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Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page opens up — and prepares to hit the road
"I know people want to hear me play. I want to hear me play, too."
A year ago, Jimmy Page wasn't playing all that much guitar.
That's right: The legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist, who with his low-slung instrument created some of the most recognizable and copied riffs in the entirety of rock's sprawling canon, was busy with what he now dubs more "academic" pursuits.
Operating as a de factor keeper of the Led Zeppelin flame since the band called it quits 34 years ago, the 70-year-old rock legend had been busy overseeing the re-mastering of Led Zeppelin's catalogue, picking up the obligatory awards befitting an elder statesman of rock, and combing through his vast trove of personal photos to assemble the images in book form as a retrospective of his career.
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But now that work is done. And Jimmy Page is ready to plug in and hit the road.
Page tells The Week he's considering a tour next year. It won't be a Zeppelin reunion, per se, but would involve handpicking a list of musical compatriots to join him onstage, he says, giving fans a bit of the familiar, plus a few surprises.
"I know people want to hear me play," Page told The Week in a recent phone interview. "I want to hear me play, too."
But before a Jimmy page tour, we're going to get Jimmy Page the book. Due out Oct. 14, it's a more affordable reissue of the photo-based autobiography he originally published in 2010.
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Why the reissue? Well, the first version of the book was a near-immediate sellout — the limited run of 2,500 copies got snatched up within weeks — leading Page to consider going wider with it.
The book is a joyride through rock's early days, on through an era of hedonistic excess, and ending up in the present, including Page greeting President Obama and getting an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music.
At the start of the book, we're greeted by the image of a choirboy. The young, robed Page stands in that early photo in front of a lit candle. At the bottom, we see a cheeky indication of what's to come. Beneath young Page is the phrase "It might get loud," which is also the name of the 2008 documentary in which Page starred with Jack White and U2's The Edge.
Page picked a photo-heavy format to tell his story without actually "telling" his story, partly because of a lifelong impatience to just get on with it. The notoriously private guitarist groaned, in other words, at the thought of all the complications that actually writing his story down would entail.
The 650 photos Page chose for the 512-page book are mingled with snippets of personal reflections. Rare finds in the book include photos of Led Zeppelin playing an unplanned gig in a Jersey nightclub, as well as double-exposure shots of Page and Brian Jones.
Besides the book, the re-mastering Page has been working on resulted in the release earlier this year of deluxe versions of Led Zeppelin's first three albums. Reissues of Led Zeppelin IV and Houses of the Holy are due out later this month. And now, seven years on from the one-off Zeppelin reunion performance at London's O2 area, Page is ready to get back in front of a crowd.
"I'm really starting to get myself enthused and limbered up for putting something together," he said, adding that he hasn't started the process of assembling a band yet. "That for me is exactly how things should be. I want to surprise people. I'll play everything, and some new music I've got. Next year is the time when I should be seen to be playing live."
When Page started out, he says, he was "totally seduced by American music," listening to tapes, working out the parts on his favorite recordings, and schooling himself on what would become a lifetime of music.
As he matured, Page's sound was in turn studied and copied by a new generation. The pupil had become the master.
There's a cycle. Page created a body of work that young players now pore over, just like he once did.
And the song, Led Zeppelin reminded fans all those years ago, remains the same.
Andy Meek is a senior reporter at the Memphis Daily News. His work has also appeared in outlets including Fast Company, Buzzfeed and TIME, among others.
