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The 250 best guitarists of all time – 2nd place: Jimmy Page
Long before Led Zeppelin was founded, Jimmy Page had an enormous influence on the rock world through his game with the Yardbirds and his work as a session guitarist in the London scene. At the beginning of twenties, Page was the first guitarist to participate on records of The Who, The Kinks, Donovan, Marianne Faithfull and others.
But in 1968 he consolidated his role as one of the rock guitar gods of all time when he founded a band with singer Robert, bassist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham.
With LED Zeppelin everything on page was immediately legendary – from his embroidered drug suit to his obsession with the occult – but his brilliant reefs were always in the foreground. You can’t hear “Communication Breakdown” or “In The Evening” and you can’t have it in mind for 72 hours. “A reef should be pretty hypnotic because it is always played,” he told Rolling Stone in 2012. And his game also has his delicate moments, such as the breathtaking finger picking at “Going to California” or the intro to “Stairway to Heaven”.
“He wrote the songs, played it, she produced – no other guitarist has come up with me since Les Paul, who can say that”
“He had the vision of overcoming the stereotypes of what the guitar can do,” said Joe Perry from Aerosmith. “If you follow the guitar at ‘The Song Remains the Same’ all the time, it goes through so many different changes – louder, quieter, gentler, louder again. He wrote the songs, played them, produced them – no other guitarist has come to mind since Les Paul, who can say that. ”
Key Tracks: “Achilles Last Stand”, “Kashmir”, “No Quarter” ”