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Jimmy Page in 1976


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Otto, thanks for sharing another great article! I don't remember that one. :D

Along with the warning about getting busted for drugs in Mexico!

haven't heard anyone mention Circus mag inmanyyears........ :o I used to read it all the time...

where's that confounded bridge

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Thanks for the responses, everybody. :beer:

As for the context, this interview was published as TSRTS was released, in October 1976, and Presence had been released earlier that year (in April).

There are a few interesting things in that interview, I think. For one thing Jimmy's predictions there for the future of rock/popular music weren't exactly borne out, and he would have replied very differently just a few months later: by that time the whole punk wave was established. Basically Jimmy seems to think that the future would be more elaborate, really craftily done songwriting - I think it's obvious that Jimmy sees his own interest in guitar orchestration as a step in that direction - but what happened was more of a simplification, a going back to basics - which as it turned out wasn't entirely unwelcome to Jimmy, as he liked The Damned, for example.

I also find it interesting how he responds to the Aleister Crowley questions; the counter-cultural idea of a 'liberating system' is firmly in place there, except it's obviously more of an individualistic notion, as opposed to a political one. As I see it, this is one of the characteristic things about Led Zeppelin more generally: for all their initial sympathy with the hippies, they really were a post-hippie outfit - and, despite their left of centre leanings, they were post-68 radicalism. It's like Jagger sang earlier in the year when LZ were formed, 'But what can a poor boy do/'cept to sing for a rock & roll band...'

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Thanks for the responses, everybody. :beer:

As for the context, this interview was published as TSRTS was released, in October 1976, and Presence had been released earlier that year (in April).

There are a few interesting things in that interview, I think. For one thing Jimmy's predictions there for the future of rock/popular music weren't exactly borne out, and he would have replied very differently just a few months later: by that time the whole punk wave was established. Basically Jimmy seems to think that the future would be more elaborate, really craftily done songwriting - I think it's obvious that Jimmy sees his own interest in guitar orchestration as a step in that direction - but what happened was more of a simplification, a going back to basics - which as it turned out wasn't entirely unwelcome to Jimmy, as he liked The Damned, for example.

I also find it interesting how he responds to the Aleister Crowley questions; the counter-cultural idea of a 'liberating system' is firmly in place there, except it's obviously more of an individualistic notion, as opposed to a political one. As I see it, this is one of the characteristic things about Led Zeppelin more generally: for all their initial sympathy with the hippies, they really were a post-hippie outfit - and, despite their left of centre leanings, they were post-68 radicalism. It's like Jagger sang earlier in the year when LZ were formed, 'But what can a poor boy do/'cept to sing for a rock & roll band...'

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the interview, including your perspective on Jimmy's predictions for the direction that rock/pop music would take in the future.

I agree with your assessment that Zep were a "post-hippie" band. When I initially saw them, they looked and had a "hippyish" vibe but it was clear that, once you heard them (whether in concert or on vinyl) there sound and their message was not "hippyish". Zep represented something completely different. Granted that, in some way, they were likely inspired by and probably influenced by bands and music genres that came before them but their sound and vibe were something that we (young fans) had not heard or felt before. I experienced this when I saw them perform live for the first time. While they may have, for a brief moment, looked like hippies to some, when they opened with "Immigrant Song" , the last thing you thought of were hippies or politics - as you note, it was individualistic and that included hedonism and lightheartedness. Even the songs they sang of pain and loss were about individual rather than collective sorrow.

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I'm intrigued by what Aleister Crowley's system might be that JP uses in his every day life. Jimmy's other comment (about getting very hyped up before going onstage) makes me wonder if it's something to do with self-hypnosis.

I once read by a book by Israel Regardie, an associate of Crowley's, that described something like that, but using colors and some Kabbalah terms.

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  • 1 year later...
a going back to basics - which as it turned out wasn't entirely unwelcome to Jimmy, as he liked The Damned, for example.

I definitely remember the quote about The Dammed, made me want to check them out.Jimmy didn't say much about the newer bands so that stuck with me.

Otto, Jimmy said in a interview about the the upcoming 77 tour..."This tour is going to be epic.....you'll see". I thought I had that here someplace but can't find it. Do you know what Magazine that was and when?.

That one stuck with me also because I knew I'd be seeing them that year, regardless where they were playing, lucky for me it was my own back yard.

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Jimmy said in a interview about the the upcoming 77 tour..."This tour is going to be epic.....you'll see". I thought I had that here someplace but can't find it. Do you know what Magazine that was and when?.

That one stuck with me also because I knew I'd be seeing them that year, regardless where they were playing, lucky for me it was my own back yard.

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Levee, I'm pretty sure that was an interview Page had with Nick Kent in late fall of 1976. It appeared in Creem magazine here in the States. I remember the comment for exactly the same reason. They'd be touring the U.S. very shortly and the anticipation was building. That interview also referenced the insinuations by Kenneth Anger about Page's affair with the White Lady.

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Thanks for the responses, everybody. :beer:

As for the context, this interview was published as TSRTS was released, in October 1976, and Presence had been released earlier that year (in April).

There are a few interesting things in that interview, I think. For one thing Jimmy's predictions there for the future of rock/popular music weren't exactly borne out, and he would have replied very differently just a few months later: by that time the whole punk wave was established. Basically Jimmy seems to think that the future would be more elaborate, really craftily done songwriting - I think it's obvious that Jimmy sees his own interest in guitar orchestration as a step in that direction - but what happened was more of a simplification, a going back to basics - which as it turned out wasn't entirely unwelcome to Jimmy, as he liked The Damned, for example.

I also find it interesting how he responds to the Aleister Crowley questions; the counter-cultural idea of a 'liberating system' is firmly in place there, except it's obviously more of an individualistic notion, as opposed to a political one. As I see it, this is one of the characteristic things about Led Zeppelin more generally: for all their initial sympathy with the hippies, they really were a post-hippie outfit - and, despite their left of centre leanings, they were post-68 radicalism. It's like Jagger sang earlier in the year when LZ were formed, 'But what can a poor boy do/'cept to sing for a rock & roll band...'

While the form was maybe different from what he seems to be talking about I'd say he was pretty accurate that songwritting would take over from the established styles of the previous few years.

I'v always had the impression that it was the inital "blast" of punk in 77-78 that caught the rock establishment off guard, I don't think they anticipated rock being so caught up in the social/political troubles of the time. What followed afterwards does seem to fit more closely into what Page was mentioning, Public Image Ltd, Joy Division, Talking Heads etc building up walls of sound with ethnic influences.

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Jimmy said in a interview about the the upcoming 77 tour..."This tour is going to be epic.....you'll see". I thought I had that here someplace but can't find it. Do you know what Magazine that was and when?.

That one stuck with me also because I knew I'd be seeing them that year, regardless where they were playing, lucky for me it was my own back yard.

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Levee, I'm pretty sure that was an interview Page had with Nick Kent in late fall of 1976. It appeared in Creem magazine here in the States. I remember the comment for exactly the same reason. They'd be touring the U.S. very shortly and the anticipation was building. That interview also referenced the insinuations by Kenneth Anger about Page's affair with the White Lady.

The Nick Kent interview with Jimmy Page you are referring to appeared in the April 1977 issue of Creem magazine. As Creem often reprinted Nick Kent's(and other's) articles from NME, it is possible this interview appeared earlier in NME.

I will post the 1977 Nick Kent interview in a seperate thread.

As to this particular 1976 Circus interview, this issue is one of the ones I lost in an apartment fire I had years ago, burning lots of my rock and roll memorobilia.

Luckily, I still have a few of the Circus poll winner issues, one with Robert Plant and Linda Ronstandt on the cover, another with Plant and Ann Wilson as Man & Woman of the Year, and the Nov. 1980 issue with the Cars' Ric Ocasek on the cover that had John Swenson's article about Bonham's death.

Hey old-time Circus readers, remember Lou O'Neill Jr., the "Rona Barrett" of Rock 'n' Roll? He always had that "Back Pages" column...on the back page, natch!

Still, I always was a "Creem" man myself...best rock mag of the 70's! But I always found time to also read Circus, Crawdaddy, Trouser Press, Rock, Audio, Zig Zag, NME and Melody Maker.

Rolling Stone(with the exception of Hunter S. Thompson's articles) was good for wiping your ass or house training your puppy.

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