The Led Zeppelin song that defines Jimmy Page, according to Robert Plant
How do you ever begin to define a guitarist as prolific as Jimmy Page?
His first guitar was a small, run-down acoustic number, not the kind of thing you can learn to be a legend on, but the sort of instrument that gives you a feel for things and allows kids to imagine themselves becoming guitar heroes. That’s exactly what happened to Page; he would practice fretwork and work out how to master different chord structures, but the acoustic guitar didn’t let him play in the way that he wanted.
Like many budding rockers in the ‘60s, Page was inspired by the blues and R&B guitarists who were making waves in the States. Names like Muddy Waters rang off the tip of his tongue when talking about his favourite artists, but this small guitar didn’t make for the best instrument when it came to playing like a real bluesman.
Ever the innovator, Page decided he would replace the G string on his acoustic guitar with another B string. This made it a lot lighter and easier to bend, which allowed him to practice his vibrato and try bending strings like Waters, even though he was learning on something that would never be the perfect instrument for such music.
It was a pretty slick move by a young Page, and one that meant when he eventually bought an electric guitar, he was ready to start shredding (in some way, shape or form) right away. This was only the beginning for Jimmy Page ahead of forming Led Zeppelin, as that replaced string would eventually lead to Page becoming one of the best guitarists of all time.
The innovation he showed in these early days ran throughout his career, as Page was constantly pushing himself in a bid to change the way that people saw rock music. He didn’t just want to make what was considered mainstream rock at the time, but he was keen on pushing boundaries completely, injecting the sound with genres that people didn’t usually associate with rock in a bid to produce something totally original.
Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull put it best, as he was a big fan of Led Zeppelin and the way they bent rock music to their whim. “I think what they showed to all their peer group as musicians was that there was, first of all, a very powerful and dramatic way to perform simple, direct rock music and also to introduce elements of more eclectic music,” he said. “Because Zeppelin, near the beginning, there were a lot of elements of folk music, and Asian music, and African music that crept into their stuff.”
Of course, while he was able to inject his sound with all of these different genres and influences, that kid who wanted to be a bluesman didn’t go anywhere. No matter what period of Page’s life you are looking at, he was always making music that channelled the artists who originally inspired him to change up the strings on his acoustic guitar. Perhaps this is why when Robert Plant was asked for a guitar line that best defined Page, he cast all the Led Zeppelin bells and whistles to the side and opted for one of their more straightforward bluesy numbers.
“The slide work on ‘In My Time of Dying’, which goes on and on [laughs], but it’s a great ramshackle blues slide. Straight off the top,” he said. Plant went on to say that the guitar playing obviously inspired other rockers as well, given he heard the line ripped off in later years.
“I remember the shock I had with one of my favorite bands, Let’s Active, with Mitch Easter,” he said, “There’s a track on Big Plans For Everybody [1986] with slide guitar, and it’s exactly the same as ‘In My Time of Dying’ [laughs]. I couldn’t believe it! I went what! Not another one. I thought it was only that Rick Rubin who did these things.”
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