How Jimmy Page Experimented With Creating Unique Musical Sounds in the Early ’60s
Guitarist Jimmy Page is known for his musical talent and for his role in the rock band Led Zeppelin. Growing up, Page played in a band called Neil Christian & the Crusaders and he was fascinated with the guitar. Bob Spitz’s 2021 biography Led Zeppelin: The Biography explains how Page experimented with different types of music while he was a young musician.
Jimmy Page ‘was always into new noises’
Growing up, Page would often practice the guitar with his friends Rod Wyatt and Dave Williams. Spitz’s Led Zeppelin: The Biography explains how Page was intrigued by music.
“He was always into new noises,” Williams said in Led Zeppelin: The Biography.
According to the biography, Page heard Chet Atkin’s song “Trambone” and wanted to figure out how to replicate the noise.
“I remember when a record came out and had the first fuzz-box sound,” Williams said in the biography. “We were sitting in Jimmy’s front room, and he said, ‘What the f*** is making that sound? Maybe they used an elastic band to vibrate against the frets.’ He tried it but couldn’t keep the strings in tune.”
Some musicians thought the future Led Zeppelin guitarist ‘was mad’
Because of his fascination with sounds, Page was always looking to innovate. Spitz writes that when Page heard that Link Wray created an effect in his song “Rumble” by poking pinholes in an amp speaker, Page almost considered trying it.
Page became so obsessed with making sounds, other musicians began to take notice of Page outside of his guitar playing. Colin Golding, a bass player known for his work in bands called the Presidents and the Rolling Stones, was one of those musicians.
“He was also into overdubbing,” Golding said in Led Zeppelin: The Biography. “Nobody else was doing it. And frankly, we all thought he was mad.”
How Jimmy Page practiced guitar solos
A great deal of Page’s musical practice came from trying to replicate sounds and songs he heard from other artists. In addition to experimenting with different musical sounds, Page also loved practicing guitar solos.
“Solos which affected me could send a shiver up my spine,” Page said in Led Zeppelin: The Biography, “and I’d spend hours, and in some cases days, trying to get them [down]. The first ones were Buddy Holly chord solos, like ‘Peggy Sue, but the next step was definitely James Burton on Ricky Nelson records, which was when it started to get difficult.”
Williams recounted in the biography that after Page had purchased records, “A week later, parts of tracks were scratched away where he’d been playing and replaying the bloody solos.”
Spitz writes that Page and Williams would often go and watch live performances together, and afterward, Page would “rush home and try to duplicate the solos from memory.”
