Talk:Led Zeppelin

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Jimmy Page

I'm just looking for an angel with a broken wing. [[1]]

My vocation is more in composition really than anything else - building up harmonies using the guitar, orchestrating the guitar like an army, a guitar army.

Nowadays, we're more into staying in our rooms and reading Nietzsche.

[about John Bonham] Almost the moment he died, they put him in Playboy as one of the greatest drummers, which he was - there's no doubt about it. There's never been anybody since. He's one of the greatest drummers that ever lived.

I always felt if we were going in to do an album, there should already be a lot of structure already made up so we could get on with that and see what else happened.

I don't think the critics could understand what we were doing.

I think it was that we were really seasoned musicians. We had serious roots that spanned different cultures, obviously the blues.

I always believed in the music we did and that's why it was uncompromising.

The funniest thing is I listen on some of those bootleg albums, and I remember on two tours I wasn't playing with one finger at all because I'd done damage to it. One time I'd ripped it on a fence or something, another time I got it crushed. So when I hear a wrong note, I think wait a minute... But, I wouldn't have the nerve to do it now.

We went in and recorded exactly where we were at that point in time. I think because of the quality of musicianship of the band has given it the longevity. I thought the music would endure, I didn't think I would.. I always thought I'd be dead by 30 then dead by 40 and on and on. Now I'm 55 so I didn't even die at 50.

But to put out a greatest hits on one CD was totally impossible, I just couldn't do it. The best compromise was to put out two CDs - Early Days - which is what it is - and Later Days.

Ever onward [When asked for a Led Zeppelin motto]

No. I usually rest in my satin-lined coffin, actually. I'm not allowed out in daylight hours.
- On a typical day in his life

Actually, I'm getting one made up with eight necks and I'm going to get a wheelwright to make a big rim around it and then I can do cartwheels off the stage.
- Responding to a question about his multiple necked guitars

Robert Plant

I like the idea of being alone. I like the idea of often being alone in all aspects of my life. I like to feel lonely. I like to need things.

I think that passion and love and pain are all bearable, and they go to make love beautiful.

We are trying to communicate a fulfilled ideal. Does anybody remember laughter?

No, I've never thought that I was gay. And that's not something you think. It's something you know.

You know, people can't fall in love with me just because I'm good at what I do.

I can't moan about any of it. I had a great time in the goldfish bowl.

It's sort of a feeling of power onstage. It's really the ability to make people smile, or just to turn them one way or another for that duration of time, and for it to have some effect later on. I don't really think it's power... it's the goodness.

I am a reflection of what I sing. Sometimes I have to get serious because the things I've been through are serious.

You can't give up something you really believe in for financial reasons. If you die by the roadside - so be it. But at least you know you've tried. Ten minutes in the music scene was the equal of one hundred years outside of it.

My vocal style I haven't tried to copy from anyone. It just developed until it became the girlish whine it is today.

I realized what Led Zeppelin was about around the end of our first U.S. tour. We started off not even on the bill in Denver, and by the time we got to New York we were second to Iron Butterfly, and they didn't want to go on!

How can you consider flower power outdated? The essence of my lyrics is the desire for peace and harmony. That's all anyone has ever wanted. How could it become outdated?

You feel quite distant by playing at huge stadiums year after year, where you only can see a great darkness in front of you.

I think I could sing and shear a few sheep at the same time.

People say that I'm a millionaire, but that's not true - I only spend millions.

Old men do it better. We're not so sensitive in certain areas.

Well, we were all high on Moroccan dope, so who knows?
- On writing 'Kashmir'

Life is like a pair of panties. You never know what it hides...

I still to this day regret not playing Woodstock. Because of that fucking New York gig I missed the greatest show in history."

Heavy metal is a sham. There's nothing threatening about [it] except the artists. It's mindless, it's not a reflection of something sociological. I don't think Zeppelin was their inspiration - Tiny Tim was. It was glam-rock. With rockabilly or rock'n'roll years ago, it was built around sex and just plain revolt. But this some kind of demented dwarf giving strange hand signals as he walks out of a volcano on stage. It's tacky. And it's just rank and file, like checking into a factory...

If it worked, every record would have the backward message 'BUY THIS RECORD' in it!
- On backmasking

I'm a golden god!

Sometimes I'll be playing a gig and I look out...and I want to fuck the entire front row!"
- From Pamela Des Barres's book "Let's Spend the Night Together"

John Bonham

Bollocks this for a game of soldiers

Just watch me tonight, I'm gonna totally demolish this drumkit.

Drumming was the only thing I was ever good at.

He will either end up as a dustman or a millionaire.
- One of John Bonham's early school reports

It's all right for you. All you got to do is go out there and look good, wiggle your arse, because nobody gives a fuck whether you miss a note or not!
- to Robert Plant during one of their good-natured arguments

John Paul Jones

Nobody will compare us to Black Sabbath ever again.
- After the release of their fourth album

Nothing ever exciting happens to me.

There's a piano solo on "No Quarter"

Think not just how you should sound... but how the band should Sound.

I don't think he knows who else was there with him!
- On Richard Cole's book

I like Physical Graffitti a lot.

It was hurtful, at the time.
- On Page and Plant's No Quarter tour and album

It came to me on a train coming back from rehearsal at Jimmy Page's house.
- On how he came up with the Black Dog riff.

Ummm... playing at the Boston tea Party.
- Fondest Led Zeppelin memory (note: The Boston Tea Party he's referring to was a nightclub in Boston that featured live rock music. He is not suggesting that Led Zeppelin were present at the famous event December 16, 1773 when rebellious colonists disguised as American Indians dumped tea into Boston Harbor to protest excessive taxation.)

You know, I would just fall over of boredom probably.
- On playing only Led Zeppelin songs on his tour

I've rated Page for years and years, I'd heard of Page before Clapton or Beck.

Organ was always my first love, but for session playing I found it much easier to carry a bass to work than an organ.

Even now I have a piece of paper I stuck on top of the Mellotron which says: `Kashmir' - remember the coda!

Quotes about Jimmy Page

As I’ve said before, Jimmy Page has an incredible overview of what’s going on within the context of a band. He doesn’t just play a solo as most guitar players do. He hears the whole arrangement of the song and incorporates a lot of colour with a producerlike awareness. So with Led Zeppelin he is a producer as well as a songwriter as well as a stage performer – and as well as a guitarist. I’m glad to see that Jimmy Page has made a big name for himself, as he is one of the greatest talents around.
- Ritchie Blackmore