Jimmy Page Said Recording With the Yardbirds Was ‘Terrifying,’ and We Get It
Jimmy Page with a guitar in his hands comes off as one of the most confident musicians ever. How confident? Enough to quit his lucrative session musician job and finally join the Yardbirds. Still, Page said recording with the Yardbirds was terrifying, and we understand why.
Jimmy Page got a ‘terrifying’ response while recording with the Yardbirds
Page made a good living as a session guitarist, but the grind wore on him. He initially had creative freedom to play whatever riffs fit the song, but then producers increasingly told him what to play note-for-note. Plus, he was performing more muzak and less music on the job.
So when the Yardbirds came calling a third time, he jumped at the chance to join.
Page and friend (and fellow guitar maestro) Jeff Beck briefly overlapped in the Yardbirds. When Beck quit, his pal took over as the lead guitar player. Playing live was a blast, but Page said recording with the Yardbirds was terrifying (per Light and Shade: Conversations With Jimmy Page author Brad Tolinski):
“[T]o give you some sense of how things were done back then, we’re making an album, and [“Drinking Muddy Water”] is like the first track. After we finished the first take, there’s this flat voice that just says, ‘Next.’ Honestly, can you imagine, we are playing this blues, having a f****** great time, we’ve got Stu [Ian Stewart] in the studio with us, and all they have to say is ‘Next.’ It was quite terrifying, really.”
Jimmy Page
That session was for the 1967 album Little Games, the Yardbirds’ final record and Page’s first long-player with his name and playing appearing prominently. He said it was terrifying, and we can understand why.
We understand why Page felt terrified recording his first Yardbirds album
A young teenage Page joined a band but quit when he kept getting sick while touring. He landed the session player gig and made a good living, but the lack of creative fulfillment drove him crazy.
Page finally made the difficult decision to quit the session job and join a band where he could play his riffs in his style on his songs. He had that opportunity when the Yardbirds played live and experimented with their sound. Page employed his violin bow on certain songs. They played extended jams. They connected with their audience.
“Drinking Muddy Water” brought some of that sonic concoction to Little Games. The song covers a lot of ground in less than three minutes.
You get Page’s slide guitar work, Stewart’s pounding piano, singer Keith Relf’s solid harmonica work, and a tight propulsive rhythm pushing it all forward. It’s clear the band poured everything they had into the song, and the curt response from the production room — the voice of pop producer Micky Most — was, “Next.”
Changing careers was a drastic choice for Page. He had an ocean of ideas in his head, and he thought leaving session work would give him the chance to get them out and onto tape. “Drinking Muddy Water” was an impressive display. It’s clear Page goes all out, so we can understand why he was terrified to hear a terse “Next” in the studio after just one take. In that situation, it had to have come across as a dismissal of everything Page felt confident about in his own playing.
Luckily for music fans, Page’s fortitude guided him through an extended stay in the Yardbirds before he formed a band that took over the world.
The guitarist sat in the producer’s chair with Led Zeppelin
Page didn’t have to be terrified when the Yardbirds fractured. He quickly pieced together Led Zeppelin and took creative control of the band. That included producing and mixing the band’s albums, which gave him the freedom to experiment in any way he wanted.
The drudgery of being a session musician had a silver lining for Page — he learned how to record and produce albums like a pro. He paid to record and produce Led Zeppelin’s debut, and his ability to work quickly — another skill he brought to the band from his session days — helped them finish it in 36 hours.
With Page at the helm, Led Zeppelin churned out hit records throughout their career. They had several No. 1 albums and sold millions of records. Zep knocked The Beatles from the top of the charts. And because Jimmy Page was in charge, he had nothing to be terrified about.
For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to Showbiz Cheat Sheet’s YouTube channel.
