The one songwriter Jimmy Page called a genius: “It was life-changing”
It should come as no surprise that Jimmy Page has pretty good taste. The man played with the greatest idols of the 1960s during his stint as a prolific session musician, and by the time he made a name for himself in Led Zeppelin, he was paying tribute to all-time greats like Robert Johnson in ‘The Lemon Song’, Muddy Waters in ‘Whole Lotta Love’, and Joni Mitchell in ‘Going to California’.
Since establishing himself and Led Zeppelin, Page has routinely been considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time. Unique in his meticulous delivery and pinpoint studio musicianship, Page’s command of the six-string often leaves audiences forgetting just how adept he was at songwriting. And, like many songwriters, there are a few artists whom he finds utterly bewildering with talent.
It was back as a session musician that Page got his first taste of a young up-and-coming folk singer who was about to make a major change to electric rock and roll. Bob Dylan can be considered one of the cultural touchstones of the entire rock genre, largely thanks to this moment. That singular charge of electricity that ran through his guitar can be considered a spark of influence that is still able to power a multitude of stadium-sized rock outfits to this day.
There are thousands of bands and musicians who consider Bob Dylan to be the pinnacle of songwriting, owing in large part to his wildly poetic lyrics. But it still feels more pertinent that such a storied artist as Page can consider him so otherworldly. However, for the electric guitar specialist, it was actually during his folkier days that Page first met the great man.
Page remembered seeing Bob Dylan for the first time in an Instagram post back in 2019. “In May 1965 I experienced the genius of Bob at the Albert Hall,” Page explains in the post. “He accompanied himself on acoustic guitar and cascaded images and words from such songs as ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ and ‘She Belongs To Me’ to a mesmerised audience. It was life-changing.”
He added: “In 2013, Bob Dylan played at the Albert Hall again – this was the first of three nights – when he would feature songs from his latest album Tempest and some re-arranged earlier material including ‘She Belongs To Me’ and ‘Tangled Up In Blue’. It was intoxicating.”
Page wasn’t the only Dylan fan in Led Zeppelin, however. “Something happened when Dylan arrived,” Robert Plant told The Guardian in 2007. “I had to grapple with what he was talking about. His music references Woody Guthrie, Richard and Mimi Farina, Reverend Gary Davis, Dave Van Ronk, and all these great American artists I knew nothing about.
“He was absorbing the details of America and bringing it out without any reservation at all, and ignited a social conscience that is spectacular. In these Anglo-Saxon lands we could only gawp, because we didn’t know about the conditions he was singing about. Dylan was the first one to say, ‘Hello, reality.’ I knew that I had to get rid of the winkle-pickers and get the sandals on quick.”
That quick change of cultural references was a flurry of activity that happened up and down the British Isles as the work of Bob Dylan began to infiltrate the rock world. He had already worked his magic on John Lennon, turning him into a confessional pop master. But it would appear that Dylan’s influence was being felt across the nation, bubbling underground to create a swell of songsmiths now interested in something with a little more weight.
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