Archive for Jimmy Page

Encountering Jimmy Page

Posted in Music, Travel with tags , , on August 29, 2015 by David McInerny


One nice thing about an impromptu trip is that little can go wrong with one’s plans, since there isn’t enough time to make any of complexity. As I flew to London to finish a book and enjoy a few days of walking the city, I was content in the knowledge that I had secured a ticket to a Shakespeare play at the Globe Theatre. Beyond that, if I happened to see Abbey Road Studios, or view the Magna Carta or a Shakespeare first folio at the British Library, those would be nice add to the itinerary. Mostly though, the book needed to get completed.

Any traveler learns that the best memories are the unplanned ones, because they can’t be planned. They’re gifted. They occur when one moves about with eyes open and a willingness to deviate from the plan.

And so there I was wandering up Charing Cross road on my way to hear Jazz at a small Soho club when I saw a string of used book stores. Deciding I could be a little late to the show, I started browsing the books in search of first editions I might need.

Coming out of the last shop I turned right, and Jimmy Page was on the sidewalk sauntering my direction from 50 fifty feet away. How many thoughts can be launched from one mind in the space of time it takes two men to cover 50 feet walking toward each other? I don’t know, but I set a personal best. My first notion was that he was wearing the same all black outfit, including scarf, that he dons in all his recent pictures.

Then, scrambled thoughts! ‘Don’t bother him!’ ‘Maybe he’d love to be recognized – it’s not 1975 anymore.’ ‘I want to tell him he did a marvelous job with the new Coda companion disc!’ And so on.

We locked eyes. I smiled. Jimmy returned the smile and puffed his lips like he does on a downstroke power chord. He continued on, and I turned and watched him continue on for another block.

It was enough.

And the show at the jazz club was great.


  
  
  

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Led Zeppelin – Presence

Posted in Music with tags , , , , on July 30, 2012 by David McInerny

Even considering Zeppelin’s rather small catalog of studio recordings, Presence (1976) rarely makes it high on the list of even the most ardent fans. It should.

True, there are no hits from this album, no doubt due to the longer length of the best songs. Nonetheless, why this work didn’t get more FM airplay when it was released will forever be a mystery to me.

From the slinky rhythm changes of “For Your Life,” to the funky swagger of “Nobody’s Fault But Mine,” and the 50’s jukebox pop of “Candy Store Rock,” this is an album full of energy and rare tightness of playing for this band, particularly between Jimmy Page on guitar and John Henry Bonham on drums.

The gems on Presence, though, are the first and last songs. “Achilles Last Stand” is a fantastic opener, which fades in with a slow, melodic riff from Page, but after twenty seconds Bonham machine guns the song into a breathless pace that runs unabated for ten minutes. Page’s guitar playing is sharp and keeps up with Bonzo’s drumming virtuosity, yet also pleads beautifully but unheeded for the tempo to slacken during his solo. How Robert Plant managed to construct a lyrical melody that didn’t sound like he was trying to catch up to a runaway train is an accomplishment, but he succeeded, and his mystical Celtic muse breathes soul into the song.

Closing the album is “Tea For One,” nine minutes of classic, greasy blues that had been missing from Led Zeppelin’s studio work since III’s “Since I’ve Been Loving You.” It leaves you slightly sweaty and breathing heavy.

Despite the lack of popular appeal, I suspect the band was proud of the effort, because it’s next album, In Through The Out Door, is really Son of Presence in regard to tempo, style and even song order. The fact that that album became wildly popular had to please the band, particularly as it was the band’s last before Bonham died.

 

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