says we were when we met, I think he reduces the years to almost 11. His memory’s bloody good, I’ll tell you that much. You know that by his guitar playing: he’s got a photographic memory.

"I met Jeff when we both had homemade guitars, so we go back that far, when we’re seeing who’s got the closest version of My Babe by James Burton. Just two kids really enthusiastic and passionate about music and guitar playing.

"Anyway, Jeff had said it would be great if we both played in The Yardbirds together. That was what he said, and I said I didn’t really think it was going to be possible, because there was this union, five Yardbirds - five live Yardbirds - and it didn’t seem that that was going to be six, to have even more guitars.”

You did end up joining The Yardbirds, but you started on bass...

"I’m playing bass and trying to fill Paul Samwell-Smith’s shoes, and that was tough"

“Yes, because Paul Samwell-Smith left the band and they had dates to do. I’ll tell you what, that was a hard gig, doesn’t matter if I’d done sessions or whatever: I’m playing bass and trying to fill Paul Samwell-Smith’s shoes, and that was tough.

"But the idea was that Chris [Dreja] would take over the bass and Jeff and I would play guitars together, so we did stuff where I do a bit of bowing, doing stuff like Over Under Sideways Down in harmony guitars. It was just fun. It was really good and promising. There wasn’t anything like that, not what we were doing or were planning.”

There are some pictures of you playing Jeff’s sunburst Les Paul...

“I had no choice, I had to take over on guitar if he walked off. What else are you going to do? Walk off with him? It was usually because the amplifiers were playing up, or something.

"All in all, knowing Jeff ’s sort of technique and his precision, I can understand it, but at the time it was ‘oh my god, he’s being really temperamental here’. But he was in the whole world of what he was trying to do, and shaping his sound. So I’ve got to play the stuff that’s been done before, but I’m really keen to move it into other areas and put my own stamp on it.

“The stuff that I did sort of collides with singles that have to be done, and you try to put the stuff that you’re really doing on the B-sides - Think About It, Puzzles, the bow, it’s all coming in.

You have no idea how quickly the Little Games album was recorded. ‘Right, red light’s on, take, next...’ because [producer] Mickie Most didn’t like albums, he only liked singles.

"When it came to the time of Led Zeppelin, I knew exactly what I wanted to do"

"That’s why I knew, when it came to the time of Led Zeppelin, that’s how I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Exactly how I was going to go about it, exactly what material. There was an audience for it, if I got a good band together.

"And I didn’t just get a good band, I had a phenomenon together. It was really exciting! Imagine! But when people talk about Zeppelin as musicians... everyone dreams of being in a band like that.

“I really wanted The Yardbirds to continue, because I really believed in it... we’d done some recording in the studio, we’d also done a live thing, none of it actually was supposed to come out - I don’t know what sort of leaked out on bootleg - but I had sort of an idea, I had material to be done.

"They wanted to try something else, they didn’t want to be The Yardbirds any more, so that’s it. I know what I’m doing, I’ve had this period now coming out of the studio, really studio-disciplined, I know how to do things and I know how to approach the next stage, certainly in my life, and how it relates to America.”

So you took the Telecaster with you into Zeppelin, and that lasted for the first-album period, before you got your own Sunburst Les Paul...

“Absolutely, the first album is done on the Telecaster, because it is a transition from The Yardbirds to Led Zeppelin, it’s exactly the same guitar. It’s not until 1969 that I get the Les Paul, when Joe Walsh insists on me having this guitar.

"He bloody insisted, he said, ‘You’ve got to buy this guitar!’ I said I didn’t necessarily need it. ‘No, you’ve got to have it, just try it, you’ll want it’. I said, ‘I’ve already got the Custom’. ‘No, no, you’ve got to try it!’

"It’s hypothetical, but I may not have come up with the riff from Whole Lotta Love on the Telecaster"

"I knew it was a good guitar. I knew there wouldn’t be the feedback, the squealing you got from the Telecaster - every night there was a whole episode of controlling that. Everybody had that, if they started turning up a Telecaster loud, you know? So I did buy it, and I kicked off the second album with it. It was a pro rata price, he wasn’t stealing me up, and he wasn’t giving it to me as a present.

“It’s the intervention of the guitar again. My first one was left behind at a house we moved into. Then there’s the energy-charged guitar in The Yardbirds that Jeff Beck had. Then Joe Walsh insists I buy this guitar. The intervention of the guitar again.

"That Les Paul was a beauty. It wanted a new home, so I took it home. I had it right through to the O2 [2007], and that’s unusual. Most people have got other guitars they’ll play, but no matter what, it’s the same Les Paul.

"It’s hypothetical, but I may not have come up with the riff from Whole Lotta Love on the Telecaster. That fat sound on the Les Paul, you’re inspired. Well, I am, and I know other people are inspired by the sound of particular instruments. Suddenly they’re playing something they haven’t played before, and it’s really user-friendly, and suddenly they’ve got some sort of riff, which is peculiar to that moment. So many things start singing, you know? Really singing.”

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/jimmy-page-talks-a-life-in-guitars-609735

[ANONYMOUS]

An Interview With Jimmy Page: Turning Led Into Gold

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2014/11/jimmy_page_turning_led_into_gold.php?utm_content=buffer2707a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Jimmy Page plays guitar better than you.

To paraphrase Led Zeppelin's 1969 psychedelic classic: "What Is and What WILL Never Be." In short, a Zeppelin reunion is what will never be. Seemingly, at least. Guitar genius/producer Jimmy Page wants it; vocalist Robert Plant vociferously does not. So it's not the elephant in the room -- or in this case, on the phone line from London. It's oft-discussed, but Page, uncharacteristically talking to the press and doing public events in the U.S., is laser-focused on promoting his book (the succinctly titled Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page) and the massive year-long-plus Zeppelin reissue/remastering campaign offering previously unreleased "companion audio." Page, 70, is charming and articulate, if slightly cagey, and though there's so much fans want to ask -- ZoSo! Crowley! John Bonham! The Riot House! -- the elder statesman of rock has earned and demands a respect few others can claim.

Clearly, reissuing and remastering all your records with additional new material was a monumental task. Did you have all the moving parts in your possession?

Well, I started off archiving my collection, and when it got to the Led Zeppelin stuff, I set up a studio in my own house; it was just going to take so long to listen to all this stuff. I set up a listening studio, and then proceeded going through and making copious amounts of notes, and checking out the bootleg scene; I didn't want to release something that was already out there on bootleg. Being the producer [originally], I was in there more than other guys like when Robert was putting the vocals, so I have various mixes of that. And when [bassist/keyboardist] John Paul Jones went in, I have various mixes of that too. I had more source material than anybody else had to kick off with, but it meant that there was so much more to listen to.

It seems that so many alternate takes and mixes are still available. Do you still have three dozen other mixes and versions to choose from for every song?

I had to listen to everything that there was. I left no stone unturned. To be honest with you, I am a bit like that, a bit OCD. So the fact was, if I was going to take this project on, I had to do it right. I came up with the idea of it, I had to see it through and I knew it was going to take hundreds of hours of listening time to sift through the analog tapes of the rough mixes or rough mixes in progress. So, yes, there are bits and pieces of mixes but these ones seem to best complement the original recordings and versions and are different enough for people to go, "Oh, well, that's interesting."

I believe Led Zeppelin IV initially had "Night Flight" and "Boogie with Stu" (featuring the Rolling Stones' Ian Stewart on piano) recorded for it, but that those were saved for later albums like Physical Graffiti. How come?

There are three, actually, from the sessions: "Down by the Seaside," "Night Flight," and "Boogie with Stu" were left; actually they would all go on Physical Graffiti in the end. They were initially taken over to be mixed...I went with Andy Johns to Sunset Sound [Los Angeles], where we started the preliminary mixes for this album. "Battle of Evermore" wasn't completed with Sandy Denny yet, but the whole shaping of the album became very apparent there and then, as far as going from one tangent to another, and one extreme to another and having something like the whole menace, density of something like "When the Levee Breaks" to the whole caressing quality of "Going to California." This whole body of work from going to [Hampshire U.K's] Headley Grange, we all stayed in there -- this was a commitment -- and all we did was eat, sleep, and make music and record it with a recording truck. That was it, and we were able to really go from one extreme to another. Mutate time really, and made it sidereal really.

That's funny you say that, as I know several people have called you an "alchemist" -- turning metals into gold, and you mention manipulating time, which sounds like another form of alchemy as well.

Or turning gold into Led. [Laughs]

As both the producer and a band member, did your "producer side" have the final say in the track listing and decisions like that, or was it a democratic thing?

We take it into account, obviously, but you also have to understand that originally these albums were done for vinyl, as that's the medium that there was, you would have one side and then turn over to side two. On side one it would finish with "Stairway to Heaven" and on side two it would finish up with "Levee Breaks," so the whole selection of tracks was always an important thing, as far as I could see. It gave the impact to the track that would follow it. Now, on CDs, you go straight from what would be the last track of what was side one to the first track of side two and you get a continuum right from "Black Dog" to "Levee Breaks." In the days of albums, I think it was really, really important in the way things were put together and the running order. So I put these things together and play it to everyone and they go, "Yeah."

Often producers are babysitters in the studio to control egos and hold hands, or they have to impose their will and are dictators. Did you have to do either of those?

Well, I was sort of shaping it, wasn't I, because I had written the material and when I first put the band together, I really knew what I wanted to do with the band before I even had one. I knew exactly what route it was going on: It was through...all those underground clubs I had done in America with the Yardbirds; it was going to flirt with the FM radio, where they were playing songs that were longer than three minutes or two minutes 30. It was underground radio; I knew exactly where I was going with it and that we weren't going to do singles. I knew which way I'd hope it would go if I could get the musicians. Now, fate intervenes at this point and the musicians come on hand very quickly, and it's pretty profound what we managed to do.

Exactly. Fate and vision both.

I mean, it looks like it, right? Fate intervened or dictated that we should break musical horizons or traverse the musical map. And we did that.

Zeppelin has topped every chart and won every award...what means the most to you? How you do you define success? Is it meeting President Obama, or recognition from some little Blues Hall of Fame-type thing with three people in it?

[Meeting President Obama] was pretty awe-inspiring stuff, I've got to say. Well, all of those sort of awards, it means it comes as a result of people either voting for you or the general public has, and that's really cool. I know I am blowing my own trumpet here, but over here recently [britain], the BBC had a poll as far as all the guitar riffs and "Whole Lotta Love" came out at the No. 1, actually way in the lead of anything else. That was so cool. That riff was done in 1969 and that's really good that it can still put a smile on people's faces, and you can dance a few shapes to it still.

Correct me, but it seems you have had several periods you needed to be reinvigorated -- such as after John Bonham passed away -- with the ARMS shows. Did this huge Zeppelin project reinvigorate, ending a chapter and you can go forward?

No. What, go forward? No, no no, I'm going to go backwards. I'm seriously going to go backwards.

Meaning?

That I'm going to go backwards. [Laughs]

So is new music going backwards, or new solo records? I read that you were thinking of doing a tour that would cover all phases of your career, Outrider, The Firm...

Who said that?

I read it on the internet, and the internet is always right.

Well, let's tease the internet and see what comes later.

[Strider]

Just a reminder Jimmy Page is on Ellen Degeneres Show today. Don't know what channel or time it's on in your area. In LA it's on NBC at 3pm I think. Weird pairing Jimmy with One Direction. Wonder who will be first.

[Deborah J]

^^Hi Strider! DVR ready to record this. The show just started in my area:-)

Edit: ^^Thanks for the interviews ANONYMOUS

[For My Life]

Just a reminder Jimmy Page is on Ellen Degeneres Show today. Don't know what channel or time it's on in your area. In LA it's on NBC at 3pm I think. Weird pairing Jimmy with One Direction. Wonder who will be first.

Official two minute clip now available: http://www.ellentv.com/videos/0-7az8a0lj/

[Ross62]

Many thanks to all for the up-to-date and detailed interviews!

[slave to zep]

I just cannot believe she asked those two questions!

thumbs down, Ellen.

[luvlz2]

http://youtu.be/9DvO6QvVXQA

[caesar's_chariot]

Sad that Ellen's show was mostly focused on One Direction. Anyway, glad to hear that Jimmy is committed to hitting the road in '15. Can't wait.

[PlanetPage]

http://youtu.be/9DvO6QvVXQA

...Thank you!! That is Very Hot appearance by Jimmy! So happy to see him looking happy and healthy, absolutely himself...in one word Beautiful...

[PlanetPage]

Just a reminder Jimmy Page is on Ellen Degeneres Show today. Don't know what channel or time it's on in your area. In LA it's on NBC at 3pm I think. Weird pairing Jimmy with One Direction. Wonder who will be first.

...Jimmy Page and Robert Plant had shared similar stage with likes of Los Del Rios/Macarena Nov. 30, 1996 Chanel V Lifetime Achievement Award Mumbai/Bombay.....in fact stepped in for Los Del Rios, as they did not perform...

[Deborah J]

Been a Long Time Since I Rock-and-Rolled: A Conversation With Jimmy Page

BY PAULA MEJIA 11/22/14 AT 4:00 PM

Jimmy Page photographed at the Bowery Hotel in New York City on Nov. 4, 2014 MICHAEL IP FOR NEWSWEEK

Led Zeppelin is revered (and reviled) for its pioneering sound: swamp rock infused with sonic blues, a healthy interest in the occult (or at least Tolkien) and a swaggering ’70s sexuality. Jimmy Page, one of the Yardbirds’ legendary lead guitarists, assembled the band in 1968 and eventually recruited its other members—vocalist Robert Plant, John Paul Jones on bass and John Bonham on drums. Page was responsible for crafting some of Led Zeppelin’s most memorable song arrangements, shredding many a guitar solo and producing the band’s extensive catalog until it disbanded in 1980.

Zep reunion rumors recur every so often, but Page and Plant have yet to agree about getting the band back together. Both have been productive since the band’s demise. In addition to reissuing every major work in the Led Zeppelin catalog, Page, now 70, compiled a massive photo autobiography tracing where the journey all began, and he plans to begin performing again soon.

Newsweek sat down with Page in New York City.

Let’s talk about the autobiographical photo book. Were most of the photos from your archive, or did you have to hunt them down?

I had a number of photographs in my own archive, certainly the only shots [from the] pre-Beatles era, and that sort of gives an idea of what things were like down in London. People know what went on, you know, with the Beatles, but there was a totally different music scene going on down in the south. It was good to have all these archival photographs to put in, because I knew I could chart a journey all the way through. I had photographs from our cottage, where Robert [Plant] and I went on a small, short vacation.... The song “That’s the Way” was written there.

It was feasible with all these photographs people might not have seen before, along with things they may have seen before, along with things that I really wanted to search out that I remembered and wanted to include in this. It’s not just the photographs. It has the tour itineraries, the various bands that I was in, and it has the first visa stamp [on his passport] coming to America [laughs].

But it’s mainly about music. What music always meant to me was something which you would put on and just, in the moments when you could really listen to it, concentrate on it, listen to it and then just be taken by it. And it’s the same thing with something like this.

What music electrified you as a young person?

As a kid, I heard the early [Elvis] Presley stuff, Little Richard. And that just spoke volumes to young people. The first photograph I’ve got in there, I’m about 12 or 13, and I’m already in the throes of sort of getting through a few chords on the guitar. But the damage was done once I heard that music, you know? When I started to listen to it, it was like…this sort of hand came out of the speaker and just pulled my head right into the middle of it all.

I still kept up on my academic studies and such, but it was my hobby. And at that point, there wasn’t really any sort of equation. I didn’t come from a musical family. If you came from a musical family and it was passed down that way, there was a good possibility that you might make your living in the music business. Something that was just your hobby, that wasn’t necessarily going to be the case.

As a kid, I made this connection: I wanted to be part of what was coming out of America, and you can see it in these early photographs. There’s one of Red-E-Lewis and the Redcaps, and we’re quite clearly trying to be Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps. It was innocent fun. But there was a determination and a passion even then that I had. From that point, I started to play from the rockabilly styles of guitar, and that then translated more into the blues. Basically researching on Presley I started to wonder, Well, who is Big Boy [Arthur Crudup]? Who is Sleepy John Estes?

Howlin’ Wolf, too.

Yeah! Once you discover Howlin’ Wolf it’s like, Who is this man? And so my taste was sort of going from the rockabilly style of guitar to blues and the riffs, these sort of trance riffs from the Chicago movement of the 1950s, Chess and the Vee-Jay catalog, to name a few. Then the country blues. I was taking all this on, and I had a very healthy interest in Indian music.

That’s how far back all that goes. So the fact that I went into the session world, and I had a number of sort of styles at my fingertips, if you like, it really put me in good stead because I wasn’t just a one-trick pony. I could play all kinds of different things, and be asked, Well what would you like to do? If you come up with an idea on this, just go ahead and play! And I would, and I really enjoyed it. I had a voracious musical appetite.

You’ve also been compiling massive box sets of reissued Led Zeppelin albums, along with overdubs and accompanying photography.

Yeah. Hundreds of hours of tapes, listening to bootlegs to make sure I knew what was out there and what wasn’t of the studio stuff. It was an epic chore. But the way that I saw it, I needed to do it because I was the one who had the most points of reference along the way, being the producer of the band. The companion discs have different versions of songs that had never come out before, different mixes. But just to give, like, this window in, I could make a portal into the times the albums were recorded, so people could get a feel for the work that went into it. They all know the studio albums and the versions, but to hear “Whole Lotta Love” off the companion disc can be quite scary for the first time. It’s like a voodoo ritual. That’s what so cool about it!

It’s also a great glimpse into the studio process of making the albums.

I think that the albums were definitive, because that’s what was chosen. But the word album is really important because it was designed for vinyl, to have Side One when it would begin and deepen, and then you would turn over to Side Two, which would sequence through and finish. It was with great care that the numbers were put on those albums, the sequencing. So it would give the next number even more dramatic effect, the space it would occupy.

But the raison d'être [of this project] was to get more information. I knew the fans would love it. It wasn’t just two bonus tracks added to each album, it was something of serious substance to go along with it.

What was it like revisiting the songs?

I had to really concentrate and not do anything else. Just listen to it. Fortunately, my memory really served me well. Something would be playing and it’d be numerous tapes at the same time; I’d put it on and I’d be, like [snaps], I know where this is. I didn’t have to listen to all of it. Because at the time, the attention to detail—as a producer—was such that you really needed to remember so much, I was really lucky that it sort of stayed in there. The song “Keys to the Highway” on the third album, I hadn’t even heard it from the recording days. But I remembered what was going to happen in the song. It was spooky, really.

I set myself an agenda that involved doing my own career, if you like, the Zeppelin studio material and the inevitable next step from that, which is actually to reappear. To be playing.

Are you planning to perform again?

I hope to be playing by the end of next year. I’ve gotten new music that I didn’t record, and I’ve got some that I hint at on the It Might Get Loud documentary. It’s just a guitar solo on its own. But I have ideas for that music, music of that period and more recent music that I’ve written. But no matter when they’re recorded, if you’ve got a really good riff, it doesn’t matter if it was recorded 30 years ago, 15 years ago, five years ago or five months ago. If it’s presented in the right way, it’s still current. It’s not all riff material, but it’s all guitar music.

Would you consider doing an off-kilter kind of performance, perhaps in an experimental venue?

That’s really interesting you say that. I’ve got some experimental music that I found along the way on this archive journey. I had to devote more time to all of this and the promotion, but it was going to be a part of an event, in London.… In the end, I couldn’t pull it together. But that would have been an avant-garde sort of circumstance, and it would have been interesting, in a sort of big warehouse with various installations. I should get in touch with the people who were going to do it.

But that’s what the future holds! It holds all these surprises; endless, really. The only thing that’s stopping those possibilities is your imagination. Mind you, I’ve started racing against time now. That’s when it gets really exciting.

http://www.newsweek.com/been-long-time-i-rock-and-rolled-conversation-jimmy-page-286297

[Reggie29]

http://youtu.be/9DvO6QvVXQA

Now that's Lez Zeppelin!?

[MrZoSo]

Sad IMO that promotion comes before preforming or making new music. Then again all this promotion is sad IMO.

[rdg1]

Jimmy on Bob Plant: "Its his journey"

Thats the perfect title for the 1st song on my proposed colloboration with Jimmy

A viscious lyrical attack on Bob Plant for our first song much in the same manner as Lennon and Harrison's attack on McCartney with the song "How can you sleep"....

The media bruhaha would be epic.