Jimmy Page was born on January 9, 1944, in Heston, Middlesex, England. He joined his first band when he was sixteen years old. They were called Neil Christian and the Crusaders. While he was in this band, he displayed a remarkable maturity in his playing, and he was very versatile. The reputation that he soon developed helped him to get a lot of work as a session player.
Session playing is something that most people know nothing about. Session players are guitarists who do a sort of freelance work for recording studios or for producers. They are the musicians who are called in to fill a space in a musical lineup. Most often the session players never even hear the music they are going to play before they get to the recording studio, so they must be good at playing a variety of styles and sight-reading music as well. The session player will be hired, then, for just one recording “session,” or until the parts that he needs to record are done.
Session players often gain an underground reputation among studio workers and musicians. In the early 1960s, Page built a reputation for himself in the London session scene by being hard-working and adaptable. He would often record for three or four sessions in one day!
Because of his reputation as a session musician, Page was offered the lead guitarist spot in the Yardbirds when Eric Clapton left. But Page wanted to continue his career as a successful session player, so he declined.
Two years later, after Jeff Beck had taken the place of Clapton, Page was asked to join again as the bass player. This time he accepted, but the group of musicians didn’t work out together, and the band fell apart. Now Page was left with the rights to the Yardbirds name, a tour of Sweden to fulfill, and no band.
So he got together with Peter Grant, and they rounded up bass player John Paul Jones, drummer John Bonham, and singer Robert Plant. This lineup continued the tour as the New Yardbirds, and then went back to England, where they continued playing together under a new name, Led Zeppelin. Their first album was recorded in 1969, and they rest, as they say, is history.
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