Reuters and the New Musical Express are reporting on a press conference with Jimmy Page and Jack White that took place this morning in Los Angeles. Both are in town for the city's film festival and tonight's premiere of "It Might Get Loud" there.Both stories carried a humorous quip from White on whether he might consider playing again with Page, such as on the solo album White is rumored to be embarking on. "I think Jimmy needs to practice a little more," he commented. Yeah, he was joking.
The Reuters coverage carries more interesting remarks from both guitarists on the way music is presented to today's youth. For instance, neither thinks video games are very useful for musical practice.
White said, "That's like the only outlet now, that you have to put [your music] in a video game to get it in front of [kids]. That's a little sad."
Reuters carried a long, candid remark from Page about amateur musicians setting out to imitate their heroes:
"If you start with the first track on the first (self-titled Led Zeppelin) album, 'Good Times Bad Times,' and you think of the drum part that John Bonham did there, how many drummers in the world can actually play that? Let alone Dad on a Christmas morning? There might be a lot of alcohol to be consumed over Christmas, he still ain't gonna get it."Interestingly, as the NME story tells us, Page pointed out that both he and White, and also their third co-star, The Edge, are all self-taught guitarists.
The film premieres in L.A. about an hour and a half from the time of writing.
Update: Getty Images and the Associated Press have photos of Page and others at the premiere. Also, the video below is from a Q&A session at the L.A. film premiere.
My girlfriend's 12-year-old son doesn't pay much attention to Led Zeppelin. He's an aspiring student of the electric guitar, but he somehow overlooked Zeppelin when he discovered the rock bands he idolized, which ironically enough include Def Leppard and Whitesnake.
ReplyDeleteHe was happy to point out that a certain new "Guitar Hero" game supposedly contains only the best guitar songs of the '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s. So he was quick to point out to me there was no Led Zeppelin on the game, which he used as evidence that Zeppelin was not good enough for "Guitar Hero" (when songs by Billy Idol and Ozzy Osbourne were).
Au contraîre, I pointed out to him; "Guitar Hero" was not good enough for Led Zeppelin! And I had Jimmy Page's words to fall back on. The boy didn't have a good comeback, although he pointed out the obvious, that kids his age would be hearing Zeppelin for the first time who wouldn't have otherwise.