News The band Jimmy Page called “absolutely phenomenal”
Nobody can dispute the musical talent of Jimmy Page, the guitar hero that has gifted the world groups like The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin. Among the greatest guitarists in music history, Page has amassed a dedicated following over his long and varied career. Undoubtedly, though, his classic rock sound places him firmly within the musical establishment, making the fact he held a candle for the revolutionary sounds of The Velvet Underground all the more surprising.
Of course, The Velvet Underground are hardly an obscure outfit. The New York band forever changed the landscape of rock music with the release of their debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico. Helping to establish alternative rock and providing inspiration to everybody from David Bowie to Sex Pistols, there are few bands that have commanded the same respect as The Velvets.
In many ways, however, The Velvet Underground represented the antithesis of what Page had been trying to achieve both with The Yardbirds and, later, Led Zeppelin. The group founded by Lou Reed and John Cale was anti-pop in every sense of the word; if you can think of a common trope in rock music, The Velvets probably tore it down. While Page was creating epic rock tracks, awash with complex guitar solos and self-aggrandising performance, Reed and company were directly combating that self-indulgence.
Despite being at seemingly opposite ends of the rock spectrum, Jimmy Page struck up an unlikely friendship with The Velvet Underground. After having written a B-side, ‘The Last Mile’, for Nico while working as a producer at Immediate Records, Page got an opportunity to meet The Velvets, taking his first step into the murky world of New York’s underground scene. Speaking to Interview Magazine, Page revealed that he hit it off with the band, saying, “I had an incredible connection with Lou Reed, and we spent lots of time talking.”
Reportedly, Page managed to see the pioneering proto-punk outfit at The Scene club in Manhattan. In a room decorated by pop art icon Andy Warhol, Page grew a deep affection for the unique stylings of Cale and Reed. “I’d seen The Velvet Underground on more than one occasion,” the Led Zeppelin guitarist recalled, “they were almost like a resident band. Andy Warhol was keen for them to be there.”
Continuing in his gushing appreciation of the outfit, Page explained, “I can tell you exactly what it was like. When I heard the first album, it was just exactly what they were like. They were just like that,” before adding: “It was absolutely phenomenal.” Obviously, Page never really embraced the sounds of The Velvets within his own musical output, but then Reed’s group were more of an art collective than a band. As Page affirms, “It was really an arts lab, as opposed to pop music, this wonderful glue, this synergy between them that was dark. It was very dark.”
The musical masses would soon echo the guitar hero’s early appreciation for The Velvet Underground, as the underground titans of New York would gain more recognition with the advent of punk and alternative rock years later. Nevertheless, Page does seem an unlikely fan of the band, which just goes to show the diversity of his musical knowledge.
