{"id":238664,"date":"2025-10-25T06:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T06:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/238664\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T06:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T06:40:10","slug":"i-wanted-it-to-be-quite-extreme-something-that-showed-all-the-peaks-of-what-we-could-do-jimmy-page-on-his-plan-to-take-led-zeppelin-to-the-next-level-critic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/238664\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI wanted it to be quite extreme \u2014\u00a0something that showed all the peaks of what we could do.\u201d Jimmy Page on his plan to take Led Zeppelin to the next level \u2014 critics be damned"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the dawn of the 1970s, hard rock had entered a new arena, and Jimmy Page wanted Led Zeppelin to be its leader.<\/p>\n

After his tenure in the Yardbirds<\/a>, the guitarists laid the groundwork for his new group with the band’s 1969 self-titled album. For its followup, he says he wanted Led Zeppelin II to be an \u201cextreme\u201d representation of the band\u2019s rapidly evolving sound \u2014 one that was taking the British blues template to unapologetically heavier and more creatively expansive places.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

His comments come from a recently resurfaced Mojo interview<\/a>, plucked from its archives, that shows how Page sought to evolve a band already making waves following the breakup of the Yardbirds.<\/p>\n

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Emerging from the British blues explosion of the mid 1960s, Page was all about pushing boundaries even before he formed Zeppelin. That much was evident when he and his former Yardbirds bandmate Jeff Beck<\/a> teamed up for “Beck’s Bolero,” the 1966 track that many consider to be ground zero for heavy metal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although the project went no further, Page turned to its bass guitar<\/a> player, John Paul Jones, when it came time to launch Led Zeppelin. Their 1969 debut album was a huge success, helped along by tunes like \u201cDazed and Confused\u201d<\/a> and the single “Good Times, Bad Times.”<\/p>\n

But Page wanted to take things up several notches for II and showcase the band’s talents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted it to be quite extreme, and that\u2019s what I was going for: something that showed all the peaks of what we could do,\u201d he details. \u201cI could really hear the acoustics in John Bonham\u2019s playing, and I knew that the more space we could allow for that, the better it was going to sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That mantra was typified by the track “Ramble On,” a song that married Zeppelin’s heavier and softer sides.<\/p>\n

Led Zeppelin – Ramble On (Official Audio) – YouTube
\n\"Led<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was starting to get interesting at that point, because you\u2019ve got the acoustic rolling through, and there\u2019s the drums, the bass, and the electric guitar<\/a>. So it\u2019s a case of \u2018Okay, is it going to start on an acoustic<\/a> or an electric?\u2019 In this day and age, you\u2019d just have a click track and you would just lay things on, but back then we had to do proper planning to make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album also became something of a response to their critics. The band were in the U.S., supporting Vanilla Fudge on tour in early 1969 when Rolling Stone published a double-edged review of their debut. The article suggested Zeppelin could \u201cfill the void created by the demise of Cream.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But while it went on to call Page \u201ca proficient blues guitarist,\u201d it also dubbed him \u201ca writer of weak, unimaginative songs\u201d and said singer Robert Plant was \u201cprissy\u201d and \u201cfoppish.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised that it was negative to that degree and how cutting it was,\u201d Page reflects. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just sticking in the knife; there was serious twisting involved. But I knew it was unfounded and that [the reviewer] just didn\u2019t get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Page admitted \u201cthere are some bands people bloody hate… you couldn\u2019t deny what we were trying to do, and that we were trying to move the boundaries of what music was.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Jimmy\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

With Led Zeppelin II tracks like \u201cRamble On\u201d and the instant classic \u201cWhole Lotta Love\u201d the band made its intentions far more obvious. That said, Zeppelin had no intentions of becoming a singles band.<\/p>\n

\u201cSingles were for AM radio stations, and we weren\u2019t interested in that,\u201d Page stated. \u201cWe were looking for FM radio play where they would play whole sides of albums. That meant that in some cases, they would play 20 minutes of your music.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how we sequenced II, to ensure listeners wouldn\u2019t get bored. The album reflects the energy of being on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

Led Zeppelin – Whole Lotta Love (Official Music Video) – YouTube
\n\"Led<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

The band\u2019s evolution would continue on its follow-up, Led Zeppelin III, as Page and his cohorts continued to marry their electric and acoustic extremities and take Led Zeppelin to the next stage.<\/p>\n

In related news, lost footage of Led Zeppelin playing Denmark in 1979 has resurfaced<\/a> and been restored, and Donovan has claimed Led Zeppelin only saw the merit of their proto-metal pomp after helping him record a song in 1968<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By the dawn of the 1970s, hard rock had entered a new arena, and Jimmy Page wanted Led…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":{"0":"post-238664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}