Zeppelin Over Washington

Led Zeppelin crashed the White House, the State Department, and the Kennedy Center in December.

By Lori Spencer

Contributing Editor, This Can’t Be Happening!

 

 

(Continued from Pt. I of Lori Spencer’s report from the nation‘s capitol.)

 

When Led Zeppelin attended a reception at the White House in advance of the Kennedy Center Honors, they were just as shocked to find themselves there as most everybody else was. Being personally roasted by the President of the United States — along with fellow Kennedy Center Honorees Dustin Hoffman, David Letterman, Natalia Makarova, and Buddy Guy — was an experience Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page could only later describe as “surreal.”

Page, Plant, and John Paul Jones also enjoyed getting the royal treatment during a weekend of festivities in Washington, D.C., including a State Department dinner on December 1 hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former president Bill Clinton.

Secretary Clinton described the honorees as “a group of legends and icons as diverse as they are talented. We have in our group of honorees tonight a broad cross section of talent and energy from comedian to chameleon, ballerina to bluesman, and three men so synonymous with rock and roll they need no more description than Page, Plant, Jones,” Clinton said.
“Now, in my line of work, we often talk about the art of diplomacy,” she added. “I really like saying that because so many of the building blocks for art and diplomacy are the same. We have to be willing to try new things, occasionally take big risks. … So the arts and diplomacy actually do go hand in hand. They play out on world stages and reflect our common need to build bonds of understanding with others.”

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama join the 2012 Kennedy Center Honorees in the Pledge of Allegiance.
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C., Dec. 2, 2012.

The Kennedy Center Honors take place at the Opera House in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The Honorees and their guests sit in the front of the Box Tier with the President and the First Family. In keeping with Kennedy Center tradition, the Honorees are not allowed to speak to or interact with members of the audience.

Zeppelin’s three surviving members, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page, sat down the row from President and Michelle Obama in the balcony. All of the honorees wore the Kennedy Center Honors rainbow-colored sash and medal.

Naturally, the show’s producers at CBS saved the Led Zeppelin tribute segment for last and pulled out all the stops. The Foo Fighters, with Dave Grohl behind the drum kit again and Taylor Hawkins tackling Robert Plant’s screams on “Rock and Roll.” Kid Rock did “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You” (which was unfortunately cut from the CBS telecast Dec. 26) and “Ramble On.” Next up was Lenny Kravitz and his band funking up “Whole Lotta Love.”

“It was quite exhilarating to hear the different approaches that people had to the songs,” Page said later. He and his fellow Zeppelin bandmates could be seen throughout the entire tribute tapping their feet in rhythm, watching the musicians closely; genuinely intrigued by how their songs were being interpreted.

Finally, Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart — two girls that grew up idolizing Led Zeppelin — walked onstage and repaid the inspiration. As the duo‘s sparse, acoustic “Stairway to Heaven” reached the song’s middle section, an orchestra joined in. Then came the 80-voice Joyce Garrett Youth Choir. The effect of so many voices singing the final chorus was overwhelmingly powerful. Tears could be seen in Robert Plant’s eyes when Jason Bonham suddenly materialized behind the drum kit, wearing his father‘s old signature bowler hat.

None of the members of Led Zeppelin had been told in advance that Jason was going to be there. They were clearly astonished — and deeply touched — when they saw him take his place onstage. Even Jimmy Page, a man not easily overwhelmed by emotion, had a tear rolling down his cheek.

Kennedy Center Honorees John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and David Letterman.
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C., Dec. 2, 2012.

That moment was just one of many in recent months that Plant and Page appeared to be closer and more in sync with one another than they had been in 15 years, since their last studio album together (“Walking Into Clarksdale”). Although the pair did two solo tours together in the 1990s, John Paul Jones was not included in those creative endeavors, which deepened friction between the Zeppelin family.

Jones was invited to join them at the O2 Arena in London for the 2007 reunion, which eventually became “Celebration Day.” During their many public appearances together this fall, it was readily apparent that the trio had re-established the chemistry and friendship of years past. All seemed to be forgiven. Jones, Page, and Jason Bonham have stated quite categorically that they would be in favor of a reunion album and tour. But for the past five years, Plant has been the last holdout.

Based on the band’s renewed camaraderie and recent public comments by Robert Plant, that may be about to change.

Could it be that Plant — who always eschewed repeating the past in favor of moving forward with his own solo career — is starting to feel a bit sentimental for the days of Led Zeppelin now? At age 64, perhaps the time has finally come for one final victory lap with his old bandmates. Plant is certainly ready to talk more about it than he’s been in years.

“If anybody wants to write some new songs, I’m game,” Plant said after the Kennedy Center Honors. That’s an intriguing change of tune for the singer, who for the past five years said he was simply too busy with other projects to work with Zeppelin again.

Led Zep’s Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and Jimmy Page on the red carpet at the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors.

If Led Zeppelin returned to the recording studio and gave fans an album of new songs, would they tour?

“Who wants to be on a two-year tour?” Page exhales, rolling his eyes. “That would tire you out just thinking of it.”

” The responsibility of doing that four nights a week for the rest of time is a different thing,” Plant added.”The tail should never wag the dog. If we’re capable of doing something in our own time, that will be what will happen,”  We know what we’ve got. Que sera.”
“Expectations are horrific things,” Plant said. “To actually do anything at all together is such a kind of incredible weight. Because sometimes we were fucking awful, and sometimes were stunning.”

A Zeppelin reunion with some fresh, new material undoubtedly looks more hopeful now than ever before. But unlike their 2007 reunion concert, don’t expect an impassioned replay of the old Zeppelin warhorses. Rest assured if they do get back together in 2013, the song will definitely not remain the same.

Led Zeppelin Treated as Visiting Royalty in Washington

At a Dec. 1 State Department Dinner, Kennedy Center Honorees John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin joke around with blues guitar legend Buddy Guy as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looks on.

By Lori Spencer

Yahoo! Music Featured Contributor

The surviving three members of Led Zeppelin arrived in Washington last month to be honored by the Kennedy Center — along with Dustin Hoffman, David Letterman, Natalia Makarova, and Buddy Guy — but the legendary British rockers didn’t quite expect to be the center of quite so much official attention.

Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones were given the royal treatment during a weekend of festivities in Washington, D.C., including a State Department dinner on December 1 hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former president Bill Clinton.

Secretary Clinton described the honorees as “a group of legends and icons as diverse as they are talented. We have in our group of honorees tonight a broad cross section of talent and energy from comedian to chameleon, ballerina to bluesman, and three men so synonymous with rock and roll they need no more description than Page, Plant, Jones,” Clinton said.

The following night, Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page, sat down the row from President and Michelle Obama in the box tier of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. All of them wore the Kennedy Center Honors rainbow-colored sash and medal that President Obama had presented them in a White House ceremony that afternoon.

Naturally, the show’s producers at CBS saved the Led Zeppelin tribute segment for last and pulled out all the stops. The Foo Fighters, with Dave Grohl behind the drum kit again and Taylor Hawkins tackling Robert Plant’s screams on “Rock and Roll.” Kid Rock did “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You” (which was unfortunately cut from the CBS telecast Dec. 26) and “Ramble On.” Next up was Lenny Kravitz and his band funking up “Whole Lotta Love.”

“It was quite exhilarating to hear the different approaches that people had to the songs,” Page said later.

(Story continues HERE.)

Led Zeppelin May Be Ready to Write New Music in 2013

Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Robert Plant are finally talking about what’s next…a new album, perhaps? A tour in 2013?

By Lori Spencer

Yahoo! Music News

Although they’ve been officially broken up since 1980, Led Zeppelin actually had the most triumphant year of their career in 2012.

The surviving members — Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones — regrouped last year to prepare and promote the release of their 2007 London reunion concert as a CD/DVD set and feature film (“Celebration Day“). Fans and critics responded with such praise that whispers of another possible reunion album or tour are now swirling around again.

The band was also honored by the Kennedy Center and President Barack Obama last month in Washington. As the three elder musicians sat in the balcony watching an all-star cavalcade of rock stars including the Foo Fighters, Lenny Kravitz, Kid Rock, and Heart pay tribute to them, Robert Plant became visibly choked up.

Story continues HERE.

Houses of the Holier-Than-Thou: Rock and Roll Crashes Washington’s Elite Holiday Party

By Lori Spencer

Contributing Editor

This Can’t Be Happening!

According to the National Archives, one item has been requested more than any other over the past forty two years; more than the Bill of Rights or even the Constitution of the United States. Yes, it’s the iconic photograph of Elvis Presley shaking hands with President Richard M. Nixon on the occasion of Presley’s visit to the White House. December 21, 1970.

It was a few days before Christmas, 1970, and Elvis Presley was suddenly obsessed with a strange notion. Not another late-night private shopping spree for Lisa Marie, or a cross-country hamburger run this time. No, what Presley had in mind was far more important: the trumpet of destiny was once again beckoning him to her siren call. It had been decided somehow in his drug-addled mind that the King of Rock and Roll should meet the President of the United States. Not next week; not next year, or in the next decade: this had to happen right now.

Within hours, and without telling anyone in his Memphis Mafia entourage, Elvis was on a red-eye flight to Washington, D.C. – alone. Before Vernon Presley could say, “has anybody seen Elvis?” (thus setting off a full-scale panic back at Graceland), Presley had arrived at the White House gates uninvited, asking to see the president.

Elvis explained to an astonished security guard that he knew the president was very busy, but that he would just like to say hello and give him a gift (a commemorative World War II .45 caliber pistol). He also bore in his hand a six-page handwritten requesting – incredulously enough –  to be appointed a “Federal Agent-at-Large” in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

Once it had been determined that the letter was genuine and that this heavily armed, velvet and suede-clad man at the gate really was THE Elvis Presley, phones began ringing frantically all over the White House. “What the hell do we do with this guy?” was the question of the day. Elvis waited patiently in his three-room suite back at the Hotel Washington while the president’s men scrambled to accommodate his bizarre request.

In a staff memo fired off quickly to Nixon’s Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, the president’s Special Assistant Dwight Chapin suggested that “if the president wants to meet with some bright young people outside of the government, Presley might be a perfect one to start with.”

Haldeman scribbled in the margins of the memo, “you must be kidding.”

Nevertheless, he approved the visit, and Presley was finally allowed entry into an inner sanctum that no rock-and-roller before him had ever penetrated: the oval office.

That groundbreaking summit brought a new whiff of respectability to rock and roll music, and yet even by the early 1980′s, rock bands still weren’t exactly welcome visitors on Washington’s elite holiday party circuit. Reagan’s Secretary of the Interior James Watt memorably banned the clean-cut, all-American Beach Boys from the annual July 4th Concert on the Mall in 1983.

Watt had announced that all rock bands attracted “the wrong element,” and that the Reagan administration opted for a “wholesome” program with Wayne Newton. “We’re not going to encourage drug abuse and alcoholism,” Watt sniffed, “as was done in the past.”

Secretary Watt was apparently unaware that the Beach Boys had played the White House just a month before in June, at Ron and Nancy Reagan’s personal request. Watt later apologized to the Beach Boys after learning the Reagans were fans of the band. Reagan gave James Watt a “shoot yourself in the foot” award over the embarrassing incident and invited the Beach Boys back in 1985 to play his second Inaugural concert. The times they were a-changin’, but still…not that much.

YOUR TIME IS GONNA COME

Had you told me then – some thirty years ago during the waning years of the long, Cold War – that a Russian ballerina, a black bluesman from Lettsworth, Louisiana, and the English kings of debauch, Led Freaking Zeppelin, would be honored at the White House by the nation’s first black president within our lifetimes, I would have told you to dream on and fuck off.

But there they were: ballerina Natalia Makarova, blues legend Buddy Guy, Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, all sitting quietly in the distinguished East Room of the White House on December 3, 2012. Unlike previous visits by Elvis Presley and The Beach Boys, these artists were not unexpected visitors or performing court jesters; they were honored guests of the president.

As I listened intently to president Obama singing their collective praises – along with their fellow Kennedy Center Honorees Dustin Hoffman and David Letterman – I could only shake my head in amazement and think to myself, “this can’t be happening!”

L to R: Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Natalia Makarova, David Letterman, Dustin Hoffman, Buddy Guy, and President Barack Obama.

On more than a few occasions during the ceremony I saw that same “look how far we’ve come” grin spread across the faces of several attendees, including one Jimmy Page, who later called the whole experience “surreal, like a dream.”

When asked if they had ever been invited to the White House before, Robert Plant exploded in a cackle of laughter. “Naaaah, you’re joking, right?” Reflecting back in time, Plant’s face suddenly turned stoic, and a hint of bitterness crept into his tone.

“We were hardly the toast of the American political establishment back then,” Plant pointed out sharply. “Your government and police certainly were interested in us, but not for our music. But we were being questioned quite often!”

The native British band expressed great excitement (and perhaps some befuddlement) at being chosen for this prestigious award, because the Honorees are recognized for making unique contributions to American culture. Of the 178 recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors over the past three and a half decades, only one other British rock band has been chosen: The Who in 2008.

Led Zeppelin guitarist and sonic architect Jimmy Page considers the selection of Led Zeppelin in 2012 to be “a terrific honor.”

“We owe such a massive debt to American music,” Page said. “It’s a thing that definitely seduced us all to be want to be part of the music.”

“Everything that we talk about is American, from our music tastes more or less (and maybe north African and Egyptian).” Plant agreed. “Our mutual love of and absolute and total influence by American music whether its from Mississippi or Chicago in 1982 – it’s great because we’re sort of Americans but…not – of course.”

Although Plant is still a British citizen, he now lives part-time in Austin, Texas with his musical partner and lady love Patty Griffin. “I do consider myself an American in many ways,” Plant said. “Austin feels like home to me now.”

“So the fact that we get to go to this thing and meet the most dynamic and charismatic American outside of America – Obama – bar none is a great, great privilege.”

A short time later Plant, Page, and Jones were shaking the president’s hand during a White House reception preceding the Kennedy Center Honors. In a wildly mixed crowd that included celebrities such as Morgan Freeman, Lenny Kravitz and Page’s old school chum Jeff Beck, there were still plenty of old-guard Washingtonians propped up on their walkers and canes, casting disapproving glances at these gray haired, tuxedo-clad hippies actually being honored in the East Room. There goes the neighborhood, indeed.

President Obama roasted the members of Led Zeppelin in his remarks to the Kennedy Center Honorees at the White House.

DAZED AND CONFUSED

“It’s been said that a generation of young people survived teenage angst with a pair of headphones and a Led Zeppelin album,” President Obama said in his remarks to the Honorees. “And a generation of parents wondered what all that noise was about.

“But even now, 32 years after John Bonham’s passing — and we all I think appreciate the fact — the Zeppelin legacy lives on,” Obama proclaimed. “The last time the band performed together in 2007 — perhaps the last time ever, but we don’t know — more than 20 million fans from around the world applied for tickets. And what they saw was vintage Zeppelin. No frills, no theatrics, just a few guys who can still make the ladies weak at the knees, huddled together, following the music.”

The president’s speechwriters couldn’t resist that niggling temptation to rib the members of Led Zeppelin over their party-boy reputations.

“Of course, these guys also redefined the rock and roll lifestyle.  We do not have video of this,” President Obama quipped. “But there were some hotel rooms trashed and mayhem all around.  So it’s fitting that we’re doing this in a room with windows that are about three inches thick and Secret Service all around. So just settle down, guys…these paintings are valuable.”

·    The Kennedy Center Honors will air on CBS December 26. Part Two of TCBH’s coverage takes us to the Kennedy Center for an all-star tribute to the 2012 Honorees, and more with the members of Led Zeppelin.

 

 

 

Led Zeppelin Receives the Kennedy Center Honors

John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin at the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony, Dec. 2, 2012.
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C.

By Lori Spencer

Yahoo! News

 

Of all the many honors and lifetime achievement awards Led Zeppelin has racked up through the years, being honored by the Kennedy Center may be the one they are most proud of.

The annual award is given to performing artists who have made a unique contribution to American culture. Of the 178 recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors over the past three and a half decades, only one other British band has been chosen (The Who in 2008). Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page considers the selection of Led Zeppelin in 2012 to be “a terrific honor.”

“We owe such a massive debt to American music,” Page said. “It’s a thing that definitely seduced us all to be want to be part of the music.”

Page explained that the four members of Led Zeppelin grew up listening to American blues, rock and country artists as young men growing up in England during the 1950s and 60s, which in turn heavily influenced the sound of Led Zeppelin.

“We were accessing this music through the radio and records that we mail-ordered from the States, or that someone had managed to get somehow,” he said. “It was a major part of how we became what we were, which was musicians caught up in this whole movement of American roots-based music.”

“Everything that we talk about is American, from our music tastes more or less (and maybe north African and Egyptian).” Vocalist Robert Plant agreed. “Our mutual love of and absolute and total influence by American music whether its from Mississippi or Chicago…”

(Read the rest of the story HERE.)

 

Is “Celebration Day” Led Zeppelin’s Swan Song?

By Lori Spencer

Yahoo! Music News

Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.

All the great masters must know when to look at their artistic creation and say, “it is complete.” There comes a stage when attempting to change, enhance, or add anything more would be pointless; overkill. Perhaps the members of Led Zeppelin feel this same way now about the body of work they created as one of the world’s most influential rock bands.

The Mighty Zep’s long-awaited reunion concert at London’s O2 Arena in 2007 was the first time Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham (in place of his late father) had shared a stage since the disastrous Atlantic Records 40^th Anniversary concert in May 1988. Considering that event – and the 1985 semi-reunion at Live Aid – didn’t exactly live up to expectations, the band certainly felt they owed their fans a debt. Or at the very least, a proper farewell.

(Story continues here.)

Fans, Friends and Family Say Goodbye to Etta James

 

Cover of the Etta James classic 1963 live album, "Rocks the House" (Chess Records)

By Lori Spencer

Yahoo! News

 

Private funeral services for four-time Grammy Award winner Etta James were held Saturday in Los Angeles. James died January 20 after a two-year battle with leukemia at age 73.

A public viewing Friday at Inglewood Cemetery drew hundreds of her fans. While the sound of her classic records wafted through the parking lot, mourners waited in line for hours to pass by the open casket. James was laid to rest in a simple black suit with gold embroidery, still looking every bit the diva.

Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera, and other celebrities came to pay their final respects. Stevie Wonder performed four songs, including…

 

Story continues here.

 

Johnny Otis and Etta James: Reunited at Last

 

 

 

By Lori Spencer

Yahoo! News

* A longer, in-depth version of this obituary appeared in This Can’t Be Happening! and OpEdNews

 

From their first meeting in 1953, the fates of Johnny Otis and Etta James seemed almost magically entwined.
Spunky little Jamesetta Hawkins, then 14 years old, was overheard rehearsing a song with her girl group The Creolettes in a San Francisco hotel bathroom. Outside the door, Johnny Otis’ ears perked up. “I knew instantly when I heard Etta sing in that bathroom audition that she would be a star,” he said decades later. “I heard the raw talent she possessed before she had developed.”

Johnny Otis – already famous for hits like “Harlem Nocturne,” “Castin’ My Spell on You,” and “Willie and the Hand Jive” – was also known as a radio disc jockey and a keen talent scout. His other discoveries included Big Mama Thornton, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Little Richard,…

Story continues here.

Working With Drum Tracks

By Lori Spencer

 

A drum track is the portion of any sound recording devoted exclusively to the drums. In multitrack recording, what is called the “drum track” in fact usually will comprise several different tracks. Each part of the drum kit is be recorded with a separate microphone, and each microphone assigned a track on the mixing board. For example, one track may be just the snare drum, another may be the crash cymbal, and an overhead microphone captures ambient sound in the room. Mixed together, all of these various elements represent the drum tracks.

Many songwriters will use a drum track to help them create songs. Instead of programming a drum machine for a demo or trying to draw inspiration from prerecorded drum loops, songwriters often find …

(story continues at http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-drum-track.htm)

 

Popular Dances of the 1970s

By Lori Spencer

 

To re-create dances from the 1970s, it helps to familiarize yourself with the era and styles. Many of the most popular dances of this era originated in the United States and were popularized around the world through movies and TV shows. A good way to start learning about the dances of the 1970s is to watch films and television from the era; Saturday Night Fever, for example, is a film that put dancing at the epicenter of American popular culture. This 1977 movie sparked massive dance crazes such as the Hustle and the Night Fever…(cont’d)

 

Read the full story here http://www.wisegeek.com/how-do-i-re-create-dances-from-the-1970s.htm