Jim Morrison

Jim Morrison

James Douglas Morrison (8 December 1943 – 3 July 1971) was an iconic American singer, songwriter, writer, film director, and poet. He was best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the popular American rock band The Doors, and is considered to be one of the most charismatic and influential frontmen in the history of rock music. He was also an author of several poetry books, a documentary, short film, and three early music videos ("The Unknown Soldier", "Moonlight Drive", and "People are Strange"). Morrison died in Paris at the age of 27.

Biography

Early years

Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida, to Admiral George Stephen Morrison and Clara Clarke Morrison. Morrison had a sister, Anne Robin Morrison, who was born in 1947 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a brother, Andrew Lee Morrison, who was born 1948 in Los Altos, California. Jim Morrison was of Scottish and Irish ethnic heritage.

In 1947, Morrison purportedly witnessed a car accident in the desert, where a family of Native Americans was injured and possibly killed. He referred to this incident in a spoken-word performance on the song "Dawn's Highway" from the album, An American Prayer. There are also links in other songs such as Peace Frog, Riders on the Storm and Ghost Song, themselves linked by the same spoken line from "Dawn's Highway":

"Indians scattered on dawn's highway bleeding

Ghosts crowd the young child's fragile eggshell mind."

Morrison believed the incident to be the most formative event in his life and made repeated references to it in the imagery in his songs, poems, and interviews.

With his father in the Navy, Morrison's family moved often. He spent part of his childhood in San Diego, California. In 1958, Morrison attended Alameda High School in Alameda, California (near Oakland). However, he graduated from George Washington High School (now George Washington Middle School) in Alexandria, Virginia in June 1961.

Morrison went to live with his paternal grandparents in Clearwater, Florida, where he attended classes at St. Petersburg Junior College. In 1962, he transferred to Florida State University where he appeared in a school recruitment film.[2]

In January 1964, Morrison moved to Los Angeles, California. He completed his undergraduate degree in UCLA's film school, the Theater Arts department of the College of Fine Arts in 1965. Jim made two films while attending UCLA. "First Love", the first of the two films, was released to the public when it appeared in a documentary about the film called "Obscura".

The Doors

In 1965, after graduating from UCLA, Morrison led a Bohemian lifestyle in nearby Venice Beach. Photographer Joel Brodsky took a series of black-and-white photos of Morrison. Known as "The Young Lion" photo session, the pictures included the shot that was later featured on the Best of the Doors LP cover.

Morrison and fellow UCLA student Ray Manzarek were the founding members of The Doors. Shortly thereafter, drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger joined. Krieger auditioned at Densmore's recommendation, and was then added to the lineup.

While it is widely believed that the Doors took their name from the title of Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception (a reference to the 'unlocking' of 'doors' to perception through psychedelic drug use), Huxley's own title was a quote from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, in which Blake wrote that "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."

In June 1966, at the famed Whisky-A-Go-Go, The Doors were the opening act for the Northern Irish group Them, whose leader was Van Morrison. According to Ray Manzarek, in his book, Light My Fire, "Jim was transfixed by Van. He studied his every move. He put the eye on him and he absorbed....The last night... saw us all in a monster jam session...Jim Morrison and Van Morrison onstage at the same time! And singing 'Gloria.'"

Although Morrison is known as the lyricist for the group, Krieger also made significant lyrical contributions, writing or co-writing some of the group's biggest hits, including "Light My Fire," "Love Me Two Times," "Love Her Madly" and "Touch Me." Decades before music videos became commonplace, Morrison and The Doors produced a promotional film for "Break On Through," which was to be their first single release. The video featured the four members of the group playing the song on a darkened set with alternating views and close-ups of the performers while Morrison lip-synced the lyrics. Morrison and The Doors continued to make music videos, including "The Unknown Soldier", "Moonlight Drive", "Light my Fire", and "People Are Strange".

The Doors achieved national recognition after signing with Elektra Records in 1967. The single "Light My Fire" eventually reached number one on the Billboard Pop Singles chart.[6] Later, The Doors appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, a popular Sunday night variety series that had introduced The Beatles and a young, wriggling Elvis Presley to the nation. Ed Sullivan requested two songs from The Doors for the show, People are Strange, and Light My Fire. The censors insisted that they change the lyrics of "Light My Fire" from "Girl we couldn't get much higher" to "Girl we couldn't get much better." This was reportedly due to what could be perceived as a reference to drugs in the original lyric. During the rehersal, Jim changed the lyrics, to appear to be in compliance with host Ed Sullivan, Morrison then proceeded to sing the song with the original lyrics anyway, on live TV. He later said that he had simply forgotten to make the change. This infuriated Sullivan so much that he refused to shake their hands after their performance. They were never invited back. The Producer of the show screamed at the TV sets as Morrison sung the lyric, that The Doors would never do the Ed Sullivan show ever again. Jim came back to that comment by stating "Hey, we just did the Ed Sullivan show."

By the release of their second album, Strange Days, The Doors had become one of the most popular rock bands in the United States. Their blend of blues and rock tinged with psychedelia included a number of original songs and distinctive cover versions, such as the memorable rendition of "Alabama Song", from Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's operetta, "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny". The band also performed a number of extended concept works, including the songs "The End", "When The Music's Over", and "Celebration of the Lizard".

In 1968, The Doors released their third studio LP, Waiting for the Sun. Their fourth LP, The Soft Parade, was released in 1969. It was the first album where the individual band members were given credit on the inner-sleeve for the songs they had written.

After this, Morrison started to show up for recording sessions inebriated (he can be heard hiccuping on the song "Five To One"). He was also frequently late for live performances. As a result, the band would play instrumental music or force Ray Manzarek to take on the singing duties.

By 1969, the formerly svelte singer began to change his appearance. He gained weight, grew a beard, and began dressing more casually - abandoning the leather pants and concho belts for regular slacks, jeans and T-shirts.

During a 1969 concert at The Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami, Morrison attempted to spark a riot in the audience. He failed, but a warrant for his arrest was issued by the Dade County Police department three days later for indecent exposure. Consequently, many of The Doors' scheduled concerts were canceled. In the years following the incident, Morrison has been exonerated. In 2007 Florida Governor Charlie Crist suggested the possibility of a posthumous pardon for Morrison.

Following The Soft Parade, The Doors released the Morrison Hotel LP. After a lengthy break, the group reconvened in October 1970 to record their last LP with Morrison, L.A. Woman. Shortly after the recording sessions for the album began, producer Paul A. Rothchild -- who had overseen all their previous recordings -- left the project. Engineer Bruce Botnick took over as producer.

Solo: poetry and film

Morrison began writing in adolescence. In college, he studied the related fields of theater, film and cinematography.

He self-published two volumes of his poetry in 1969, The Lords / Notes on Vision and The New Creatures. Both works were dedicated to "Pamela Susan" (Courson). The Lords consists primarily of brief descriptions of places, people, events and Morrison's thoughts on cinema. The New Creatures verses are more poetic in structure, feel and appearance. These two books were later combined into a single volume titled The Lords and The New Creatures. These were the only writings published during Morrison's lifetime.

Morrison befriended Beat Poet Michael McClure. McClure wrote the Afterword for Danny Sugerman's biography of Morrison. McClure and Morrison reportedly collaborated on a number of unmade film projects, including a film version of McClure's infamous play The Beard in which Morrison would have played the role of Billy The Kid.

After his death, two volumes of poetry were published. The contents of the books were selected and arranged by Morrison's friend, photographer Frank Lisciandro, and girlfriend Pamela Courson's parents, who owned the rights to his poetry. The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison Volume 1 is titled Wilderness, and, upon its release in 1988, became an instant New York Times best seller. Volume 2, The American Night, released in [[1990], was also a success.

Morrison recorded his own poetry in a professional sound studio on two separate occasions. The first was in March 1969 in Los Angeles and the second was on December 8, 1970, his 27th birthday. The latter recording session was attended by personal friends of Morrison and included a variety of sketch pieces. Some of the segments from the 1969 session were issued on the bootleg album The Lost Paris Tapes and were later used as part of the Doors' An American Prayer album, released in 1978. The album reached number 54 on the music charts. The poetry recorded from the December 1970 session remains unreleased to this day and is in the possession of the Courson family.

Morrison's best-known but seldom seen cinematic endeavor is HWY: An American Pastoral, a project he started in 1969. Morrison financed the venture and formed his own production company in order to maintain complete control of the project. Paul Ferrara, Frank Lisciandro and Babe Hill assisted with the project. Morrison played the main character, a hitchhiker turned killer/car thief. This same or very similar character is alluded to in Riders On The Storm. Morrison asked his friend, composer/pianist Fred Myrow, to select the eclectic soundtrack for the film.[12][13] The film shows the influence of other producer-directors of independent art films, such as Andy Warhol, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Jean-Luc Godard.

A 2004 biography of Morrison says that Warhol asked Morrison to star with Nico in Warhol's I, a Man (1967) but was talked out of it by the management of The Doors. Morrison then asked his drinking buddy Tom Baker to play the lead role in the Warhol film.

Personal life

Morrison's family

Morrison's early life was a nomadic existence typical of military families.[14] Jerry Hopkins recorded Morrison's brother Andy explaining that his parents had determined never to use corporal punishment on their children, and instead instilled discipline and levied punishment by the military tradition known as "dressing down." This consisted of yelling at and berating the children until they were reduced to tears and acknowledged their failings. Andy said that although he could never keep from crying, his brother learned never to shed a tear.

Biographers record that during his youth, Morrison was a dutiful and respectful son who excelled at school and greatly enjoyed swimming and other outdoor activities. His parents hoped he would follow in his father's military footsteps and, for quite some time, Morrison was happy to emulate his father, intending to study at United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

In adolescence, however, Morrison discovered drinking and embarked on a lifelong pattern of alcoholism and substance abuse. He was often disruptive in class and became a discipline problem. For a few years, Jim lived with his grandparents. He would purposely go out late and come home drunk, much to his grandparents' disapproval. Neither of his grandparents drank alcohol, so he would leave empty wine bottles and beer cans in the garbage. He would often come home late and make a lot of noise solely to aggravate them.

Once Morrison graduated from UCLA, he broke off most of his family contact. By the time Morrison's music ascended the top of the charts in 1967, he had not been in communication with his family for more than a year and falsely claimed that his parents and siblings were dead (or claiming, as it has been widely misreported, that he was an only child). This misinformation was published as part of the materials distributed with the first Doors album.

In a letter to the Florida Probation and Parole Commission District Office, October 2, 1970, Morrison's father acknowledged the breakdown in family communications, the result of an argument over his assessment of his son's musical talents. He said he could not blame his son for being reluctant to initiate contact. He also stressed that he thought Jim was 'fundamentally a respectable citizen' and that he was proud of his son's progress.

Women in his life

Morrison met his long-term companion, Pamela Courson, well before he gained any fame or fortune, and she encouraged him to develop his poetry. At times, Courson used Morrison's name, with his apparent consent. After Courson's death in 1974, the probate court in California decided that she and Morrison had what qualified as a common law marriage (see below, under "Estate Controversy").

Courson and Morrison's relationship was a stormy one, however, with frequent loud arguments, and periods of separation followed by tearful reunions. Doors biographer Danny Sugerman surmised that part of their difficulties may have stemmed from a conflict between their respective commitments to an open relationship and the consequences of living in such a relationship.

In 1970, Morrison participated in a Celtic Pagan handfasting ceremony with rock critic and Science fiction/fantasy author Patricia Kennealy. Before witnesses, one of them a Presbyterian minister,[18] the couple signed a document declaring themselves wedded; however, none of the necessary paperwork for a legal marriage was filed with the state. Kennealy discussed her experiences with Morrison in her autobiography Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison, and in an interview reported in the book Rock Wives.

Morrison also regularly slept with fans and had numerous short flings with women who were celebrities in their own right, including one with Nico from The Velvet Underground, a one night stand with singer Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, an on again off again relationship with 16 Magazine's editor in chief Gloria Stavers, and an alleged alcohol-fueled encounter with Janis Joplin that left Joplin in tears. Judy Huddleston also recalls her relationship with Morrison in Living and Dying with Jim Morrison. At the time of his death, there were reportedly as many as 20 paternity actions pending against him, although no claims were made against his estate by any of the putative paternity claimants, and the only person making a public claim to being Morrison's son was shown to be a fraud.

Death

Morrison moved to Paris in March 1971, taking up residence in an apartment at 17 rue Beautreillis. Once in Paris, Morrison gained a great deal of weight and shaved off his beard.[20] By all accounts Morrison became very depressed while in Paris, and was planning to return to the US. However, he admired the city's architecture and would go for long walks through the city.

It was in Paris that Morrison made his last studio recording, with two American street musicians — a session dismissed by Manzarek as "drunken gibberish." Regardless, the session included an intriguing version of a song-in-progress, "Orange County Suite," which can be heard on the bootleg Lost Paris Tapes.

He died on July 3, 1971, at age 27, and, in one account of his death, was found in the rue Beautreillis apartment bathtub by Courson. Pursuant to French law, no autopsy was performed because the medical examiner claimed to have found no evidence of foul play. The absence of an official autopsy has left many questions regarding Morrison's cause of death.

In Wonderland Avenue, Danny Sugerman discussed his encounter with Courson after she returned to the United States. According to his account, Courson stated that Morrison had died of a heroin overdose. Courson said that Morrison inhaled the substance because he thought it was cocaine. Sugerman added that Courson had given numerous contradictory versions of Morrison's death, at times saying that she had killed Jim, or that his death was her fault. The majority of fans seem to have accepted the mistaken heroin overdose account. Courson herself died of a heroin overdose three years later. Like Morrison, she was 27 years old at the time of her death.

In a July 2007 newspaper interview, a self described close friend of Morrison's, Sam Bernett, announced that Morrison actually died of a heroin overdose in the bathroom of the Rock 'n' Roll Circus nightclub, on the Left Bank in Paris. Bernett stated that Morrison had snorted heroin and was found with foam and blood coming out of his mouth with his head and arms hanging down by his legs, sitting on the toilet a la Elvis. Bernett says that a doctor, who was among the patrons at the club that night, determined that Morrison had died, but other patrons disagreed and insisted that he was still alive, only unconscious. Morrison was then allegedly moved back to the rue Beautreillis apartment and dumped in the bathtub by the same two drug-dealers from whom Morrison had purchased the heroin. Bernett says those who saw Morrison that night were sworn to secrecy, in order to prevent a scandal for the famous club, and some of the witnesses immediately left the country. Bernett has authored a book entitled The End: Jim Morrison, in which these claims are discussed in more detail. This is just the latest of many conspiracies surrounding the death of Morrison.

While there are many conspiracy theories concerning Morrison's death, the official version is widely accepted as the most likely.

Grave site

Morrison is buried in the famous Père Lachaise cemetery in eastern Paris. The grave was unmarked until French officials placed a shield over it, which was subsequently stolen in 1973 by a thief identifying himself only as "Ian The Gecko". In 1981, Croatian sculptor Mladen Mikulin placed a bust of Jim's head on top of the gravestone to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Jim's death. The bust remained until 1988, when it was stolen. After that, the new headstone with Morrison's name was erected. The Greek inscription on the square headstone reads in capital letters ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ. The inscription means "True to his own spirit". The literal meaning is "according to his own demon"; "demon" in Ancient Greek means "god". Which means he lived and died according to his own personal beliefs. It also implies a minor deity, attendant spirit, luck, fortune, "guiding star" and the like, with no negative or pejorative connotations. Various erroneous interpretations of the inscription have been proposed, including, "down with his own demons" (presumably in Hell), "burnt by his demons", "with the devil himself."

Estate controversy

In his will, made in Los Angeles County on February 12, 1969, Morrison (who describes himself as "an unmarried person") left his entire estate to Pamela Courson, also naming her co-executor with his attorney, Max Fink. She thus inherited everything upon Morrison’s death in 1971.

When Courson died herself in 1974, a battle ensued between Morrison’s parents and Courson’s parents over who had legal claim to what had been Morrison’s estate. Since Morrison left a will, the question was effectively moot. On his death, his property became Courson’s property; and on her death, her property passed to her next heirs at law, who were her parents. Morrison's parents did not accept this and contested the will under which Courson and now her parents had inherited their son’s property.

To bolster their positions, Courson’s parents presented a document they claimed she had acquired in Colorado, apparently an application for a declaration that she and Morrison had contracted a common law marriage under the laws of that state. The ability to contract a common-law marriage was abolished in California in 1896, but the state's conflict of laws rules provided for recognition of common-law marriages lawfully contracted in foreign jurisdictions - and Colorado was one of the eleven U.S. jurisdictions that still recognized common-law marriage. So, as long as a common-law marriage was lawfully contracted under Colorado law, it was recognised as a marriage under California law.

It is not known whether Courson acquired the application before or after Morrison’s death, or indeed whether it was she or her parents who acquired it. In either case, Morrison, who did not fill it out or sign it, may have never known about the document, and neither Morrison nor Courson appear to have ever been residents of Colorado. But those facts would not necessarily be relevant to the court’s deliberation on the validity of a common-law marriage, since the determination would be made according to Colorado law. Many of the jurisdictions which still permitted the common law contract of a marriage provide that either party may demand a declaration that a common law marriage was contracted between them, whether the other party (if living) agrees or not. The burden of proof is on the applicant, in any case, to prove that a marriage existed. What is ironic in this case is that both of the alleged applicants were dead, and it was their parents who were trying to prove or disprove that there had been a common-law marriage.

Whatever the circumstances of the unsigned document and the court case, and the controversy surrounding it, the California probate court decided that Courson and Morrison had a common-law marriage under the laws of Colorado. The effect of the court's ruling was to close probate of Morrison's and Courson's estates, and reinforce the Courson family's hold on the inheritance.

Artistic roots

As a naval family, the Morrisons relocated frequently. Consequently, Morrison's early education was routinely disrupted as he moved from school to school. Nonetheless, he proved to be an intelligent and capable student drawn to the study of literature, poetry, religion, philosophy, and psychology, among other fields.

Biographers have consistently pointed to a number of writers and philosophers who influenced Morrison's thinking and, perhaps, behavior. Richard Fariña's 1966 novel Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me is thought to have inspired the title of the blues song featured on the L.A. Woman album. While still in his teens, Morrison discovered the works of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (after Morrison's death, Ray Manzarek opined that the nihilism of "Nietzsche killed Jim"). He was also drawn to the poetry of William Blake, Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud. Beat Generation writers, such as Jack Kerouac, also had a strong influence on Morrison's outlook and manner of expression; Morrison was eager to experience the life described in Kerouac's On the Road. He was similarly drawn to the works of the French writer Céline. Céline's book, Voyage au Bout de la Nuit (Journey to the End of the Night) and Blake's Auguries of Innocence both echo through one of Morrison's early songs, "End of the Night." Eventually Morrison got to meet and befriend Michael McClure, a well known beat poet. McClure had enjoyed Morrison's lyrics but was even more impressed by his poetry and encouraged him to further develop his craft.

Morrison's vision of performance was colored by the works of 20th century French playwright Antonin Artaud (author of Theater and its Double) and by Julian Beck's Living Theater, which perhaps influenced some of Jim's confrontational behaviour onstage, such as in the Miami incident. But perhaps the most influential work was a rather obscure, 19th century work by Charles Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Morrison began practicing MacKay's insights regarding influencing and manipulating crowds while still in college.

Other works relating to religion, mysticism, ancient myth and symbolism were of lasting interest, particularly Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces. James Frazer's The Golden Bough also became a source of inspiration and is reflected in the title and lyrics of the song "Not to Touch the Earth."

He apparently borrowed some wording from the King James New Testament. Matthew 7:13-14: “Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and... strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life,” which speaks of death and the afterlife, one of his common themes. Their first hit single “Break On Through” includes the lines: “Gate is straight, deep and wide—break on through to the other side.” Though most of “Light My Fire” was written by Krieger, the second verse was written by Morrison and includes the line “...no time to wallow in the mire,” a wording that could have been borrowed either from 2 Peter 2:22, which reads: “The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire,” or from Socrates’ deathbed statement, as recorded in Plato’s “Phaedo”: “...They said that whoever arrives in the underworld uninitiated and unsanctified will wallow in the mire....” Furthermore Huxley wrote "wallowing in muck isnt the best way to cleanse oneself".

Morrison was particularly attracted to the myths and religions of Native American cultures. While he was still in school, his family moved to New Mexico where he got to see some of the places and artifacts important to the Southwest Indigenous cultures. These interests appear to be the source of many references to creatures and places, such as lizards, snakes, deserts and "ancient lakes" that appear in his songs and poetry. His interpretation of the practices of a Native American "shaman" were worked into some of Morrison's stage routine, notably in his interpretation of the Ghost Dance, and a song on his later poetry album, The Ghost Song. The songs My Wild Love and Wild Child were also inspired by Native American rhythm and ritual. The latter piece can also be interpreted to be about one of Morrison's literary influences, Arthur Rimbaud.

Influence

Morrison remains one of the most popular and influential singers/writers in rock history, as The Doors' catalog has become a staple of classic rock radio stations. To this day, he is widely regarded as the prototypical rock star: surly, sexy, scandalous and mysterious, the necessary criteria for all "rock gods" to follow. The leather pants he was fond of wearing both onstage and off have since become stereotyped as rock star apparel. He was likely the model for other highly charismatic rock front men of the same era, including Roger Daltrey and Robert Plant.

Morrison has influenced many,[28] including Iggy Pop, Glenn Danzig, Bruce Springsteen, Marilyn Manson, Patti Smith, Echo and the Bunnymen, and Billy Idol among others.

The legendary punk prototypes Iggy and the Stooges are said to have formed after lead singer Iggy Pop was inspired by Morrison while attending a Doors concert in Ann Arbor, Michigan. One of his most popular songs, "The Passenger", is said to be based on one of Morrison's poems. After Morrison's death, Iggy was considered as a replacement for Morrison; the surviving Doors gave Iggy some of Morrison's belongings, and hired him as a vocalist for a series of shows.

Beat poet Michael McClure has written a poem, For Jim Morrison, in honor of their friendship. He recites this work at his poetry readings with some regularity, often to the accompaniment of Manzarek's keyboards.

On a more cerebral level, Wallace Fowlie, professor emeritus of French literature at Duke University and internationally recognized expert on the poet Arthur Rimbaud, wrote Rimbaud and Jim Morrison, subtitled "The Rebel as Poet – A Memoir." In this book, Fowlie recounts his surprise at receiving a fan letter from Morrison who, in 1968, thanked him for his latest translation of Rimbaud's verse into English. "I don't read French easily", he wrote, "...your book travels around with me." Fowlie went on to give lectures on numerous campuses comparing the lives, philosophies and poetry of Morrison and Rimbaud.

At the instigation of third baseman Robin Ventura, the 2000 pennant-winning New York Mets adopted Morrison's "L.A. Woman" as their theme song. The song was played regularly over the loudspeakers during games, with the crowd chanting the "Mojo Risin'" refrain.

In 2007 it was announced that a charity, Global Cool, focusing on eliminating global warming, was commissioning a song to be made out of a poem Morrison had written, entitled "Woman in the Window". It will be released on Satellite Party's debut album, Ultra Payloaded.

He also serves as the inspiration for WWE wrestler John Hennigan's "John Morrison" character.

Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page

James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE (born 9 January 1944) is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds, from late 1966 to 1968, before founding English rock band Led Zeppelin. Page has been described as "unquestionably one of the all-time most influential, important, and versatile guitarists and songwriters in rock history."

In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #9 in their ranking of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Page also has the distinction of having been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice as a member of both The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin

Formative years

Page was born in the west London suburb of Heston, which today forms part of the London Borough of Hounslow. His father was an industrial personnel manager and his mother was a doctor's secretary. In 1952 they moved to Miles Road, Epsom. Jimmy Page first picked up the guitar when he was 12 years old and although he took a few lessons in nearby Kingston, was largely self-taught. His early influences were rockabilly guitarists Scotty Moore and James Burton, who both played on recordings made by Elvis Presley, and Johnny Halliday, who played guitar for The Everly Brothers. The Presley song "Baby Let's Play House" was an early favourite on one of his first electric guitars, a second hand 1959 Futurama Grazioso. Page's musical tastes also encompassed acoustic folk playing, particularly that of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, and the blues sounds of Elmore James and B.B. King. At the age of 14, Page appeared on Huw Wheldon's All Your Own talent quest programme in a skiffle duo, a popular English music genre of the time. One performance was televised. Page said in an interview with Guitar Player magazine, "There was a lot of busking in the early days, but as I say, I had to come to grips with it, and it was a good schooling."

Page would take a guitar to school each day and have it confiscated and handed back to him at 4.00 pm. He was interested in science and had an interview for a job as a Laboratory Assistant, but he chose to leave school to pursue music instead [6] and after brief stints backing Beat poet Royston Ellis and singer Red E. Lewis, Page was asked by singer Neil Christian to join his band The Crusaders. Page toured with Christian for approximately two years and later played on several of his records, including the November 1962 single, "The Road to Love".

During his stint with Christian, Page fell seriously ill with glandular fever and couldn't continue touring. While recovering, Page decided to put his musical career on the shelf and concentrate on his other love, painting. He enrolled at Sutton Art College in Surrey.

Session player

While still a student, Page would often jam on stage at The Marquee with bands such as Cyril Davies' All Stars, Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated and with guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. He was spotted one night by John Gibb of The Silhouettes, who asked him to help record a number of singles for EMI, including "The Worrying Kind". It wasn't until an offer from Mike Leander of Decca Records that Page was to receive regular studio work. His first session for the label was the recording "Diamonds" by Jet Harris and Tony Meehan which went to Number 1 on the singles chart in early 1963.

After brief stints with Carter-Lewis and the Southerners, Mike Hurst's group, and Mickey Finn and the Blue Men, Page committed himself to full-time session work. As a session guitarist he was known as 'Little Jim' so there was no confusion with Big Jim Sullivan i.e. 'Big Jim'. Page was the favoured session guitarist of producer Shel Talmy, and therefore he ended up doing session work on songs for The Who and The Kinks as a direct result of the Talmy connection.

Page's studio output in 1964 included Marianne Faithfull's "As Tears Go By", The Nashville Teens' "Tobacco Road", The Rolling Stones' "Heart of Stone" (alternate version), Van Morrison & Them's "Baby Please Don't Go" and "Here Comes the Night", Dave Berry's "The Crying Game" and "My Baby Left Me", and Brenda Lee's "Is It True". Under the auspices of producer Talmy, Page contributed to The Kinks' 1964 debut album (although, despite rumours to the contrary, he did not play any of the guitar solos); and he sat in on the sessions for The Who's first single "I Can't Explain" (although his guitar parts may not appear on the final mix), but he played on the B-side "Bald Headed Woman".

In 1965, Page was hired by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham to act as house producer and A&R man for the newly-formed Immediate Records label, which also allowed him to play on and/or produce tracks by John Mayall, Nico, Chris Farlowe, Twice as Much and Eric Clapton. Page also formed a brief songwriting partnership with then romantic interest, Jackie DeShannon. He worked as session musician on the Al Stewart album Love Chronicles in 1969, and played guitar on five tracks of Joe Cocker's debut album, With a Little Help from My Friends.

When questioned about which songs he played on, especially ones where some controversy as to what his exact role was, Page often points out that it is hard to remember exactly what he did given the huge amount of sessions he was playing at the time. Various estimates have him playing on anything from 50% to 90% of the records that were produced in England between 1963 and 1965.

Although Page recorded with many notable musicians, many of these early tracks are only available through bootlegged copies, several of which were released by the Led Zeppelin fan club in the late 1970s. The records released by the fan club include many otherwise unreleased live Led Zeppelin recordings. One of the rarest of these is the early jam session featuring Jimmy Page playing with Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, featuring a cover of "Little Queen of Spades" by the blues legend Robert Johnson.

The Yardbirds

In late 1964 Page was approached about the possibility of replacing Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds, but he declined the offer out of loyalty to his friend, Clapton. In February 1965 Clapton quit the Yardbirds, and Page was formally offered Clapton's spot, but because he was unwilling to give up his lucrative career as a session musician, and because he was still worried about his health under touring conditions, he suggested his friend, Jeff Beck, fill the position. On May 16, 1966, drummer Keith Moon, bass player John Paul Jones, keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, Jeff Beck and Page recorded "Beck's Bolero" in London's IBC Studios. The experience gave Page an idea to form a new supergroup featuring Beck, along with The Who's John Entwistle on bass and Keith Moon on drums, however the lack of a quality vocalist and contractual problems brought the project to a halt.

Within weeks, Page was again offered a spot in the Yardbirds and at first played bass guitar with the group after the departure of Paul Samwell-Smith, before finally switching to twin lead guitar with Beck when Chris Dreja moved to bass. The musical potential of the line-up however was scuttled by interpersonal conflicts caused by constant touring and a lack of commercial success, although they released one single, "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago". (While Page and Jeff Beck played together in The Yardbirds, the trio of Page, Beck and Eric Clapton never played in the original group all at the same time. The three guitarists did appear on stage together at the ARMS charity concerts in 1983.)

After Beck's departure, the Yardbirds remained a quartet. They recorded one album with Page on lead guitar, Little Games. The album received indifferent reviews and was not a commercial success, peaking at only number 80 on the Billboard Music Charts. Though their studio sound was fairly commercial at the time, the band's live performances were in total contrast with this, becoming heavier and more experimental. These concerts featured musical aspects that Page would later perfect with Led Zeppelin, most notably performances of Jake Holmes' version of "Dazed and Confused".

Despite the departure of Keith Relf and Jim McCarty in 1968, Page wished to continue the group with a new line-up to fulfill unfinished tour dates in Scandinavia. He recruited vocalist Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham, and was contacted by John Paul Jones who asked to join, to which Page agreed. During the Scandinavian tour the new group appeared as "The New Yardbirds", but Keith Moon, the drummer of The Who, suggested that Jimmy Page's new band would go over like a "Lead Zeppelin." Jimmy Page stuck with that name to use for his new band. The band later changed it to "Led Zeppelin," to avoid a mispronounciation of "Leed Zeppelin."

Led Zeppelin

Influence

Page's past experiences both in the studio and with the Yardbirds were very influential in contributing to the success of Led Zeppelin in the 1970s. As a producer, composer, and guitarist he helped make Led Zeppelin a prototype for many future rock bands, and was one of the major driving forces behind the rock sound of that era, influencing a host of other guitarists. For example, his sped up, downstroke guitar riff in "Communication Breakdown" is cited as guitarist Johnny Ramone's inspiration for his punk-defining, strictly downstroke guitar strumming, while Page's landmark guitar solo from the song "Heartbreaker" has been credited by Eddie Van Halen as the inspiration for his two-hand tapping technique after he saw Led Zeppelin perform in 1972. Page's solo in the famous epic "Stairway to Heaven" has been voted by readers of various guitar magazines, including Guitar World and Total Guitar as the greatest guitar solo of all time, and he was named 'Guitarist of the Year' five years straight during the 1970s by Creem magazine.

Music composition

For the composition of the bulk of Led Zeppelin songs, Page adopted his trademark Gibson Les Paul guitar and Marshall amplification, although he also often used a Supro amplifier and a Telecaster guitar in the recording studio. His use of the Sola Sound Tone Bender Professional MKII fuzzbox ("How Many More Times"), slide guitar ("You Shook Me", "Dancing Days", "In My Time of Dying"), pedal steel guitar ("Your Time Is Gonna Come", "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You", "Tangerine", "That's the Way" and for effect at the very end of "Over the Hills and Far Away"), and acoustic guitar ("Gallows Pole", "Ramble On") also demonstrated his versatility and creativity as a composer.

Page is famous for playing his guitar with a cello bow, as on the songs "Dazed and Confused", "How Many More Times" and in the interlude of "Whole Lotta Love". This was a technique he developed during his session days, although strictly speaking he was not the first guitarist to use a violin bow, since Eddie Phillips of The Creation had done so prior to Page. The Creation was one of the bands managed by Shel Talmy, whom Page had worked for as a session musician.[9] On MTV's Led Zeppelin Rockumentary, Page said that he obtained the idea of playing the guitar with a bow from David McCallum, Sr. who was also a session musician. Page used his Fender Telecaster and later his Gibson Les Paul for his bow solos.

On a number of Led Zeppelin songs Page experimented with feedback devices and a theremin. He used a Wah-wah pedal but not always in the traditional way of rocking it back and forth as done by Jimi Hendrix and other contemporaries; instead, he put it fully forward in the treble position to get a sharper tone.

Music production techniques

Page is widely credited for the innovations in sound recording he brought to the studio during the years he was a member of Led Zeppelin.[citation needed] During the late 1960s, most British music producers placed microphones directly in front of amplifiers and drums, resulting in the sometimes "tinny" sound of the recordings of the era. Page commented to Guitar World magazine that he felt the drum sounds of the day in particular "sounded like cardboard boxes." Instead, Page was a fan of 1950s recording techniques; Sun Studios being a particular favourite. In the same Guitar World interview, Page remarked, "Recording used to be a science," and "[engineers] used to have a maxim: distance equals depth." Taking this maxim to heart, Page developed the idea of placing an additional microphone some distance from the amplifier (as much as twenty feet) and then recording the balance between the two. By adopting this technique, Page became one of the first British producers to record a band's "ambient sound" - the distance of a note's time-lag from one end of the room to the other. This technique was constantly adapted and developed, to the point where he placed microphones in hallways, which is how he achieved the distinctive drum sound for "When the Levee Breaks".

For the recording of several Led Zeppelin tracks, such as "Whole Lotta Love" and "You Shook Me", Page additionally utilised "backward echo" - a technique which he is widely believed to have invented himself whilst with The Yardbirds (he had originally developed the method when recording the 1967 single "Ten Little Indians").This production technique involved hearing the echo before the main sound instead of after it, achieved by turning the tape over and employing the echo on a spare track, then turning the tape back over again to get the echo preceding the signal.

Page has stated that, as producer, he deliberately changed the audio engineers on Led Zeppelin albums, from Glyn Johns for the first album, to Eddie Kramer for Led Zeppelin II, to Andy Johns for Led Zeppelin III and later albums. He explained that "I consciously kept changing engineers because I didn't want people to think that they were responsible for our sound. I wanted people to know it was me."

Post-Led Zeppelin career

Led Zeppelin disbanded in 1980 following the death of drummer John Bonham at Page's home, The Old Mill House at Clewer in Berkshire. Page made a successful return to the stage with the A.R.M.S. (Action Research for Multiple Sclerosis) charity series of concerts in 1983 which honoured Small Faces bass player Ronnie Lane, who suffered from the disease. A 1984 video of a London A.R.M.S. concert was released featuring two songs from Page's work on the Death Wish II soundtrack, featuring Steve Winwood on vocals, and an onstage jam of "Layla" reunited Page with Yardbirds guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. During the tour Page looked extremely thin and frail. According to the book Hammer of the Gods, Page reportedly told friends that he'd just given up heroin after seven years of use.

Page next linked up with Roy Harper for an album (Whatever Happened to Jugula?) and occasional concerts, performing a predominantly acoustic set at folk festivals under various guises such as the MacGregors, and Themselves. In 1984, Page recorded with former Zeppelin vocalist, Robert Plant as The Honeydrippers. He also teamed up with Paul Rodgers of Bad Company and Free fame to record two albums under the name The Firm. The first album was the self-titled The Firm, followed by Mean Business in 1986. Popular songs included the commercially successful "Radioactive", and "Closer", which employs a horn section to subtle effect. The cover version of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" featured vocals by Paul Rodgers but was never released as a single. The album peaked at #17 on the Billboard's Pop Albums chart. Various other projects soon followed such as session work for Graham Nash, Box of Frogs, the Rolling Stones (on their 1986 single "One Hit (to the Body)"), and Robert Plant, a solo album Outrider, a collaboration with David Coverdale in Coverdale-Page. In addition, he also collaborated with director Michael Winner to record the Death Wish II and subsequent Death Wish 3 soundtrack, released in 1982 and 1985 respectively.

The surviving members of Led Zeppelin re-formed in 1985 for the Live Aid concert with both Phil Collins and Tony Thompson filling drum duties. However, the band considered their performance to be sub-standard, and were one of the few Live Aid acts to refuse permission for their segment to be included in the 20th anniversary DVD release of the concert. In 1986, Page reunited temporarily with his Yardbirds bandmates to play on several tracks of the Box of Frogs album Strange Land. The band also re-formed for the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary show on 14 May, 1988. Page, Plant and Jones, as well as John Bonham's son Jason Bonham closed the 12-hour show. The band have also played together at various private family functions.

In 1990, a Knebworth concert to aid the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre and the British School for Performing Arts and Technolog saw Plant unexpectedly joined by Page to perform "Misty Mountain Hop", "Wearing and Tearing" and "Rock and Roll".

In 1994, Page reunited with Plant for the penultimate performance in MTV's "Unplugged" series. The 90-minute special, dubbed Unledded, premiered to the highest ratings in MTV's history. In October of the same year, the session was released as the CD No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded, and in 2004 as the DVD No Quarter Unledded. Following a highly successful mid-90s tour to support No Quarter, Page and Plant recorded 1998's Walking into Clarksdale.

Since 1990, Page has been heavily involved in remastering the entire Led Zeppelin back catalogue and is currently participating in various charity concerts and charity work, particularly the Action for Brazil's Children Trust (ABC Trust), founded by his wife Jimena Gomez-Paratcha in 1998. In the same year, Page played guitar for rap singer/producer Puff Daddy's song "Come with Me," which heavily samples Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" and was included in the soundtrack of Godzilla. The two later performed the song on Saturday Night Live. A live album and tour with The Black Crowes follow in 1999. In 2001 he made an appearance on stage with Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst and Wes Scantlin of Puddle of Mudd at the MTV Europe Video Music Awards in Frankfurt, where they performed a version of Led Zeppelin's "Thank You".

In 2005, Page was awarded the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his Brazilian charity work, made an honorary citizen of Rio de Janeiro later that year, and was awarded a Grammy award.

In November 2006, Led Zeppelin were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame. The television broadcasting of the event consisted of an introduction to the band by various famous admirers, a presentation of an award to Jimmy Page and then a short speech by the guitarist. After this, rock group Wolfmother played a tribute to Led Zeppelin, playing the song "Communication Breakdown".[15][16]

On 6 January 2007, Page was featured at #19 on Channel 4's The Ultimate Hellraiser, a countdown of music's top 25 who "lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle". The show's reason for featuring Page was almost exclusively attributed to the groupies who toured with Led Zeppelin. In addition, many of John Bonham's shenanigans (for example driving a motorcycle down a hotel corridor) were blamed on Page.

New album

In 2006, Page attended the induction of Led Zeppelin to the UK Music Hall of Fame. During an interview for the BBC for said event, he expressed plans to record new material in 2007, saying "It's an album that I really need to get out of my system... there's a good album in there and it's ready to come out" and "Also there will be some Zeppelin things on the horizon".

Personal life

Page is a fan of Chelsea FC.

Page's daughter, Scarlet Page, is a respected photographer. Her mother, Charlotte Martin, is an ex-girlfriend of Eric Clapton.

In 1972 Page bought, from Richard Harris, the home which William Burges designed for himself in London, The Tower House. "I had an interest going back to my teens in the pre-Raphaelite movement and the architecture of Burges," he said. "What a wonderful world to discover." The reputation of William Burges (1827-1881) rests on his extravagant designs and his contribution to the Gothic revival in architecture in the nineteenth century.

From the mid 1970s to 2004 Jimmy owned 'The Mill House', Mill Lane, Windsor, UK - formerly the home of actor Michael Caine. Fellow Led Zeppelin band member John Bonham died at the house in 1980.

From the early 1970s to well into the 1980s, Jimmy Page owned the Boleskine House, the former residence of occultist Aleister Crowley. Sections of Page's fantasy sequence in The Song Remains the Same were filmed at night on the mountain side directly behind Boleskine House.

Occult Connections

In the early 1970s, Jimmy Page owned an occult bookshop and publishing house, "The Equinox Booksellers and Publishers" in Kensington High Street, London, eventually closing it as the increasing success of Led Zeppelin resulted in his having insufficient time to devote to it. The company published a facsimile of Crowley's 1904 edition of "The Goetia". The seriousness of Page's intent was demonstrated by the dust wrapper being printed on the notoriously fragile camel hair paper of the original.

What made people particularly curious about Page's connection with the occult was the appearance of four symbols on the jacket of Led Zeppelin's fourth album. It was generally accepted that the four symbols represented each member of the band. During tours and performances after the release of Led Zeppelin IV, he often had zodiac symbols embroidered on his clothes (referred to as his "Dragon Suit", it included the signs for Capricorn, Scorpio and Cancer which are Page's Sun, Ascendant and Moon signs, respectively) along with the so-called "ZoSo" symbol. This fueled the curiosity of many fans who went to great lengths to find out what the symbols meant. The source of the ZoSo symbol itself is no longer a mystery but the meaning of it still is; it originated in 'Ars Magica Arteficii' (1557) by J Cardan, an old alchemical grimoire, where it has been identified as a sigil consisting of zodiac signs. The sigil is reproduced in "Dictionary of Occult, Hermetic and Alchemical Sigils" by Fred Gettings, published in 1982 by Routledge & Kegan Paul (see here). It had previously been conjectured that the symbol was derived from various occult and mystical sources, most notably The Kabbalah, a stylised "666" from Aleister Crowley's Equinox publication or from Austin Osman Spare's "Zos Speaks"' but these are now considered to be probably incorrect. It has also been alleged that the symbol is merely a doodle that Page scribbled while on the telephone. Page will still not comment on the symbol's meaning.

The artwork inside the album cover of Led Zeppelin IV is from the traditional Rider/Waite Tarot card design for the card called "The Hermit". Page transforms into this character during his segment of the movie "The Song Remains the Same".

The artwork for the Swan Song Records label (see here), which was a record label launched by Led Zeppelin on May 10, 1974, as a vehicle for the band to promote its own products. The Swan Song company logo, depicting a writhing winged man (sans genitalia) in the sky, was based on Evening, Fall of Day (1869) by painter William Rimmer, featuring a picture of the mythological Greek god of light and reason, Apollo, although often it is misinterpreted as the classical Greek hero Icarus, who flew too close to the Sun, or Lucifer, a fallen angel who was cast out of heaven and then became Satan.

During the time of the PMRC hearing of the 1980s there were some accusations claiming the song "Stairway to Heaven" had satanic reverse-audio messages (known at the time as "backwards masking") in the verse that starts with the line 'If there's a bustle in your hedgerow'.

Page was commissioned to write the soundtrack music for the film Lucifer Rising by another occultist and Crowley admirer, underground movie director Kenneth Anger. Page even allowed Anger to film a portion of this movie in the basement of Tower House (Page's London residence). In the end Page only produced 23 minutes of music which Anger felt were useless. Anger claimed Page took three years to deliver the music, and the final product was only 23 minutes of droning. On top of that, the director slammed the guitarist in the press by calling him a "dabbler" in the occult and an addict. Anger accused Page of "having an affair with the White Lady" and being too strung out on drugs to complete the project. Page countered claiming he had fulfilled all his obligations, even going so far as to lend Anger his own film editing equipment to help him finish the project. Page's music was dumped eventually and replaced by a version completed in 1980 from prison by Bobby Beausoleil, a Charles Manson family member and convicted murderer. Bootlegs of Page's soundtrack for the project exist and were highly prized by Page's fans until an album also titled "Lucifer Rising" was released by Boleskine House Records on June 19, 1987. The blue vinyl disc contains all 23 minutes of the soundtrack music that Page provided for the movie. The introduction to Led Zeppelin's song "In the Evening" is said to be taken from the unfinished soundtrack, most of which was recorded by running a guitar through a synthesiser.

Cocaine and heroin abuse

Page himself has admitted to heavy use of drugs throughout the 1970s. In an interview he gave to Guitar World magazine in 2003, he stated that:

“ I can't speak for the [other members of the band], but for me drugs were an integral part of the whole thing, right from the beginning, right to the end ”.

In 1973 Led Zeppelin's main choice of drug was cocaine, with Page, drummer John Bonham along with manager Peter Grant and tour manager Richard Cole, becoming regular users. After the band's concert tour of the United States in that year, Page told Nick Kent:

“ Oh, everyone went over the top a few times. I know I did and, to be honest with you, I don't really remember much of what happened ”.

In 1976, Page began to use heroin, a fact attributed to Richard Cole, who stated that Page (as well as himself) was taking the drug during the recording sessions of the album Presence in that year, and that Page admitted to him shortly afterwards that he was addicted to the drug. He took up heavy smoking in the same year in attempts to curb cravings for his developing drug addiction.[citation needed]

By 1977, Page's heroin addiction was beginning to hamper his guitar playing performances as exhibited on a number of Led Zeppelin bootleg recordings from their 1977 tour of the United States. By this time the guitarist had lost a noticeable amount of weight. His onstage appearance was not the only obvious change, his addiction caused Page to become so inward and isolated it altered the dynamic between him and Plant considerably. During the recording sessions for In Through The Out Door in 1978, Page's diminished influence on the album (relative to bassist John Paul Jones) is partly attributed to his ongoing heroin addiction, which resulted in his absence from the studio for large periods of time.

Page reportedly kicked his heroin habit in the early 1980s. In a 1988 interview with Musician magazine, Page took offence when the interviewer noted that heroin had been associated with his name, and insisted that "I'm not an addict, thank you very much."

Brian May

Brian May

Brian Harold May CBE (born July 19, 1947) is a British musician best known as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for the British rock band Queen. As a guitarist, he is known for his memorable riffs and solos, distinctive tone, as well as for the fact that he built (with his father) his own guitar, called the "Red Special". He is also cited as a pioneer of the delay effect. He wrote many of Queen's most famous songs and biggest hits, including "We Will Rock You", "Fat Bottomed Girls", "Tie Your Mother Down", "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "I Want It All". He is often described as a virtuoso. He also has had a long-term interest in astrophysics, having recently completed his doctoral thesis in the subject.

In 2005 Brian May was voted the 7th greatest guitarist in classic rock music history in a poll conducted by Planet Rock Radio. May was also ranked as the 39th best guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine

Biography

May was born in Hampton, in Middlesex, and attended Hampton Grammar School (now Hampton School). And May is known for being rather quiet and reserved at parties. He has stated in interviews that he suffered from depression in the late 1980s, even to the point of contemplating suicide,[9] and that drug use would have worsened any problems he faced. At the time, during the recording sessions of the Queen album The Miracle, he was splitting up with his wife Chrissy, his father died, and as a result of Freddie Mercury's illness, Queen retired from touring.

May's father Harold had been a longtime cigarette-smoker, and this likely contributed to his early death. As a result, May dislikes smoking, even to the point where he specifically prohibits smoking indoors at his more recent concerts. He often writes about his opinion on smoking on his website: http://brianmay.com.

His avoidance of alcohol can be traced to an early concert where Queen played with the band Aerosmith, and May had a conversation with fellow guitarist Joe Perry backstage. Perry brought out a bottle of whisky, which the two drank between themselves. May felt so unpleasant during the concert that he promised himself never to have more than one drink before playing. [citation needed]

May married actress Anita Dobson, who played Angie Watts in EastEnders, on November 18, 2000. He has three children: James (Jimmy) (1978), Louisa (1981), and Emily Ruth (1987) from his first marriage to Chrissy Mullens. May lives in West End, Surrey (as of 12 October 2006 - Woking News and Mail).

May has played a range of guitars, most often the "Red Special," which he designed with his father, Harold May, and built with wood from a 19th century fireplace. His comments on this instrument, from Queen In Their Own Words (ed. Mick St. Michael, Omnibus Press, 1992, p. 62) are:

“ I like a big neck – thick, flat and wide. I lacquered the fingerboard with Rustin's Plastic Coating. The tremolo is interesting in that the arm's made from an old bicycle saddle bag carrier, the knob at the end's off a knitting needle and the springs are valve springs from an old motorbike. ”

In addition to using his home-made guitar he prefers to use coins (especially sixpence coins), instead of a more traditional plastic plectrum, on the basis that their rigidity gives him more control in playing. He is known to carry coins in his pockets specifically for this purpose.

May's early heroes were Cliff Richard and The Shadows, who he says were "the most metallic thing out at the time." Many years later he gained his opportunity to play on separate occasions with both Cliff Richard and Shadows lead guitarist Hank Marvin. He has collaborated with Cliff Richard on a re-recording of the Cliff Richard and The Shadows (then known as The Drifters) 1958 hit "Move It" on the Cliff Richard duets album Two's Company which was released on 6 November 2006.

May was proud upon hearing that Cliff Richard had mentioned in an interview that he would have Brian May in his personal fantasy band. As well as recording with Hank Marvin, May also contributed to the 1996 album Twang!: A Tribute to Hank Marvin & the Shadows, playing FBI. The album featured many other renowned guitarists.

In Queen's three-part vocal harmonies, his was generally the lower-range backing vocal. On some of his songs he sings the lead vocal, most notably the first verse of Who Wants to Live Forever, and also "Some Day One Day," "All Dead, All Dead," "Long Away," "Leaving Home Ain't Easy," "Good Company," "Sleeping on the Sidewalk" and "'39."

Throughout recent years, he has overseen the re mastering of Queen albums and various DVD and Greatest Hits releases. In 2004, he announced that he and drummer Roger Taylor were going on tour for the first time in 18 years as "Queen", along with Free/Bad Company vocalist Paul Rodgers. Billed as "Queen + Paul Rodgers", the band has played throughout 2005 and 2006 in South Africa, Western Europe, Japan, and North America.

In the Queen's birthday honours list of 2005, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire "for services to the music industry".

During the time in which Brian May and his father were building the Red Special, May also produced plans to build a second guitar. However, so successful was the Red Special, that May simply had no need to build another guitar. These plans were eventually given to guitar luthier Andrew Guyton in around 2004/05, some slight modifications were made and the guitar was built. It was named "The Spade", as the shape of the body resembled the form shown on playing cards. However the guitar also came to be known as "The Guitar That Time Forgot". As yet, this guitar has not been used in any recordings and remains in May's possession.

Highlights

Brian May began composing in 1968/1969, and has covered a wide variety of styles during his career. Through the years he wrote some songs with other people, such as "Too Much Love Will Kill You", composed with Frank Musker and Elizabeth Lamers, which won Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically & Lyrically in 1996. As a meticulous arranger, he focused on multi-part harmonies, often more contrapuntal than parallel — a rarity for rock guitar. Examples are found in Queen's albums A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, where he arranged a jazz band for guitar mini-orchestra ("Good Company"), a vocal canon ("The Prophet's Song") and guitar and vocal counterpoints ("Teo Torriatte").

As a performer, he is primarily respected as a guitarist. May explored a wide variety of styles in guitar as well. Playing lead some of his best works include sweep picking ("Was It All Worth It"), tapping ("Bijou","It's Late","Resurrection", "Cyborg"), Hendrix-like licks ("Liar", "Brighton Rock") and melodic parts ("Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "These Are the Days of Our Lives"). Some of his solos and orchestral parts were composed by Freddie Mercury, who then asked May to bring them to life ("Bicycle Race", "Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon"). May also performed notable acoustic works, including "Love of My Life" from 1975's A Night at the Opera, the fingerpicked solo of "White Queen", and the skiffle-influenced "'39".

Aided by the uniqueness of his guitar—the Red Special—May was often able to create strange and unusual sound effects. For example, he was able to imitate an orchestra in the song "Procession", in "Get Down, Make Love", he was able to create sound effects with his guitar that were so unusual that many thought a synthesizer was being used. In "Good Company" he used his guitar to mimic a trombone, a piccolo and several other instruments for the song's Dixieland jazz band feel.

May's abilities are not restricted to one instrument. During his Queen days he performed ukulele ("Good Company" and "Bring Back That Leroy Brown") and sometimes piano, detaching on a soft and gentle style ("All Dead, All Dead", "Save Me", "Dear Friends"). He also played part of the synthesizer intro to "One Vision". He recorded some other instruments (maracas, banjo, etc), including the harp on "Love of My Life", which was recorded in overdubs and mixed to sound as one performance.

May is also an accomplished singer. His wide vocal range went from notes around low A (110 Hz) to very high tenor Ds and Es (mostly in his solo career). Occasionally he contributed falsetto parts as well ("Ogre Battle", "Why Don't We Try Again"). From Queen's Queen II to Hot Space, May contributed lead vocals to at least one song per album.

Equipment

Most of May's guitar work was done on the Red Special. However, he has used a number of other electric guitars, including a Burns Double Six (Long Away), a Gibson Les Paul (as a backup during the early tours.), a Gibson Flying V (spare during Hot Space tour), a Fender Telecaster (Crazy Little Thing Called Love), an Ibanez JS (Nothing But Blue),a Greco BM90 (featured in the promo video of "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy", but was not actually used in the studio), a Tōkai Hummingbird Acoustic on some recordings, and a Parker Fly (Mother Love).

In early Queen tours he had a Stratocaster as spare guitar, replacing it with a Les Paul Deluxe in 1974, then a John Birch replica of his Red Special the next year. In a concert in the States on the 1982 Hot Space North American tour, he got frustrated with that instrument and smashed it, thereafter using a Gibson Flying V until he got more suitable replicas of his beloved Red Special. In 1984 Guild released the first official Red Special replica for mass production, and made some prototypes specifically for May. However the solid body construction (the original RS has hollow cavities in the body) and the pickups (DiMarzio) that were not an exact replica of the Burns TriSonic didn't make May happy, so the production stopped after just 300 guitars. In 1993 Guild made a second replica of the RS, made in just 1000 copies, of which May has some and used as a backup. At the moment, he uses the 2 guitars made by Greg Fryer—the luthier who restored the Old Lady in 1998—as backup. They are really identical to the original, except for the Fryer logo on the headstock (May's original one has a sixpence).

For acoustic guitars, he mostly used Ovation 12-Strings, Martins, and a Gibson Chet Atkins for nylon-string parts. He created the unique "buzzing" tone heard on "White Queen (As It Began)" and "Jealousy" by placing pieces of piano wire under the frets. His ukulele was Aloha. Pianos he recorded include Bosendorfers, although in concerts he relied on Freddie Mercury's Steinway. May used Yamaha DX7 synths for some of his most memorable inputs: the opening sequence of "One Vision" and the backgrounds of "Who Wants to Live Forever", "Scandal" and "The Show Must Go On".

May was keen on using some toys as instruments as well. Some of his early acoustic works were done on a cheap Hairfred he had conserved from his childhood. He also used a Yamaha plastic piano in Teo Torriatte, a "genuine George Formby Ukulele-Banjo" in Bring Back That Leroy Brown and a toy mini koto in The Prophet's Song.

May has used Vox AC-30 amplifiers almost exclusively since a meeting with his long time hero Rory Gallagher at a gig in London during the late 60s/early 70s. His choice is the model AC30TBX, the top-boost version with Blue Alnico speakers, and he runs the amp at full volume on the Normal channel. He also customizes his amps by removing the circuitry for the Brilliant and Vib-trem channels (leaving only the circuitry for the Normal), and this alters the tone slightly, with a gain addition of 6-7dB. He always used a 'treble booster pedal' of some kind which, along with the AC-30, went a long way in helping to create many of his signature guitar tones. He used the Dallas Rangemaster for the first Queen albums, up to A Day at the Races. Then, effects guru Pete Cornish built for him the TB-83 (32dB of gain) that used for all the remaining Queen albums. He switched in 2000 to the Fryer's booster, which actually gives less boost than the TB-83.

Live, he uses banks of AC-30 amplifiers keeping some amps with only guitar and others with all effects such as delay, flanger and chorus. He has a rack of 14 AC30s, which are grouped as Normal, Chorus, Delay 1, Delay 2. On his pedal board, May has a custom switch unit made by Cornish and subsequently modified by Fryer that allows him to choose which amps are active. He uses a BOSS pedal from the 70s, the Chorus Ensemble CE-1, which you can hear in In The Lap of The Gods (Live at Wembley '86) or Hammer to Fall (slow version played live with P. Rodgers). Next in the chain, he uses a Foxx Foot Phaser (We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, Keep Yourself Alive, etc), a wah-wah pedal (I Want to Break Free solo) that May doesn't use in the conventional way but to give different tones, and two delay machines to play his trademark Brighton Rock solo.

Another particular choice of May is the plectrum: he uses an English Sixpence coin from the '60s. This gives a mysterious, clean and crystalline tone. Bandmate and electrical engineer John Deacon also built May a small DC-powered amplifier which he often used when recording. Known as the 'Deacy amp', it was reproduced as the "Brian May Special" by Vox in 2003. Vox have also released a Brian May custom AC-30 model with a single volume control and a rear mounted guitar input jack so multiple amps can be stacked on top of each other. The Digitech corporation recently released a pedal called the "Brian May Red Special" from its artist series of pedals made to emulate the tones of famous guitarist. This particular pedal is made to simulate the tones from seven Queen hits, as well as the tone of the Red Special, the Deacy amp, the Treble Booster and the Vox AC-30s. Also V-stack made a "simulator" of Brian May's sound.

Last, but not least, a quite influential factor on his sound in studio is the particular positioning of the microphones. This allowed May to cut down the noise produced by the extremely loud AC30 at full volume and also nailed particular, unique mid-loaded tones. For example, to record the solos of Bohemian Rhapsody and We Will Rock you, most of It's Late and almost every guitar part in We Are The Champions, microphones were placed in the corners of the room, at the center of which there was the amplifier. This makes his tone even more difficult to copy, because the amplifier sounds significantly different if microphoned up in one way or another.

Contributions to Queen

After the famous Live Aid concert in summer 1985, Mercury rang his band mates and proposed writing a song together. The result was "One Vision," which was basically May on music (the Magic Years documentary shows how he came up with the opening section and the basic guitar riff) and Roger Taylor on lyrics, with Freddie Mercury being more a producer and arranger than a proper co-writer, and John Deacon mostly absent.

For their 1989 release album, The Miracle, the band had decided that all of the tracks would be credited to all the band, no matter who had been the main writer. Still, interviews and musical analyses tend to identify the input of each member on each track.

May composed "I Want It All" for that album, as well as "Scandal" (based on his personal problems with the British press). For the rest of the album he didn't contribute so much creatively, although he helped building the basis of Party and Was It All Worth It (both being mostly Freddie's pieces) and came up with the guitar riff of Chinese Torture, an unreleased track of those sessions.

Queen's next album was Innuendo, on which May's contributions increased, although more in arrangements than actual writing in most cases; for the title track he did some of the arrangement for the heavy solo, then he added vocal harmonies to "I'm Going Slightly Mad" and composed the solo of "These Are the Days of Our Lives", a song for which the four of them decided the keyboard parts together. He changed the tempo and key of Mercury's song The Hitman and took it under his wing, even singing guide vocal in the demo. May also co-wrote some of the guitar lines in Bijou.

Two songs that May had composed for his first solo album, "Headlong" and "I Can't Live With You," eventually ended up in the Queen project. His other composition was "The Show Must Go On," a group effort in which he was the coordinator and primary composer, but in which they all had input — Deacon and Taylor with the famous chord sequence, Mercury with the first verse.

The Brian May Band

The Brian May Band was officially formed in late October 1992, following the release of his album Back to the Light.

A proto version of the band was loosely formed for 19 October 1991, when May took part in the Guitar Legends guitar festival in Seville, Spain. The line-up for his performance was May (Lead Vocals & Lead Guitar), Cozy Powell (Drums & Percussion), Mike Moran (Keyboards), Rick Wakeman (Keyboards), Maggie Ryder (Backing Vocals), Miriam Stockley (Backing Vocals) and Chris Thompson (Backing Vocals).

Following the death of Freddie Mercury in November 1991, May decided to deal with his grief by committing himself as fully as possible to work, first by finishing the album and then hitting the road worldwide to promote it. He has said in numerous interviews that this was the only form of self-prescribed therapy he could think of.

The original line-up was Brian May (Lead Vocals and Lead Guitar), Cozy Powell (Drums and Percussion), Mike Caswell (Guitar), Neil Murray (Bass), Maggie Ryder (Backing Vocals), Miriam Stockley (Backing Vocals) and Chris Thompson (Backing Vocals). This version of the band lasted only during the South American support tour (supporting The B-52's and Joe Cocker) on only five dates. Afterwards, May made significant changes, feeling the group never quite gelled.

Most significantly, May brought guitarist Jamie Moses on board to replace Mike Caswell. May considered Moses a perfect fit to the band. The other change made was in the backing vocal department. Ryder, Stockley and Thompson are replaced with Catherine Porter and Shelley Preston.

23 February 1993, saw the new and improved line-up of The Brian May Band begin its world tour in the US, both supporting Guns N' Roses and headlining a few dates. The tour would take them through North America, Europe and Japan.

After the tour ended on 18 December 1993, May returned to the studio to work with fellow surviving Queen band members Roger Taylor and John Deacon to work on Queen's Made in Heaven album. Spike Edney, Cozy Powell, Neil Murray and Jamie Moses decided they enjoyed working together so much, they formed the SAS Band. Murray would end up only playing with them in their early gigs, before commitments with Whitesnake and other projects pulled him away. The SAS Band (which stands for Spike's All-Star Band) would go on to record one studio album and one live album.

In 1995, May began working towards a new solo album of covers tentatively named Heroes. He also worked on different film projects and collaborations. The SAS Band played gigs and began recording their first (and ultimately only) studio album.

By 1997, the self-titled album SAS Band is released. The creation of the songs (a mix of straight covers, new songs, and songs by the band members brought in from previous ventures) kept with Spike Edney's vision of the band, to collaborate freely with other singers and musicians as described by Edney in the liner notes as "a musician's social club. A place where great singers and players come to display their talents and have fun."

Brian May, meanwhile, had changed the approach of his new album from covers to focus on the collaborations and new material he was writing. The songs recorded for the new album, Another World would feature mainly Edney, Powell, Murray and Moses, who had become his core support/collaborative team.

On 5 April 1998, Cozy Powell was killed in a car accident on the M4 motorway near Bristol, England. This caused a huge, unexpected dent in the upcoming tour for The Brian May Band, with the need for a new drummer on short notice. Steve Ferrone was brought on to help May finish recording drums for the title track "Another World" and to join the band for the early stage promotional tour of five dates in Europe before the world tour.

The line up was then Brian May (Lead Vocals & Lead Guitar), Spike Edney (Keyboards), Neil Murray (Bass), Jamie Moses (Guitar), Steve Ferrone (Drums & Percussion), Susie Webb (Backing Vocals) and Zoe Nicholas (Backing Vocals). Webb and Nicholas worked with the SAS Band on SAS Band album and were brought on to replace Porter and Preston. Porter has since pursued her own singing/songwriting/performing career. May hinted in at least one interview that the two (Preston and Porter) didn't get along, though he may have been joking.

After the early promo tour, Eric Singer replaced Steve Ferrone for the full 1998 world tour. The Band then became Brian May (Lead Vocals & Lead Guitar), Spike Edney (Keyboards), Neil Murray (Bass), Jamie Moses (Guitar), Eric Singer (Drums & Percussion), Susie Webb (Backing Vocals) and Zoe Nicholas (Backing Vocals).

In 2005, Edney and Moses were recruited along with Danny Miranda (Bass) to join the Queen + Paul Rodgers tour, to fill the roles of keyboard player and second guitarist respectively.

Academia

May studied astro physics at Imperial College London, graduating with a B.Sc. (Hons) degree, and then proceeded to study for a Ph.D., having written a signficant amount of the doctoral thesis, and carried out a majority of the research required, May abandoned his doctoral studies to pursue his music career with Queen.

Recently having completed his thesis for a Ph.D. in astronomy, he has finished the doctorate more than 30 years after he started the academic paper. He studied at the Imperial College London departments of Physics and Mathematics, and was part way through a PhD program, studying reflected light from interstellar dust and the velocity of dust in the plane of the Solar System, when Queen became successful. He abandoned his physics doctorate - temporarily, as it later turned out - but did co-author two scientific research papers: MgI Emission in the Night-Sky Spectrum (1972) and An Investigation of the Motion of Zodiacal Dust Particles (Part I) (1973), which were based on Brian’s observations in Tenerife.

As of October 2007, he has completed his Ph.D. thesis, entitled A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud, passed his viva and performed corrections, and is awaiting the formal conferment of the degree. Most recently, he was the co-author of “Bang! – The Complete History of the Universe” with Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott, which was published in October, 2006.