Saturday, March 19, 2005

Jimmy Page leaves some Physical Graffiti

on the pages of the May 2005 Guitar World Classic Rock Special! Just picked up a copy when I made a run to the grocery store for the missing items to make tonight's dinner ~ along with this month's Vogue which I never buy, but couldn't resist getting for Mina (and one for Suzanne too, who does buy the mag when she can) because the cover features an enchanting Drew Barrymore posing with a gorgeous lion photographed by legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz ~ but I digress as usual.

The series of interviews JP has done about each Zep album over the years with Guitar World have been a godsend for longtime fans and new fans alike, with wonderful little details and memories about those halcyon days that make the music even more meaningful. Even with previously covered territory like this, it is just great to hear Jimmy put his personal spin on these timeless classics, some of the greatest rock music... EVER!!!

Here's a little snippet from the interview with Mark Blake:

"...when we did the third album, the record label was like, Well, there's no 'Whole Lotta Love' on there. And when Houses of the Holy came out, they were like, Well, there's no 'Stairway to Heaven' on there. Our attitude was, Well, of course not, because we were moving on and on. We arrived at songs like 'Kashmir' because we kept moving forward and didn't try to recreate the past. The approach to each album was radically different every time. Many bands would have some success and, because they were locked into having a single -- something we didn't have to worry about -- they had to make sure there was something similar on the next album. In that way, something that may have been quite vital at first sounded stale the second time around. That was never the idea with Zeppelin. The goal was to keep that spark of spontaneity at all times." ~~~JP, May 2005

Ah, great music, great times, great memories... and a great interview! Sometime last year, Jimmy hinted about writing an autobiography, primarily, I believe, about the music. I really hope he does that because there is so much more to Led Zeppelin than the legendary stories about the decadence, drugs and groupies. Led Zeppelin was one of the greatest live bands AND studio bands of all time. I really would love to here it all chronicled by the Man Himself; and though, I know it is probably way too much to hope for because I get the impression that he feels it is highly personal, I really would love to hear more about his personal spiritual journey, which I think has been highly misunderstood. But then, I guess it really isn't anyone's business but his own....

Well, one can hope and dream anyway....

Also found via Tight But Loose, this BBC article from last May about JP's William Burges designed Tower House and a subsequent visit to Cardiff Castle and a series of BBC 1 interviews with famous guitarists, included Jimmy; just scroll down and listen!

The book, BTW, is apparently simply called William Burges and was written by Cardiff Castle Curator, Matthew Williams and might be a bit of a trick to find here in the US; perhaps, not surprising, since most of us have never had the pleasure of viewing Burges unusual and imaginative work. You can find a bit more about it here, here and here. Looks both whimsical and lovely at the same time, doesn't it?


Matthew Williams and Jimmy Page holding the illusive book?
inside the beautiful William Burges' designed Cardiff Castle
found courtesy of the Press Release Page from May 20th, 2004.

(Just one of the many reasons I LOVE the internet... THANK YOU, INTERNET!!!)

And... I was looking everywhere for a link to the Drew cover because it is just so beautiful but no luck. But I did find a couple of sites devoted to the lovely Ms. Barrymore:

Drew Smiles
The Drew Collective
Posted by etherealfire :: 10:13 PM :: 0 Comments:

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