It Might Get Loud
Ross didn’t want me to sit next to Jimmy Page. Based on what I’d written on my WEBSITE!
But I love Led Zeppelin! I just didn’t want to see them reunite and ruin the legacy. It’s tragic that John Lennon and George Harrison are deceased, but we’re saved from the spectacle of old men traipsing around the world in pursuit of money they don’t need just so people who weren’t there can get a peek at history…a calcified recreation of what once was. It would be like reuniting with a summer camp squeeze and expecting it to feel the same as when you were ten. That’s impossible.
But I didn’t care. I was displeased with the misperception of my feelings towards Jimmy, but I didn’t need to sit next to him, I didn’t even need to meet him, the music was enough.
So I sat a bit further down the row, and endured an introduction on a P.A. so weak that all I could do was punch out tweets on my BlackBerry. I got worried. What if the movie’s amplification was just as poor?
But it wasn’t.
"It Might Get Loud" is a summit meeting between three legendary guitarists, Jack White, the Edge and the aforementioned Mr. Page. They ultimately unite for a confab on a soundstage in Burbank, where they ruminate on where they’re coming from and eventually play a great take on "In My Time Of Dying" and a superfluous, weak "The Weight". And in between, we go into each of the three’s roots.
Edge is without pretense. He says it’s all about effects. Plays us demos from "The Joshua Tree". Goes back to school and tells us how U2 came to be, interspersed with some hilarious video from before they were the biggest band in the world.
Jack White takes a page from Bob Dylan. You’re not sure what’s real and what’s a put-on. But he does come up with the film’s best line, saying the audience KNOWS! If you’re for real. If you said the same thing the night before. If you’re employing the same set list. Maybe this is why he’s got an ongoing career and so many of today’s wannabes don’t. It’s about understanding the audience, not the media.
And then there was Mr. Page.
Just as I was getting comfortable in my seat, just as I’d settled into WATCHING this movie, Jimmy strapped on a sunburst Les Paul and started to play…
A tingle just shot through my body thinking about it.
You know how Jimmy holds his guitar so low, down by his pubic area, like it’s a sexual being, not a musical instrument? He’s not just playing, he’s romancing the entire instrument, the neck is bobbing and weaving, the body of the Gibson is throbbing, and with his nimble fingers, Jimmy Page is playing RAMBLE ON!
The track has not been overdubbed after the fact, the original master has not been stripped in, this is the guy who wrote and played it standing there and WHIPPING IT OFF! And in classic "Led Zeppelin II" fashion, he’s not playing to the last row, there’s that subtlety that separated the band from its imitators, they could be quiet as well as heavy.
And speaking of quiet, when Jimmy sat on a stool in the garden of Headley Grange and played "The Battle Of Evermore", I got goosebumps.
But "Ramble On" was the peak. Better than Jimmy playing the riff from "Whole Lotta Love" on the soundstage. There was a lyricism, a whole story was unfolding in his playing.
I played "Led Zeppelin II" for a week straight. After buying it the day of release. I thought I never needed to hear it again. But years later, when the focus was no longer on it, it turned out to be one of those mementos of youth that was just as vital today as it was back then. Somehow, music can do that. People age, but not tunes. Not the best ones.
My leg is bouncing, my body is twisting. I’m surveying the theatre, I see no concomitant movement. How can this BE? Has our nation been castrated to such a point that viewers need to take their cues from television? Can they only be infected, jump up and down when they’re in front of the stage at an overpriced gig? This performance of "Ramble On" was the essence of the experience. It was the zenith of rock and roll. Jimmy said how the critics didn’t get it. And he was right. But the public did. Led Zeppelin was instantly successful.
But the band didn’t become gods, didn’t become truly legendary until the fourth, untitled album.
That’s the one with "Stairway To Heaven".
But dedicated listeners, even casual ones, the album sold double digit millions, are familiar with the closer, the last song on the second side, "When The Levee Breaks".
The heaviest track ever recorded.
That’s what I call it. It’s like being beaten over the head with a sledgehammer…AND LIKING IT!
Like I said, they shot a bunch of footage at Headley Grange, where the fourth album was cut. Jimmy hasn’t been there in a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time. He’s overwhelmed at first. Then he starts telling stories. About the mobile truck outside (and a picture is flashed…that truck was HUGE!) They ran cables up the stairways, out the windows, it was key to be in an environment unsullied by everyday life.
And John Bonham ordered a new set of drums. And his tech set up this kit in the entry hall, with its multiple story ceiling, so Bonzo could check it out. And once Bonham started to play, they decided to record RIGHT THERE!
Then Jimmy claps his hands. As he’s standing in this entry hall. And you hear that unmistakable echo, the sound of late night seventies parties, of lying on your bedroom floor in the dark, listening to "When The Levee Breaks".
It was ASTOUNDING! It sounded JUST LIKE THE RECORD!
At the afterparty, Ian Montone introduced me to Jack White. Who did a double take, and then said "The Lefsetz LETTER"?
I LOVED that!
And since Peter wanted to meet Jimmy, Marc ended up introducing us. We ended up having a conversation about being best man at failed weddings. Had to give Jimmy credit, he knew how to play this game, he knew how to be warm and personable. And how do you not love a man who lets his hair go gray, who owns his age?
It’s been a long strange trip. From discovering a left behind guitar in a new abode to playing sessions to being in the biggest band of its era, the second biggest band of all time.
Yes, the Beatles were bigger. But they were different. They were the darlings, the sunny boys who could be endorsed by the media, cheeky and lovable. Zeppelin were different. There was an inherent darkness. You hear it in the music. They’re looking for satisfaction, but still living along the way. And life is hard. It’s dark and creepy with a bit of exuberance sprinkled in. Like Led Zeppelin’s music. Zep’s music wasn’t one note, it was like life, it covered the spectrum of emotions. And for this reason, we cannot forget it.
When you see Jimmy Page play these tunes up close and personal in this movie you’ll be flabbergasted. It’s not like a concert, where you can hear but not really see. When you see Jimmy’s fleet fingers fly across the fretboard, when you see his right hand pick out the notes, you experience the true spirit of rock and roll, in all its power and glory. These moments are not only worth the price of admission, they’re what we live for!
