Open Happy Birthday Thread: Jimmy Page

Happy Birthday, Jimmy. Big lifelong Led Zeppelin fan here.

Best guitar player ever, and one of the few in rock who can truly claim the title as "artist". Happy birthday Mr. Page.

I had the pleasure of seeing Led Zeppelin 3 times during the 70's and have been a fan since the first show. JP is my favorite guitar player to this day. Happy Birthday Jimmy!

Here is the interview of young James Page in 1957:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0tAOIQiz-8

You probably never knew this but I flew LA to London in September, '76, and arrived at Swansong Records, the same day you flew London to LA after Plant broke his ankle, to write your Bio. You were going to fall in love with me and father my unborn child. Yvonne, your then-secretary, greeted me and said I had missed a call from you by 1 hour- I had taken a late train. Your loss, JP. But to the gain of a few thousand young people in Central Florida. I am now a happy and hip teacher of Math in Florida and have several wonderful grandbabies. I do so wish you a happy birthday. And God bless you. Your music made us sing.

One of the endearing things about Led Zeppelin: Who else would have left some of their best stuff on the shelf for decades? In the 1980s we would have given our left arm for the BBC sessions, the "How the West was won" records, the concert videos. All became available much later. We had to make do with bootlegs. But I respect that.

I was 3rd row, center (my head is still foggy from that night) for The Song Remains the Same. My daughters still get a kick out of seeing Daddy on screen..well, sorta, quickly. Anyway, Happy B-Day to a GREAT guitarist, in my personal top 5. But with one drawback: Page was clearly a studio genuis..his melodies alone are a work of pure art. His live performances? to put it bluntly, sucked. But then again, it was the "Zep" experience more than the individual.
A truly GREAT band, all 4 of em!

Happy Birthday Jimmy Page, a master at his craft.

and a Happy Birthday to Crystal Gayle, too. i'd listen to her sing the phone book…

Long time Zep fan here, saw him solo and with Plant numerous times and they were always great. However, the single best concert I ever attended was when Page teamed up with the Black Crows. I attended, figuring he'd have a few guitar leads in some Black Crows songs — but instead they played Zeppelin *all night long*. They sounded more like Zeppelin than Plant did, if such a thing is possible.

Jimmy Page, you are the original Guitar Hero and provided me with the soundtrack to the best years of my life. Thank you and Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Jimmy! Houses of the Holy changed my life.

Which network is Lost on .. if it is NBC then doesn't Obama have a financial interest in the ratings. Oh I am sorry I forget America… How much GE stock did Immelt have to giove up to take the TARP money?

What's good for Milo Minderbinder is good for America.

You Jimmy Page fans – and I think he's the greatest rock guitarist of all time – must check out the documentary now available on DVD, "It Might Get Loud." Page's talent utterly dominates that of his costars Jack White and The Edge. Very cool.

During that period there was a band I saw that did a tongue-in-cheek "Stairway to Freebird" — it was hilarious. Of course, my band played both those songs on request. They may have been overplayed, but they were (and are) great.

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Happy Birthday Jimmy!!!! What memories I have with Led Zepplin playing in the background. My life was so enriched by your beautiful music. You are a tried and true legedary artist. My second album that was given to me as a gift was "Led Zepplin II" I was 11 years old and it just blew my mind. I have been a great fan ever since.

Happy Birthday to my guitar hero, Jimmy Page! I decided to become a guitarist the first time I saw him playing that Les Paul strung around his knees. Not only is Jimmy my favorite hard rock songwriter, but easily the coolest-looking. I'm going to play some Physical Graffiti today in his honor…

Pretty funny. Kudos to a heroin addict who bought Aleister "The Beast" Crowley's house and wrote "Stairway to Heaven" about the souls supposedly trapped in the big tree out back, here on a Hollywood conservative site.

No, they are asked what they want to be when they blow up! Ba-dum-ching.

Happy Birthday Jimmy Page – you're a throwback to when being a recording artist actually meant something..

…now grunting "Kill the whitey cops – uh huh uh huh…" is an artist…

I saw Led Zep from Row 2 stage center, Philadelphia Spectrum c. Jan. 1972. Page's eyes were slits. He grinned, went "huh" and went write into Heartbreaker. Blew me away, it did. Page is one of the finest, if not the finest, rock guitarists ever. As a youngster, he was much in demand as a session guitarist. If you haven't heard it, I recommend an album of his playing old school stuff including some Buddy Holly. Quite cool.

It was in an open air theater, on the water at Jones Beach, NY. It was a magical evening. It was also the last concert I ever saw with my brother, who was himself a Page maniac.

I can remember going to see Page at the Limelight in Manhattan with my brother another time. We tried to work our way up to the stage. The heat and the crush proved to much for my brother (hey, we were drinking) and he nearly passed out; I wound up carrying him outta the theater on my back.

He regained his composure and we went back in. : )

I agree. A very entertaining film:

http://www.sonyclassics.com/itmightgetloud/

Happy Birthday Jimmy!

I'll pretend I didn't see that "half-baked" comment.

Having said that, sometime in the 90s, HBO aired a black comedy/satire directed by Joe Dante titled The Second Civil War where the president (played by the late, great Phil Hartman) announces that troops will be called in "in 67 and a half hours from now" to avoid a conflict with All My Children.

Life imitating art once again.

Jimmie Page? Oh please… tell me you people have graduated to more grown up music since you all were 14 years old.. ? If not, and you still listen to this muck… nevermind

Summer of 69 listening to 'your time is gonna come' my mother comes into my room and says. You know Bil this musice is just a fad, it wont last.
I remember about ten years ago watchimng a Cadillac (Rock and Roll) comercial onTV with my dear sweet mother. I asked her if sher remember that conversation from long ago, she of course did. I advised her we were listening to music from the same artists she said woud just be a fad.
Nice chuckle ther, God rest her.

Happy BIrthday Jimmy Page. You and a select few other bands steeped in the Blues/Blues Rock tradition have and continue to provide the soundtrack to my life. God bless you today and always.

My favorite Led Zeppelin album is "Houses of the Holy" because, for me, it was the album that set them apart. "The Rain Song" is beautiful and "No Quarter" is a chiller that could be easily slid into any suspense film. "Dancing Days" and "Over The Hills And Far Away" helped you daydream about that girl on the other side of the classroom, and those starlets in the movie posters. The ultimate hero theme is "The Song Remains The Same", with its upbeat rhythm and chivalrous tone, surveys the landscape, sizes up the adversary, confronts the villain, and saves the damsel in distress…just like the old days.

If anyone believed in the act they were managing, it was Mr. Grant. Peter Grant loved Led Zeppelin so much, he would intimidate anyone who tried to get over them. And they did try. He smashed bootleg albums in record stores personally.

Happy Birthday, Zoso!

Happy birthday Jimmy, congratulations on reaching another milestone. Were it not for the music that inspired me, I would never have found my own voice on the guitar. My musical voice was initially inspired by the guitar slinger that both my inner 15 year old self (at the age of 35 now) and my actual 15 year old self most aspired to be. Though one of many, i will always owe a great personal debt to the music created by my hero Jimmy Page.

Which is why Hamas's Gaza should be the new Palestinian country! Who needs innovation when you can blow shit up and then complain that no one gives you presents?

As a kid I got the cold and talked my dad into buying Led Zep 2- he came home empty-handed. Said he couldn't find Iron Submarine. And… #1 reason Rolling Stone lost its way- they hated Zep. Happpy birthday to my second fave junkie guitarist!

Mind boggling that he could play that straight much less stoned. When I listen to that guitar solo it literally makes my brain cramp… or at least that is what it feels like. When the solo is over the feeling stops. I love that song because Plant is limited, does not scream too much and then he does he ends it with his voice going down. My ears like that a bit more. Not a Plant fan.

I saw them perform on TV. I cannot remember where. I adore Alison Kraus. I think they did \”As I Went Down to the River and Prayed\”.

I am intractable in my loathing for Plant. It drives my husband bonkers because he plays lots of Zeppelin sometimes when he is trying to figure out something (he plays guitar). I always walk by with a crinkly faced sneer and occasional plaintive wail to extend my open contempt. So rude… yet I continue to do it. It is a compulsion over which I choose to be powerless.LOL

Yesterday I mentioned to my obviously better half that it was Page's birthday. He took that as a freebie day and relentlessly hammered away at Heartbreaker and some other LZ tune that I did not know, but I am sure it was theirs since he I caught him snickering as I passed by the music room.

He's got a way to go on Heartbreaker Jed.

Sweet.

Robert Plant has matured post Zeppelin. Try listening to "Raising Sand" where he teams with Alison Kraus. Plant actually comes out of a celtic folk tradition that is, perhaps, seen most on Led Zep. III. I got to see Kraus and Plant from row one stage center at Knoxville Civic from about 15 feet away and was actually astonished. A highlight was a four part acapella version of "As I went down to the river to pray" with Alison, Plant, Buddy Miller, and Duncan Stewart."