There are countless articles about Page, but today on our joint birthdays, I look at his years as a session musician and my favourite tracks he played on. Enjoy.
Nice job on the overview Simon, one of my favorite topics! And kudos for giving some details on Big Jim Sullivan - I think Page intentionally downplays his role a bit, at least these days. Bobbie Graham (drummer) played a big role too, and he doesn't get mentioned much.
I spent more years of my life than I'd care to admit tracking down Page's session work and writing about it in my Zep fanzine Proximity in the [late] 70s, '80s & '90s. I ended up with probably 40 - 50 actual 7" singles plus almost as many LPs, and spent hours listening, researching and assessing whether Jimmy was playing or not. . . a fool's errand but I enjoyed it.
During Zeppelin's decade Page was quite reticent about recalling his session work - he professed to not remember a lot of it but recent years have proven otherwise - I think he was just working on maintaining the LZ 'mystique' in those days and wanted to appear elusive and mysterious. The truth is that JP has a mind like a steel trap and he saved EVERYTHING, as evidenced by a lot of the memorabilia in the Anthology book.
The initial basis for my Page session research was two '70s interviews he gave - one to Pete Frame in the UK mag Zig Zag [https://recordcollectormag.com/articles/my-back-pages], and the other a much more extensive conversation with Dave Schulps for Trouser Press in 1977, which was spread out over 3 issues of the magazine. I believe it's online in its entirety here - https://teachrock.org/article/jimmy-page-the-trouser-press-interview/ - and it's well worth checking out, as is the Zig Zag chat.
Your Spotify list is great (though I refuse to use the platform), and there are also a few good CD compilations out there if anyone still bothers with that format - "Jimmy's Back Pages. . . The Early years" (1992, Sony Music Special Products AK5248), "Hip Young Guitar Slinger" (2000, Castle Music/Sequel Records NEECD 486) and "This Guitar Kills!" (2003, Castle Music CAMEDO 741).
The last two are both double CDs put out by the same label so they function as volume 1 & volume 2 with no repeated tracks - I note there are a few copies of both of these for sale on Discogs right now (and they may be on streaming platforms as albums too, I didn't check).
The very first JP sessions comp was a bootleg double LP from about 1977 called "James Patrick Page Session Man," later released on CD with a volume 2 as well. Those are good but the Castle Music sets are more comprehensive.
Great reply. Thanks for the detail which I will trawl through later!! Out right now. Sadly we use Spotify as it’s the one which has good audio quality (far better than YouTube) and the most popular. We are full time musicians and despise the whole concept, but…
Great, highly insightful read -- and great to have the accompanying audio (shudder to think how long since I heard/ revisited songs suchy as Donovan's Sunshine Superman; and a whole pile I had never heard/ didn't know about -- always a bonus!)
Fascinating read!! There’s so much I didn’t know and your first hand stories from Big Jim are enlightening.
Thanks my darling!
Nice job on the overview Simon, one of my favorite topics! And kudos for giving some details on Big Jim Sullivan - I think Page intentionally downplays his role a bit, at least these days. Bobbie Graham (drummer) played a big role too, and he doesn't get mentioned much.
I spent more years of my life than I'd care to admit tracking down Page's session work and writing about it in my Zep fanzine Proximity in the [late] 70s, '80s & '90s. I ended up with probably 40 - 50 actual 7" singles plus almost as many LPs, and spent hours listening, researching and assessing whether Jimmy was playing or not. . . a fool's errand but I enjoyed it.
During Zeppelin's decade Page was quite reticent about recalling his session work - he professed to not remember a lot of it but recent years have proven otherwise - I think he was just working on maintaining the LZ 'mystique' in those days and wanted to appear elusive and mysterious. The truth is that JP has a mind like a steel trap and he saved EVERYTHING, as evidenced by a lot of the memorabilia in the Anthology book.
The initial basis for my Page session research was two '70s interviews he gave - one to Pete Frame in the UK mag Zig Zag [https://recordcollectormag.com/articles/my-back-pages], and the other a much more extensive conversation with Dave Schulps for Trouser Press in 1977, which was spread out over 3 issues of the magazine. I believe it's online in its entirety here - https://teachrock.org/article/jimmy-page-the-trouser-press-interview/ - and it's well worth checking out, as is the Zig Zag chat.
Your Spotify list is great (though I refuse to use the platform), and there are also a few good CD compilations out there if anyone still bothers with that format - "Jimmy's Back Pages. . . The Early years" (1992, Sony Music Special Products AK5248), "Hip Young Guitar Slinger" (2000, Castle Music/Sequel Records NEECD 486) and "This Guitar Kills!" (2003, Castle Music CAMEDO 741).
The last two are both double CDs put out by the same label so they function as volume 1 & volume 2 with no repeated tracks - I note there are a few copies of both of these for sale on Discogs right now (and they may be on streaming platforms as albums too, I didn't check).
The very first JP sessions comp was a bootleg double LP from about 1977 called "James Patrick Page Session Man," later released on CD with a volume 2 as well. Those are good but the Castle Music sets are more comprehensive.
Great stuff, I never get tired of it.
Oh, and happy 82nd to Mr. Page!
Great reply. Thanks for the detail which I will trawl through later!! Out right now. Sadly we use Spotify as it’s the one which has good audio quality (far better than YouTube) and the most popular. We are full time musicians and despise the whole concept, but…
Came here from your facebook post, a great read! Thank you
Chow Chow Peterson
And thank you Chow!!
Great, highly insightful read -- and great to have the accompanying audio (shudder to think how long since I heard/ revisited songs suchy as Donovan's Sunshine Superman; and a whole pile I had never heard/ didn't know about -- always a bonus!)
And Happy Birthday! (to both of you!)
Thanks so much Ross. It’s difficult to take in the amount of great session work he has done.