‘Led Zeppelin II’: the album that inspired John Frusciante to start and start over again
Ever since their total domination of the 1970s rock scene, Led Zeppelin have been hailed by many as one of the greatest rock groups of all time. There certainly haven’t been many–or maybe even any–bands bigger than them since their explosion onto the scene, and even groups as successful and ubiquitous as the Red Hot Chili Peppers couldn’t claim to be operating on the level that Led Zeppelin were in their heyday.
Jimmy Page spawned enough guitar-wielding acolytes that he might as well have started his own school of rock, although perhaps given his reputation for boozing, sex and abusing drugs, leaving him in the care or company of anyone of school age is probably an unwise decision.
However, Red Hot Chilli Pepper guitarist John Frusciante owes a debt of gratitude and inspiration to Page. Frusciante was on hand to present Page with the ‘Maestro Award’ at the MOJOs in 2004, where he also declared that the Led Zeppelin lead guitarist was “the first person that made me want to play”.
Appropriately, as Page had first inspired Frusciante, he was also the guitarist who brought the younger player back from the brink after a crisis of confidence and the collapse of his professional life. Having grown tired of the routine and drudgery of playing the hits with the Chili Peppers, Frusciante quit the group and soon spiralled into a dark place of heavy drug use and despair.
They had inspired him to play in the first place, though, and it was Led Zeppelin who helped Frusciante pick himself up and play again. He became hooked on the recording of the band playing the blues standard ‘I Can’t Quit You Baby’ which was issued on their final release, Coda.
Sitting alone at home, Frusciante would play along for hours on end with the recording, and when he could kick it with Page he knew he was ready to get back in the saddle, and back in the studio. “I thought if I could do that” he later said, “then I was going to be good enough to go into the studio”.
And while Coda generally, and ‘I Can’t Quit You Baby’, may have been the most professionally important to Frusciante, it was another Led Zeppelin album that holds the most space in his heart.
When compiling a list of his 40 favourite albums for the website Discogs–a list which included a diverse array of records from artists like Aphex Twin, Jimi Hendrix, Joy Division and Van Der Graaf Generator–it was Led Zeppelin II from 1969, and which features some of the groups most famous and enduring songs like ‘Whole Lotta Love’, ‘Ramble On’ and Moby Dick’, which got the nod from Frusciante.
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