Jimmy Page

Born: James Patrick Page
January 9, 1944
Heston, Middlesex, England

Research and excerpts of this bio were taken from Wikipedia.

James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE (born January 9, 1944) is an English guitarist and record producer. He was the founding member of English rock band Led Zeppelin. Prior to that Page was a member of The Yardbirds from late 1966 to 1968. Page began his career as a studio session guitarist in England.

Noted guitar historian Robert Lynch made this comment about Jimmy Page: "In the relatively short history of the electric guitar in rock music, there have been few who can be labeled as 'Iconic'. Mr. Page is one of those select few. His eclectic stylings, his compositional prowess, his studio mastery and innovation, and his stage presentation were all areas where he excelled like no other and foreshadowed many who have followed in his wake."

Formative Years

Page was born in the west London suburb of Heston, which today forms part of the London Borough of Hounslow.  His father was an industrial personnel manager and his mother was a doctor's secretary. In 1952 they moved to Miles Road, Epsom.

Jimmy Page first picked up the guitar when he was 12 years old, and although he took a few lessons in nearby Kingston, was largely self-taught.  His early influences were rockabilly guitarists Scotty Moore and James Burton, who both played on recordings made by Elvis Presley.  Johnny Day, who played guitar for The Everly Brothers, was another early influence.

The Presley song Baby Let's Play House was an early favourite on one of his first electric guitars, a second hand 1949 Futurama Grazioso.  Page's musical tastes however also encompassed acoustic folk playing, particularly that of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, and the blues sounds of Elmore James and B.B. King.

At the age of 14, Page appeared on Huw Wheldon's All Your Own talent quest program in a skiffle band, a popular English music genre of the time.

Page said, in an interview with Guitar Player magazine, "There was a lot of busking (in this context not singing on street corners, but working out how to play a song while recording it) in the early days, but as I say, I had to come to grips with it, and it was a good schooling."

Page left school at age 17 to pursue music, and after brief stints backing Beat poet Royston Ellis and singer Red E. Lewis, Page was asked by singer Neil Christian to join his band The Crusaders.  Page toured with Christian for approximately two years and later played on several of Christian's records, including the November 1962 single, The Road to Love.

During his stint with Christian, Page fell seriously ill with glandular fever and couldn't continue touring.  While recovering, Page decided to put his musical career on the shelf and concentrate on his other love, painting. He enrolled at Sutton Art College in Surrey.

Session Player  [ top ]

While still a student, Page would often jam on stage at The Marquee with bands such as the Cyril Davis All Stars, Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated and with guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. He was spotted one night by John Gibb of The Silhouettes, who asked him to help record a number of singles for EMI, including The Worrying Kind.

It wasn't until an offer from Mike Leander of Decca Records that Page was to receive regular studio work. His first session for the label was the recording Diamonds by Jet Harris & Tony Meehan which went to Number 1 on the singles chart in early 1963.

After brief stints with Carter-Lewis and the Southerners, Mike Hurst's group, and Mickey Finn and the Blue Men, Page committed himself to full-time session work. As a session guitarist he was known as 'Little Jim' so there was no confusion with Big Jim Sullivan i.e. 'Big Jim'.

Little Jim's studio output in 1964 included Marianne Faithfull's As Tears Go By, The Nashville Teens' Tobacco Road, The Rolling Stones' Heart of Stone (alternate version), Van Morrison & Them's Baby Please Don't Go and Here Comes The Night, Dave Berry's The Crying Game and My Baby Left Me, and Brenda Lee's Is It True.

Under the auspices of producer Shel Talmy, Page contributed to The Kinks' 1964 debut album (although, despite rumors to the contrary, he did not play any of the guitar solos); and he sat in on the sessions for The Who's first single I Can't Explain (although his guitar parts may not appear on the final mix), but he played on the B-side Bald Headed Woman.

In 1965, Page was hired by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham to act as house producer and A&R man for the newly-formed Immediate Records label, which also allowed him to play on and/or produce tracks by John Mayall, Nico, Chris Farlowe and Eric Clapton.

Page also formed a brief songwriting partnership with then romantic interest, Jackie DeShannon (right).

He worked as session musician on the Al Stewart album Love Chronicles from 1969. He also played guitar on four tracks of Joe Cocker's debut album, With A Little Help From My Friends.

Although Jimmy Page has recorded with many now famous musicians, many of his early recordings are unfortunately only available through bootlegged copies, many of which were released by the Led Zeppelin fan club in the late 1960s and 1970s. The records released by the fan club include many otherwise unreleased live Led Zeppelin recordings.

One of the rarest of these is the early jam session featuring Jimmy Page playing with Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, featuring a cover of Little Queen of Spades by the late blues legend Robert Johnson.

The Yardbirds  [ top ]

In late 1964 Page was approached about the possibility of replacing Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds, but Page, still worried about his health under touring conditions, turned down the offer.  In February 1965 Clapton quit the Yardbirds, and Page was formally offered Clapton's spot, but because he was unwilling to give up his lucrative career as a session musician, he suggested his friend, Jeff Beck, fill the position.

On May 16, 1966, drummer Keith Moon, bass player John Paul Jones, keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, Jeff Beck and Page recorded Beck's Bolero in London's IBC Studios. The experience gave Page an idea to form a band with John Entwistle on bass (instead of Jones), however the lack of a quality vocalist and contractual problems brought the project to a halt.

Within weeks, Page was again offered a spot in the Yardbirds and at first played bass guitar with the group after the departure of Paul Samwell-Smith.  He eventually switched to twin lead guitar with Beck when Chris Dreja moved to bass.

While Page and Jeff Beck played together in The Yardbirds, the trio of Page, Beck and Eric Clapton never played in the original group all at the same time.  The three guitarists did appear on stage together at the ARMS charity concerts in 1983.

The dual lead guitar arrangement in The Yardbirds was short lived.  Jeff Beck left the band in 1967, reportedly for health issues.  The musical potential of the line-up was further scuttled with interpersonal conflicts caused by constant touring and a lack of commercial success.

Despite the departure of Keith Relf and Jim McCarty in 1968, Page wished to continue the group with a new line-up.  At first, he wanted to call the new group The New Yardbirds, but Keith Moon of The Who proclaimed that the band would go down 'like a lead zeppelin'.  Peter Grant, the band's eventual manager, later modified the name to "Led Zeppelin" so people wouldn't pronounce it "leed".

Another version of the "naming of Led Zeppelin tale" has John Entwistle and Keith Moon of The Who threatening to leave the band to form a new group and, during a drinking session, coming up with the name Led Zeppelin.  According to Moon, The Who's  chauffer overheard the discussion and later went to work for Jimmy Page and suggested the name for Page's new group.

Led Zeppelin  [ top ]

Page's past experiences both in the studio and with the Yardbirds were very influential in the success of Led Zeppelin in the 1970s.  As a producer, composer, and guitarist for the band, he was one of the major driving forces behind the rock sound of that era, with his trademark Gibson Les Paul guitar and Marshall amplification.  In the studio however, Page often used a Supro amplifier and a Fender Telecaster guitar (See Page's Guitars for details).

His use of distorted blues guitar (Whole Lotta Love), slide guitar (You Shook Me, Dancing Days, In My Time of Dying), pedal steel guitar (Your Time is Gonna Come, Tangerine, That's The Way), acoustic guitar (Gallows Pole, Ramble On) and recording techniques made Led Zeppelin a prototype for many future rock bands.

His landmark guitar solo from the song Heartbreaker has been credited by Eddie Van Halen as the inspiration for his trademark two-hand tapping technique after he saw Led Zeppelin perform at the LA Forum in 1972. (Page's solo contains the one-hand tapping technique.)

Page also put to use the bowed playing technique he developed during his session days (though Eddie Phillips of Creation - also produced by Shel Talmy - was the first guitarist to use a violin bow) in songs such as Dazed And Confused and How Many More Times, and experimented with feedback devices and a theremin.

Page used a Wah-wah pedal but not in the traditional way of rocking it back and forth as done by Jimi Hendrix and other contemporaries; instead, he put it fully forward in the treble position to get a sharper tone.

His solo in the famous epic Stairway to Heaven has been voted by readers of various guitar magazines, including Guitar World and Total Guitar as the greatest guitar solo of all time.

Although not considered to be a virtuoso guitar player inclined to perform guitar acrobatics, Page's genius lies in his confident and restrained guitar playing, thereby allowing Led Zeppelin's songs to take shape.

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