Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck & Eric Clapton — Stairway To Heaven
A trio of ex-Yardbirds gunslingers featured here. Of course this is a Zeppelin song, but this performance is post-Zep in late ’83. No vocals, just heavy, blistering guitar work. In reading Clapton’s autobiography, I was struck by Clapton’s disdain for Zeppelin. He has always been quite critical of their obvious swiping of old blues musicians, but he still seems rather appalled by the English quartet’s massive success. Of course Clapton also recognized and noted that he had mistakenly plagiarized a section in the builiding guitar crescendo on his song “Let It Grow”. It is obvious in listening to it, he did. Whatever the case, all three of the men here are massively talented and incredibly virtuousic guitarists.
I have to think that many old Brits’ (Clapton, Bruce, Townsend) disdain for Zep comes from jealosy. While Pagey was sloppy in his playing, his songwriting/riff generation and production talents exceeded the others, in my opinion.
The bigger questions is, why do these guys give a shit? Are they insecure in their own legacy? Wierd.
November 20, 2008 at 6:53 pm
when was this? what tour… or festival?
January 22, 2010 at 6:37 pm
It was the ARMS benefit, September ’83.
January 24, 2010 at 4:41 pm