Sonic Boom: The Impact of Led Zeppelin. Volume 1 - Break & Enter. Frank Reddon
to the members of Led Zeppelin, or a Led Zeppelin researcher such as me?
ANGEL:
It was great, great fun taking The New Yardbirds photos and, later, the Led Zeppelin shots… and all the other Gladsaxe Teen Club photos from 1966 to 1969. I enjoy it when some editor contacts me and wants to use a certain photo for an article. It makes me very happy. Our current affiliation with your publishing project is another excellent example. It’s extremely satisfying when what you’ve done is appreciated and of value to others; for whatever reason that may be.
It’s interesting. In the first three months I had my website up and running, I had more compliments by people signing the guest book than in the fifteen years I've taken pictures! It’s nice when people enjoy the work you’ve done. Many of my photos have been presented in different formats around the world.
REDDON:
As well, you told me about something interesting that Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple had in common as bands about their respective, professional debuts. Could you tell me about that?
ANGEL:
When I met Jon Lord, the keyboardist for Deep Purple, in Stockholm in 2006, he had been out with John Paul Jones the night before. People from the Polar Music Prize had told them about my exhibition of photographs. So that got Jon and John Paul talking about the old days. And they found out that both their bands – Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple - had had their world premieres in Denmark, only three months apart.
I asked Jon why they chose Denmark to be the first place to play with the new band. He said he had suggested Denmark because the Danes were so nice! Jon had previously played for a longer period of time – three months, I think – with The Artwoods. If I’m not mistaken, it was at a small place called Soho, in the Bakken amusement park, ten miles outside Copenhagen.
Jon also told me that Deep Purple was called “The Roundabouts” for that first tour. They wanted to save the name “Deep Purple” just in case they didn’t go over very well!
REDDON:
That’s a remarkable coincidence both of those huge bands debuted in Denmark. I have a few other sort of “miscellaneous questions” if you still have time.
ANGEL: I’m happy to do it. You’ve had some interesting, out-of-the-ordinary questions.
REDDON:
Thanks a lot. All right then. What recollections immediately come to mind when you hear the album, Led Zeppelin?
ANGEL:
Do you remember when we first corresponded some time ago, that I told you one of the answers to your questions would be “spring rolls?”
REDDON: Oh yeah! It made me wonder. Is it time now to find out?
ANGEL:
Yeah, I suppose it is! My immediate memory when I hear Led Zeppelin is, I think of spring rolls! In 1969, my parents bought a place in the country. It’s now my wife’s and mine. I was seventeen years old and not keen on spending the weekends in the country. I wanted to stay in town and have fun with my friends.
We would go to Bakken amusement park. It had several places where there was live music. When Bakken closed at midnight, it had become a tradition to go to my place while my parents were away. The deep fryer was the latest thing. So people would say, “Let’s go to Jørgen’s house for spring rolls and Led Zeppelin!” My friends would say, “In with the spring rolls, up with the volume of Led Zeppelin!”
REDDON: What songs were your favourite when Led Zeppelin first came out?
ANGEL:
Good Times, Bad Times and Communication Breakdown. A criticism of these songs? They were both too short! Today, I would have to say my favourite is How Many More Times. I didn’t notice it before you asked me to listen to Led Zeppelin before the interview but I found How Many More Times really pointed to Zeppelin’s future, while the blues-based songs pointed to the past. That really became clear as I listened this latest time.
REDDON:
You’ve heard a lot of “first albums” over the years. What is it about Led Zeppelin that makes it so enduring?
ANGEL:
To me, it’s because the album broke new ground. And it was raw; almost like a live recording. I think they did that first album almost “live”, when they were recording it. They didn’t spend that much time.
REDDON: Reportedly about thirty hours to record Led Zeppelin.
ANGEL:
Yeah, there you go, that’s almost a live recording, compared to time spent on later recordings. But they had done some pretty good rehearsing because they had played this material on the Scandinavian Tour. I don’t remember if they played all the songs from it when they performed here as The New Yardbirds in September 1968.
I assume they were very familiar with what they were going to do when it came time to record the Led Zeppelin album. I think that’s one of the strong things about the Led Zeppelin record - it’s the rawness, the purity. Like earlier in the ’60s, just to show an example, you may have had four hours to do a side of a single, including the mixing. And it was all recorded on four tracks in the early ’60s or something similar. Maybe Led Zeppelin was recorded on more tracks…I’m not familiar with the details.
REDDON: Do you think Led Zeppelin invented “heavy metal” and influenced other musicians?
ANGEL:
I think so. I read somewhere that after hearing Zeppelin, Ritchie Blackmore, guitarist for Deep Purple, said something like, “That’s the way we should go.” But Jon Lord, the keyboardist for Deep Purple, told me an interesting story.
REDDON:
I love Deep Purple. It’s one of my “top five” favourite bands. Blackmore’s style is something else and I find close parallels to Page’s. Please continue!
ANGEL:
Last year in Stockholm [2006], the British Ambassador to Sweden gave a reception in the residence for Led Zeppelin and others. Again, this is the same occasion I mentioned earlier. It was the Polar Music Prize awards. Anyway, Jon Lord was also at this afternoon reception before the next evening’s awards ceremony where he was to read the tribute to Led Zeppelin.
So, at this reception, Jon Lord and I had a chat. I told him what I had read about Blackmore saying Deep Purple should go the same direction as Led Zeppelin. Lord said he didn’t share that viewpoint. We had just started discussing it when the conversation took another turn and we didn’t get into details. That’s a shame, because I probably could have given you an insightful answer, if Jon Lord had elaborated on that. As I recall it, Deep Purple in Rock came out a year or so after Led Zeppelin, didn’t it?
REDDON:
Yeah, that’s the album, Deep Purple in Rock with the members’ faces carved into Mount Rushmore in the U.S. It was officially released in 1970, I think.
ANGEL:
Yeah, do you know why it was called Deep Purple in Rock? This ties in with your “heavy metal” question and Led Zeppelin’s possible influence on other artists.
REDDON: No, why was that?
ANGEL:
I had never heard that story before Jon Lord told it to me. He said because the albums before Deep Purple in Rock were more symphonic and the album right before Deep Purple in Rock was called Deep Purple in Concert the appropriate name for the new album would be “in Rock” as they were changing in that direction. Then someone came up with the clever idea of carving the faces of the members of Deep Purple into Mount Rushmore, where the faces of several U.S. presidents actually are carved.
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