“The excitement was immediate and collective”: The Led Zeppelin riff Jimmy Page called addictive
Every rock and roll fan who has picked up a guitar in the past 50 years has, on some level, attempted to emulate the playing of Jimmy Page. The Led Zeppelin guitarist penned a wealth of pioneering, iconic hard rock riffs during his time with the band, each worthy of note in its own right. In the mind of the man himself, one particular riff from those Led Zeppelin days stands head and shoulders above the rest, both in its infectious quality and apparent simplicity.
Prior to forming Led Zeppelin, Page already boasted an unparalleled level of experience as a guitarist within the music industry. A teenage devotee of skiffle and rockabilly, Page was rarely seen without a six-string in his hand at any point during his adolescence. During the early 1960s, he managed to build upon this skill, becoming one of Britain’s most sought-after session guitarists, playing on an incredibly broad range of sessions. From Petula Clark’s ‘Downtown’ to early singles by The Who, Page’s sound was evident on some of the decade’s biggest hits.
Arguably, it was with The Yardbirds that Page landed upon the pioneering hard rock sound that would come to define Led Zeppelin. The blues rock outfit was famed for establishing bold new sounds, such as the expansive psychedelia of Jeff Beck’s ‘Heart Full of Soul’. Although Page was initially brought into the band as a bassist, his time with The Yardbirds gave him invaluable experience in the world of rock and roll, which he took with him when forming Led Zeppelin.
Zeppelin’s debut album is an indisputable masterpiece, establishing Page as a leading force for rock and roll riffs and Led Zeppelin as the progenitors of hard rock. Following up on the debut, Page immediately began working on the follow-up, which became defined by the opening track ‘Whole Lotta Love’.
“I came up with the guitar riff for ‘Whole Lotta Love’ in the summer of ’68, on my houseboat along the Thames in Pangbourne, England,” the guitarist recalled to the Wall Street Journal.
Built around an unsuspectingly simple riff, ‘Whole Lotta Love’ has since become the ire of guitar store employees across the globe, but its instantly recognisable sound became synonymous with the style of Led Zeppelin.
According to the songwriter, the riff was rooted in old-school rockabilly, and it was only meant to form the intro rather than the entirety of the song. “I suppose my early love for big intros by rockabilly guitarists was an inspiration, but as soon as I developed the riff, I knew it was strong enough to drive the entire song, not just open it,” Page said.
Seemingly, his band members were similarly convinced of the riff’s incredible potential. “When I played the riff for the band in my living room several weeks later during rehearsals for our first album, the excitement was immediate and collective,” the guitarist recalled. “We felt the riff was addictive, like a forbidden thing.”
That feeling certainly permeates through the final recording of the song, which formed the opening track of 1969’s Led Zeppelin II. Supporting Page’s account of the track, ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and its main riff remain incredibly popular over 50 years after its release. Seemingly, the song is so addictive that audiences still aren’t sick of hearing its hard rock power blasting through the speakers.
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