Posted on 12/14/2005 11:22:04 AM PST by ovrtaxt
Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page has been honored by Queen Elizabeth II - but the award was for his work with poor Brazilian children rather than his music.
The 61-year-old rocker went to Buckingham Palace on Wednesday to receive an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, or OBE, from the queen.
Page said he was overwhelmed to be given the accolade, recalling how he first became involved with Brazilian children in 1994 when fighting broke out among street gangs while he was in Rio de Janeiro promoting an album.
"At that time in Rio the sun wasn't shining. The army was going into the favelas (shantytowns) and I heard about the plight of the street children," he told reporters.
Page joined forces with British charity Task Brazil and set up a safe house, which has supported more than 300 children. Task Brazil offers medical and psychological support, food, clothing and job training.
"I think when you're faced with a plight that's inescapable, and there's something you can do about it, you hope you can make a difference," Page said.
Page was a member of the '60s band The Yardbirds before helping found Led Zeppelin.
The jingle business Batteau has done, often with David Buskin is not obscure unless you never heard of AT&T, AmTrak, GM, Caddilac, Buick, Chevrolet, McDonalds, Burger King, Pappa Gino's, Filenes, and so many others that even I can't remember, oh, Coca Cola for about a generation.
He has been performing in concert (Buskin & Batteau; Tom Rush; Judy Collins; Appaloosa; Pierce Arrow; Harry Chapin and others) for nearly 40 years (he is 62 I think) and has been the lead amplified violinist on many pop and folk recordings by the major artists.
You asked, what is the point, or, what does that prove? Are you talking "good" being the technical aspect of the craft or how the artist makes people feel and the impact they make? Perhaps you may have answered the question yourself. Well it proves that being a master musician is not everything, as I think there are many master musicians out there. There are a lot of Becks out there, but few to have the impact of Jimmy Page.
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You asked, what is the point, or, what does that prove? Are you talking "good" being the technical aspect of the craft or how the artist makes people feel and the impact they make? Perhaps you may have answered the question yourself. Well it proves that being a master musician is not everything, as I think there are many master musicians out there. There are a lot of Becks out there, but few to have the impact of Jimmy Page."
You've taken a very adversarial approach to everything I've said. Yet, I've basically agreed with you. I have not doubted Batteau's ability, nor his success. Writing jingles, not matter how successful, or prosperous,you've been, still leaves you in the "obscure"realm. Playing as a sideman to other artists, no matter how famous, doesn't make you particularly famous either. Doesn't make you any less brilliant. Just not very well-known. And I think you're kind of making the same point as I, although our takes on certain musicians are somewhat different. There are NOT a lot of Becks out there! And I think that if you asked all the top guitarists about Beck and Page, they would all agree about Pagies impact and brilliance. But, I'm quite certain they would all tell you that Beck is a master, and a much better player than Page, in technical ability, and in instrumental, emotional, composition and performance.
Is technical ability everything? My goodness NO! Look at Malmsteen. A master of the technical aspects of playing, but pretty boring, at least to me, in all other aspects. Seems to me that he's been playing the same hyped up Blackmore-type song for the last 20 years.
Have you listened to Beck's cd output for the last 15 years? Not being a jerk, just curious. And don't you find it amazing that the big Brit three all came from the same band? And a great band it was.
Led Zeppelin and Jimmy Page aren't the greatest because other guitarists or musicians say they are, is the point.
are still many people who don't know what goes on in Brazil.
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So true. Just yesterday I was talking with a Brazilian woman from Sao Paulo who mentioned the abject poverty especially in the northeast of the country. In the meantime the Brazilian PC crowd are trying to implement public restrooms for transvestites. Talk about a nation gone insane...
BTW--if interested see a Brazilian film called "Central Station" directed by Walter Salles. Excellent.
Beware of Flashbacks Ping $^{
OK, I read the link. No mention of Golden Dawn? Crowley died in '47, I doubt he sold Page anything. And he did not advocate human sacrifice. He was carrying on an old tradition and wrote in symbols, metaphors, jokes and riddles.
The few rock musicians I know agree with you 100% about Page's playing. As for the sum being greater than it's parts... I hadn't thought of it that way, but I think I agree with that. I don't know what it was about those late 60s early 70s stadium rock bands, but I love it. And I was almost an adult in the 80s before I experienced them.
"Crowley's Magick in Theory and Practice is a very popular book among occultists. Given his reputation, it is inevitable that he would appeal to certain rock musicians of the late 20th century. Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin guitarist and occultist, bought Crowley's mansion, Boleskine House, near Foyers, Scotland, and owns a large collection of Crowley memorabilia.
[Aleister Crowley, The Skeptic's Dictionary]
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Led Zeppelin guitarist and leader Jimmy Page has been fired as composer for the soundtrack of the film "Lucifer Rising" by it's director, Kenneth Anger. Speaking in London on Friday, Anger decried Page for time-wasting and a lack of dedication to the project, and claimed that Page's personal problems had made him impossible to work with. Page has been working on the film for the past three years and has so far delivered some 28 minutes of completed tape. The story of the collaboration - and the ensuing rift - goes back to 1973 when Page first agreed to compose and perform the movie soundtrack. He and Anger first met at Sotheby's, at an auction of books by the English Occultist/Magician Aleister Crowley. Both Page and Anger are students of Crowley's teachings. Anger is a practicing Magus (a priest/magician) and his films'of which "Scorpio Rising" is perhaps the best known --- are replete with occult symbolism. Anger himself describes them as "Spells and Invocations".
Page has often expressed interest in the teachings of Crowley. He owns the second largest collection of Crowley's books in the world, and one of his three houses is Crowley's former residence at Boleskine on the shores of Loch Ness. "Lucifer Rising", Anger's most ambitious project to date, deals with the "fallen angel" of orthodox Christian Mythology, who in Anger's film is restored to his Gnostic status as "the Bringer of Light"; an implicit part of Crowley's own teachings.
[Anger Rising]
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