For Led Zeppelin fans, it can be frustrating to hear the band reduced to the quintessence of plagiarism lawsuits and sexually aggressive rock star credentials (though much of it is understandable). First, Zeppelin’s occult songwriting tendencies, both Page and Plant, played as much of a role as their blues-rock emergence (as several generations of fantasy metal bands have attested). For another, both Page and Jones are known for their studio productions and live shows, a pioneering mashup of modern rock, folk, and classical instrumentation. And finally, the band’s recording techniques were, for the time, a demonstration of technical wizardry.
So it’s no surprise that technical wizard Jimmy Page plays a theremin, but he also plays screaming, feedback-laden bends from a Les Paul. Introduced to the world by Soviet inventor Leon Theremin in 1919, this early electronic musical instrument emits a high-pitched singing voice when the player’s hand comes within range of its invisible electric field. “There are less than six strings,” Page says at the beginning of the post, in a demonstration of the 2009 film. It might get noisy“But it’s a lot of fun.”
page used sonic theremin In his Zeppelin days, he played in a very guitar-like manner, playing through a Maestro Echoplex and an Orange amp and cabinet. (See how he revived this technique in the 1995 French television broadcast above.) For several months in 1971, the fan site Achilles’ Last Stand writes, Page “used two-tiered theremins” for a double sonic attack.
In the solo above, he seems to be back to being just a theremin, but the effect is just as shocking, if you’ll excuse the joke, as it sends echoes of ray gun-like noise across the theater. Well over five minutes after the hypnotic event began, Page picked up his Les Paul and created even more erratic patterns with his violin bow and echoplex. Even if you’re not in a state of daze and confusion, surrendering to this performance art will make you feel like one. Heroism? Yes, there is indeed a phallic sound to playing the guitar with a bow. But it begins and ends with long stretches of droning, experimental noise that you might find on stage at an early Kraftwerk show.
Those in the know will know that Page used a theremin on one of the band’s most technically experimental recordings (although it also happened to be appropriated Blues Stomper), 1969’s “Whole Lotta Love” led zeppelin ii. “I always imagined the middle to be something very avant-garde,” Page said guitar world“The theremin produces most of the high notes, and my Les Paul produces the low notes.” Watch him perform a theremin and guitar solo in the 1973 live performance above. With psychedelic video effects, the performance reaches a mystical realm of rhythmic abstraction.
Note: An earlier version of this post appeared on our site in 2016.
Related content:
Soviet inventor Leon Theremin shows off the theremin, an early electronic instrument that can be played without touching it (1954)
Learn how to play the theremin: a free short video course
Meet Clara Rockmore, a pioneering electronic musician who first played the theremin in the early 1920s.
Leon Theremin promotes the first commercial production of his innovative electronic musical instrument (1930)
Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, North Carolina.
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
