“That wasn’t right”: the album Jimmy Page believed his label ruined
Led Zeppelin were the perfect storm of a band in the 1970s.
Artistically, they were the perfect answer to The Beatles’ break-up a decade before. Rock had now opened up into this vibrant new place, awash with ideas that ranged from the progressive to the punky, suddenly widening the goalposts for burgeoning new musicians to shoot between.
It was perfect for Zeppelin, who had thunderous musicians fulfilling each role that could take the expansive ideas of rock into a new realm and become the biggest band of the decade. And so, when Led Zeppelin II triumphantly knocked The Beatles’ Abbey Road off the top of the albums chart in 1969, it was clear that they would quickly become the biggest band in a world desperate for continued rock creativity.
This came at a decade when music hurtled into mass commercialism, and labels saw the potential of profiting from a globetrotting rock band like Zeppelin. A far cry from the reality of modern musicianship, Zeppelin’s albums financed tours that were enjoyed on private jets, and label bigwigs assured the London four-piece that they would continue on in the same vein so long as the music kept coming.
At that point in time, they had no reason to get bogged down in the heavy bureaucracy of music and instead enjoyed the fruits of their labour, without digging too deep. But when creative maturity came, particularly for Page, with it came the sobering realisation that the industry had very little respect for creativity, particularly for bands with less cultural pull than his own.
So in 1999, when the great guitarist was offered to tour with The Black Crowes and record a special live album at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, he realised the timeless jurisdiction these labels had over him and his fellow musicians.
Initially, Page accepted the offer to tour with the band and lay down a live album because he simply thought Chris Robinson “was tremendous,” adding, “So they’re a great band, The Black Crowes, I thought this would be really good.”
But then the pair began to hash-up a set list, composed of both Black Crowes and Zeppelin classics, that would eventually make for a killer live album. But despite the weight of Page’s influence, The Black Crowes’ label simply wouldn’t hand over creative control, rendering the record a damp representation of an otherwise captivating night of live music.
Page explained, “The only unfortunate thing about The Black Crowes, the recording of it, was the fact that we did it at The Greek and we did their music as well as Zeppelin music. But their record label wouldn’t let them do a re-record on it. So basically, what comes out with The Black Crowes is just the Zeppelin stuff, which is a shame from their side of it. I felt that wasn’t right. But you know what record companies can be like.”
It was a far cry from the spirit that propped up music in the vibrant 1970s, where a simple mantra of recording the track and giving it to the people was largely followed. But come the commercial ’90s, not even Page is immune to the clutches of bureaucracy that unsurprisingly leaves the audience short-changed.
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