Born on January 9: Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), the ultimate guitar hero ?

He was born in Heston, Middlesex, England, in 1944 and he's celebrating his 82d birthday today.

Rather than summarizing the Led Zeppelin guitarist's career once again, let's try to answer a few questions about him:

Did he play in other bands before Lez Zeppelin?
While he was still a student, he regularly performed alongside bluesmen at the Marquee Club in London, including Alexis Korner. Initially a studio musician, it was in the Yardbirds, alongside Jeff Beck, that he got noticed. Even if, when he arrived, he was initially confined to bass!

What's his favorite guitar?
It's undoubtedly a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Number One that he acquired in 1969. Previously, he favored a Fender Telecaster manufactured the same year.

Is he also a guitar collector?
Like most great guitarists, he has a hard time resisting the suggestive curves of the six-string. He once claimed that about 1,500 examples had crossed his path, even though he only used about a hundred on the eight studio albums recorded with Led Zeppelin between 1969 and 1979 (with the exception of "Coda" in 1982) and during the band's tours. 

Have any of Page's guitars been stolen?
While they don't mind parting with certain instruments or acquiring new ones, most artists have a real passionate relationship with their favorites. And sometimes a tragedy occurs. For example, after performing "Whole Lotta Love" with Led Zep in 1970 one night in the USA, his 1960 Les Paul Custom (which he affectionately nicknamed "Black Beauty") was stolen. For years, the guitarist tried to find it, publishing ads in the "Rolling Stone" magazine and promising a substantial reward. Without success. He waited 45 years for an American guitarist to discover the distinctive signs of Black Beauty during a repair in 2015. He obviously returned it to its owner. And you know what, the value of the object is estimated by experts at at least 3 million dollars!

Is he the best guitarist of all time?
Very regularly, the American "Rolling Stone" magazine has fun drawing up rankings that few people dare to question. Thus, Jimmy Page appears in third position in their list of the "100 greatest guitarists of all time". Just behind Jimi Hendrix and Eric "Slowhand" Clapton, three masters with very different styles. 

What is Jimmy Page's best solo?
Most Lez Zep fans agree on one thing: Jimmy Page reached the heights of his art on "Stairxay To Heaven", the long lyrical flight of the album "Led Zeppelin IV" in 1971. For the record; this one had not officially received a title. The song begins very gently on a Harmony Sovereign acoustic guitar before exploding at the sixth minute with an anthology solo on a Fender Electric XII, a twelve-string guitar with a very particular sound. 

Are there any books devoted to Jimmy Page?
Obviously, the legend of Led Zeppelin arouses critic's interest. For example, we can cite "Power And Glory: Robert Plant & Jimmy Page" by Chris Welch (1985) or, more recently, "The Anthology" (2020) for which Page himself invites us to discover part of his personal archives.

(Stéphane Soupart - Tr.: MH - Photo: © Etienne Tordoir)

Photo: Jimmy Page with Led Zeppelin on stage at Forest-National in Brussels (Belgium) on June 20, 1980