Monday, January 9: Tig’s Rock Birthdays

Happy Birthday today (Jan. 9) to Jimmy Page. The legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist is 73. Other rockers celebrating include singer David Johansen of the New York Dolls (67) and L.A. Guns frontman Phil Lewis (60).

Jimmy Page started his career as a well known session musician in the mid 1960’s, and as a member of the Yardbirds. He founded Led Zeppelin out of London, England in 1968 along with singer Robert Plant, bassist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. Page is considered to be one of greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on two separate occasions, once with the Yardbirds in 1992 and again with Led Zeppelin in 1995. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him No. 3 on their list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”. 

Led Zeppelin are considered as one of the most successful, innovative, and influential rock bands of all time with an estimated 200-300 million album sales worldwide. I obviously never had a chance to see Led Zeppelin live but have a friend that traveled all the way to England to see the band’s reunion show in 2007 at the O2 Arena. The event was recorded and released as great cd/dvd set called Celebration Day. The band sounded amazing on that release and I recommend checking it out if you haven’t done so. Check out the official Led Zeppelin website here and a clip from the London reunion show below.