JIMMY PAGE: Led Zeppelin after John Bonham
What do we know about Led Zeppelin's latest album? We only know that a part of them died together with their drummer John Bonham
When John Bonham died on September 25, 1980, Zeppelin died with him. Two years later, Coda arrived, the ninth and last studio album.
As you listen to discussing this material, made of small hidden treasures, you feel a certain amount of reluctance. On the other hand, Plant once described his dear old companion "A mysterious man. Hidden in the shade." Yet, a certain amount of innocence can be glimpsed, even if the word "innocence" could hardly be found in the same phrase as "Led Zeppelin", but this was before darkness and intensity overwhelmed them, and this is where we understand how much the death of John Bonham has influenced them and especially on Jimmy Page.
"Coda was a difficult album." Page Remembers "Just two years ago we lost John, and when we started doing Coda, his loss still felt. It was a contract album, we had to do it."
When asked what his approach was, he answers:
"It had to have credibility, because it could have been unpleasant. It helped us to have Darlene, Ozone Baby and Wearing And Tearing, but only John and I knew about Bonzo's Montreux. It was something we had done together, only him and me. We wanted to do something that looked like an orchestra of drums. It was fun, but it would never have been suitable for any album."
Regarding the trip to India made with Robert in '72, and of which we did not know much about the music elaborated at that time, Page says: "We had thought about going to an EMI studio in Bombay, along with some classical Indian musicians . I wanted to see if it was possible to enter with a guitar and an interpreter, and make something happen. In 1972 those musicians were immersed in their world, they had never heard of Led Zeppelin. But the song Friends was written around the idea of Indian music." Remember "As for me, I was in heaven. I had gone there to do something that seemed impossible, and I had done it!"
Jimmy Page and his passion for Indian music
Page has always been a fan of Indian music, in fact, as a teenager he dabbled for a while with a sitar during his first music sessions. So much so that he had the pleasure of meeting also the maestro Ravi Shankar, whom he met during a concert in London. To date, Jimmy continues to play with his sitar, but we do not believe we will see him playing it live very soon. "It is a spiritual discipline. There are behind two thousand years of culture, listening to Ravi is incredible!" Says Page.
In recent years, Page has been the protagonist of a sort of relaunch campaign but he has seen him move alone, and when asked why Robert Plant and John Paul Jones were not at his side, he replied: "I heard, but they know how things have shaped. We all know that I formed the band and I was a producer, and consequently a point of reference, more than anyone else. People may even have forgotten all the things we've done, but I do not."
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