How Jimmy Page’s isolated childhood shaped his guitar playing
Led Zeppelin was such a moment in time. A band like them could only exist in that particular moment and with those exact circumstances building up to their meeting. This applied to every member who had their fix of rock music, a variety of sound and influences exposed to them, and an open mind when it came to making their own music.
For instance, Robert Plant had a very modest upbringing in the West Midlands, where he would look out of the window, listen to music, and dream of being a rock star. This gave him the determination to practice his singing, open himself up to a range of different styles, and cement himself as a singer good enough to keep up with the chaotic instrumental acrobatics that would be present in Led Zeppelin.
“When I was a kid I used to hide behind the curtains at home at Christmas, and I used to try and be Elvis,” he said, “There was a certain ambience between the curtains and the French windows, there was a certain sound there for a ten-year-old. That was all the ambience I got at ten years old and I always wanted to be a bit similar to that.”
Jimmy Page was similar growing up. He started playing guitar at the age of 12 and, rather than getting lessons, decided to start teaching himself. He became attached to his guitar and, given that he was quite an isolated child, spent most of his spare time teaching himself different chords, riffs, and licks. He was so attached to his guitar that he would often take it to school with him and get it confiscated until the end of the day.
This meant that Page learnt a range of different playing styles from a very early age and all of these contributed towards the sound that would eventually be Led Zeppelin. Pair that with his experience as a session musician, and Page was ready to start writing music for one of the most ambiguous-sounding bands of all time.
“I wanted to add acoustic textures,” he said, “I wanted Zeppelin to be a marriage of blues, hard rock and acoustic music topped with heavy choruses – a combination that had never been done before. Lots of light and shade in music.”
When the band eventually got together to rehearse, it was clear that all of their backgrounds in music led to the band sounding as exciting as they did. “I remember the little room,” recalled Robert Plant, beginning the journey that he had always dreamed of going on, “All I can remember it was hot and it sounded good – very exciting and very challenging. Because I could feel that something was happening to myself and to everyone else in the room. It felt like we’d found something that we had to be very careful with because we might lose it.”
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