The one record that stopped Jimmy Page in his tracks
As the driving force behind rock pioneers Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page has penned riffs and records that transfixed millions. After a promising early stint with the Yardbirds, Page founded Led Zeppelin and kickstarted his legacy as one of the greatest guitarists of all time.
Long before he penned the unrelenting ‘Immigrant Song’ riff or the iconic ‘Stairway to Heaven’ solo, a young Page spent his time busking and practising for hours a day. Throughout his teens, Page taught himself to play the instrument by listening to other people’s music, eventually transitioning into playing as a session musician alongside Jeff Beck.
“The very first time I met Jeff,” Page once recalled to Rolling Stone, “I said, ‘What’s your version of [Little Walter’s] ‘My Babe’?’ to see how he played it. And I said, ‘Yeah, well, I’ve been doing it like this.’ He just had an instant rapport with me. He had a homemade guitar at the time, and I’m sure he’d be very proud to say that.”
Though Page was self-taught and Beck was playing a homemade guitar, the two were immediately committed to their craft. “We were just two kids,” Page explained, “We’d heard rock and roll. We’d heard these guitarists, and there was no turning back. Even at that age, in our teens, that’s it. We’re committed.”
“As each release came, with the Gene Vincent stuff, it was really challenging to even attempt to play it. But once you had a solid-body guitar, as opposed to a cello body, it became more doable. Nevertheless, you were fuelled to do the best you could, and it’s quite right,” he continued.
Page was fuelled by one record in particular, which he suggested “stopped you in your tracks” – The Rock and Roll Trio’s 1956 self-titled debut record, Johnny Burnette and the Rock ‘n Roll Trio. The trio’s musical impact extends far beyond Page – The Beatles even once covered ‘Lonesome Tears in My Eyes’.
The Led Zeppelin guitarist was particularly captivated by how coherent the record was and how unique the guitar parts were. “The musical glue of that record is just absolutely phenomenal,” Page enthused, “Also, the guitar playing was so abstract to anything else that I’d ever heard.”
The Led Zeppelin founder went on to hone his own form of unique and abstract guitar playing. From utilising a cello bow to creating endlessly memorable riffs, Page has stopped many of his own listeners in their tracks with the magic of his musicianship.
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