Led Zeppelin: Rock Gods or Monsters?

Hi Mary, I just want you to know that I actually made a 30 minute documentary called The Rise and Fall of Lead Zeppelin, which is exclusive to Nebular, so head over there if you want to see the full version. a link in the description, but if you just want to try, here's the first half

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Kings or Monsters Where does the immense Fame and Fortune lead to what is becoming one of the most idolized groups of all time? Jimmy Pagee Robert Plant John Paul Jones John Bonham for Peerless Musicians united by destiny and a shared love of the blues, together they changed the face of

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and roll, you could call their music protoe hard rock, heavy metal, progressive rock or blues rock, many call them the best rock and roll. band of all time others call them a bunch of hedonistic dinosaurs there is a story of unimaginable success and truly wild excess it is a story of pain lust power disillusionment rock and roll and riffs I recently read Bob Spitz's excellent biography of the band and wanted make a video about what I learned it's time for the leader Zeppelin to emerge from within it all begins with the blues October 20, 1958 Muddy Waters makes his debut in London exactly 4 years later and a day later a group of teenagers head to the hall free trade from Manchester for a special concert Musicians at the American Folk Blues Festival that night include John Lee Hooker T-Bone Walker Memphis slim and Willie Dixon a group of young men from London head north in a van their names Mick Jagger Keith Richards Brian Jones meet his friend before the concert, a promising young guitarist named James Pige, as they watch in amazement, they realize that they have only played blues so far, this is how it's really done the night ends with autographs and some uncomfortable things. handshakes with its heroes and with that British rock and roll has changed forever let's go back a couple of years as a desirable suburb for London commuters and home to the Holy Trinity of British guitarists Eric Clapton Jeff Beck and Jimmy Paige all They spend their formative years here Jimmy Pig's first guitar was a cheap Spanish-style model that the previous owner of the house had left behind in a move that Jimmy described as divine intervention.

He teaches himself using Bert Weeden's playing in one day. The same book used by George Harrison Keith Richards Pete Townend Eric Clapton and Dave Davis, a round of paper gets Senator Hoffner, modifying it with an electric pickup and amplifying it using his parents' radiogram. He forms his first band. The James Page Skiffle group. What are your two names? Yours is James Pige and David House, both from Ently and you're just learning to play guitar, yes, but skiffle isn't enough. His heart is set on rock and roll to be like Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly Eddie Cochran and, of course, bluesman Delta Stinson.

The local bands take him to his In his first work session he doesn't know how to read music, but he makes his way by playing by ear. It is precise. Reliable. He gets more work. He gets his first Fender Stratocaster. The first hollow body of him with Gretch's signature. In these studies he learns the ins and outs of music production. A girl from Jimmy's art school, Anetta Beck, tells her brother that you have to meet this thin, strange guy who plays a strangely shaped guitar like yours. Young Jeff boards a bus and knocks on Jimmy's door.

They become inseparable after comparing their respective record collections. Jeff's playing is unlike anyone Jimmy has ever known, they push each other to new heights. I caught up with Bob, an acclaimed Leed Zeppelin and Beatles biographer and former manager of Bruce Springsteen and Elton John, to find out more, as we all know Jimmy grew up in the studios. and uh and they played on some of the best records of the early 1960s Jimmy and Jeff Beck were childhood friends. I mean, I always find it remarkable that Jimmy Page Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck lived within a mile and a half of each other when they were growing up and they would meet in Jimmy's living room every Sunday afternoon and play, I mean, there was something in the water, not only that, Glenn John lived right behind them, the session that takes him to Los Angeles for the first time, a place that will become his spiritual home on his travels he meets his soulmate a shiny black Gibson lespol custom immediately changes his Gretch CH Atkins perhaps more than any other that guitar will define him session work becomes a burden Jimmy decides to produce where he is he works with John ma who brings with him a new friend, Eric Clapton.

Eric joined a band called The Yard Birds and stayed with them for 18 months, but they were too commercial for this blues purist, so he jumped ship with The Yard Birds. He needs a new guitarist, enter Jeff Beck, but the band's baseman, Paul Samuel Smith, quits after a particularly rocking gig. Fed up with the band's bad behavior, who better to replace him than Jimmy? He couldn't play bass for Toffee, Jeff said, never mind, he'll switch to co-lead guitar instead. May 16, 1966 IBC Studios Jimmy and Jeff for working on a new track for Jeff's album. Truth. The musicians are gathered.

Nikki Hopkins on piano. Keith Moon on drums. The Who's drummer, Whistle bandmate John, is supposed to be on base, but can't make it for another season. Session player and ranger John Paul Jones is recruited, having worked on hundreds of tracks with artists like the Rolling Stones Donovan and Dusty Springfield, so beex spero is born and marks a new pinnacle in rock music. There is talk of making this arrangement permanent, perhaps it is forming. a new super group like cream, but Keith Moon knows it will never happen, everyone is too tied and there are too many egos in a room, he will go down like a Zeppelin leader, jokes, Jimmy has fun, makes a mental note to me, bolero and revolver, The Beatles. uh, classic album, uh, it was the turning point of rock and roll, it's what turned it from rock and roll into rock music, uh, that could have been a super group right there because everyone was talking about putting together a super group , that Moon and a whistle.

He would leave H Jimmy would leave The Yard Birds and join Jeff and they would be one of the most inventive bands to emerge from the UK in the mid-60s. The Yard Birds, like so many bands, were part of Fall Apart, but Jimmy was not. When the band broke up, he wanted to try something new. He just wanted to keep rocking. He knew exactly the style he was looking for and the type of musician he wanted to play with. He knew the guitar, drums and bass, being the fourth member. the singer and using a voice as an instrument it's time to meet the band, enter Robert Plant and John Bonham Terry Reid Jimmy's preferred vocalist for this new group is not available to join them because he promised to tour with the Rolling Stones and record an album with Mickey.

Mo, who Jimmy is determined not to work with again, but before leaving he plays a gig with Tim Rose in Bolton. Opening the show is a group called Band of Joy. Terry Reed said that singer Robert Plant was singing along with the guitars and I thought. I bet someone like py could keep him busy the drummer a tough guy was just crazy he was trying to attract someone's wife and it all went wrong a big fight broke out the husband threw a chair the drummer ducked he crashed through a canver window and the band had to play that gig five times to pay for it by returning to London Terry Reid says to Jimmy's manager Peter Grant, I've got the rest of Bann from PA for you, these men are from the Midlands Robert Plant Li, sexy, magnetic , with a unique vocal range, John Bonham, nicknamed Bonzo, is wild, unpredictable, fond of drinking and prone to violence, very prone.

He has been kicked out of several bands for playing drums too loudly, violating agreed-upon noise levels in clubs. He is unsure about joining this new group because he has some reliable gigs lined up and needs to earn a living for his family Jimmy makes him an offer he can't refuse £25 per gig for the UK 50 for Europe and let's call it 100 for the US , Let's Be Bonzos in John Paul Jones Jimmy Has a Band Monday, August 12, 1968, the four musicians meet in a rehearsal room beneath a record shop at 39 Jared Street in London's Chinatown, They play a song together for the first time a cover of Johnny Bernett's Train Kept Going Robert Plant said it was just a very, very, very exciting and very challenging release of energy.

I could feel something happening inside of me and everyone in the room felt like we had just found something that we had to be very careful with or we might lose it. Jimmy Pagee said he was there right away. He was like a bolt of lightning, and that day the band that would be known as Le Zeppelin was born. Well, Le Zeppelin changed the way we listen to music today. Leed Zeppelin put a period in the late '60s to say that we're going to start doing something different for the '70s, and in fact, the epigraph at the beginning of my book is Jimmy Paige saying that the '60s, this is what let's do now, let Zeppelin change the sound of the music that they um encouraged the musicians to play in different ways and unfortunately perform in different ways, but actually play louder music to um attack the stage differently than the that groups had before um to turn up the volume uh and yet Legacy is really about the fabulous songs that They Made...

I was surprised to look at their catalog and see what they produced in just nine and a half years. They gave us a catalog of music that will last forever and will truly change the course of rock and roll, as I mentioned at the beginning. The full version of this documentary ended up on Nebula. I'm very proud of it and very happy that it can have a home on the platform that I co-own along with a host of other creators. It's a place where we can elevate our work to new heights and is quickly becoming the fastest growing independent video platform on the internet.

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