The Zeppelin remains the same
Jimmy Page scotches rumours of a Led Zeppelin split in an interview with Chris Welch. Melody Maker, 5 November 1977
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JIMMY PAGE is perplexed and upset. In recent weeks, speculation about the future of Led Zeppelin in the light of recent tragic events has mounted. This week, Page, the guitar idol of a generation of rock fans, wanted to put an end to damaging and hurtful stories.
When he met the MM he seemed tired and strained, although there were flashes of the quick enthusiasm that has guided Zeppelin through eight tremendous years of international success. He talked at length about a variety of topics but his main theme, which he returned to frequently was that Zeppelin were NOT about to break up. And he denied emphatically stories about either he or Robert Plant joining any other group.
He admitted that since Robert suffered the loss of his young son earlier in the year, which put an abrupt end to the group's American tour, there had been no real thought of the band returning to active service while Robert wished to remain with his family.
It would be callous to suggest that Robert should return at such a time. But that did not mean that the group had ceased to exist or function.
A new studio album was being prepared slowly, with Jimmy working on an extended guitar instrumental theme, and there was also an album of live archive material to be assembled in chronological order.
Jimmy spoke happily and confidently about these projects. But when it came to the delicate subject that somehow there was a curse on the band, and that the forces of karma were at work, he became visibly distressed, and his voice frequently sank to the barely audible whisper.
"So much rubbish has been written about us recently. There was one thing about me joining the Stones, and it even got to the point of them asking Mick Jagger if Robert was joining.
"I thought, 'this is getting really silly.' There were rumours that the group was breaking up, and all this sort of crap, and for some reason I don't understand, it just keeps going on."
I explained to Jimmy that I, too, had heard, the same rumours and had posed the question to Mick Jagger recently without seriously expecting it to be true. Indeed, Mick had laughed at the stupidity of such a suggestion.
"Yeah," said Jimmy. "I see," he added thoughtfully. "In fact I've been very busy for the past few months, but unless you are being monitored all the time people think you are doing nothing."
At this point Jimmy veered away from the whole subject of the rumours and tried instead to present a picture of positive action and plans for the future. But it was obvious that he was greatly disturbed.
"I've got a studio at home — finally," he said as if the thought of it was a welcome distraction. "It's taken me 15 years to turn it into a reality. It's all together and last weekend was the first playback of the tape.
"The console was installed last January, and it's taken me all this time to sort out the acoustics.
"I've been listening to lots of live tapes of the band, going back to the concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 1969. I know that 'Song Remains The Same' was a live album, but it wasn't THE best performances, it was just one that happened to have celluloid with it.
"And there are loads of howling guitar mistakes on it. Normally, one would be inclined to cut them out, but you can't when it's a soundtrack.
"It's an honest album in its own way, but a chronological live album is something I've always fancied, and now I've got the facilities at home to play back all the hundreds of hours of tape, it's definitely on. There's great stuff there, and it takes us right up to this year."
Armoury
Jimmy was also keen about a new addition to his musical armoury — a guitar synthesizer. "It's really phenomenal, a Roland synthesizer, and it's a knockout.
"There are three guitar synthesizers available at the moment, and I guess you know there is this problem with getting a polyphonic sound.
"Well, the other two only play one note at a time and you can get harmonies with the oscillators, but THIS one plays chords. It's just a whole new world.
"No, I haven't used it on stage yet, but we were trying to get it together just before the end of the American tour. It's definitely something to use on stage.
"So while I've been totally self-indulgent and knocking myself out with new things, there has been all this stuff going on in the press, so I thought it was a good idea to, er, speak . . . ask me what you want."
Was it true, then, as rumours suggested, that Zeppelin would break up?
"No, definitely not. I've gotta say to you right now there are areas that are bloody touchy. You see, I've never known a family to have such bad luck as Robert's, and it's really awful . . ."
Here Jimmy seemed so upset his voice almost ground to a halt and he asked that as little should be said about the tragedy as possible.
But this left unresolved several questions about the future that Jimmy tried his best to answer during a conversation that meandered over the next two hours. He wanted to emphasise that plans were still being made for the future.
"As well as listening to the old tapes, I'm preparing material for the new LP, which I'll pace along with the live stuff. But I'd like the new studio album out first.
"I thing I've spoken to you before about a long piece I'd written which was to have gone on 'Presence.' I had it all planned out and arranged, but it was too dangerous to rely on because of the time factor.
"I knew how much time would be needed for overdubs, and it wasn't the sort of thing John Paul Jones and I could do together.
"I wanted to orchestrate the guitar and put it through various treatments, which with the guitar synthesizer will be even easier now.
"I once worked on a guitar epic when I was doing studio work with Mike Leander. It was a classical thing rocked up.
"All the guitars were playing in unison and it didn't work. But I know now the whole thing can work, and from the trial runs I've laid down, it does work.
"Think of Django Reinhardt, Les Paul and Jimi Hendrix, all as different tonally as chalk from cheese, and imagine them blocked together! That's what I'm seriously involved with right now, and another long piece . . ."
Theme
Would you involve the rest of the group, or is it a solo project?
"No, no, no — with the rest of the guys. But it's basically an instrumental.
"The original idea was to have four sections for the vocals, coming back to the same theme each time. But there would be four separate melody lines dealing with the four seasons.
"He (Robert) would be doing the lyrics for it, but right now it's difficult to tell if the lyrics would deal with the seasons.
"We're used to doing complete demo tapes of songs and it's a bloody nuisance, actually, because I've lost two and a half years of work. The cassette briefcase . . . it's gone.
Jimmy began to look even more dejected. "My luggage was being brought back through the customs by somebody else, and it's just gone.
"You get so used to working with cassettes you don't bother to learn it. Once it's on the tape you feel safe, and that's the record of a particular idea.
"There were loads of orchestrated sections . . . it's a damn nuisance. Fortunately, the excitement of having the new studio transcends the grief of losing all those demos, and I'll be coming up with new stuff anyway."
Was the studio in Scotland?
"No, Plumpton, not Scotland. I've got a house there but I don't spend nearly as much time there as I'd like to."
Jimmy had been under a lot of pressure and a lot of unfortunate things had happened. How was he coping personally?
"The worst thing is not being able to do anything . . a feeling of helplessness, really. The studio console arriving now has helped me to get on with something . . ."
At this point, John Paul Jones, Zeppelin's keyboard player, burst cheerily into the room and swept Jimmy away for a quarter of an hour chat. He returned in a slightly more cheerful frame of mind and ready to talk further about the various old Zeppelin tapes for the compilation album.
"There's a winning version of 'No Quarter' from the Earls Court concert, and from the Albert Hall '69 there's 'I Can't Quit You Baby.' The 'How Many More Times' is pretty good.
"It's great hearing them again, numbers that we'll probably never play again. We've got numbers from Southampton University, and some small clubs."
How did Jimmy feel about the Zeppelin bootleg albums which proliferated in the Sixties and Seventies?
"I'm furious about them. The quality and the pricing of them . . . when you think about the overheads that the bootleggers have, pretty much nil and they charge more than the price of a regular album. And they're re-recorded on tiny cassette players.
Shock
"None of the ones I heard actually came from the mixing board. I remember going into Chicago which had a wall completely full of bootleg albums, which came as a shock as I thought the legislation had stopped them.
"There was one called 'The Genius Of Pete Townshend' which was all his home demos. I don't know how they got hold of them.
"They can be very interesting, but the main thing about bootlegs is the quality. I had one of us live in Japan, and it's slow. It's a tone and a half down, and that was selling."
Jimmy is most impressed by new wave bands like the Damned. "They are a knockout. I had heard so many derogatory statements about punk, as it was called then, and I was really curious to see what it was all about, and they were the best initiation one could have had.
"So powerful and tight. Exactly what rock and roll is all about, sheer adrenalin music. I think the new wave is the most important thing that's happened since Hendrix.
"But the ones that are good will last, like XTC, who seem to have a lot going for them — nice arrangements and chord changes, really interesting.
"And the Pistols, a couple of tracks are really great. There is a lot of energy there and I hope it becomes more positive, because one detects the negative vibe going on, which is really silly."
Did the new wave alter the way Jimmy thought about rock and Led Zeppelin?
"I suppose it did, really. Difficult to say how. We're on uncharted ground and you have to get it together — not that we aren't getting it together!
"The thing about Hendrix was that he had so many ideas linked to energy that were streets ahead of his contemporaries. Now there is a new energy statement being made, and love it or hate it, it's definitely there."
Zeppelin have enjoyed worldwide success over the last eight years. They have earned fame and riches. But were there any ambitions that Jimmy had unfulfilled.?
"We had a great plan to spend our non-British residence period soaking up the musical vibe in places like Morocco. We went there after Earls Court and spent quite a lot of time driving around there.
"We got turned back at the border on our way to the Sahara because there was a lot of mobilisation of troops going on.
"But we heard a lot of local music and I was really influenced by them in tunes like 'Achilles Last Stand.' "The week of Robert's accident we had planned to go to Japan and Australia and then work our way back slowly through the East. Any we wanted to record in Bangkok, Delhi and Cairo, and soak up the vibes, as we had done in Morocco.
"We didn't want to sound like a half-baked imitation but to use the acoustic qualities of their music. It was an interesting challenge to attempt. That would have been a milestone in our career, an aim fulfilled, but for circumstances.
Ahead
"At that time we had considered shelving the film (The Song Remains The Same) to film the forthcoming American tour. We had learnt a lot and wanted to re-do the film.
"But then, after Robert's accident, we had to fill the gap and go ahead with the film."
Once again Jimmy's thoughts turned to Robert and the bad luck that seemed to dog the group. He was particularly upset by the use of the expression "karma" that had been used about the group's ill-fortunes in some articles.
"It's just the wrong term to ever use, and how somebody could write that down, knowing the full facts about what has happened, I don't know. It shocks me.
"The whole concept of the band is of entertainment. I don't see any link between that and karma, and yet I've seen it written a few times about us, like 'yet another incident in Zeppelin's karma — John Paul Jones has a broken hand'. It's nonsense, that was YEARS back. It's all crap."
Had Zeppelin made enemies over the years, so that people should want to start those sort of rumours? Jimmy sat silently for some minutes.
"No I don't think so . . . there was only the thing with Bill Graham, and that was just a case of manhandling going on at the back of the stage, people getting pulled over the barriers and being given whacks.*
"But I didn't know anything about that, I didn't see what happened. I know that heavy vibe thing has surrounded us, but it's more like . . . well, when Peter (Grant) did his scene in the film, it was really tongue-in-cheek.
"You couldn't find a gentler man, but people totally misunderstood him.
"And that thing about karma really bothers me. Where's the clue? I'm putting it to you to supply the answer. Why are they using that term? It's a horrible, tasteless thing to say."
Well, Jimmy, as you and the band have been popular and successful for a long time, then you become something of a target. It happens to people in all fields.
"Yeah, I know that. It goes on and you can see it. We can take constructive criticisms and attacks, and one comes to terms with that and laugh it off and . . . I'm only thinking out loud, really.
"We shouldn't even discuss it. Just say that Jimmy Page is perplexed by the use of the word 'karma.' I just don't know what's going on."
*Jim Matzorkis, a Bill Graham security guard, was severely beaten in Oakland by Peter Grant and John Bindon.
Peter once rang me at the office, and he was sobbing. I thought something awful must have happened, but he said, "This book's come out." It was the Bill Graham book. I asked Peter to fax through the pages about Oakland, and after I'd read them, I called him back and asked if it was true. He said, "Yes. But I don't want to be thought as a bad person."
—Ed Bicknell, Led Zeppelin: The Oral History of the World's Greatest Rock Band, Barney Hoskyns, 2012