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

ERIC PATRICK CLAPTON, THE UNFORGETTABLE GUITARIST

Today, The Grandma is still relaxing at home. The weather is warm, but she is too tired to go out, and she has preferred to listening to music. She has chosen Eric Clapton, the English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter, considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time, who was born on a day like today in 1945.

Eric Patrick Clapton (born 30 March 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter.

He is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the Yardbirds and of Cream.

Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time.

Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and fourth in Gibson's Top 50 Guitarists of All Time. He was also named number five in Time magazine's list of The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players in 2009.

After playing in a number of different local bands, Clapton joined the Yardbirds in 1963, replacing founding guitarist Top Topham. Dissatisfied with the change of the Yardbirds sound from blues rock to a more radio-friendly pop rock sound, Clapton left in 1965 to play with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, with whom he played on one album.

After leaving Mayall in 1966, he formed the power trio Cream with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce, in which Clapton played sustained blues improvisations and arty, blues-based psychedelic pop. After Cream broke up in November 1968, he formed blues rock band Blind Faith with Baker, Steve Winwood, and Ric Grech, recording one album and performing on one tour before they broke up, leading Clapton to embark on a solo career in 1970.

More information: Eric Clapton Official Website

Alongside his solo career, he also performed with Delaney & Bonnie and Derek and the Dominos, with whom he recorded Layla, one of his signature songs. He continued to record a number of successful solo albums and songs over the next several decades, including a 1974 cover of Bob Marley's I Shot the Sheriff, which helped reggae reach a mass market, the country-infused Slowhand album (1977) and the pop rock of 1986's August.

Following the death of his son Conor in 1991, Clapton's grief was expressed in the song Tears in Heaven, which appeared on his Unplugged album, and in 1996 he had another top-40 hit with the R&B crossover Change The World, and in 1998 released the Grammy award-winning My Father's Eyes.

Since 1999, he has recorded a number of traditional blues and blues rock albums and hosted the periodic Crossroads Guitar Festival. His most recent studio album is 2018',s Happy Xmas.

Clapton has received 18 Grammy Awards as well as the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.

In 2004, he was awarded a CBE at Buckingham Palace for services to music. He has received four Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. In his solo career, Clapton has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time.

In 1998, Clapton, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua, a medical facility for recovering substance abusers.

More information: Twitter-Eric Clapton

Clapton was born on 30 March 1945 in Ripley, Surrey, England, to 16-year-old Patricia Molly Clapton and Edward Walter Fryer, a 25-year-old soldier from Montreal, Quebec.

In 1961, after leaving Hollyfield School in Surbiton, Clapton studied at the Kingston College of Art but was dismissed at the end of the academic year because his focus remained on music rather than art.

In October 1963, Clapton joined the Yardbirds, a blues-influenced rock and roll band, and stayed with them until March 1965. Synthesising influences from Chicago blues and leading blues guitarists such as Buddy Guy, Freddie King, and B.B. King, Clapton forged a distinctive style and rapidly became one of the most talked-about guitarists in the British music scene.

Clapton left the Bluesbreakers in July 1966, replaced by Peter Green, and was invited by drummer Ginger Baker to play in his newly formed band Cream, one of the earliest supergroups, with Jack Bruce on bass.

Clapton's next group, Blind Faith, formed in 1969, was composed of Cream drummer Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood of Traffic, and Ric Grech of Family, and yielded one LP and one arena-circuit tour.

With the intention of counteracting the star cult faction that had begun to form around him, Clapton assembled a new band composed of Delaney and Bonnie's former rhythm section, Bobby Whitlock as keyboardist and vocalist, Carl Radle as the bassist, and drummer Jim Gordon, with Clapton playing guitar.

The band was originally called Eric Clapton and Friends. The eventual name was a fluke that occurred when the band's provisional name of Del and the Dynamos was misread as Derek and the Dominos.

Clapton's career successes in the 1970s were in stark contrast with the struggles he coped with in his personal life, which was troubled by romantic longings and drug and alcohol addiction.

Clapton continued to release albums and toured regularly.

Clapton cites Muddy Waters, Freddie King, B.B. King, Albert King, Buddy Guy, and Hubert Sumlin as guitar playing influences.

Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time.

Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of the Yardbirds and Cream. He ranked second in Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and fourth in Gibson's Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.

More information: Instagram-Eric Clapton

The blues are what I've turned to,
what has given me inspiration and relief
in all the trials of my life.

Eric Clapton