Mind-blowing factoid

stufisher · April 2023

Currently watching 'When albums ruled the world' on The Beeb and just heard a factoid that has done ma heid!

When Led Zeppelin released Zep 1, Jimmy Page had played on c.60% of all singles recorded in London during the previous four to five years

Does anyone have any insights or corroboration of this? It just sounds/feels extraordinary.

Tannin · April 2023

All 3 of them. Strewth!

BillDL · April 2023

He was definitely a very prolific session musician as a young man and 60% of all singles recorded in London is unsurprising to me. That's the odd thing I discovered about Page. He seemed to be very hit and miss and lacked consistency from one live performance to the next. Reportedly one night he was fantastic and the next night he was mediocre to terrible. Drugs and alcohol, or just the rigours of touring, may well have had an impact on the consistency of is playing. Maybe while he was doing as much session work he was a lot more consistent and dependable than he was a bit later on in his career. Magnetic tape and too many shots at getting it right would have been expensive back then.

Tannin · April 2023

Not long ago someone posted a clip of an interview he made back then. He was a right arrogant bastard, no doubt at all about it. Equally uncontestable is that he was very, very good indeed until his character faults caught up with him.

EricTheWeary · April 2023

By modern standards the number of singles recorded in London in the late sixties would be tiny but I still suspect it’s a long way from a verified fact. I remember watching a documentary about Ivor Cutler (Sky Arts I think) a year or so ago and that quite gleefully gave out ‘facts’ none of which stood up to five minutes on Google.

There is a big compilation (on Spotify and elsewhere) of sessions he did. Some of which were massive hits (eg Goldfinger) although usually he wouldn’t have been the sole guitarist. So if you hear a nice solo or twiddly bit it might not be Page.

Needs some Tom Jones (and Page)…

https://youtu.be/k-HdGnzYdFQ

Kilgore · April 2023

Sounds unlikely to me. I would put this statistic alongside other well known 'facts' such as:

You're never more than 6 feet from a rat.

There are more people on earth today than have ever lived.

Roland · April 2023

I’ve heard exactly the same story told about Big Jim Sullivan. If you pick the right guitarist and the right week then it could be true of several people. It just depends who was in the studio that week.

JohnS37 · April 2023

Tannin said:

Not long ago someone posted a clip of an interview he made back then. He was a right arrogant bastard, no doubt at all about it. Equally uncontestable is that he was very, very good indeed until his character faults caught up with him.

JP must have been a mercurial character back then. I met him I’m Stockholm, pre-Zep, when they were touring as the New Yardbirds. We were staying in the same hotel and I had breakfast with him a couple of mornings - he was very quiet and unassuming, we had a nice chat. He complained that he wasn’t fitting in with the other guys very well because he was veggie (quite unusual back then) and they weren’t. I was pretty chuffed to meet him because I knew about his session reputation, and it’s certainly true that he was on many of the pop/rock recordings of the time, though sixty percent is going some. Didn’t seem in the least arrogant to me.

Tannin · April 2023

^ Interesting. Doubtless someone will repost the clip shortly. Maybe it depended on what he was on at the time.

EDIT: I just watched it again. I'm inclined to cut his some slack - he was very young.

GoFish · April 2023

Big Jim Sullivan would be more likely, though why not 58%? or 61%? What counts as "London"? I'm inclined to agree with Kilgore and Roland. JP was a well used session-er prior to Zep, but there were only about 4 of them doing rock music (ie: had tonebenders).

John Paul Jones had extraordinary range. There's an Etta James at Montrose Jazz Festival in the 70s, during Zep, and who should pop up, practically uncredited, filling in at bass?

stufisher · April 2023

For completeness, here's the link to the documentary that sparked my astonishment.

When Albums Ruled the World: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01qhn70 via @bbciplayer ;

It's a good watch for me as it covers the era of my youth and informs very well, so nostalgic and edifying to boot.

Hopefully others will also enjoy

Tannin · April 2023

I think I'm geoblocked from that one. No matter, it's pretty much my bedtime here anyway.

But I see no obvious reason to doubt that Page played on some crazy-high percentage of recordings. Those were the days when record companies routinely got session musicians to ghost band members' parts, ostensibly because it "made a better sound" but probably because the session guys knew the ropes and could do stuff in three takes that gigging musicians couldn't do in 23 and that made recording cheaper. That stuff was standard fare in the USA, no reason it would not have been he same in the UK. What percentage of California recordings did Tommy Tedesco play on back in the day?

Roland · April 2023

Leland Sklar talks about working around the clock, with no sleep. So I guess there were days when Tommy did too. They’d come out of a session, and someone would grab them for another. Lee said they only rested when they toured.

thing · April 2023

Vick Flick (guitarist who played the James Bond theme) certainly did play on bazillions of hits. I remember a program, one of those pawn shop things, where he walked in with his Strat to sell and it had a list of several pages of A4 of the hits that he'd just used that one guitar on. Not the one that he used on James Bond, that was some sort of hollowbody IIRC.

Litterick · April 2023

A Clifford Essex Paragon Deluxe

Vic Flick reflects:

'The recorded sound was due to the plectrum I used and the guitar’s strings. I placed the DeArmond pickup near the bridge. I put a crushed cigarette packet underneath it to get it nearer the strings. That helped to get that round sound. Most important, sound wise, was the Vox AC15 amplifier. I used it on tour. It wouldn’t let me down – until it fell eight feet into a music pit and disintegrated.'

'I worked with Jimmy. He’s a nice guy and a great guitarist. He was born around the corner from me in southwest London. Jimmy couldn’t read a note of music. I helped him several times with that. I did quite a few recordings with him. A lot of it happened in Decca [Studio] 2, in the basement.

That was the place where a classic exchange of words between a musician and a fixer took place. Jimmy and I were sitting next to each other with our guitars. This fixer said, “What’s this I hear about you joining a group?” Jim said, “Oh, yes, we’ve got a tour coming up.” He said, “Well, what about these sessions?” Jim said, “I don’t know. I’ll do them if I can.” “Oh,” the fixer said, “you’re going to live to regret this.”'

thing · April 2023

A Clifford Essex Paragon Deluxe

Brill, thanks for that Litterick.

Vic has a book out called Vic Flick: Guitarman, from James Bond to the Beatles and beyond. It's free on Kindle.

roberty · April 2023

BillDL said:

He seemed to be very hit and miss and lacked consistency from one live performance to the next. Reportedly one night he was fantastic and the next night he was mediocre to terrible. Drugs and alcohol, or just the rigours of touring, may well have had an impact on the consistency of is playing

He was off his tits and his guitar was down by his knees

Stuckfast · April 2023

Jimmy Page definitely played on a lot of sessions, but he's also frequently credited with playing on records that he actually had nothing to do with, like 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' by Donovan.

thing · April 2023

Always thought he was a great writer but sloppy guitarist. But then it was part of the sound. Bit like Jaggers vocals, he can't sing for shit but he's the voice of the Stones.

PolarityMan · April 2023

what about that bass gandalf guy who's basically played on 90% of all recording featuring a bass guitar ever?

bobacco · April 2023

Thinking of Leland Sklar, @PolarityMan?

PolarityMan · April 2023

bobacco said:

Thinking of Leland Sklar, @PolarityMan?

yep....bass gandalf

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