There's a moment in Magus Musician Man, Canadian journalist George Case's new biography of Jimmy Page, when you realize how far from the Hammer of the Gods the legendary rock guitarist has fallen. The author describes a 1995 commercial airplane flight Page took between gigs during his first tour with Robert Plant. Flying between San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, a "visibly intoxicated" Page "was caught smoking in the washroom... he dared police to arrest him and faced a $1,000 fine."
Unfortunately, an immediate flashback to Page's 1970s-era glory days never comes. It's too bad, because it would have spoken volumes about how different Page's life is today than at its peak. In 2005, when Page looked back on the heyday of Zeppelin, he told Guitar World: "We weren't the only band that had its own plane, but we were the only ones that had a grown-up plane. Let's put it this way: we didn't have to bend our heads to get into it ... But I did have the bedroom [in Zeppelin's leased Boeing 707, "The Starship"]. I did like the idea of the horizontal takeoff. I'm not sure I'd be doing that these days. But back then, I had a different mindset."
He certainly did. Since then, Page, now 63, with shorter hair, a no longer heroin-ravaged nor toothpick-thin body now hidden inside of sleek custom-made dark suits, (still occasionally idiosyncratic-looking, but no longer festooned with dragons and poppies), seems to have mellowed comfortably into his role as one of rock's elder statesmen. In 1992, the Rolling Stone Album Guide's page on Bruce Springsteen ended with the hope that with his "growing older, we see a chance that we missed with Elvis - that of a great American rocker confronting age with grace."
Watching the recently recorded DVD included in the 10th anniversary edition of Springsteen's Born To Run, Springsteen seems frozen in amber, an 57-year old man still wearing the motorcycle boots, muttonchop sideburns and leather jackets more associated with his 1970s era salad days than a middle-age multimillionaire entertainment superstar. Meanwhile, in England, Mick Jagger is desperately trying to hang on to his own youth at 63, and Keith Richards is busy dodging rumors that he's snorting his father's ashes. By those standards, Page is surviving the rigors of middle age astonishingly well.
Nobody's Fault But Mine
Case's book does a thorough job of describing Page's history, especially those chapters on Page's life bracketing his Zeppelin years, which probably won't be as familiar to many readers. As rock musicians go, Page was, by and large, a surprisingly self-controlled teenager - he taught himself to play electric blues guitar astonishingly well, and acoustic folk guitar very well. He also taught himself how to competently play in a wide enough variety of styles and genres that he was an extremely in-demand London session musician in the mid-1960s. And while in those studios, he learned a helluva lot about record production. As a session man, Page may have been Shel Talmy's ace in the hole, but Zeppelin's records are sure a lot better produced than early Who and Kinks records.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net , which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States, and to Boston.com. Nice work!
2 - paul
Let's hope that the book is better than this meandering and pointless review.
3 - John Troulis
After finishing Juliann Whites Book: "Past Presence", I went on to George Case's :" Magnus, Musician, Man". I felt is was a great read. Actually I couldn't put it down. being a died in the wool Zeppelin fan, although never actually seeing the original Led Zeppelin, I found it to be insightful and interesting. Case definitely did his homework and I can't imagine the hours that went into his research for this project. A good deal of the information in the book was pretty common knowledge, although I was surprised by a fair amount of facts I didn't know of. I did get to see Page several times through his career. The Firm tour, which I thought was great being my first time seeing Jimmy live. Great music, sound, solos, singing. Everything. Really good stuff, with the exception of the ride to Long Island all the way from my home in New Jersey. The solo tour which was a little less spectacular for me personally. I found the singer to be a weak knockoff of Robert Plant at best and Jimmy seemed lost and sort of going through the motions of being a 70's rock Icon trying to make the magic he is best know for. It seemed he held his breath before unleashing his solo for Dazed and Confused, which was sloppy and nowhere near what he is capable of as a guitarist. Just shooting for that big show stopping solo without having the luxury of having a great band to help him with the song around the solo. All the same it was great to see him. No one moves like Jimmy Page on stage and no one ever will in my opinion. The last few times I saw him was from the 7th row at the new Spectrum in Philadelphia. Just awesome with Robert for the first leg of their tour. Everything you'd expect. "The Song Remains The Same" was a highlight for me. The way he plays that double neck gives me goose bumps every-time. The next time was at the Meadowlands arena in New Jersey. The second leg of the Page/Plant tour. Awesome again! The orchestra was great and added some great color and depth to the Zeppelin music. I loved it! The very last time I saw Jimmy was the second tour. Without the orchestra. At Madison Square Garden, no less. A place Brian May of Queen had stated in 1978 when I saw Queen there; "The greatest gig in the world". No small compliment from a man thats broken many attendance records all over the world. Two solid hours of no nonsense Zeppelin music. Heavy blues deluxe at it's best! From the opener of the "Wanton Song" through the entire show, I was hypnotized. It was great to see how strong the band and Jimmy played. Total conviction and just raw energy!
I highly recommend George Case's book along with Juliann Whites. Great reading!