![\"Jimmy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Jimmy-Page-1973-Guitarist-Led-Zeppelin-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Credit: Far Out \/ Open Culture<\/p>\n
Mon 15 June 2026 3:00, UK <\/p>\n
There are huge chunks of rock and roll history that were born whenever Jimmy Page<\/a> picked up a guitar.\u00a0<\/p>\n He knew that Led Zeppelin needed to be something completely different from The Yardbirds, but when looking at their career trajectory, there\u2019s hardly anything that they did that didn\u2019t manage to become a part of rock and roll mythology in some way. Page knew what he had on his hands, and he would have done anything for Zeppelin to succeed rather than go back to the days of him being a no-name musician.<\/p>\n Then again, it\u2019s not like Page was suffering before he formed his little supergroup. Anyone who was taking over guitar duties for Eric Clapton was bound to have their work cut out for them every time they got onstage, but Page was more than up to the challenge. Having a partner like Jeff Beck probably didn\u2019t hurt, but Page could see things going in the wrong direction ever since the band was told to make more pop-friendly songs.<\/p>\n That was the entire reason why Clapton quit in the first place, and it\u2019s not like they were being given some of the greatest pop songs of all time. The Beach Boys were expanding<\/a> what pop music could be, and Page was going to be dead in the ground before he made a poor man\u2019s version of what flavours of the day were popular on the charts. He already had that phase of his career as a sideman, and he was never going to let that happen again.<\/p>\n Because as much as a sideman can be fun, it does have a lot more drawbacks for someone like Page. He lived to experiment on every single record he made, but when the goal is to make the record sound absolutely perfect as it was written, it\u2019s not like there was much room for him to grow. He could play the odd guitar solo here and there, but for someone who would become known for making \u2018Good Times Bad Times\u2019<\/a> and \u2018Communication Breakdown\u2019, going down the road of easy listening was bound to be a huge step backwards.<\/p>\n Since you have to take every gig you can find as a session player, Page\u2019s decision to work in muzak lasted about five nanoseconds. It\u2019s one thing to have hits that managed to do alright on the charts every now and again, but when you are literally making music that\u2019s designed to be ignored as someone\u2019s using the elevator, it\u2019s not like Page was having the time of his life in those sessions.<\/p>\n Zeppelin were bound to be the kind of band that bludgeoned people over the head with their music, and Page was going to make sure that he never resorted to those muzak sessions ever again, saying<\/a>, \u201cI learned things even on my worst Sessions \u2013 and believe me, I played on some horrendous things. I finally called it quits after I started getting calls to do muzak. I decided I couldn\u2019t live that life anymore.\u201d <\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n Adding, \u201cIt was getting too silly. I guess it was destiny that a week after I quit doing sessions, Paul Samwell-Smith left The Yardbirds, and I was able to take his place. But being a session musician was good fun in the beginning \u2013 the studio discipline was great.\u201d<\/p>\n And you can definitely hear that Page was a much different animal when he was working off of a band. Playing those blues covers helped give him a different kind of discipline on tunes like \u2018Train Kept A-Rollin\u201d, but if you listen to the way that his guitar comes screaming in on \u2018Heart Full of Soul\u2019, he was merely giving everyone a suggestion of what he could do when he had complete control of what he wanted.<\/p>\n All he needed was John Bonham\u2019s thundering drums and Robert Plant\u2019s pummeling voice to make everything sound right, and when Page tapped John Paul Jones from the session scene, everything fell into place. He had waited years for a band like this, but sometimes people have to pay their dues more than a few times over before they have the kind of band that they\u2019ve always wanted. <\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/far-out-magazine\/img\/google-discover.svg\")
<\/a> The Far Out Led Zeppelin Newsletter<\/p>\n