Lucifer Rising LP

[reswati]

I just purchased a vinyl version of Jimmy's Lucifer rising soundtrack on Boleskine House Records (the blue vinyl disk).

Since only 1000 have been made I wondered how the album has been spread all over the world.

So if you have one copy of it, which number of the 1000 is it and where do you live.

[SteveAJones]

I just purchased a vinyl version of Jimmy's Lucifer rising soundtrack on Boleskine House Records (the blue vinyl disk). Since only 1000 have been made I wondered how the album has been spread all over the world. So if you have one copy of it, which number of the 1000 is it and where do you live.

I can tell you the independent album producer who released it in May 1989 was named Christopher Dietler and he was living in Carmichael, California (a suburb of Sacramento).

[alwizard03]

Well I have a lp of lucifer rising it list 616 the number of the beast and happy 1-b-1 on one side

and on the other side it has do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law happy 1-a-1

dont see who made it but it is black with a pink lable have had it since about 88 bought it in Norfolk VA if you want to know where from pm me.

[SteveAJones]

Well I have a lp of lucifer rising it list 616 the number of the beast and happy 1-b-1 on one side and on the other side it has do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law happy 1-a-1 dont see who made it but it is black with a pink lable have had it since about 88 bought it in Norfolk VA if you want to know where from pm me.

The Dietler production is quasi-legitimate but bootleg vinyl releases/re-releases abound.

[swandown]

The first 1000 copies were pressed on blue vinyl, but there were many thousand more pressed on black vinyl (and possibly other colors).

This soundtrack album was copied directly from a print of the 1976 film, which explains why the album is the exact same length as the "Solo Performances" bootleg (which was recorded at the world premiere of the movie). There is additional Jimmy Page music for this film which has not been released.

[alwizard03]

yes and I put 88 as purchase date that was about the time I started purchasing quite a few boots lp and cd in Norfolk but it could have been as late as 90

[JTM]

The first 1000 copies were pressed on blue vinyl, but there were many thousand more pressed on black vinyl (and possibly other colors).

This soundtrack album was copied directly from a print of the 1976 film, which explains why the album is the exact same length as the "Solo Performances" bootleg (which was recorded at the world premiere of the movie). There is additional Jimmy Page music for this film which has not been released.

According to Kenneth Anger, Jimmy Page failed to deliver his work for Lucifer Rising. The music in the film was compossed and recorded (in prison) by Charlie Manson associate Bobby "Cupid" Beausoleil....Who is of course still in prison................So it appears that the boot is not JP at all...............................EDIT ADDITION...Source, "Uncut" Book of Revalations part 2

[swandown]

According to Kenneth Anger, Jimmy Page failed to deliver his work for Lucifer Rising. The music in the film was compossed and recorded (in prison) by Charlie Manson associate Bobby "Cupid" Beausoleil....Who is of course still in prison................So it appears that the boot is not JP at all.

Wikipedia is your friend

[JTM]

Wikipedia is your friend

Ah well, You got me

[Rock Historian]

This is a great album. I have the Pink label version as well. There's a pic of Crowley on the front cover and a pic of Page on the back. Happy 1 and Happy 2 identify the sides. I love the atmosphere that Page creates with this recording. I paid about 50 bucks for it online a few years ago.

[nirvana]

I have a version that has Crowley and a bunch of the movie stills on the cover and on the inside jackets, all black and white.

The label on the vinyl is white with Lucifer Rising on it....

It was a 2 album set with the other album being out-takes of live Zep from 69-73.

[beatbo]

this new posting came to the attention of FBO, and i thought i would post links and tidbits here. if you scan the site, there are links to other bits of info.

uranium cafe link-lucifer rising

I have been hearing about this infamous falling out between Led Zeppelin maestro Jimmy Page and filmmaker, writer Kenneth Anger for decades now. Sadly the only the material I can find on the net still seems to the same variety of articles that appeared in rock fan magazines back in the seventies. This is actually one of the few great legends in the world that I have some sort of connection with. Well, in a sort of incalculably indirect way. I saw Page with Zeppelin back in 1977 in Ohio, and briefly met Anger at a book signing at the fantastic Scarecrow Video store in Seattle, where he signed my special copy of Hollywood Babylon with the Aleister Crowley quote Do What Thou Wilt from The Book of the Law. I had a nice little collection of Crowley books, most from Samuel Llewellyn Press at one time, though I doubt it could compare to the collection by Anger and of course the filthy rich Jimmy Page who was reputed to have had at one time the 2nd largest collection of Crowley books and memorabilia in the world, including Crowley’s Boleskin House, perched on the cheery shores of Loch Ness in Scotland. It was one of three fantastic houses a then young Page owned (all have since been sold I believe). He also owned a house in the Kensington district of London called the Tower House, designed by Victorian architect William Burgess and formally owned by Richard Harris, and it is in this house that the drama between Anger and Page unfolded.

Anger had been inside the rock circle for some time, in part due to his avant garde (a fancy word for confusing usually) films such as Scorpio Rising which had a score of old rock music that actually prevented the film from being shown publicly for decades due to copy write issues. He met Anita Pallenberg who was seeing soon to be deceased Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones. She would later become Keith Richards’s common law wife. The Stones took a liking to Anger and his liberated views views on life and vast knowledge of occult matters, and in particular his passion for British occultist Aleister Crowley. Their public image would shift from Brit bad boys to decadent and sinister rockers during their time with Anger. Their song Sympathy for the Devil from On Her majesty’s Satanic Service was inspired by conversations with Anger. Jagger would even score an Anger film called Invocation of My Demon Brother. I have seen the film and it is a really horrendous soundtrack in my opinion. Some repetitive experimental sounds on what sounds like an early Moog synthesizer. Jagger is a good musician as well as singer and could ahve done something a little better maybe.

Jimmy Page had developed his own interest in matters occult and with Crowley in particular. He owned an occult bookstore called the Equinox and, as mentioned, out bid other rock dignitaries like David Bowie in the purchasing of Boleskin Manor. Page and Anger met at an auction of Crowley memorabilia in about 1973 and a friendship was formed. Anger asked Page if he would be interested in scoring his latest and most ambitious film project Lucifer Rising (or whatever the working title may have been) and Page enthusiastically accepted. Anger was allowed access to a film editing facility in the basement area of the Tower House that was set up to edit scenes for The Song Remains the Same, the Led Zeppelin concert film. Exactly what the reasons for Jimmy’s alleged loss of interest in the project are depend on what source you are reading. A lot of things were said later in the press that seemed fueled by resentment on both men’s part. Essentially after a period of time the friendship began to cool off and Anger returned to one day to find himself locked out of the lower area of the house he was working in. The rest of the house had always been off limits to Anger. as well as the general public, being ast the tiem the only of William Burgess’ houses not open to the public. It seems there was a domestic quarrel between Page and his girlfriend (perhaps Charlotte Martin who Page had a long a stormy, though little publicized, relationship with, including marrigae and divorce) the night before and it was she who locked Anger out. Anger claimed he could not reach Page despite repeated attempts and Swan Song offices did not communicate with him as they are known to do with people and the public regarding Led Zeppelin issues. He eventually gathered his belongings and called the offices to inform them Page was fired as the film’s composer. In interviews following the incident Anger blamed Page’s lack of productivity (after more than year he had produced only 23 minutes of music that Anger found too morbid) on his increasing use of heroin. In some interviews (there is a brief comment by Anger on youtube but the video was all “psychedelic” looking, so I did not link it) Anger does not seem that bitter and says Page is a beautiful person who has let his drug use get control of him. In other statements he has also said Page has a good work ethic and commitment to projects, but that he had basically became a junky and now behaves like a junky in unpredictable ways and asocial ways.

Page seemed surprised by his firing and has said he had been kept busy with Zeppelin matters and getting Swan Song off the ground and thought Anger was happy with the music he had so far produced and that he had more than the 23 minutes but not in a final stage of production. Page was less hostile in press statements than Anger was (what do you think with a name like that, right? Though he was born Kenneth Wilber Anglemyer) but seemed disappointed byt he whole affair. The simple truth is that Page did have a drug problem and it did affect his decisions and performances in later Zeppelin periods. Too what degree that affected this situation, or did not, we can only speculate. However it did not seem like an appropriate issue for someone as normally polite as Anger to keep bringing up publicly. It simply made him appear vindictive and simply too bitter.

Anger would eventually enlist the help of ex-protégée Bobby Beausoleil in getting a finished soundtrack for the film. This was no simple task since Beausoleil had been a California prison since 1969 for a Mansion Family related murder. It was a prior murder of Gary Hinman over a bad drug deal and not of Sharon Tate. A soundtrack of Jimmy’s completed 23 minutes was released in the early eighties on Anger’s own Boleskin House Records, catalog number BHR666 and was limited to a release of 1000 copies on clear blue vinyl and these are considered almost priceless now to vinyl collectors.

Well, I have linked the composition here and you can be the judge of it all. Page plays all the instruments, including guitars, ARP synthesizers, percussion and the theremin (or sometimes theramin, the musical instrument that responds to hand motion). There is some interesting vocal sections near the beginning area that sound like the chorus in 2001: A Space Odyssey when the apes are flipping out around the monolith. The intro to In the Evening from In Through the Out Door is supposed to from some of the recording sessions. It has also been said that some of the incidental music from Death Wish II was based on what Page was working on during the Lucifer Rising sessions. For years I had always heard of this mentioned to as “the Black Album” and it was the substance of myth. Along with the myth of the album were the myriad rumors that began during this period of the late seventies that jimmy’s involvement in black magic had led to the bands misfortunes, such as the death of Robert Plant’s son, Robert’s serious car accident, Page’s health issues and declining ability to work and perform as he once had and finally the death of John Bonham at Page’s house. These rumors and legend still persist in the history of the band. Both Page and Anger, as far as I can tell, got over their period of conflict and moved on with their lives though the friendship was over. In later interviews the men had good things to say about each other and any mention of a black magic curse is done tongue in cheek by the both of them.

edited for clarity....

[MisterMcLov1n]

I checked out an outtake from this on Youtube. It's absolutely hypnotic and beautiful. Jimmy should remaster this and release it.

[mos6507]

I checked out an outtake from this on Youtube. It's absolutely hypnotic and beautiful. Jimmy should remaster this and release it.

The outtake evolved into part of the Death Wish II soundtrack. I think Jimmy should rerelease DWII and put whatever he's got from Lucifer Rising on it as a bonus.

[eveningstahr]

The record was indead made by Chris Dietler. He purchased the movie and he and I copied the soundtrack from that original. There were only 1000 copies of that original, the blue vinal. Unfortunately my friend has passed 4 years ago. He was a pinoneer.