The one thing Jimmy Page wanted to be remembered for: “Pass on the baton”
Few musicians understand the experience of playing a big rock show like Jimmy Page. As the beating heart of the 1970s’ biggest and most rampant rock band, Page became quickly desensitised to the glitz and glamour of rock and roll music.
It was, however, well-earned, given that he had spent the previous decade lurking in the shadows of rock and roll greatness. As part of the iconic outfit The Yardbirds, Page played a more humble musical role. As the support player to the likes of John Mayall and Eric Clapton, Page honed his craft with patience and intent, while quietly writing songs that other stars like David Bowie would use to successful chart effect.
So when musical fate put him in the path of John Bonham, John Paul Jones and Robert Plant to form one of the world’s biggest bands, it was an opportunity well earned. More importantly, he was musically equipped to deal with the demands of their instant success on stage and creatively sharpened enough to back it up with even more recorded brilliance.
Four albums in two years came hurtling out of the blocks and so the memories of London’s dingy blues scene felt like a distant dream. America’s biggest arenas and stadiums beckoned, and with it, the danger of losing touch with reality altogether. But in the sea of faces darkened by the expanse of these venues, Page still registered the ever-important feeling of connection that inspired his music in the first place.
“I wanted to create music to make something that would change people’s lives and get them happy for some time,” he said, musing on the legacy of his career. He added, “That’s what it’s all about.”
Despite the iconic albums and endless sold-out shows, it’s that humble connection that Page remarks as the most important. Fans may see his spiralling Zeppelin licks as an unattainable world of artistic expression, but beneath it exists the simple session guitarist who entered the London scene with a few ideas and a dream.
“If you’ve managed to do something where you’ve just learned a couple of chords to start with, and you’ve managed to turn it into your profession, and you’re being so serious about it that you’ve been able to make inroads with it, whether it was as a studio musician or with the Yardbirds or Led Zeppelin, and you’ve managed to make music that’s made a difference to people, being able to pass on the baton to young people of all I learned from James Burton and the Rock and Roll Trio, and Albert King, Freddie King, and B.B. King, and Muddy Waters, and Robert Johnson, and this melting pot, that, to me, is the lifetime achievement.”
It’s relatively safe to say that Page has nailed that lifetime achievement and then some. He took the blueprint of blues rock before him and transformed it into something larger that has since influenced the emergence of rock’s modern subgenres. And if that wasn’t enough proof, then he’ll always have Dave Grohl saying that “he plays the guitar like an old bluesman on acid.”
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