James (Jimmy Page) certainly did change the face of rock music in the second decade of rock ‘n’ roll - just listen to the opening cut on Led Zeppelin II released in Oct ‘69 (’Whole Lotta Love’) and you will hear something that before that day nobody had done (it still sounds amazin’ today cranked loud in the 7th decade of rock). Page additionally utilised “reverse echo” - a technique which he claims to have invented himself while 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 producers (audio engineers) on Led Zeppelin albums, from Glyn Johns for the first album, to Eddie Kramer for II, to Andy Johns for III. 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.” Jimmy is of couse also famous for the introduction of the ‘bow technique’ and the double headed Gibson guitar style, many will argue that Jimmy invented Hard Rock! Eddie Van Halen has stated that he saw Led Zeppelin live and watching them play ‘Heartbreaker’ gave him the idea and inspiration to develop his ‘hammer on’ technique that was to change the face of guitar playing forever. I have seen many guitarist play Zeppelin songs over the years, some of them amazingly well, but no one does it like Jimmy; the moment he picks up the guitar and hits those timeless riffs, the passion, the very soul of him flows through his fingers and ‘that sound’ comes out. You are left mouth open and astounded at how much passion and love he has for this instrument of fame. I do believe that he was born to do this… Fated…

There is also a moment when Dave (The Edge) plays you a seemingly normal riff on the guitar that just sounds like nothing, then as if some magic wand is waved he steps on several pedals and plays exactly the same thing again and it becomes a modern day U2 classic. He explains why and how he stumbled upon the apegio sound that he is now so famous for. As a guitar player, The Edge is recognized as having a trademark sound typified by a low-key playing style, a chiming, shimmering sound (thanks in part to the signature sound of classic Vox AC-30) that is achieved with extensive use of delay, reverb, and a focus on texture and melody. To achieve an “Edge-like” sound, the feedback delay is set to a dotted eighth note (3/16 of a measure), and the feedback gain is adjusted until a note played repeats two or three times. He states “I like a nice ringing sound on guitar, and most of my chords I find two strings and make them ring the same note, so it’s almost like a 12-string sound. So for E I might play a B, E, E and B and make it ring. It works very well with the Gibson Explorer. It’s funny because the bass end of the Explorer was so awful that I used to stay away from the low strings, and a lot of the chords I played were very trebly, on the first four, or even three strings. I discovered that through using this one area of the fretboard I was developing a very stylized way of doing something that someone else would play in a normal way.” Again I have seen many guitarist attempt to replicate his sound, yet like Jimmy it’s obvious watching him that this just comes from somewhere within, somewhere deep in his soul. Listening to The Edge wax lyrical about his influences, how listening to music shaped his life, how in his head he obviously heard a sound that did not exist - so he invented it… That my friend is sheer genius, you will get to the point in this film where you understand the meaning of that word for the first time ever…

And then Jack (White) comes into play, and you may look at the previous two and think that Jack amongst these two giants of Guitar Heroes is slightly out of place here. You would be wrong.  Just as James and Dave invented their sound, Jack re-invented their’s and his. You have to see this to believe, but please believe me when I tell you that the simplicity of what Jack White does will astound you and also will make you think ‘Why the hell didn’t I think of that’ and that simply is Jack’s genius. He thinks outside the box, he also has no bounderies, no limits, no past, no future, just here and now; yesterday’s history, tommorow’s mystery; Right Here, Right Now… He also goes back beyond James, he is in some ways a modern day Robert Johnson, it’s like he went back to the crossroads to ask for some more, and for some unknown reason he got some! Jack plays power chords with a different technique than most musicians. Instead of using his ring finger to fret the higher notes, Jack uses his little finger. This is because of a car accident in which his left index finger was injured and also because his brothers would never teach him the proper way to do so. He uses numerous effects to create his live sound, most notably a Digitech Whammy WH-1 to create the rapid modulations in pitch he uses in his solos. Jack also produces a “fake” bass tone by playing the Kay Hollowbody and JB Hutto Montgomery Airline guitars through a Whammy IV set to one octave down for a very thick, low, rumbling sound, which he uses most notably on the songs ‘Seven Nation Army’ and ‘Hardest Button To Button’ during live performances. I can’t say I have ever been a major fan of The White Stripes, but after tonight I definitely am now a major fan of Jack White. Like James and Dave he strives to create every single moment he can, his desire, his fire is exactly the same as their’s…

This is not simply something they do, this is something they are, something they were before they even knew it; something inside drove them on and something they always will and would have been, regardless of sucess, fame, money, glory, legend… When you strip away all the covers you get one guy, one guitar… It’s not what you do, it’s the way you do it…

This is a great documentry film. You don’t have to love any of the bands that these chaps belong to, or even like them or their styles, you don’t even have to be a fan of the guitar, for what you will take from this movie (as I did) is that Passion, Desire, Fire; the sheer bloody mindedness of striving for greatness; never stopping, getting back up ever time you get knocked down. Believe People, Keep The Faith, Don’t Give Up The Dream, this film is fuel for that fire… What a way to start a decade… It Did Get Loud…

Jj: 2010