The guitar trick Brian Jones taught Jimmy Page: “So generous”
It is difficult to imagine the celebrated guitar hero that is Jimmy Page ever needing to ask for advice on the stringed instrument. From an early age, as a devotee of the skiffle age, the future Led Zeppelin guitarist was rarely seen without a six-string in hand. However, only a fool would think themselves above the realm of education. Page was always keen to improve his musical craft, often finding inspiration for new sounds and techniques in the work of his contemporaries.
During the musical renaissance of the 1960s, Page spent a great deal of time as a prolific session musician, rubbing shoulders with an incredible breadth of artists. It was largely during this period that the guitarist honed his craft before joining the ranks of iconic blues rockers The Yardbirds and, eventually, forming the hard rock progenitors Led Zeppelin. At the time, there were few rock acts who commended the same respect and legendary status as The Rolling Stones.
The Mick Jagger-fronted group, of course, needs no introduction, but the pioneering efforts of original guitarist Brian Jones are often forgotten within the group’s history. After forming the group in 1962, Jones’ guitar styling was essential to the development of the Stones’ recognisable blues rock sound. Jimmy Page was fascinated by Jones’ playing style, particularly his early use of slide guitar – something of a rarity among the British blues rock scene at the time.
Talking to Interview back in 2019, Page reflected on his early love of slide guitar icon Elmore James and how Brian Jones first introduced him to the unique sound. “People would say it was literally, from the neck of a bottle,” he recalled, “I thought, ‘So, let’s see how this guy [Brian] Jones does it.’ Sure enough, he gets up on stage and starts doing some Elmore James songs, and he has the equivalent of what everyone would know as a slide on his finger.”
Determined to find out the secrets of Jones, Page said, “I started talking to him when he came offstage, and I said, ‘Well you know, you’ve really got that down. What are you actually using?’” adding, “You must understand that nobody that I knew played slide guitar at all. This is the first time I’d seen somebody do it.”
In the modern age, slides can be picked up in any standard music shop worth its salt, but during the 1960s, they were a little harder to come by. “He said, ‘Oh, have you got a car mechanic near you?’” Page remembered, “And I said, ‘I literally do have one not too far away.‘ He said, ‘Go there and ask for a bush. It’s called a bush.’ A thing used in car maintenance. And he said, ‘You’ll find that it’ll just fit on your finger absolutely perfectly, and that’s what I use’”, concluding, “This guy was so generous.”
Thanks to the pioneering influence of Brian Jones, Page was able to employ the early sounds of slide guitar within his repertoire. Particularly within the discography of Led Zeppelin, the guitarist used the technique to add a heavier blues rock and Americana influence mixed in with his usual hard rock style.
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