Composer, guitarist and educator, Carl Baldassarre has more than 40 years’ experience as a professional musician and recording artist. His progressive rock bank, Syzygy, which charted in Germany and built a solid base in the U.S., has received critical acclaim and professional praise for over 30 years. His RU-vid channel focuses on education and entertainment for classic rock fans the world over, with a special emphasis on music theory, history and nostalgia. Baldassarre is also highly regarded for his knowledge of Led Zeppelin and especially Jimmy Page as a writer and player, both of which he analyzes in great detail on his RU-vid channel.
Led Zeppelin played 2 hour shows at a time, plus they traveled a lot to many cities touring. He and the others hd to be exhausted from all of that. Plus there was alcohol and drug use and women and parties that happened. So yeah, he was exhausted as well as the other members. So he gets a pass for his sloppy playing.
He is SOOOO great. But if guitarists don't look to apply a minimum of effort to keep overt noises and flat out missing notes with either hand, that's flat out unprofessional. I think it vasttly because he was so screwed up for decades onstage. Chordal playing is so much easier than the intricacies of melodic content. Not buying the picking as 'emotional'. Nope. Sloppy picking is mostly the inabilty to pull the lick off even relatively cleanly. That's noise, not musicality.
Respectfully disagree that you've nailed Page's tone here. You're really far off the mark. Good enough for someone jamming at home that isn't a big tone chaser, I guess. And while Jimmy does have different eras of setups and tones, his most famous and sought after is a T-Top bridge, PAF neck, LP style guitar, into a roaring Marshall plexi. That was the cornerstone of his sound. Of course you have to use the right technique as well, but you're using the wrong pickup, into a pedal that didn't exist, into a clean modern Fender. It just sounds like a bad preset on a digital amp to me.
You look like a cross between Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, and Liam Neeson. That might have sounded insulting, but it was not intended to be. That's Ok, I look even less like Jimmy page.
Big props. Ya'll killed this piece. First band I ever heard that could nail Zeppelin. Yes, your singer is uncommonly talented, but there's not a weak link in your act. Good to see you book a big house - and that they loved it. I've been listening to this tune for 53 years... never seen a band attempt it, much less pick the lock ! I'm a guitarist too and I love your work and your instructionals Carl. Bravo. Best cover I've EVER seen....... Much success to you and the band. Keep up the great work !!!
On the “big power riff” section as you hit the big E(with dropped D) you follow with upstroke on bottom E&B strings. I also hear/add kind of an F# openish. Keeping the two open E&B also incorporate the A on the G string & F# on the D string🤷♂️ Really fills it out “relatively” speaking😉
I bought the 1st album in 1970 - utterly blown away by them. But I was 17 and a musician since I was much younger. My parents & grandparents were all musicians, so i didnt think it was strange. I reckon they didn't achieve deserved success because most people couldn't understand their music. Is that reasonable? Complicated music is better understood these days: sadly, these guys were 50+ years ahead of time
Ive found that on recordings he was incredibly tight. His session habits really come through with the tightness of his stops and perfection in pitch and overall execution. Live he let it fly as the band pushed it every night as performance artists should. He wasn’t sloppy. In concert he lived in the moment.
I think a reason that Page, and all the members of Led Zeppelin, could live in the moment as you said, Carl, was how good they were as musicians, and how rich and wide their musical vocabulary was. It's like a person that's a really interesting speaker - they can change up the words on every delivery and still get their point across. Just brilliant.
The main secret is that Page used a Telecaster on recordings and a Les Paul live. A Telecaster with an AC30 will get you very close to his recorded tone.
I've been playing a three pickup Gibson Les Paul custom SG for the past thirty-five years so I almost never slam on my strings. I been dying for a burst Les Paul. I had an Epiphone Les Paul that I bought to not beat on my Gibson, but didn't play it a lot because the Gibson just feels and sounds so much better. Unfortunately the Epi was stolen. Love your custom that you used on the Ten Years Gone video. That thing is gorgeous.
I seen the Knebworth performance of this song and is missing bass really doesn’t sound the same. I wish Zeppelin hired an extra musician to play bass while JPJ played keyboards vice versa.Seems Jimmy has sticky fingers.
The best Zeppelin cover band ever. I know them all and have seen several live. Accuracy of guitar and band unmatched. Then enter the passion and “soul” of the lead vocalist. Mic drop. Contest over. Band has left the building.
An ok lesson i guess, would have preferred less sabbath history and more hands on tutorial, like closeups of what you are doing and where your fingers are.
Live at Carnegie Hall, circa 1976 is Acid Rock defined. You should get this. Amazing how well defined each instrument gets through. Thanks for the great study.
"All there is to the song.."...? MUCH more than that. You missed the songs biggest songwriting genius - It changes keys 4 times climbing up from G to A to Bb and ending in C. You missed a real opportunity to stress how unique it is for a Pop song.
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