The formative guitarist Jimmy Page called “the one”
From Eddie Van Halen to John Frusciante, there aren’t many guitarists who can claim to have impacted such a wide berth of subsequent players as Jimmy Page. As the creative leader and guitarist of Led Zeppelin, not only did he mastermind rock breaking off from its fundamental state into something much more muscular, but he also established himself as the master of the riff, delivering a much more varied oeuvre than other innovators of melodic bursts like Jimi Hendrix.
Page’s list of accomplishments of the six-string are many. Whether it is potentially concocting the punk sound years before it emerged with ‘Communication Breakdown’, the experimental, bluesy swagger of ‘Whole Lotta Love’ or even the great winding epic, ‘Stairway to Heaven’, the strength of such highlights trounced the releases that the other most prominent guitarists of the era produced.
It might have taken the world a while to fully understand what Page and Zeppelin were up to, but when they did, the band emphatically toppled The Beatles as the world’s most popular outfit. Furthermore, unlike so many other groups that emerged in the 1960s, the quartet withstood the passage of time and changing tastes by expanding their sound and keeping up with the latest technological developments.
This is evidenced by the droning introduction of ‘In the Light’ from 1975’s Physical Graffiti, wherein Page’s bowed guitar and Jones’ all-encompassing synth enveloped to create one of the most atmospheric openings of the period. This was the record that stadium rock as we know it was born. They weren’t just playing stadiums anymore but filling them with their potent creations.
Despite Page’s inextricable connection to rock innovation, he has always been an adherent of rock ‘n’ roll in its purest form. After all, he and all of his generation were first shown the light by the heroes of the 1950s, when there was no other context for the genre; apart from that, it had emerged as a faster, more mischievous product of the blues. It was the sound of them renouncing the world of their war-weary parents.
There’s one figure Page counts as a particularly significant influence from this era: Les Paul. An undisputed great of the electric guitar who blended jazz, country and blues with technical flair, his work also set the scene for the later experimentalism of the Led Zeppelin man and his contemporaries with his overdubbing and use of effects such as delay and phasing.
His story is made that bit more impressive by the fact he was an autodidact, another element signalling the tradition-defying leaps that followed in his wake. Alongside his wife, Mary Ford, Paul sold millions of records in the 1950s, stoking the imaginations of many young folks who were also being impressed upon by the emergent popular culture thanks to advancements such as television.
It wasn’t just Paul’s playing, though. He was also a luthier and pioneered the electric guitar, with his prototype ‘The Log’ laying the groundwork for Gibson’s Les Paul model, which he endorsed, weaponised and helped become iconic.
When speaking to Rolling Stone in 1975 and reflecting on the players that influenced him, Page described Les Paul as “the one”. He explained: “On a totally different style—the control, the guy who played on the Maria Muldaur single, ‘Midnight at the Oasis’. Amos Garrett. He’s Les Paul oriented and Les Paul is the one, really. We wouldn’t be anywhere if he hadn’t invented the electric guitar.”
Years before this, in 1968, Page delivered a more holistic account of Paul’s vital accomplishments. “Les Paul – he’s the man who started everything: multitrack recording, the electric guitar – he’s just a genius. I think he was the first to use a four-track – or was it an eight-track – recording machine,” he noted. “I met him once, and apparently, he started multitrack recording back in 1945. Jeff Beck and myself have always dug him.”
Without Les Paul, there would be no Page, Beck or other classic rock powerhouses such as Pete Townshend. You could even go many steps further and claim that his innovations, no matter how rudimentary, would pave the way for the likes of J Mascis and Kevin Shields, two men who’s take on rock is reliant on effects.
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