Listening to a Jimmy Page classical guitar piece LIVE NOW

[Rabrrrrrr]

on http://www.wnyc.org

What an incredible guitarist he really is.

Too bad he's such a drug addict, and so filled with negative energy.

[ALago1]

1. You must be listening to New Sounds

I love WNYC and the programs they have on there. I'm currently listening to some classic Beethoven so am not really in the mood to change over right now :)

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. Yep, new sounds

Brilliant show!

[ALago1]

3. They archive their shows on the web!

So, I'll definitely check out this one in a few days...

[NewHampster]

4. I heard him live in Phoenix for over an hour 1970

Phoenix Coliseum

14th Row Dead Center

Half way into the concert Plant's voiced cracked. They went off stage for about twenty minutes then out comes Page with a chair, an acoustic and a mike.

He sat down and told us that Robert was done in after 28 days on the road. Said he'd play for us if it was OK. Undoubtedly one of the best concerts I've ever been to.

[ALago1]

5. Awesome story

So did he play a Zep repertoire or standard classical tunes or both?

[NewHampster]

9. All kinds and you may forgive me for

not remembering one single song he played.

I was a college freshman and like the rest of the crowd I was a little pissed at first because Zeppelin was the Voice of Plant.

But as he played the place became so quiet it was amazing. We were truly in awe of the moment we were experiencing.

We were also all totally stoned. Some weed, lots of wild Peyote.

:smoke:

on edit: Welcome Newbie!!

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. Wow!

very, very cool indeed. I read your other post describing the show, and it must have been incredible.

it's amazing how well he really could play - and granted, in his Zep and Yardbirds stuff he didn't piss around, but he was always far more talented even than that music let on. What an incredbile musician.

[jpgray]

13. Too bad his most famous piece was written by Randy California

:D

(not really, just the opening was ripped off)

[Rabrrrrrr]

14. Ah, who cares - I've never considered him as a composer, just a player

obviously he did compose, don't get me wrong, but it's his playing that totally wows me. I don't care if it's his music or someone else's.

And let's be honest, much of the yardbirds and zeppelin and, really, a shitload of the british blues invasion stuff was all written by black american sharecroppers who hardly ever saw a dime for their creativity and whose record producers made a fortune.

[NewHampster]

17. April 18 Arizona Coliseum, Phoenix, Arizona

I've talked about that night so much I finally just looked it up.

Look at this friggin schedule and you'll understand why Plant's voice cracked. They worked them like slaves back then.

http://www.led-zeppelin.com/LZitin70-72.html

[Rabrrrrrr]

19. well, it certainly explains all the hotel destruction

and drugs and booze they did. I remember reading interviews with them done during their tours about all the mayhem and shit they caused, and how the band members often commented that the touring schedule was ridiculous, it was too much, and they were totally fried from so long on the road and shows almost every night and so much travel...

[NaderIsMyHero]

6. Thanks a million...I needed that.

Since I am the best guitarist on this site I really appreciate that...my favorite accoustic Page song to play is "Babe,I'm gonna leave ya" god I play it perfect..but its not that hard. I challange all comers to a guitar headcutting duel. My strat screams...my accoustic work will put you in a state of nirvana. Too bad my band broke up...LOL Hard to find a group of guys that can all get along both musically and personally.

[NewHampster]

10. You have an ego like Nader's Too

:hurts: :boring: :boring: :boring:

[Rabrrrrrr]

12. I don't know, all the truly talented people I've known,

and I've known people truly talented (not just music, but everything - engineering, programming, music, art, writing, old testament scholarship) never broadcast their talent.

All the people I've known who broadcast their talent have been hacks.

Just an observation.

[jpgray]

15. Yeah, but I'm *really* talented, double dog talented even

OBSERVE ME!!! FORGET THAT EMPTY RECEPTACLE ABOVE YOU AND OBSERVE ME!!!

[jpgray]

7. I memorized Page's entire catalogue at seventeen

I've forgotten all of it except for 'White Summer / Black Mountainside', 'Bron Yr Aur' (the one without vocals) and 'Rain Song'.

[NaderIsMyHero]

8. I love to play the Rain Song....

but I hate to have to go to alternate tunings....so I have since forgotten it.

[cryofan]

16. An unknown Page Clone?

Go to this URL and download John Kellogg's "Ancient Are The Days" and tell me he don't sound like Jimmy Page circa 1972:

http://artists.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/The_Last_Sons/

[NewHampster]

18. Ok, How many are downloading at once

Must be all of us and from somebodies home PC I think

:boring:

[Westegg]

20. I think you're wrong in more ways than one...

I believe what you heard on WNYC was David Patterson playing "White Summer/Black Mountainside." "White Summer " was a Jimmy Page composition from his days in the Yardbirds, and "Black Mountainside" was a solo acoustic piece on Led Zeppelin's first album, which Page adapted from Bert Jansch's mid-'60s recording of an old English folk tune. Page, when playing live with Zeppelin, would typically play "White Summer" and "Black Mountain" as a single song, at least through 1970. He later played "White Summer" on the '77 and '80 Zeppelin tours as an intro to "Kashmir," and "Achilles Last Stand."

Page indulged in hard drugs, including heroin, to the detriment of his talents, for some years in the '70s and '80s, but he has been clean for a very long time---otherwise, he'd be dead. Take it from a hard-core Zeppelin fan. As to your "negative energy" comment, well, I'm not sure what you're basing that on. Page has indeed explored the dark side (including the occult) in many ways, but he was, in the days of Zeppelin, and remains today, a consummate musician and one of the most important figures in rock history. Should you chose to look into his more recent activities, I think you'll find that Page these days is about so much more than "negative energy." He is, and has been for many years, a very postive force in my life.

[Rabrrrrrr]

21. Two things:

One - looking at the new sounmds website, it appears that it was David Patterson. That was my mistake - John Schaeffer kept talking about Page, and I was also reading DU at the time, and I was sure I heard Schaeffer say "this is a recording of Page, using a classical guitar doing a classical styled-rendition of a Zeppelin tune". I mean, i was totally sure that's what I heard, and I'm still sure of it, but according to the website, it was David Patterson. So, there you go.

Secondly, as to the negative energy, instead of getting emotionalistic and losing your objectivity, I wish you had read more closely. I think Page is a guitar god. Negative energy has nothing to do with his ability to play. His negative energy is something involving his presence which, if you met him, you would perhaps understand. Much like Lou Reed. They both seem to suck the energy/life out of a room, and it's really, really, really creepy. Obviously, not everyone feels that way - Laurie Anderson loves Lou Reed, but then Laurie also has a sort of negative presence - but that's my opinion, and the opinion of others whom I know. I can't say any more on that because who knows who is reading this and I don't want to get anyone in trouble, so don't ask any more. I can only offer my opinion.

But I totally agree with you that Page is a guitar genius, and he's had a profound influence on my musical heritage as well, an I'm damn glad that Zeppelin has been in my life for decades. I love it!

[Westegg]

22. Ah, you're getting deepdeepdeep! I love it!

Yes, I did lose a grip on my objectivity, but I guess that's because I'm so very passionate about Page. Also, your drugs comment. It struck me as uninformed, but perhaps it was not. Most such cursory comments tend to be, however. I suspect Page is an addict, as I myself am, but I have found new life in recovery and it's the general sentiment of the Zeppelin community that Page has too. Like I said, if he hadn't stopped using he would be dead by now. In my opinion, anyway. Not that I could ever see him at a 12-step meeting!

I have met Page, in fact. In Los Angeles, during the Page/Black Crowes tour a few years back. By that point, I'd been a Zeppelin fan for 20 years at least, so meeting him was---well, it's hard to describe. I was basically stunned. So my two-minute conversation with him was kind of a wash. I worked, then, in the entertainment biz, so spending time with "celebs" was old-hat to me. But Page was different. I DO understand what you mean about negative energy in that respect. I'll say this: I felt a very unhealthy vibe in the room (it was backstage at the Greek Theater). Bu I didn't put this down to Jimmy---rather it was from everyone else in the room who WASN'T a musician. I can only imagine that it was ten times more heavy in, say, 1975, when Peter Grant and the drug dealers and groupies were looming. This is something Page has had to live with for more than 30 years now. How much of it is his own fault? I can't parse that, but some of it surely is. Actually, you've got me thinking back to the time I met Miles Davis. It was a similar kind of weirdness. That said, I have a wonderous Page acoustic version of "White Summer/Black Mountainside" from 1970---a very special recording. If you don't have it and want it, let me know.

[Rabrrrrrr]

23. It's good to hear that he's stopped doing drugs!

That's a wonderful thing. I've not followed him since the late 80s (nor followed much of anything in the world of rock, damn this getting older and having a job and not having endless hours to listen to stuff...), so hadn't heard that he'd dried out. I was very worried about him in the 80s - he was really out of it when he was in that band with the bald guy.

Zeppelin is one of the few bands of which I have all their albums. :-)