Fun and guitars: Jimmy Page on the band that is “what rock is all about”
If someone wanted to define what rock and roll was, chances are you could get away with just showing a picture of Jimmy Page. Despite starting in the blues tradition of so many before him, Page’s way of interpolating the blues with Led Zeppelin has led to some of the greatest riffs that the genre ever spat out.
Led Zeppelin could have their eclectic moments from time to time, though. It’s partly why the group flourished as they did, overcoming the label of heavy rock to fall into a somewhat indefinable category. That doesn’t mean the band’s guitarist wasn’t still enamoured with the genre, and for Page, it doesn’t get more cut and dry for rock and roll than ZZ Top.
In the grand scheme of amazing players, ZZ Top tends to fly under the radar for many passive fans. Sure, they have a lot of tunes to their name, like ‘Tush’ and ‘La Grange’, but many of their amazing moments feel like someone is rattling off their greatest hits rather than saying anything substantial.
If you take a step back, Billy Gibbons may be one of the most underappreciated guitarists in rock and roll. He had been around since the early days of the American blues scene, even earning some praise from the likes of a young Jimi Hendrix when he first started playing in bands like The Moving Sidewalks.
When the hippie dream faded, the Gibbons’ stint in ZZ Top was about as close to the bone as you could imagine. There was still a heavy emphasis on the blues tradition, but there was a lot more grit in Dusty Hill’s delivery than anything that you would have heard on a typical hard rock record.
Page was already looking to break free from his usual blues tones on the first Led Zeppelin album, but he still admitted that ZZ Top was among the finest acts that he had ever heard, recalling in 1986, “I think that’s what rock ‘n’ roll is all about. They really are incredible. They have great music, really fine playing, really solid, and they have a sense of humour as well. They’re damn fine. And everyone is enjoying it, and they’re enjoying themselves.”
Whereas Page likes to make the most out of the most incredible guitar tricks that he can think of, part of the beauty of ZZ Top’s songs is how simplistic they are compared to everything else. Most of any song’s backbone is about getting a basic blues rhythm under your fingers, but once Gibbons shows up to take a solo, all bets are off.
In fact, there are a few tracks on their albums that even manage to put Page to shame in some respects. Regardless of the amount of typical blues soloing in a song like ‘La Grange’, the harmonics that Gibbons gets out of his strings to make them squeal feel like he’s actively trying to make his guitar cry, whereas Page usually just assaults his guitar until it’s pleading for mercy.
More than anything, ZZ Top are the band that people go to when they just want to have fun. Anyone can try their best to make an ambitious song that no one has ever tried before, but sometimes it’s easier just to make a track that you know fans are going to love from the moment they hear that guitar start to roar.
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