Page or Fripp

 

Jimmy Page often held his guitar close to his knee caps. The fact that many of his finger stretching methods were technical to play is what caused him problems when performing live. He would try to do something that he understood the science of but displayed sloppiness. Playing the guitar low to the knee area takes away from your dexterity in the arm motion and picking hand. Rock N' Roll is the art of imperfection but there are also things called practices Muddy Waters or even Chuck Berry are often placed in this category dismissing the fact that much of what they did was perfected.You have to do both and at the right time. I had thought in Page's situation that the knee cap level was the reason until I heard the studio version of "Heartbreaker"

My deal is that I heard his playing with Sonny Boy Williamson in 64' and then decent stuff with the Yardbirds. Then when I heard Heartbreaker....I was turned off by the sound and style of his playing.....Plain and simple....he sounded like a 12 year old guitar student who was frustrated with the Pentatonic scale. It's just an observation out of interest over the years. No big deal. Every musician has flaws of some kind but, Page is often defended in this area without honest explanation as to what was going on with his inability to block strings while playing.

It is easier to play something on guitar while sitting but, then again it depends on what you are playing. As to why Page became this way is a mystery. Many folks just do not hear it or feel comfortable discussing it. But if you've played his songs for years, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. It';s not a cut against Page, as I said before....he was well schooled and gave lessons to Jeff Beck.....he had mastered acoustic guitar styles and was impeccable at that. He was friends with Sandy Denny in Art school for Christ Sake and probably jammed or worked with some great guitarists through her connection. He was a strange bird because he would write something like.....a signature passage with long stretches and either just getting out the notes or slopping it up causing it to sound like a train wreck. This was only on electric guitar. Then he would pick up the acoustic at a Zep show and blow my mind for about 15 minutes. Figure that one out? It's a bit like Jimi Hendrix at Isle of Wight where the guitar is so out of tune and his solo's suffer from weakness of the hand. He is so great to me on Electric Ladyland but then on Isle of Wight he sounds a bit destroyed. Like with Page and all the electric solos that he did pull off in the studio, I would back in the 70's work to perfection but,....then I would see him live and he would slop it up almost everytime.I'm just being honest ....I could never understand that reality. Maybe he was drinking Jack Daniels? .

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