Over the weekend I was stoked to find out that a new biography of Led Zeppelin guitarist, Jimmy Page, had recently hit the book shelves. According to a review in The London Times the book is a no-holds-barred excavation of Page’s debauchery and excess with a particular emphasis on the musician’s associations with the occult and especially with Aleister Crowley. Here’s a bit from the review…

“In 1970, Jimmy Page bought Boleskine House, an 18th-century lodge on the banks of Loch Ness. The monster that drew Led Zeppelin’s guitarist there was not Nessie, but Aleister Crowley, the late ‘great beast’ of British occultism who had bought the house in 1899. Boleskine, built on the site of a 10th-century church that burnt down with its congregation inside, had allegedly been left brimming with demons after Crowley was called away mid-ritual, which was all part of its appeal to the 26-year-old Page, who had been in thrall to Crowley’s ideas since adolescence.

“For a generation of long- haired rock fans, ownership of Boleskine House confirmed Page’s apparently close alignment with supernatural forces. ”

Read the full review here, and check out this great video that traces the connections between the magus and rocker…

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This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Yardbird’s debut album Five Live Yardbirds. At first glance, the album appears to be just another British Invasion knock-off packed with blues covers — in fact, the band had just taken over the Rolling Stones’ old residency at the Crawdaddy Club before recording this live collection. The band’s big break came with their second disc and its title hit, “For Your Love,” but Eric Clapton’s guitar on the debut album presaged the group’s claim to fame as a launchpad for guitarists including Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.

Here is a full-length doc that tells the story of the band, its memorable hits and its outstanding guitarists…

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Nico was a fashion model, an actress and a siger/songwriter who is best known for her time with The Velvet Underground and her contributions to their debut album The Velvet Underground and Nico. The Warhol Superstar is familiar to cinephiles for her gorgeous turns in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita and Warhol’s Chelsea Girls.

Christa Päffgen was born in Nazi Germany in 1938. Her father was killed in the war. By the age of 13, she had quit school to sell lingerie. At 5′ 10″ with outrageous cheekbones, she was a star model on the rise while still in her teens.

While taking acting lessons in New York with Lee Strasberg, Nico met rockers like Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. Jimmy Page produced her first single and Bob Dylan wrote the song “I’ll Keep it with Mine” for her to perform. An introduction from Jones got Nico into Warhol’s inner circle and the rest is history.

While many are familiar with the first half of Nico’s story, not as many know much at all about the rest of her life. Nico’s solo musical career is full of courageous experimentation and her refusal to be just another pretty face is admirable even by today’s standards. Her drug problems are the stuff of legend and her strange death wraps even the end of her tale in an air of mystery.

Susan Ofteringer’s film Nico Icon sheds light on all of this and more. This rather heavy-handed plot summary at IMDB says it all:

A look into the many lives of Christa Päffgen, otherwise known as Nico; from cutie German mädchen to the first of the supermodels, to glamorous diva of the Velvet Underground, to cult item, junkie and hag. Many faces for the same woman, whom, you realize, just couldn’t bring herself to care enough to live.

Here is the film in its entirety. Highlights include early images of Nico as a young model, the origin of her famous name, lots of post-Velvets interview and performance footage of the chanteuse, and a moving homage by friend/bandmate/producer John Cale who closes the film playing piano in front of two massive Julian Schnabel paintings, giving a haunting recitation of the Nico classic “Frozen Warnings.”

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Page at Crowley's old house on Loch Ness

This week, we celebrate the birthday of Jimmy Page: a guitar hero, an occult dabbler, and – just like Jesus – a Capricorn.

Page was a well-known session guitarist before working with the Yardbirds and – of course – Led Zeppelin. One of the most influential musician/songwriters of all time, Page has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice – as a member a each band.

Page’s interest in the occult found him creating the original (unreleased) score for magician/filmmaker Kenneth Anger’s film Lucifer Rising. The guitarist also resided for a short time in Aleister Crowley’s old house on Loch Ness. Page also operated his own occult bookstore and publishing imprint, and the album Led Zeppelin IV features an illustration of The Hermit from the tarot card deck. Page himself transforms into this character in one of the more bizarre sequences of the concert film The Song Remains the Same which we present here in its entirety.

Joe Nolan <3