The argument over the world’s greatest guitarist is a fiercely controversial one, but regardless of your stance on it, one name is unavoidable: Jimmy Page. “It’s like, whether I wanted to be a musician or not, I was going to be one,” the guitarist once said. As the founder of the iconic group Led Zeppelin, Page has been in the upper echelon of rock music for decades. Despite entering his 80th year, the legend of Jimmy Page still reigns supreme among rock fans.
Although Page has taken a back seat when it comes to performing in his later years, his passion for music remains evident. His most recent works have taken the form of interviews surrounding his illustrious career and those connected with it, though he has never officially retired from touring or performing, so perhaps there is still hope. When you have had a career as vibrant and storied as Page, it does not seem right that you can simply fizzle out, so maybe the guitarist has some interesting plans in store for his eighth decade.
Page, born in 1944, gained his spiritual awakening at the age of 12 when he first picked up a guitar. It seemed as though the young James was destined to master the instrument when a Spanish guitar miraculously appeared in his childhood house in Surrey. “I don’t know whether [the guitar] was left behind by the people [in the house] before [us], or whether it was a friend of the family’s,” Page later revealed, “Nobody seemed to know why it was there.”
Page is undoubtedly remembered for his distinctive style of hard rock, popularised with Led Zeppelin, but the first love of the Heston-born musician was much more mellow. At the age of just 13, a young Page made an appearance on the BBC children’s programme All Your Own. Even back then, Page was proficient with an axe, performing ‘Mama Don’t Want To Skiffle Anymore’ on a hollow-body guitar. Skiffle was the UK’s answer to early American rock ‘n’ roll and was characterised by homemade instruments and the influence of rhythm and blues.
As was shown during his appearance on All Your Own, skiffle was mainly acoustic, but Page could not resist the pull of American rockabilly and its electric nature. The young guitarist was inspired to make the switch to electric by Buddy Holly, whom he obsessed over, “Solos which affected me could send a shiver up my spine and I’d spend hours, and in some cases days, trying to get them [down],” he once said, “The first ones were Buddy Holly chord solos, like ‘Peggy Sue’”.
Largely self-taught, Jimmy soon devoted his entire existence to the mastery of the guitar. Spending every possible moment playing the instrument, much to the annoyance of his school teachers. This irritation soon boiled over, and Page left secondary school at the age of 15 to pursue music after a blazing row with his headmaster. For much of the early 1960s, Page struggled as a session musician for various artists before finding more success working with an impressive roster of groups, including The Rolling Stones, Marianne Faithfull and The Who.
Of course, the Jimmy Page that we all know and love came to the forefront in the late 1960s after joining The Yardbirds. A venerated group that launched the careers of both Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, Page joined The Yardbirds in 1966. Although the band did not last much longer after his inauguration, the seeds for Led Zeppelin were planted during this time.
Reportedly taking its name from a suggestion by Who drummer Keith Moon, Led Zeppelin formed in 1968. Recruiting Robert Plant on the advice of Terry ‘Superlungs’ Reid, the definitive hard rock group of the 20th century was born. Undeniably one of the most successful and influential bands in British musical history, Led Zeppelin soon became an incredibly successful group thanks largely to the guitar mastery of Jimmy Page.
Even though many critics at the time viewed their eponymous 1969 debut with suspicion and, in some cases, scorn, the commercial success of their discography speaks for itself. Releasing eight records in their ten-year reign, the band released truly iconic material, with Page producing some of the most infamous guitar riffs of all time.
Anybody who has ever tried to learn a few tracks on the guitar has probably come across some of Page’s riffs, ranging from the simplistic ‘Whole Lotta Love’ to the complex alternate tuning of ‘Kashmir’. Page was constantly experimenting with different time signatures and tuning styles, meaning his playing style is difficult to recreate. This is probably unsurprising, given that the man has had a guitar more or less surgically attached to him since the age of 12.
Even though the tenure of Led Zeppelin ended in 1980, the world did not lose Page’s guitar riffs. Soon after, he began performing disparately with his Yardbirds bandmate Jeff Beck, in addition to forming a supergroup with members of the prog rock legends Yes. Over the next few years, the guitarist worked tirelessly on a variety of projects, including recording soundtrack albums, performing at charity gigs and collaborating with many notable artists.
Over 40 years have passed since the break-up of Led Zeppelin. Despite various repeated rumours of a reunion, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon. Nevertheless, Page’s band remains hugely influential. An untold number of artists owe their roots to Zeppelin and Page’s expert riffs. One such artist is Jack White, who boldly asserted that ‘Whole Lotta Love’ contains “probably some of the greatest guitar notes ever played, if not the greatest” – not bad for a young lad who started playing skiffle on a free guitar.
It goes without saying Page has made an indisputable change on the face of rock music, and acting as an inspiration for countless future artists and musicians is a feat that not many people can say they have done with their lives. Though it is not clear what the next years will have in store for the guitar hero, if his career thus far is anything to go by, then it is sure to be memorable.