JIMMY PAGE, THE GREATEST RIFFS FOR LED ZEPPELIN

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Jimmy Page, the English musician, guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin, who was born on a day like today in 1944.

James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin.

Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs. His style involves various alternative guitar tunings and melodic solos, coupled with aggressive, distorted guitar tones. 

It is also characterized by his folk and eastern-influenced acoustic work. He is also noted for occasionally playing his guitar with a cello bow to create a droning sound texture to the music.

Page began his career as a studio session musician in London and, by the mid-1960s, alongside Big Jim Sullivan, was one of the most sought-after session guitarists in Britain. He was a member of the Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968.

When the Yardbirds broke up, he founded Led Zeppelin, which was active from 1968 to 1980. Following the death of Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, he participated in a number of musical groups throughout the 1980s and 1990s, more specifically XYZ, the Firm, the Honeydrippers, Coverdale-Page, and Page and Plant.

Since 2000, Page has participated in various guest performances with many artists, both live and in studio recordings, and participated in a one-off Led Zeppelin reunion in 2007 that was released as the 2012 concert film Celebration Day. Along with the Edge and Jack White, he participated in the 2008 documentary It Might Get Loud.

Page is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time.

Rolling Stone magazine has described Page as the pontiff of power riffing and ranked him number three in their 2015 list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, behind Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton.

In 2010, he was ranked number two in Gibson's list of Top 50 Guitarists of All Time and, in 2007, number four on Classic Rock's 100 Wildest Guitar Heroes. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: once as a member of the Yardbirds (1992) and once as a member of Led Zeppelin (1995).

More information: Jimmy Page

Page was born to James Patrick Page and Patricia Elizabeth Gaffikin in the west London suburb of Heston on 9 January 1944. His father was a personnel manager at a plastic-coatings plant and his mother, who was of Irish descent, was a doctor's secretary.

While still a student, Page often performed on stage at the Marquee Club with bands such as Cyril Davies' All Stars, Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, and fellow guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.

In late 1964, Page was approached about the possibility of replacing Eric Clapton in the Yardbirds, but he declined out of loyalty to his friend.

Led Zeppelin are one of the best-selling music groups in the history of audio recording. 

Various sources estimate the group's worldwide sales at more than 200 or even 300 million albums. With 111.5 million RIAA-certified units, they are the second-best-selling band in the United States. Each of their nine studio albums reached the top 10 of the US Billboard album chart, and six reached the number-one spot.

Page is widely considered, by both musical peers and guitarists, one of the greatest and most influential guitarists. His experiences in the studio and with the Yardbirds were key to the success of Led Zeppelin in the 1970s.

As a record producer, songwriter and guitarist, he helped make Led Zeppelin a prototype for countless future rock bands and was one of the major driving forces behind the rock sound of that era, influencing a host of other guitarists.

More information: Instagram-Jimmy Page

I believe every guitar player inherently
has something unique about their playing.
They just have to identify
what makes them different and develop it.

Jimmy Page

LED ZEPPELIN: AN ETERNAL STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN

Led Zeppelin (From I love Clicks)

Crossing The Carpats on The Orient Express is a mystic experience, even better, if you are listening one of the best rock bands of the history. The Grandma wants to talk about Led Zeppelin and their most beautiful song: Stairway to heaven.

 
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. The band's heavy, guitar-driven sound, rooted in blues and psychedelia on their early albums, has earned them recognition as one of the progenitors of heavy metal, though their unique style drew from a wide variety of influences, including folk music.

After changing their name from the New Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin signed a deal with Atlantic Records that afforded them considerable artistic freedom. Although the group was initially unpopular with critics, they achieved significant commercial success with albums such as Led Zeppelin (1969), Led Zeppelin II (1969), Led Zeppelin III (1970), Led Zeppelin IV (1971), Houses of the Holy (1973), and Physical Graffiti (1975). Their fourth album, which features the track Stairway to Heaven, is among the most popular and influential works in rock music, and it helped to secure the group's popularity.

More information: Led Zeppelin Official Site

Led Zeppelin are widely considered one of the most successful, innovative, and influential rock groups in history. Its music was rooted in the blues. The influence of American blues artists such as Muddy Waters and Skip James was particularly apparent on their first two albums, as was the distinct country blues style of Howlin' Wolf. Tracks were structured around the twelve-bar blues on every studio album except for one, and the blues directly and indirectly influenced other songs both musically and lyrically.  

Led Zeppelin (From I love Clicks)

The band were also strongly influenced by the music of the British, Celtic, and American folk revivals.

Scottish folk guitarist Bert Jansch helped inspire Page, and from him he adapted open tunings and aggressive strokes into his playing. 

The band also drew on a wide variety of genres, including world music, and elements of early rock and roll, jazz, country, funk, soul, and reggae, particularly on Houses of the Holy and the albums that followed.

The band began their first tour of the UK on 4 October 1968, they still were billed as the New Yardbirds, and played their first show as Led Zeppelin at the University of Surrey in Guildford on 25 October.  During the 1970s, Led Zeppelin reached new heights of commercial and critical success that made them one of the most influential groups of the era, eclipsing their earlier achievements.

More information: Led Zeppelin Multimedia

After the death of Bonham on 25 September 1980, the remaining members of Led Zeppelin decided to disband the group.

A 4 December 1980 press statement stated that, We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend, and the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were. The statement was signed simply Led Zeppelin.

Right from the first time 

we went to America in 1968, L

ed Zeppelin was a word-of-mouth thing. 

You can't really compare it to how it is today.  

Jimmy Page