Jimmy Page Stokes Fire For Led Zeppelin On Fortieth Anniversary Of Physical Graffiti
Dallas, TX - February 24, 2014. North American syndicated Rock radio show and website InTheStudio: The Stories Behind History's Greatest Rock Bands goes one on one with Led Zeppelin founder, guitarist, producer and songwriter Jimmy Page on the 40th anniversary of Physical Graffiti.
Led Zeppelin's sixth release had completed a fundamental change in the popular music and media equation that began with their fourth album back in 1971. With the song 'Stairway to Heaven' , Led Zeppelin had proven that the album format had matured to the point that a hit single for Top 40 radio release was no longer a necessity for big album sales.
Before Led Zeppelin the conventional wisdom of A&R (record label) types was to focus on one sound or style to be successful. But Zeppelin's international success resulted in more extensive concert tours taking them to the four corners of the world, which only stoked their creative flame such that epic songs on Physical Graffiti like 'Kashmir' became musical bonfires, 'Ten Years Gone' glowing embers, and 'Custard Pie', 'Trampled Under Foot' and 'In My Time of Dying' outright sonic blow torches.
One of the enduring legacies of Physical Graffiti was Led Zeppelin's uncanny ability to seduce the ears while also pummeling the listener with a sonic slam which knew no peer, often in the same song. Jimmy Page shares with InTheStudio host Redbeard how he made the conscious decision to innovate and not be derivative.
'I was really careful not to listen to too much other music... I wasn't following what everyone else was doing in the same sort of category as us, that's for sure. I was trying to do things that were really different.' - Jimmy Page