Tag: led zeppelin

New Years Eve

It’s New Years Eve again. Wasn’t it just New Years Eve a few weeks ago? 2023 is ending? How the hell did that happen?

We don’t have any solid plans for today apart from picking up some take-out Chinese food. Maybe some board games? Maybe another round of Yahtzee?

I watched Rebel Moon on Netflix. I was conflicted. I wanted to watch it but I also did not want to watch it. See the conflict? My spoiler free review is to recommend that you wait until part two comes out in April. This movie feels like two hours worth of a four hour heist movie, where generally the first half of a heist movie is assembling the team. That means the movie that is out now is really just the assembling of the team. That’s why it doesn’t have a coherent story. It’s more like a bunch of mini-movies introducing all of the characters. Hopefully part two will make sense on it’s own. So if you wait for part two to come out and then watch them both together, maybe it will be a decent movie as a whole. For now though… eh.

I have to play guitar today. I have two songs in progress for this month’s Record Every Month challenge. They both need lead guitar parts. I need to record them today and then mix the two songs and then I will have my first R.E.M. win since September. It’s a must.

Speaking of guitar, I went down a rabbit hole last week that I find myself visiting once every couple of years. If you read this page you might have noticed that I have been obsessed with the band Rush since 1981. Back then there were two bands that I was obsessed with. The other was Led Zeppelin. As I got older though, the whole unending adolescence vibe that Zeppelin had sort of got tiring for me and I moved away from them. Also, Jimmy Page is one of my guitar heroes, and he is definitely one of the reasons I NEEDED to learn to play guitar when I was a kid. When I look at my own playing objectively though (if that’s even possible) I don’t hear a lot of his style in my playing. I think as I moved away from the debauchery that Zeppelin represented, I sort of moved away from Page too.

Every once in a while though, I feel the need to really dig into the catalog and try to remind myself that there is a lot of value there. That comes up once every couple of years, and it came up for me on Thursday. I put together a playlist with all of their studio records and over the course of the work day I plowed through all of it. Did the old musical feelings I used to get when I listened to Led Zeppelin as a teenager come back? Yes. Not exactly the same, as I am no longer that kid that I used to be, but it was close enough that I felt good about the whole experience. Now I can move on to other things again until the next time I feel cosmically compelled to examine the Zeppelin again. Probably some time in 2025, I think.

Okay then, it’s almost 11:00am. I have not had anything to eat for about three hours. It’s time to have a snack to keep my stomach happy. Gastric Bypass for the win!

Happy New Years Eve, everyone. HoHoHo.

Jimmy Agreed

I’ve only seen Jimmy Page live once. He was one of the guys who made me need to learn to play guitar. Led Zeppelin was very important to me as a young musician, but as I got older they sort of became less relevant. Every now and then I can put on a record and feel much of what I used to feel when I was a kid, but they don’t persist for me the way Cream or Jeff Beck do. Of the three ex-Yardbirds, Page became the least import to me.

He did a tour in 1988 and I was a little nervous. His guitar playing through the 80’s seemed like a mere shadow of what it was in the 70’s. Was he losing it? Maybe. There was no way I was passing on the chance to see him when his band came to the Centrum In Worcester though.

I was really surprised by not only how good the band was, but by how good his playing was. He was outstanding. It was so good that the cynical part of me wondered if I had just gotten caught up in the moment and it wasn’t as good as I thought.

Jimmy Page posted this on Instagram. Maybe the cynical part of me should just shut the hell up, right?

More Bass Royalty

Holy crap! So you thought a couple of pictures of Geddy Lee and Paul McCartney together were amazing? How’s about we add John Paul Effin’ Jones!

I like to be a dick and refer to Mr Jones as John Baldwin, because that’s his given name. I do not, however refer to Geddy Lee as Gary Weinrib. I’m pretty sure Geddy legally changed his name. Not sure about Jonesy.

WTF Reading List

Marc Maron’s WTF podcast had Bob Spitz on today. Maybe it was yesterday, but I listened today.

Spitz is best known for writing a gigantic biography of The Beatles. I bought it and devoured it the instant I leaned of its existence. I’m pretty sure someone got it for me for Christmas or something. It was a great read and I recommend it to anyone who has any interest in The Beatles.

He was on the podcast promoting a new music biography that comes out next week. It’s on Led Zeppelin. That brought me back. The first rock band biography I ever read was Hammer of the Gods by Stephen Davis . I bought it on my high school band trip to Connecticut in 1986. It was an industry eye opener for this particular high school freshman, let me tell you.

Pretty sure I’ll be reading this one, for old times sake, and I don’t think I’ll be waiting for Christmas.

Dream Gig

I had a dream about a gig last night. I think that means I need to start playing with the band again.

I’m pretty sure it was a pizza joint. It wasn’t my band. Whoever they were, no one was paying attention. I walked up on stage, picked up a tobacco burst Les Paul Standard and started playing Living Loving Maid by Led Zeppelin. The rest of the band magically knew what I was doing and started playing with me. Unfortunately for the audience (all, like, six people) I think I was doing all the singing too. Sorry about that, but no one seemed to vomit. They loved our little Zeppelin tune.

Two minutes later the song was over and the crowd was itching for more. I figured a Jimmy Page song worked already so maybe I could challenge them with some Jeff Beck. I expected I Ain’t Superstitious to bomb but they ate it up. Next it was time for some Yardbirds. I’m a Man totally slayed. I then thought I’d challenge them with something down tempo but You’re a Better Man Than I brought down the house. Finally I brought it full circle. One Jimmy Page tune followed by a slew of Jeff Becks, let’s hit some Page era Yardbirds. Train Kept a Rolling rocked the pizza joint customers’ faces clean off.

And there you have it. I had a dream about a gig… and it might have been the best gig I’ve ever done. The Rock and Roll was rocking and rolling like you’ve read about. Awesome.