#spinning records with dee dee 🎶

[kulturegroupie]

Today worldofzeppelin posted some new to me pics of Jimmy wearing THE Jimbert shirt while performing at Budokan Hall in Tokyo on September 23, 1971:

So I thought I'd post some other photos taken during that show from my personal archive (I couldn't fit all of them in the post sorry 🥲):

And here is ‘Celebration Day’ being played at that show from the “First Attack of the Rising of the Sun” bootleg:

[veinsfullofstars]

do the CF!AU kids like music? 🎵 🎶 can any of them play an instrument?

They do! I wouldn’t say music is an especially big part of their lives, but their youth was definitely filled with it, listening to songs and dramas on the radio, catching parents or neighbors humming over dinner, or seeing the rare live performance in the village square. And, much like their choice in food, their music tastes are pretty varied, sometimes clashing, sometimes overlapping.

Para Dee honestly couldn’t tell you if he likes one particular genre over another, content to listen to whatever is playing as long as it isn’t too loud or grating. In his own time, he seems to enjoy more folksy tunes, acoustic covers, lo-fi beats, or anything with gentle piano… that said, if given the option, he might actually prefer some natural ambiance or even white noise instead, as these help him concentrate better when he’s working or studying. Can’t have a lot of distractions when doing rocket science, y’know (though try telling that to a house full of noisy siblings). Later in life, he gains an appreciation for bluesy and jazzier music through Meta, though he can’t say the same for the heavier or high-energy recommendations he gets from Dedede or Bow.

As much as he passively enjoys music (and actually taught himself to read notation on a whim once), he doesn’t really have a knack for making it himself. One year, when a few guest instructors came to visit the village, he and most of the neighborhood kids got the opportunity to learn an instrument of their choosing. Para tried out a bunch of different options - recorder, piano, trumpet, harp, even the triangle - but quickly found that none of them were really for him. It was a little disappointing, seeing all the fun his buddies seemed to be having… but he’s never minded appreciating things from afar, content to feel the vicarious happiness of others enjoying something he might otherwise not. Perhaps that’s why he feels only fondness when - in the future - his oldest son is the first to start singing…

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Bow Dee’s tastes land somewhere on the opposite end of the spectrum from her mild-mannered buddy. Thanks to her mothers’ rather extensive collection of old records (and the occasional eavesdrop on her more musically-inclined older brother), she’s been exposed to a lot of different music - everything from hip-hop to punk rock to bubblegum pop to breakcore to disco - with her favorites being anything fast-paced, electronic, and danceable. She’s not as into rock or metal as Dedede is but has found a few good songs through his recommendations. She finds classical music monotonous and boring, much to Para and Meta’s disappointment. Her interest in jazz or swing depends on the BPM.

Like Para, Bow does not have a single musical bone in her little body (despite how much it absolutely loves to dance). When given the choice of instrument to try, she immediately picked drums, though more to create some chaotic noise and violence rather than music, and even then, her interest didn’t last longer than the first day.

They did get into turntables for a while during their time overstars with Meta, having seen many an interstellar club scene by that point and feeling a spark of inspiration they’d never had with other creative pursuits (something nostalgic about handling those spinning records). Despite the intimidating technical aspect, they mastered the basics of DJ-ing in (heh) record time, getting so into it that they almost considered making another career change… until their exasperated squadmates dragged them back to their training, of course. Just another bright and vibrant detour at the end of the day, but at least it comes in handy at parties.

Dedede’s taste in music has changed much over the course of his life, from a youth filled with his mama’s country records to the rebellious rock ’n roll of his teen years to a later fondness for bouncier pop tunes with a big emphasis on percussion. He says he doesn’t have a lot of strong opinions about music, feeling much the same ambivalent appreciation as Para… though, the heated debates he gets into with his buddies over who the best bands are, what the coolest instrument is, or even who can hold a tune better seem to suggest otherwise.

Same goes for the actual pursuit of music. While there might’ve been some half-formed melodies floating around in his head, the thought of all the extra lessons he’d need to take to realize them always sent Dedede’s motivation packing. He only took the class because his friends did and spent much of it chatting or dozing off, messing with the tambourine in the hopes of half-assing his way through the course. When he begrudgingly moved on to drums, he found he could actually hold a beat pretty well when he put the effort into it, even having fun by the time Bow challenged him to an impromptu drum-off (which ended in a draw when they both broke their borrowed kits). Of the four of them, only he and Meta actually finished the course with the other kids, with Dedede even managing to convince his parents to get him a small drum kit of his own… though, without the focus of instruction (or the constant encouragement of his peers), the enthusiasm soon faded, and the kit was ultimately left to collect dust in a corner. It frustrated his papa to no end, continuing to deplore his son’s laziness, while his mama just shrugged, a little disappointed but ultimately unsurprised.

Though his passions clearly lie elsewhere, he still dabbles in music in his adulthood, unable to resist grabbing his tambo when a party starts heating up or picking up his old sticks when he needs to to hit something in a non-fighting way. He even picked up the cello in his later years, albeit very briefly.

There was a time when music fascinated Meta. To be fair, everything fascinated him back then, but music especially. He’d sit by a radio or spinning record for hours on end, just… listening to whatever came on, even if it wasn’t a style he particularly enjoyed. He absorbed it all with the same hungry curiosity as he did books, captivated for reasons he couldn’t articulate (maybe it was just better than the ringing weight of pure silence). Over time, as the novelty of life settled into comfortable mundanity, his tastes refined, narrowed. He found a preference for what Dedede teasingly referred to as “old people music” - brass-filled jazz, crooning blues, complex piano pieces, orchestral performances that seemed to tell whole sweeping stories without ever breathing a word. He doesn’t dislike heavier or faster music - it’s actually rather motivating when blasting through the speakers of a training room - but he does get a small kick out of subverting expectations. Some of Bow’s recommendations do tend to leave him with migraines, though. He has no strong feelings about country tunes despite the faint nostalgia he feels when he hears one...

Meta was the only one of the four who took to the music class with gusto, keen to learn as always and curiously trying out just about every instrument they had available. He settled on both the piano and the violin, already partial to their sounds and eager to make them himself. It was… difficult at first, given his limited reach and the complexity of each instrument (much to the smug schadenfreude of his more dedicated bullies), but the challenge only seemed to motivate him more, even likening it to swordplay of all things, in that both skills required lots of concentration, patience, and dexterity to master (Para thought it was a a good analogy; Dedede just tried to goad him into an actual fight with his drumsticks). He continued to practice even after the class ended, learning to read notation and tabs, memorizing songs to the point where he could improvise, his little flourishes surprising and delighting anyone who got to hear him play. His few attempts at actual songwriting were… not bad, exactly, just never quite reaching the needlessly-high standards he set for himself. To this day, he’s never shared them with anyone (not even Dedede).

In time, his training would take priority, and any interest he might’ve had in pursuing music was set aside. Like Dedede, he still dabbles from time to time, occasionally taking part in celebrations with his friends (even picking up the saxophone for one of them), but little more than that. Sometimes, late at night, the crew aboard the Halberd can hear a distant violin on the breeze, always gone when they try to find it.

Sketches started 12/15/24, finished 12/18/24. | Childhood Friends AU Masterpost

[kulturegroupie]

March 14, 1969: Led Zeppelin perform a cover of Otis Rush’s “I Gotta Move” at Konserthuset, Stockholm, Sweden.

[kulturegroupie]

Some home demos of “That’s the Way”

According to Jimmy, he and Robert recorded some rough demos of the song after a long walk in the countryside of Bron-Yr-Aur in spring 1970 (ft. Strider giving his contribution by barking in the background 😌) and gave it the working title of “The Boy Next Door”. These are my favourite versions:

(I have more! If you wish to hear them all, just dm me and I can send them to you via e-mail <3)

[kulturegroupie]

January 22, 1973: As per usual, Led Zeppelin rehearse by improvising early rock and roll numbers. This time, their artist of choice is Elvis Presley, and Robert does his funny interpretation of the King's renowned deep voice. Old Refectory, Southampton University, Southampton, UK.

Tracklist:

Drum / Mellotron Tuning

Love Me Tender

Frankfurt Special

King Creole

Love Me Tender

[kulturegroupie]

December 5, 2007: Led Zeppelin rehearse at Shepperton Studios, London, five days before their Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert at the O2 Arena.

[kulturegroupie]

🎑 spinning records with dee dee: day 1 🎑

‘Bron-Yr-Aur’ demo’s — recorded at Bron-Yr-Aur cottage, Spring 1970

‘Bron-Yr-Aur’ got its official release on 24 February 1975 as part of the Physical Graffiti double album. But as we know, its origins can be traced way back to spring 1970, when after an exhausting tour of the US, Page and Plant retreated to a small 18th-century cottage on the outskirts of Machynlleth, in Montgomeryshire, mid-Wales. The cottage’s name is Welsh for “breast of the gold” or “golden hill”.

These demo’s document the track’s first days of life, and are a wonderful time machine back to easier days. The first demo “Acoustic Jam” is particularly dear to me as the laughter of a child – most likely Robert and Maureen Plant’s then 18-month-old baby daughter, Carmen – can be heard throughout the recording, with chatting voices and Plant’s singing also making brief appearances above the acoustic guitar’s gentle melody.

[kulturegroupie]

hey!! listen to this!!!! it's really fucking good!!!!

[kulturegroupie]

August 4, 1986: Jimmy Page plays with a jam band by the name of Safe Sex (Jason Bonham on drums, Mike Thompsom on vocals and Dennis De Bass on bass) at Heartbreak Hotel, Ibiza, San Antonio, Spain (“Heartbreak Hotel” is the Nightclub owned by Phil Carson, who once worked for Atlantic Records and appeared as a guest bass player on many Led Zeppelin gigs).

The band mostly played rock & roll classics which were usually played as an encore by The Firm, like “I Just Wanna Make Love to You” or “Money” (the band had broken up just a few months before this gig).

Jimmy played his famous Telecaster with the string bender on all songs and only switched to the Danelectro for “White Summer”. Phil Carson played bass on “Lucille”.

“Here’s the story of the two posters: I made the first one using a copy of a photo of Jimmy given to me by Jenny Carson (Phil’s wife). This was printed and delivered to Heartbreak. Jimmy freaked when he eventually saw it, for two reasons; one, he wanted the band name biggest. Two, he hated the photo. Jimmy sweats a lot when he plays and he didn’t approve of a sweaty photo, a personal thing. I thought it looked OK, a little sweat, pay yer dues, all that. Sooo, panic. Jenny got another photo sent out from London and I had 2 hours to re-make the poster. I recognized that final version’s photo is from the ARMS Concert US Tour, and the one rejected is from Knebworth 1979.”

— Mark Goldsworthy

“I named the band Safe Sex because it was sexy but it wasn’t that safe!”

— Jimmy Page

Do yourself a favour and listen to this bootleg, Jimmy’s playing is absolutely STUNNING, the whole band was on fire that night! ↓

Link to Bootleg

[kulturegroupie]

🎑 spinning records with dee dee: day 2 🎑

Jimmy Page – Baby I Miss You So

recorded august/september 1981 — released march 6, 2015

Jimmy wrote, recorded and produced this track with the intention of including it on the soundtrack for Death Wish II. At the end of the recording process for the album, however, he decided not to include it, favouring other more useful material. The song remained in the vaults until its official release on 6 March 2015 as part of Sound Tracks, a special edition box set bringing together Jimmy’s compositions for the films Lucifer Rising and Death Wish II along with additional rare, never-heard-before sketches and unreleased recordings.

[kulturegroupie]

🌾 spinning records with dee dee: day 5 🌾

i asked you which track you'd prefer to hear first on this poll and "jimmy messing around on guitar" won so here it is!! i chose this one among 17 tracks and almost 50 minutes of him practicing and it took me a long time 🥴 if you'd like to hear more obviously just ask!! enjoy <33

Jimmy Page practicing on guitar and trying to develop new ideas for the song Midnight Moonlight (conceived and rehearsed with Led Zeppelin with the working title Swan Song in 1974, completed and released by The Firm on their self-titled album on 11 February 1985).

There is speculation around when exactly this tape - and the rest of the home recordings which accompany it - was recorded, but judging from the use of synthesizers in some of the tracks, which is not heard in the Led Zeppelin studio demo (and which was surely more in vogue in the 1980s than the mid 1970s), I figured it might have been taped sometime in 1984, after the 1983 ARMS Tour when Jimmy and Paul Rodgers got the idea to form a band, and around the time of the recording sessions for The Firm's first album.

special mention to @jimmysdragonsuit13 who asked specifically for this track! i hope you enjoy 🥰💖

[kulturegroupie]

The Yardbirds originally recorded “Knowing That I'm Losing You” in April 1968 at Columbia Studios in New York City with Keith Relf on vocals. Two years later, the song was re-worked by Led Zeppelin (supposedly during their stay at Bron-Yr-Aur or shortly after) and released on their third untitled album.

According to biographer George Case, the inspiration behind it is Jimmy’s ex-lover Jackie DeShannon, but although he claims to have written all the lyrics, other sources suggest that they were actually co-written by him and Yardbirds singer Keith Relf.

[kulturegroupie]

February 13, 1975: on Led Zeppelin’s second encore of their show at Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, Ronnie Wood joins the band on stage for a lively version of “Communication Breakdown”.

For the second encore they return with a special guest. This is a rare occasion at a Zeppelin concert and Plant introduces Ron Wood who will join Jimmy on second guitar. He says “Rod Stewart would have liked to have made it but he’s drunk in the back”. While Page gives Wood a crash course on the track, Robert sings a line from “Roll Over Beethoven”. “This is an old Led Faces number called Communication Breakdown”, he adds. Ronnie fudges his way through the basic arrangement but totally shines in the solos. They hit on “It’s Your Thing” like the early days and Page and Wood get some time to trade licks. This is truly a historic event in rock history that has to be heard and is now thankfully available in superb soundboard quality. This is definitely a triumphant finish to a smoking hot Zeppelin performance (by ’75 standards, anyway).

— From The Kings Of The Stone Age bootleg review, Classic Rock Review

[kulturegroupie]

so since jimmy's catalogue of recorded music is massive but the average person's knowledge of it is more or less limited to led zeppelin's discography, i have had a little project in mind for a while: each day i will post an underrated track from jimmy's career with a little info (when possible) with the purpose of sharing something "new" with you or even just remind you of songs you might have heard a while ago :)

this will include bootlegs (zeppelin and non), unreleased demos, rarer songs from his session musician days, underrated and underappreciated tracks. i'm so excited to start this little journey and i hope you are too! 🥰 i'll call this series "spinning records with dee dee" because when you're listening to them i want you to imagine all of us tumblr zeppelin/classic rock fans in a circle spinning some records together <3

[kulturegroupie]

That time Jimmy Page went country...

When in August 1981 Jimmy Page was asked to record the soundtrack for Michael Winner’s new movie Death Wish II, he did the job as meticulously as he ever approached any other of his projects.

Although not in the best mental or physical condition, Jimmy managed to record an entire album as well as a number of extra tracks— considered by fans to be brilliant surprises. Among these is Country Sandwich, one of the few brief attempts from the musician to delve into the country genre while always leaving his unmistakeable mark. Enjoy! 💞

“As there seems to be a tradition of dramatic themes in country music, I thought I would present You’ve Broken My Heart with suitable trimmings. The song was the background music under dialogue at a radio station in the film. I don’t think it made the final cut.”

— Jimmy Page

[kulturegroupie]

🎑 spinning records with dee dee: day 3 🎑

Page and Plant – Rude World (1997)

This track stands out in Jimmy’s discography as being the only one where his signature guitar distortions are merged with digital beats and an overall more modern sound.

It was released as part of The Inner Flame – A Tribute to Rainer Ptacek, a tribute and benefit album put together by Howe Gelb and Robert Plant, with the purpose of helping the German-American musician with his mounting medical expenses during his battle with cancer. Many renowned artists contributed to the project, including Emmylou Harris, PJ Harvey, Lucinda Williams and Ptacek himself.