Page 31 - AT

A31
PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 31 OctOber 2018

This cover image released by BMG shows "Negative Capabil-
ity," a release by Marianne Faithfull. This Oct. 10, 2018 photo shows Jimmy Page posing for a portrait at the Fender Factory in Corona,
Calif. Page reflects on the wild year of 1968, when the Yardbirds crashed and Led Zeppelin was
Associated Press born.
Marianne Faithfull Associated Press

digs deep on Guitarist Jimmy Page looks

'Negative Capability' back at 50 years of Led Zeppelin

By ANDREW DALTON thumb through records "He'd bought a Corvette
AP Entertainment Writer and talk music. Stingray, and came roar-
By JILL LAWLESS simple, effective arrange-
Associated Press ments driven by acoustic CORONA, Calif. (AP) — Jim- Page said he used an un- ing up my driveway with
Marianne Faithfull is a great guitar, meditative piano my Page once painted a likely bit of folkie inspiration it," Page remembered. "He
musical survivor. She went and somber strings. dragon, and used it to slay. — Joan Baez — to show said, 'This is yours.' I was
absolutely thrilled to bits.
The guitar guru was so Plant the sound he want-
from pure-voiced chan- Collectively, they work a
teuse of "As Tears Go By" mournful magic. Faithfull bursting with creative inspi- ed, playing her recording It was given to me with so
ration 50 years ago that he of the song "Babe I'm Gon-
much affection."
to emblem of 1960s drug brings an ominous touch
excess before re-emerging to Bob Dylan's "It's All Over felt compelled to pick up a na Leave You" and telling Page said he made imme-
brush and use his skills from him to emulate the way diate and intense use of
in 1979 with "Broken Eng- Now, Baby Blue" and revis-
lish," a soul-baring blast of its two of her own songs: art school to take poster she sang the top line of the the instrument, and want-
paints to his favorite instru-
song. Zeppelin would put ed to "consecrate" it, so he
an album that still packs a the Rolling Stones-penned
punch. "As Tears Go By," which ment, a 1959 Fender Tele- the tune on its first album. went at it with paints that
caster, and decorate it Page still marvels at how were used at the time for
Since then, Faithfull has ma- grows more poignant with
tured into a diva of melan- age, and the mesmeric with a psychedelic beast. fast the whole thing took psychedelic posters, and
He calls the axe "the Ex-
off after Plant brought on summoned the dragon.
choly, her expressive voice "Witches' Song" from "Bro-
roughened and deepened ken English." calibur" that he wielded drummer John Bonham Page later left the guitar
through the wildly event-
and Page pulled in his behind at his home in Eng-
by time and life. "Negative "Born to Live," written for
Capability," the 71-year- the late Anita Pallenberg, ful year of 1968, when his friend John Paul Jones to land on an early U.S. tour
old band, the Yardbirds, play bass.
with Led Zeppelin in 1969.
old singer's 21st album, is wishes for "a good death,"
a moving, quietly majestic while "Don't Go" mourns crashed, and his new "The whole journey of Led He'd come to regret it.
band, Led Zeppelin, was Zeppelin and the rise of When he returned, ex-
collection of songs dwell- another departed friend,
ing on aging, pain, loss and Martin Stone. born just two months later. Led Zeppelin, each tour hausted and abuzz, he
"My whole life is moving so was just extraordinary, and found that a ceramicist
loneliness — hardly the usu- "They Come at Night" is a
al rock 'n' roll fare. bleak response to the 2015 fast at that point," Page, the growth and the respect friend who had been serv-
now 74, said as he reflect-
and love of the band, and ing as his house-sitter had
Faithfull is chief lyricist, attacks in Faithfull's adopt-
working with musical col- ed home city of Paris, while ed on Led Zeppelin's 50th the people that were flood- painted over the dragon
in his own mosaic style as a
anniversary in an interview ing to see us," Page said.
laborators including Mark "No Moon in Paris" finds
Lanegan, Ed Harcourt and loneliness, rather than love, with The Associated Press The first record also includ- "gift" for Page.
at the Fender guitar facto-
ed "Dazed and Confused," "It was a disaster," he said.
Nick Cave, who co-wrote, in the City of Light.
plays piano and sings on But it's not all darkness. ry in California. "Absolutely with Page famously using a Page angrily stripped off
violin bow on the dragon all the paint and it sat in
just a roller-coaster ride."
the single "The Gypsy Fa- Faithfull's indomitable spirit
erie Queen," a midsummer seeks more — more life, Page said he had Led guitar, which he played on storage where it sat for de-
Zeppelin's sound, and first every electric song on the cades.
night's meditation inspired more hope, more love.
by Shakespearean mysti- "In My Own Particular Way" songs, fully formed in his record. Flash forward 50 years.
mind before the Yardbirds The guitar had been a Page was assembling a
cism. offers a wry self-appraisal:
Faithfull and her producers, "I know I'm not young and were even done. cherished gift that guitarist book for the band's anni-
"I just knew what way to Jeff Beck had given Page versary, and the dragon
Rob Ellis and Warren Ellis I'm damaged/But I'm still
(one of Cave's Bad Seeds), pretty, kind and funny." go," Page said. "It was in my to thank him for recom- guitar kept popping up in
mending Beck for a job in pictures.
instinct."
have crafted a suite of And, declares Faithfull: "I'm
tuneful, autumnal, tenta- ready to love."q He found his first ally in the Yardbirds, which had Page felt that maybe it was
time to bring the old beast
singer Robert Plant, whom brought a handsome pay-
tively hopeful songs, with
he invited to his house to day. back to life. q