Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page celebrates his 75th birthday today (January 9th). In the song “Whole Lotta Love” from Led Zeppelin II in 1969; the weird part in the middle with sounds going from one speaker to the other? How did Jimmy do it? The song made it to # 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was reworked (stolen) from a blues number called “You Need Love,” which Willie Dixon wrote. Muddy Waters recorded it first, then The Small Faces turned it into a rock number. Then Zeppelin got hold of it. Jimmy Page thought the instrumental section in the middle was groundbreaking:
“Oh, that’s a combination of things. It’s a theremin, it’s a thing that I had, and then messing around with the tape recorder so you get flanging effects and this, that and the other. I just knew it was good. Same thing with ‘Stairway…,’ I knew what we were doing was good.”
Photo: Landmark/PRPhotos.com.
