The Mission

There are many great musicians in the world, and it seems there are an infinite stream of incredible guitarists.  Every year another publication tries to publish a list ranking them in order in a futile attempt to determine who is "The Greatest of them All!!!" Of course this doesn't stop me from buying them and scrutinizing their efforts. To me there is only one guitarist, only one man who stands on top 6 (or 12) string mountain as "The Greatest", that man is James Patrick Page.

Jimmy Page was born on January 9th, 1944 and grew up in Epsom in Surrey on the outskirts of London. He took up the guitar early at the height of the British Skiffle craze and never looked back. When he was 15 he joined up with "Neil Christian and the Crusaders", but left the group after developing a serious illness and experiencing for the first time the hardship of a band trying to make it on the road.  From there he became a hired gun in the London recording studios playing guitar on numerous singles at the height of the British Invasion. In 1966, he joined "The Yardbirds" and for a time logged in dual lead guitar duty with Jeff Beck until Beck departed and he took over the role for himself singularly.

When the band broke up in 1968 he scoured England and picked up a drummer, John Bonham, and a lead singer, Robert Plant, from the Black Hills, and along with session circuit veteran John Paul Jones formed the group "The New Yardbirds" After a short tour of Scandinavia, the group decided to rename themselves "Led Zeppelin". For twelve years Led Zeppelin ruled the world of Rock and Roll, releasing nine studio albums, and one live concert album. Jimmy Page was the mastermind behind it all. It ended in 1980 after the tragic death of John Bonham.

Jimmy carried on after Led Zeppelin in a series of projects, from a solo album "Outrider" to a couple of bands "The Honeydrippers" and the "The Firm".  He worked on collaborations with David Coverdale, re-teamed with his old band mate Robert Plant re-imagining some of the Led Zeppelin classics, teamed up with "The Black Crowes", and did a duet with rapper Puff Daddy, he even did a few movie soundtracks.  Jimmy Page has truly done it all, or at least all that one could imagine a guitarist could do.

I discovered Jimmy Page when I was 14, "Ten Years Gone" now that I think about it, haha. I had just moved to Northern California from Texas and spent most of the summer working for my uncle doing landscaping work. I had a CD player but didn't really have any taste or preference in music. One day while digging through my uncle's collection I pulled out a dual-disc set in a black case. I knew it was going to be a long day, and I noticed the tracks ran pretty long so I popped it in. The album was "The Song Remains the Same".  Immediately the crash of cymbals hit my eardrums followed by the most amazing sped up blues rock riff I'd ever heard, (of course at that time I had no clue was a sped up blue rock riff even was) but man it was "Rock and Roll" baby! I was hooked immediately and have been ever since.

I bought every single thing that Led Zeppelin ever released and began collecting bootleg recordings of the concerts they did in the early 60's and 70's. I also listened to the work of The Yardbirds, and Jimmy's post-Zeppelin efforts, but it never seemed enough. When I joined the Army almost 6 years ago I finally had the ability to do something I had long hoped and dreamed of doing...I bought a guitar. I've been playing ever since and now have expanded my collection to seven guitars (Two Gibson Les Pauls like Jimmy himself) and four different amplifiers (tube of course).

Jimmy Page is my hero, he is the reason why I love music as much as I do, he's also the reason why I began to play guitar. If it weren't for Jimmy Page, I honestly believe I would be a different person today. So that being said I've decided to take a journey through the life and music of Jimmy Page. I want to do this to better understand the inner-workings of a musical genius, to understand how evolved from a kid strumming open chords to speeding through scales and blowing the minds of thousands of adoring fans, and maybe just maybe understand the man a little more.

I intend to try and learn to play everything that Mr. Page has ever recorded. Furthermore I intend to do it chronologically, this is due to the fact that Jimmy didn't start off by playing "Stairway to Heaven" and "Achilles Last Stand" he began by playing skiffle and the blues so that is where I'm going to start. I also want to dive deeper into his professional life and dust off some of the lesser known things about him. Jimmy Page is one of the most misunderstood artists in music, and I'd like to invite you all to join in me in helping understand him just a little more. Wish me luck, it's gonna be a long, windy, bumpy, frustrating, and rewarding journey, but I just gotta "Ramble On".