MC: There’s been so much written about you and Zeppelin over the years. Did you think a photographic memoir would tell a different kind of story, “a picture’s worth a thousand words” kind of thing?
Page: I just thought it was much easier to be able to do something like that because I had photographs in my own archive, like the early ones that are in there. And then I had photographs of my own from Bron-Yr-Aur cottage. And it’s all from my own perspective. I thought I’d rather do this than someone else, really, ’cause I wanted to fill in the gaps and I thought it was probably easier dealing with photographers than writing an autobiography. I just thought, “I’d rather spend my time on this one,” and that’s what I’ve done. Now that we’ve got the illustrated book, maybe in the future a written book will follow. (laughs)
MC: Were the book and the reissues done concurrently, and did they impact on each other?
Page: It’s interesting you should say that, ’cause what happened first off was there was the book, and because the book gives the group itineraries of the various groups I’d been in, like The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin, The Firm with Paul Rodgers and this and that and the other, I had decided to do the website—“On this date so many years ago” or whenever I did this and I did that. So the book led to the website with something different on the page each day. And then I was archiving my own music and it got to the point I went through The Yardbirds stuff. And once I’d done that it got to the Led Zeppelin and I just wanted to be able to find a vehicle where these alternate mixes and versions could be given the proper profile as more information to accompany the original studio albums. And if you’re gonna do something like that you want to do it properly, right? Why do a job if you’re only gonna do half a job. I don’t do things by halves.
MC: A seminal moment of your career, it seems, was when Jeff Beck left The Yardbirds and you became lead guitarist. What’s your perspective on that development?
Page: That’s true. We came over (to America) when there were just four of us, when Jeff wasn’t in the band anymore and the whole of the guitar mantle was on my shoulders. I was really experimenting and trying this idea, that idea. We were playing all the underground circuits over here, all those venues, those magical names that we all know, like The Grande Ballroom, The Fillmore, Winterland, all those places. I saw or witnessed the rise of underground radio on FM that was playing longer tracks than the AM singles market, and I knew that I wanted to make an album that would be suited to underground radio like that.
MC: Which became Little Games.
Page: That’s right. There was a producer involved, but I was really into sort of the production of things as well and I knew what I wanted to do, so I was gonna be producer and do something that would showcase all of the musicians, not just myself. Although the first album would be a guitar tour de force, and I was doing acoustic guitars as much as electric at the time, it wasn’t going to be at the expense of anybody else, and that’s exactly how that first album was put together. Because we weren’t locked into a singles market we could keep developing and expanding what we had, the sort of combined talents of the band. And with the writing that went into it and the performances, it was going to just change pretty much everything, from recording techniques to how songs were constructed and how riffs were done.
"The days of being a studio musician were like an apprenticeship. I came out of there reading music fluently,
and I came out of there knowing things about recording techniques."
MC: Take us back to that first time Led Zeppelin played together—actually as The New Yardbirds, of course. Did you know what you had immediately?
Page: As soon as we finished, we knew we had something. It was so very exciting. Everyone wanted to get on with it, just get into the playing and see what we could come up with. That’s the most rewarding aspect of things from my end of it; I played in what I believe was the best band that was ever going—the best rock & roll band, for sure. At the end of the day, the music holds up and stands the test of time. It’s very warming to think that it touches people the way it still does.
MC: What was the key to that success?
Page: Mmmm...You try not to think about it too much, really. For starters, it was four fantastic musicians, and you can find four great musicians in bands, but it doesn’t always gel the way it did with us. It was that sort of chemistry that comes together once in a blue moon.
MC: You’ve curated quite a few Led Zeppelin archival projects over the years. What’s the emotion like to listen to your life flashing before your ears?
Page: It’s quite a joyous experience. I’m able to hear it all in a different context. It became very apparent to me what a wonderful textbook it had been for bands. And, secondly, it really brought home all the areas we had touched upon as far as styles.
MC: The latest Led Zeppelin reissues are filled with so many extras and bonus tracks. What was the experience like of diving into that sort of minutiae?
Page: Well, all of it was really good to review. It took hundreds of hours of listening. As a safety measure I wasn’t going to do all this work and the project and find the other two guys weren’t behind it, so what I did was put together the Led Zeppelin III companion disc with all the various materials that are on that, all the different mixes and different versions, and also Presence, which I knew would be totally fresh to their ears. I played it to them individually and they were just knocked out with what was being done and they said, “Yeah, go ahead,” and I did go ahead and listened to hundreds of hours of tape. It’s a lot of interesting things for people to hear.
MC: Back in the day, of course, you would record music and put out an album. Now there are so many options—almost limitless. Do you enjoy having these avenues to re-tell and even expand the story?
Page: Sure, yeah. I’ve always paid attention to high resolution downloads and all the digital ways of accessing the music, and the vinyl and how we can put out the best vinyl now that people have ever heard. To be able to present all this extra information, it’s a useful thing to do because it gives the fans, those who actually listen to it rather than just hear it, you’re giving more information so it’s more fascinating to the whole picture.
MC: What type of things did you learn from going through all that material?
Page: Let’s put it this way; it was a real thrill to have the mixes, ’cause the mixes are from the time, you see. It’s not, “Let’s get the multi-tracks up and make something that sounds like it’s from today.” No, because those records were so good in the first place and they’ve got such a strong character to them, the mixes that were done at the time have got a power to them because of that, and an honesty. With Led Zeppelin, it’s all performance. It’s not put together the way things are done today, digitally. In this world of analog recording you had to really deliver a performance, whether it was the guitarist or the singer or whoever it was, or collectively. When the red light went on, you just had to perform.
MC: And, from the control booth, capture the attitude and spirit of that performance.
Page: Well, yes. It’s a bit of shaping, and that’s the thing about being a producer, I guess.
