George Martin introduced the Beatles to that well-known songwriter's trick called the receding bassline that starts on the top note of a scale and then goes down the scale in order. Alternatively the bass line might be a chromatic sequence of notes with semitone intervals. The opening guitar passage of 'Stairway to Heaven', that FM radio classic uses a chromatic receding bassline and proves the case that this is a very powerful and attractive musical technique to use when writing songs.
'Stairway to Heaven' is the greatest testament to the abilities of Jimmy Page, as composer, as acoustic player, electric soloist, arranger, producer and audio engineer. It is all there in this amazing song that is rightly revered by people the world over. By this time in his career, Page was beginning to shrug off the backward glances to the old Blues players that informed his playing on the first two Zeppelin Lp's and to establish his own style. The acoustic leanings of the previous album, Led Zeppelin III, were incorporated much more seamlessly into the heavier music of I and II, to produce the astounding fourth album, or Four Symbols as it is sometimes called. This was Zeppelin at their peak. Whilst some of Physical Graffiti came near, it was never really up to the task of matching the likes of 'Black Dog', 'Battle of Evermore', 'Going to California'.
Page's involvement with Black Magic is well-known and not a credit to him. Why do so many musicians have leanings to the black arts? Album covers throughout rock music's history are strewn with diabolistic symbols. It speaks almost of a desperation to succeed even if the price is unspeakable. Some Christians would simply refuse to listen to Page's work and I have some sympathy with their view. But all talents are God-given and Page is certainly a talented player. The news black-out that the band imposed in the 70's added tremendously to their mystique and superhero persona. They seemed so inaccessible that we youngsters would speak of them in tones of awe almost!
After Zeppelin, Page seemed to lose himself without the guiding hand of Robert Plant. I enjoyed his first LP with Paul Rodgers of Free and Bad Company fame, 'The Firm'. But the next LP was poor and the project folded. Even Rogers could not inspire Page sufficiently and the eventual reunion with Plant was inevitable.