During his career, Neil Young has shown that he is a truly versatile musician, with a songwriting range that goes from incredible acoustic songs like “Old Man” to heavier tracks like “Rockin’ in the Free World.”
There are not many Rock and Roll bands or artists who were courageous enough to experiment after becoming known for a specific kind of music and Led Zeppelin was one of those bands, who was also brave enough to mix heavier Rock and Folk. Over the decades, Neil has given his opinion on many bands and musicians, including the legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist and producer Jimmy Page.
What is Neil Young’s opinion on Jimmy Page
Neil Young is a big fan of Jimmy Page and once said he was “a hack” compared to him, revealing that Page is one of his favorite guitarists of all time alongside Jimi Hendrix. “I think Hendrix had an effect in just makin’ me want to get out there. He’s just so free. He played loud—and he was real sensitive. He didn’t ever play fast … It’s easy to play if you can figure out just what it was he was doin’. He was so into it.”
“All the little things, the little nuances—where he pulled his hand off and where he releases the note. It’s not the notes he plays, it’s the way he plays them. He and Jimmy Page are favorites of mine. When I was playing with Page, it filled the hole that Stills used to—more than filled it, it overflowed. He’s so liquid, so at ease with his guitar—a natural sense of time. I’m a hack compared to him. He can really play,” Neil said as featured in his biography “Shakey” (2002) by Jimmy McDonough.
Neil Young jammed with Jimmy Page and John Bonham
Photo by Joseph Stevens
Neil had the chance to hang out and jam with Jimmy Page back in 1974 after a CSNY show at the Wembley Stadium in London. After the concert they went to a club in the city and Neil was pictured playing a Rickenbacker guitar on stage alongside his bandmates Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and the Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.
According to the book “Neil Young: A Visual Documentary” (1994), that supergroup performed songs like Young’s “Vampire Blues” and “On The Beach”. The musician often answers fans’ questions on his website and when a fan asked if he had any recollection of playing that night with John Bonham, Jimmy Page and the others, he replied: “I was there. That’s all I know.” When another fan questioned if he had any recordings of that jam, he said: “I don’t have a tape of that Zeppelin jam. We were all drunk and happy. It was fun.”
Neil Young played “When the Levee Breaks” and “For What It’s Worth” with Led Zeppelin
That incredible performance with Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Robert Plant inspired Neil to write a song later in that year. Called “Downtown” the song mentions Page and Zeppelin saying: “Hear the band playin’, Downtown all right. Jimi’s playin’ in the back room, Led Zeppelin on stage. There’s a mirror ball twirlin’, and a note from Page. Like a water-washed diamond, in a river of sin. Goin’ down like a whirlpool, when you get sucked in.” The track was featured on the album “Mirror Ball”, which he recorded with members of Pearl Jam. In the following year it was nominated for “Best Rock Song” at the Grammy Awards.
He said Led Zeppelin was a perfect band for shows in big stadiums
Although Neil is an artist who plays to huge crowds that could fill a stadium, he has always preferred smaller venues and once said that those kinds of big shows were great for bands like Zeppelin. “Those huge concerts… I did it and it was great for my head, to know that I could do that. But you know, even as much as I tried every night to get everybody in those barns off, I couldn’t. Because I couldn’t even see them, man, and I knew they couldn’t see me.”
“I had to cut off all the subtleties of my music and just project it out to eighteen thousand people…. My music is basically subtle … that’s why I’ve gone back to just playin’ clubs like the Roxy. And the Corral in Topanga … it gets me off. It makes me feel like I’m still a musician and not in a circus. The Allmans, Led Zeppelin, all those groups, they’re great for those big events, y’know. But you take a guy like me and put me in those circumstances, it’s just not right. I just don’t belong there,” he said in an interview with B. Mitchell Reid in 1977.