Time Travel Tuesday! I haven’t written one in a long time. Today’s installment is inspired by the movie It Might Get Loud, which Mr. Folkie and I saw last Sunday. This film is a must-see for those of us who love electric guitar, but it will probably not be as interesting to anyone else, especially those who are not familiar with at least one of the three musicians spotlighted: Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White.

Mr. Folkie was tolerant and interested only because he himself plays some acoustic guitar. The editing of the film, with its abrupt transitions between the three artists, made it hard for him to keep track of who was who and who was speaking.

Other filmmakers have presented the history of rock, blues, and the electric guitar, but this film focuses on that strictly through the individual lenses of Page, The Edge, and White, representing three generations of rock. This changes the viewer’s perspective to experience it from the inside. The film sifts through their backgrounds and their early development as musicians and makes us privy to the small details of the songs that built their reputations. Page and White have similar foundations based in southern blues of the early 1900s.

I was not so much interested in The Edge as the other two. The last U2 album I really listened to was The Joshua Tree, and I haven’t listened to anything from the latest. Yet I was interested in his revealing how he changed a chord to create his signature sound, his counting out the six beats in an early demo of “The Streets Have No Name,” and stories of the band’s beginnings. He is the only one of the three whose life and music was shaped by growing up in a war zone. The title of the film comes from a phrase he mutters as he gets ready to crank up his gear when the three get together in Los Angeles.

I will eventually have to own the DVD because I want to review the amazing quality and quantity of archival photos and videos, including Page’s early bands and the Yardbirds, Lonnie Donegan performing “Gambling Man” in an intense performance unlike any recording of his I have heard, and 15-yr-old Page telling a television show host that he is planning a career in biological research! Science’s loss is our gain.

The Yardbirds with Jimmy Page - White Summer
(live in concert, originally from Little Games - 1967)
Available September 29: Remastered Little Games CD at Amazon

There is also footage of young White with one of his first bands, The Upholsterers.

The Upholsterers - Ain't Superstitious (Willie Dixon cover)
from The White Stripes’ Legendary Lost Tapes (2004) [Buy]

In the photo above, each man holds one of his first guitars, none of them especially fancy or expensive. Each tells the story of how he obtained the instrument. Page talks about a Fender Stratocaster, although that is not the guitar in this photo. I think The Edge says his is an Explorer. White’s is a Sears Kay, which he kindly says came from a thrift store; it looks like it came from a dumpster. The front veneer is mostly peeled off, an f-hole is gouged out, and the neck is bent.

In the first few minutes of the film, White famously constructs a guitar from a block of wood and other scraps of material, then plays it. His red guitar from the White Stripes is a cheap Montgomery Ward model. You could gather from these facts that White has no respect for the instrument, and in fact, he reveals by playing his favorite song, that his true love is for the beat. If you like “Seven Nation Army,” “Icky Thump” (better example), that’s what you like too.

White lovingly plays his favorite song, a Son House recording, where the only accompaniment is the old man’s own handclaps. This love of rhythm sets White apart from the other two, who are definitely guitar men. But White’s point is that the old bluesmen who created inspirational music that has stood the test of time did not have fancy equipment. They used whatever they had, and the songs themselves are the strength. White’s desire to strip the music back down to basics lies in contrast to the technical innovations introduced by Page and further elaborated on by The Edge.

Page also plays a recording of a song that was an inspiration for him, and which is said to have similarly inspired Pete Townsend: Link Wray’s 12-bar blues instrumental “Rumble.” Page’s total enjoyment is delightfully transparent, especially when he lifts his hands in the air and strikes the chords in perfect synch with the record.

Link Wray - Rumble (originally released as a single in 1958)
MySpace | Website

Throughout the film the three guitarists share techniques and teach each other and jam together, ending the film by playing The Band’s “The Weight.” A shot shows the entire film crew watching in awe. My main thrills came from watching Page fingering the notes from long-familiar and beloved Led Zeppelin songs like “Stairway to Heaven,” demonstrating the dynamics in “Ramble On,” and picking the melody to “The Battle of Evermore” on mandolin on the grounds of the lovely old grange house where it was recorded. And my favorite, possibly my favorite song of all time, “How Many More Times,” with its heavy blues foundation and perfect timing between Page and Plant. Ohhhh… I wanted to leap out of my seat during the Led Zeppelin concert footage.

Borrowing a phrase from Page, “…it builds and builds…it’s like an orgasm.”

Oh, yes…Yes…YESSSS!!!!! I will have to watch this again, and again.

Led Zeppelin - How Many More Times from Led Zeppelin I (CD - 1994) [Buy]

The movie trailer is the film in miniature:

Filed under: Time Travel Tuesday, film, Jack White, Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin, The Edge, the Upholsterers, The White Stripes, the Yardbirds, U2

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