The Oxford Union has uploaded the full video of Jimmy Page’s October 23 talk to its YouTube channel. Watch it in full below.
Page appeared at the union on October 23 and spoke about his life and career in music before a lengthy question and answer session. We previously published a round-up of photos from the night, and The Oxford Union has since uploaded an album of photos of Page on the night to Facebook.
You can read our full transcript of Page’s address and on-stage interview here.
Watch the full talk below:
Follow Led Zeppelin News on Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date on news as it happens. You can also sign up to our email for a digest of the latest news sent to your inbox. LedZepNews uses paid Amazon referral links to earn commissions to cover its costs.
Page’s recording experience really did pay off in the sound of Zeppelin’s first album. When compared to other major rock albums that came out about the same time,the depth of the sound is immediately apparent to me. Even artists who were extremely cutting edge at that time such as Hendrix didn’t have that lushness and space that Page generated on the Zeppelin albums. Floyd got there by the time Wish You Were Here came along but Zeppelin was the first band that I noticed who seemed to use a studio space the same way a painter would paint a canvas black to amplify color thereby making the background even quieter.
Jimmy once said that Led Zeppelin were really a live band and that they only really hit the peaks on stage. With the band’s desire to make every performance unique it’s a shame that there are only three official live releases – How The West Was Won comes from LA Forum and Long Beach dates in 1972, The Song Remains The Same from a set of New York MSG gigs in July of 1973 and Celebration Day comes from the O2 in 2007 of course. There is nothing official prior to 1972 and nothing from 1975 or 1977 (except some remastered videos on the 2003 double DVD set). Jimmy is a perfectionist when it comes to mastering their music and I get the impression that the amount of work he did producing HTWWW convinced him that to produce further live releases would involve a degree of effort that he may not feel able to commit to anymore. However, with their 50th anniversary coming in 2018, rumors abound that he may well be working on an official Earls Court release. If anyone has been to the Garden Tapes website you’ll realise just how granular Jimmy gets in terms of editing songs – The Song Remains The Same 2007 remaster contains many instances of 2 or 3 second (and longer of course) segments edited in from multiple nights (New York 1973). The amount of work he did for him to be satisfied with the result was astounding. Earls Court was a five night run so Jimmy would be able to pick and choose here, there and everywhere, should he decide to go for it. In the meantime, Zeppelin may only have three official live releases but there are hundred of bootleg recordings out there, many of them of very high quality, that reveal just how amazing the band could be on stage. There are quality recordings covering every tour from the North American tour in 1968 to the 1980 European tour, so those of us who live and breathe Led Zeppelin have hundreds of concerts to enjoy and all can be obtained online, provided by fans for free. For many the Holy Grail would be a full Earls Court release accompanied with a Blu-Ray or DVD release. The remastered Earls Court footage on the 2003 DVD release shows how well the footage and audio can be mastered so that would be a quite wonderful package to celebrate 50 years.
Er…..I would just like to say that I thought I was writing my comment on the Oxford University website which explains why I appear to be teaching so many grannies to suck eggs. Despite that, hopefully someone will find my comment of interest.
Jimmy you are the greatest of all times you can get up there and play alone and everyone would love it you do not need the back stabbing hillbilly plant to be beside you I have seen it before so for all the JIMMY page FANS WHICH THERE ARE MILLIONS YOU DO NOT NEED KNOW ONE YOUDO NOT WANT TO BE WITH MAYBE THE RED ROCKER WITH JAYSON YOU WILL STILL STICK OUT THE BEST please please MR. PAGE thanks jvail1088@aol.com please remember you are the man thanks again john in TAMPA FL. AREA YOUR MUSIC IS THE BEST
PLEAAAAASE do NOT do ANYTHING with “The Red Rocker”. Coverdale was bad enough!
Zeppelin’s contribution to music should be allowed to “remain the same”. The last thing the band needs is to be disrespected by it’s own members via a comeback. A reunion concert every 25 years is more than enough. Don’t turn Zeppelin into another Aerosmith.