Still rambling on
As I slowly bring online older archives, this piece by Led Zeppelin will become something I obviously gravitate towards. I was fairly late to discover Led Zeppelin, despute the fact my Dad was a fan, but I never really appreciated them until I understood more about the context, and now I’m a big fan of most of their work.
I think, just like with Bowie, it’s impossible for me to understand just what Led Zeppelin meant - their sound now is so ubiquitous, but back then it was something that hand’t been heard before and paved the way for heavy rock and heavy metal.
This particular piece was one that got me back into guitar after a long hiatus, seeing Jimmy Page perform it on the film It Might Get Loud:
If you don’t play guitar then then the direct link between what his narration over the top and what he’s playing might not be so obvious, but he’s going from gentle to loud, subtle rhythms to big in your face crunch, with some sitar like melody in the middle, all with just the guitar and the amp, no pedals, not other trickery. The guitar is often seen (and indeed used) as a simple instrument, but if you adjust how you attack the strings, how you play gentle and strong, you can unlock a rich range of sounds without having to use anything else. And just compare the nuance in Page’s playing with my own rendition, how effortlessly he makes it look as he moves his hands around the fretboard, and yet how much effort separates the two of us.