{"id":512168,"date":"2026-07-06T09:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T09:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/512168\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T09:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T09:48:13","slug":"jimmy-page-names-the-two-1960s-musicians-who-could-see-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/512168\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Page names the two 1960s musicians who could see the future"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

Credit: Alamy<\/p>\n

The 1960s spawned musical genius in abundance. From Bob Dylan to The Beatles, from The Ronettes to The Rolling Stones, the decade gifted us with some of the most innovative artists of all time, with countless names that would secure a permanent place in music history. <\/p>\n

As the decade came to a close, Led Zeppelin<\/a> began to lay down their own claim to the musical canon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Led Zeppelin released their debut album in early 1969 and found immediate success. Before the year was over, they followed it up with Led Zeppelin II, but they truly came into their own in the 1970s. The heyday of hard rock, the era saw Led Zeppelin unleash a whole host of future classics upon the rock world, from \u2018Immigrant Song\u2019 to the entirety of Led Zeppelin IV. <\/p>\n

Though Led Zeppelin may be remembered as a 1970s band, the personification of the decade\u2019s rocking sound, they actually originated from the 1960s scene. Rising from the ashes of The Yardbirds, they knew the generation of musical geniuses that preceded them well, and Jimmy Page had some fully-formed opinions on who was the best of them. <\/p>\n

Despite the abundance of sonic innovators and influencers who came out of the 1960s, Page believed that there were just two who had a \u201cdefinite spacewards thinking,\u201d as he explained during a 1976 interview with Sounds. His first choice was original Pink Floyd vocalist Syd Barrett, deeming it an \u201cabsolute tragedy that chap fell apart\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Jimi<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Wikimedia \/ Syd Barrett<\/p>\n

For Page, that quality had little to do with science fiction or psychedelic imagery alone. It was about an artist\u2019s ability to imagine possibilities that nobody else could yet hear. The late 1960s was full of technically gifted musicians, but Page reserved his highest praise for those who challenged the accepted language of popular music. <\/p>\n

Barrett\u2019s whimsical songwriting and Hendrix\u2019s revolutionary guitar playing both ignored convention in favour of instinct, creating sounds that seemed to arrive from somewhere just beyond the musical landscape everyone else was inhabiting.<\/p>\n

Barrett was only with Pink Floyd for their first record, 1967\u2019s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,<\/a> but his \u201cspacewards\u201d songwriting was already evident. Their debut may have since been eclipsed by the success of their later work, by the iconic The Dark Side of the Moon and the ambition of The Wall, but it was just as forward-thinking. <\/p>\n

\u201cBarrett\u2019s stuff,\u201d Page enthused, \u201cthere\u2019d been nothing like it before the first album of the Floyd\u2019s\u2026 you can really feel genius there.\u201d It\u2019s unsurprising that Page would pick out Barrett and Pink Floyd to heap praise upon as one of the most iconic rock bands to precede them. Both groups would go on to define the sound of the 1970s and the sound of rock in general. <\/p>\n

The only artist Page suggested had a similar \u201cdefinite positive force\u201d was legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix<\/a>. Just a few years before Led Zeppelin landed on the scene, Hendrix was penning all-time greats like \u2018Purple Haze\u2019 and changing the sound of guitar music forever. Page suggested that, like Barrett, he had a \u201cfuturistic vision, in a sense\u201d. <\/p>\n

They\u2019re certainly worthy names for Page to pick out. Their futurism can be seen in the longevity of their legacies. Even now, over half a century after they first shared their music with the world, Pink Floyd and Hendrix maintain cultural relevance and countless listeners. Their unique way of thinking allowed their music to transcend generations.<\/p>\n

It also reveals something about Page himself. Although Led Zeppelin became synonymous with earth-shaking riffs and blues-inspired hard rock, Page never viewed music as a competition of technical ability alone. He was drawn to artists who expanded the vocabulary of rock, whether through unusual song structures, innovative studio techniques or an entirely fresh perspective on composition. <\/p>\n

In Barrett and Hendrix, he recognised kindred spirits whose willingness to chase the unknown reflected the same curiosity that would soon underpin Led Zeppelin\u2019s own most ambitious work, from sprawling epics to fearless experiments with folk, world music and improvisation.<\/p>\n

While Page may only credit Hendrix and Barrett with this specific kind of musical genius, many would credit Led Zeppelin with the same. Their riffs still sound just as innovative now, and they still move people to pick up guitars and learn to play. They had their own spaceward mindset, their own futurism that would change the trajectory of rock forever.<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> The Far Out Led Zeppelin Newsletter<\/p>\n

All the latest stories about Led Zeppelin from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Alamy The 1960s spawned musical genius in abundance. From Bob Dylan to The Beatles, from The Ronettes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2586,25615,156,207705,51009,15132,157,111,139,69,458,121128],"class_list":["post-512168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1960s","tag-classic-rock","tag-entertainment","tag-jimi-hendrix","tag-jimmy-page","tag-led-zeppelin","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pink-floyd","tag-syd-barrett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}