April 6, 2009

Mod-A-Day: Jimmy Page

Before Led Zeppelin, before The Yardbirds, in the beginning there was just Jimmy. Jimmy Page a kick ass session player, a guitarist so good he both commanded requests to play, and scared off all sorts of opportunities. In the early sixties Page played lead guitar on loads of great songs, for the biggest artists of the day like Lulu, The Tremeloes, Marianne Faithful, and perhaps The Who, Them, The Rolling Stones, and The Kinks -- with all of whom there is great debate about whether or not it is Page's session work that ended up on their hit singles. Regardless, you can't argue that he was one of the absolute best blues guitarists of the day. Eventually of course he was lured into a couple of years work with The Yardbirds, out of which arose Led Zeppelin, and the rest they say is history.

However, very early on he recorded with The Mickey Finn Group (or maybe it was just The Mickey Finn) and also as a solo artist. Here then is one of his earliest solo tracks, 1965's "She Just Satisfies", a ballsy, bluesy bit of floor stompin, R&B that was allegedly his first single. No matter, it's a blistering track of early sixties blues rock goodness, complete with harmonica.

Jimmy Page -- She Just Satisfies