Jimmy Page and how fate helped to form Led Zeppelin
Given Jimmy Page‘s insane talent at playing the guitar, perhaps it’s somewhat unsurprising that he had been persistently sought out to join several highly-successful rock outfits. Beginning as a session musician, Page eventually joined the Yardbirds before making the switch to play in arguably the best heavy rock band of all time, Led Zeppelin.
Discussing whether there was an element of fate to the coming together of Led Zeppelin, Page said, “Ah, well, you know that’s a long subject. Let’s put another log on the fire. It has to be sort of considered, the whole aspect of fate, really, of the fact that these four musicians [came] together later. And it really is.”
While Zeppelin are considered a Midlands band (a definite point of pride for both Brummies and the Yam-Yams of the Black Country), Page noted, “You’ve got people from two different geographical locations in England, as well, John Paul Jones and I were from the south, and John Bonham and Robert Plant were from the Midlands.”
Page then went on to say that the quick putting together of the band certainly had an element of fate to it. He said, “Sure, it has to be sort of fate. There has to be an element of it. And it was fast. It was really fast because I’d been in the Yardbirds prior to this, and the Yardbirds were still doing shows in July of 1968.”
Indeed, Page’s transition from the Yardbirds to Zeppelin happened in the blink of an eye. He added, “They’ve [the Yardbirds] already sort of thrown in their cards; they don’t want to continue, but the last dates that we’re doing are in July, and I’ve got [Led Zeppelin] rehearsing with all of the material, and we’re doing dates in sort of September in Scandinavia.”
Perhaps Page was fortunate to have been able to jump ship so effortlessly from one wildly successful group to another. He concluded, “So it’s the same year the Yardbirds folded. We’ve already recorded our album by October. It’s the sort of blueprint that all these people in the music business dream of, but the thing was, it was real. Very real.”
However, Page also noted that he never rested on his laurels and considered himself fortunate that he had such luck in the industry when several of his contemporaries went under the radar. “It’s not just like guys going through the motions; it’s just like it was in the days of Led Zeppelin. You’re right on the edge of the precipice from beginning to end, and that’s how you want to live it. That’s how I want to live life, and I always have.”
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