175-496: Alastair Ian Stewart (born 5 September 1945) is a Scottish-born singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician who rose to prominence as part of the British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s . He developed a unique style of combining folk-rock songs with tales of characters and events from history. Stewart has released 16 studio and four live albums since his debut album Bed-Sitter Images in 1967, and continues to tour extensively in
350-498: A Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award with Led Zeppelin. In November 2006, Led Zeppelin was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame . The television broadcasting of the event consisted of an introduction to the band by various famous admirers (including Roger Taylor , Slash , Joe Perry , Steven Tyler , Jack White and Tony Iommi ), an award presentation to Page and a short speech by him. After this, rock group Wolfmother played
525-499: A Rickenbacker twelve-string guitar on the Beatles' mid-1960s recordings. This relatively clean, jangly sound—without distortion or other guitar effects —became a cornerstone of folk rock instrumentation and was used in many American folk rock records made during 1965 and 1966. We were a group, but not professional musicians. I had to de-complicate my music and get it simpler and simpler, so that we could play it and make it sound like
700-602: A 23 June 2012 telephone interview with Bob Reid and Blair Packham on NewsTalk 1010 AM in Toronto, Ontario (partially transcribed below), Al Stewart provided these insights into his songwriting "process": I don't like repetition. For example, there have been nine songs in the Top Ten, I think, called "Hold On" (Including, I think, once there were two called "Hold On" simultaneously in the Top Ten). OK, if you're really cynical, and you've written
875-433: A No. 24 single with " Midnight Rocks ", the album sold less well than its two immediate predecessors. After those releases, Stewart was dropped by Arista and his popularity declined. Despite his lower profile and waning commercial success, he continued to tour the world, record albums, and maintain a loyal fanbase. There was a four-year gap between his next two albums, the highly political Russians and Americans (1984) and
1050-517: A Rolling Stone ", " For What It's Worth ", and " Let's Live for Today ". During the 1950s and early 1960s in the UK, a parallel folk revival referred to as the second British folk revival , was led by folk singers Ewan MacColl and Bert Lloyd . Both viewed British folk music as a vehicle for leftist political concepts and an antidote to the American-dominated popular music of the time. However, it
1225-522: A Yardbirds concert at Oxford . After the show, he went backstage where Paul Samwell-Smith announced that he was leaving the group. Page offered to replace Samwell-Smith, and this was accepted by the group. He initially played electric bass with the Yardbirds before finally switching to twin lead guitar with Beck when Chris Dreja moved to bass. The musical potential of the line-up was scuttled, however, by interpersonal conflicts caused by constant touring and
1400-866: A band in Dorset. In October 2022 he toured in the UK supported by the Empty Pockets (who opened with their own set before backing Stewart). In 2024 Al Stewart released a live album along with the Empty Pockets ( Al Stewart & the Empty Pockets Live ), with one track having as special guest Peter White. Also in 2024 Al announced online a Farewell Tour in the UK with the Empty Pockets in 2025 to coincide with his 80th birthday. Born in Scotland, raised in Dorset , and gaining fame in London, Stewart moved to Los Angeles shortly after
1575-559: A brief songwriting partnership with then romantic interest Jackie DeShannon . He composed and recorded songs for the John Williams (not to be confused with the film composer John Williams ) album The Maureeny Wishful Album with Big Jim Sullivan. Page worked as session musician on Donovan Leitch's Sunshine Superman , on Engelbert Humperdinck 's Release Me , the Johnny Hallyday albums Jeune homme and Je suis né dans la rue ,
1750-511: A category including Dando Shaft , Amazing Blondel , and Jack the Lad , an offshoot of northern progressive folk group Lindisfarne , who were one of the most successful UK bands of the early 1970s. Examples of bands that remained firmly on the border between progressive folk and progressive rock were the short lived (but later reunited) Comus and, more successfully, Renaissance , who combined folk and rock with elements of classical music. Folk metal
1925-534: A ceremony at Guildford Cathedral , he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Surrey . For the 2008 Summer Olympics , Page, David Beckham and Leona Lewis represented Britain during the closing ceremonies on 24 August 2008. Beckham rode a double-decker bus into the stadium, and Page and Lewis performed " Whole Lotta Love ". In 2008, Page co-produced a documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim entitled It Might Get Loud . The film examines
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#17328546847832100-556: A charity concert at the O2 Arena London. According to Guinness World Records 2009 , Led Zeppelin set the world record for the "Highest Demand for Tickets for One Music Concert" as 20 million requests for the reunion show were rendered online. On 7 June 2008, Page and John Paul Jones appeared with the Foo Fighters to close the band's concert at Wembley Stadium , performing " Rock and Roll " and " Ramble On ". On 20 June 2008, at
2275-515: A creative medium and to the wealth of musical culture to be found within the United States. Of particular importance to the development of folk rock by the British Invasion were the subtle folk influences evident in such Beatles' compositions as " I'll Be Back ", " Things We Said Today ", and " I'm a Loser ", with the latter song being directly inspired by folk singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. In
2450-416: A cure for] cancer, if it isn't discovered by then." In an interview with Guitar Player magazine, Page stated that "there was a lot of busking in the early days, but as they say, I had to come to grips with it and it was a good schooling." When he was fourteen, and billed as James Page, he played in a group called Malcolm Austin and Whirlwinds, alongside Tony Busson on bass, Stuart Cockett on rhythm and
2625-515: A drummer named Tom, playing Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis numbers. This band was short-lived, as Page soon found a drummer for a band he'd previously been playing in with Rod Wyatt, David Williams and Pete Calvert, and came up with a name for them: The Paramounts. The Paramounts played gigs in Epsom, once supporting a group who would later become Johnny Kidd & the Pirates . Although interviewed for
2800-514: A few occasions, most notably in 1985 for the Live Aid concert with both Phil Collins and Tony Thompson filling drum duties. However, the band members considered this performance to be sub-standard, with Page having been let down by a poorly tuned Les Paul. Page, Plant and Jones, as well as John Bonham's son Jason , performed at the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary show on 14 May 1988, closing
2975-620: A flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve , died in a plane crash during a 1945 training exercise before his son Al was born. Stewart attended Wycliffe College, Gloucestershire as a boarder. After that, according to the song "Post World War II Blues" (from Past, Present and Future ): "I came up to London when I was 19 with a corduroy jacket and a head full of dreams." Having bought his fourth guitar from future Police guitarist Andy Summers , Stewart traded in his electric guitar for an acoustic guitar when he
3150-681: A highly successful mid-1990s tour to support No Quarter , Page and Plant recorded 1998's Walking into Clarksdale , featuring the Grammy Award-winning songs " Most High " and " Please Read the Letter ". Page was heavily involved in remastering the Led Zeppelin catalogue. He participated in various charity concerts and charity work, particularly the Action for Brazil's Children Trust (ABC Trust), founded by his wife Jimena Gomez-Paratcha in 1998. In
3325-457: A hit, then I can't make a hit.' We finally got the formula exactly right." Stewart had all of the music and orchestration written and completely recorded before he had a title for any of the songs. He mentioned in a Canadian radio interview that he has done this for six of his albums, and he often writes four different sets of lyrics for each song. Both albums reached the top ten in the US, with Year of
3500-405: A huge difference between content and style, and, if you work more towards content, why not make it content that is original. … If it's already been written, why write it again? If it's already been said, why say it again? I mean there are some remarkable quotes that I love. But I didn't say them. And you don't want to pass them off as your own work. Napoleon said that "Time spent in reconnaissance
3675-485: A job as a laboratory assistant, he ultimately chose to leave secondary school in West Ewell to pursue music, doing so at the age of fifteen – the earliest age permitted at the time – having gained four GCE O levels and on the back of a major row with the school Deputy Head Miss Nicholson about his musical ambitions, about which she was wholly scathing. Page had difficulty finding other musicians with whom he could play on
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#17328546847833850-565: A lack of commercial success, although they released one single, " Happenings Ten Years Time Ago ". While Page and Beck played together in the Yardbirds, the trio of Page, Beck and Clapton never played in the original group at the same time. The three guitarists did appear on stage together at the ARMS Charity Concerts in 1983. After Beck's departure, the Yardbirds remained a quartet. They recorded one album with Page on lead guitar, Little Games . The album received indifferent reviews and
4025-634: A live album, Uncorked , on Stewart's label, Wallaby Trails Recordings, in 2009. They played the Glastonbury Festival 40th anniversary in June 2010 on the acoustic stage. Stewart sang a duet with Albert Hammond of Hammond's " It Never Rains in Southern California " on Hammond's 2010 album Legend . In 2011, Stewart sang a duet with his guitarist and opening act Dave Nachmanoff on Nachmanoff's album Step Up . The song, "Sheila Won't Be Coming Home",
4200-498: A lush, layered production from Alan Parsons. The production gives epics like the title track a real sense of grandeur that makes their sentiments resonate strongly." Modern Times produced Stewart's first hit single, "Carol". The album reached No. 30 in the US and received substantial airplay on album-oriented stations some 30 years before Bob Dylan would release an album of the same name . Stewart's contract with CBS Records expired at this point, and he signed to RCA Records for
4375-400: A marriage of blues, hard rock and acoustic music topped with heavy choruses – a combination that had never been done before. Lots of light and shade in the music. Led Zeppelin broke up in 1980 following the death of Bonham at Page's home. Page initially refused to touch a guitar, grieving for his friend. For the rest of the 1980s, his work consisted of a series of short-term collaborations in
4550-487: A mispronunciation as "Leed Zeppelin". Led Zeppelin are one of the best-selling music groups in the history of audio recording. Various sources estimate the group's worldwide sales at more than 200 or even 300 million albums. With 111.5 million RIAA-certified units, they are the second-best-selling band in the United States. Each of their nine studio albums reached the top 10 of the US Billboard album chart, and six reached
4725-418: A new supergroup featuring Beck, along with The Who 's John Entwistle on bass and Moon on drums. However, the lack of a quality vocalist and contractual problems prevented the project from getting off the ground. During this time, Moon suggested the name "Lead Zeppelin " for the first time, after Entwistle commented that the proceedings would take to the air like a lead balloon. Within weeks, Page attended
4900-407: A new song, you'll probably want to call it "Hold On" because it gives you an extra edge. But at the same time it shows so little interest in originality that I can't actually listen to anything called "Hold On" at this point in my life. I mean, it just seems crazy. So, if I have two little rules and guiding principles, they would be: (a) Don't use words that other people use. Very few people would put
5075-613: A number of factors, including the Beatles' coupling of folk derived chord progressions and beat music, the Byrds' rock adaptation of "Mr. Tambourine Man" (which Dylan had heard at a Byrds' rehearsal in late 1964), and the Animals hit cover of "The House of the Rising Sun". Bringing It All Back Home was released on 22 March 1965, peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and #1 on
5250-513: A number of musical groups throughout the 1980s and 1990s, more specifically XYZ , the Firm , the Honeydrippers , Coverdale–Page , and Page and Plant . Since 2000, Page has participated in various guest performances with many artists, both live and in studio recordings, and participated in a one-off Led Zeppelin reunion in 2007 that was released as the 2012 concert film Celebration Day . Along with
5425-423: A popular music group. Dylan's material would provide much of the original grist for the folk rock mill, not only in the U.S. but in the UK as well, with many pop and rock acts covering his material in a style reminiscent of the Byrds. Their reworking of "Mr. Tambourine Man", along with the Animals ' rock interpretation of " The House of the Rising Sun " (itself based on Dylan's earlier cover), helped to give Dylan
Al Stewart - Misplaced Pages Continue
5600-413: A popular thing. Whenever you have a format like that, it sounds folky, because it's not glitzed over with anything. We only had acoustic and electric guitars, so every chance we got, we'd try to add some variety. The only way you could get variety was to go to a harmonica during this song, or get an acoustic in this space; get different moods that way. —Ron Elliott of The Beau Brummels on the origins of
5775-648: A rebuke to the folk purists who had rejected his new electric music. Throughout 1965 and 1966, hit singles like "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "Like a Rolling Stone", "Positively 4th Street", and " I Want You " among others, along with the Bringing It All Back Home , Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde albums, proved to be hugely influential on the development and popularity of folk rock. Although Dylan's move away from acoustic folk music served to outrage and alienate much of his original fanbase, his new folk rock sound gained him legions of new fans during
5950-602: A regular basis. "It wasn't as though there was an abundance. I used to play in many groups ... anyone who could get a gig together, really." Following stints backing recitals by Beat poet Royston Ellis at the Mermaid Theatre between 1960 and 1961, and singer Red E. Lewis, who'd seen him playing with the Paramounts at the Contemporary club in Epsom and told his manager Chris Tidmarsh to ask Page to join his backing band,
6125-409: A result, he had been thinking of a way in which to introduce folk styled acoustic guitars and socially conscious lyrics into pop music for several years prior to his 1965 breakthrough as a recording artist. By January 1966, he had recorded the self-penned hit " Sunshine Superman " with a full electric backing band. Other bands and solo artists who were blurring the boundaries between folk and rock in
6300-545: A song which had been recorded by the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel in 1964 and first released on their album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. . The reissued single rose to number 1 on the Billboard pop chart in late 1965, became a hit around the world, and set the duo on one of the most successful careers in pop and rock music. Simon and Garfunkel have been described as "folk-rock's greatest duo, and one whose fame and influence would persist well beyond folk-rock's heyday." One of
6475-504: A style to which he returned in later albums. His 2009 release, Uncorked , was released on his independent label, Wallaby Trails Recordings, and was followed up by Al Stewart and The Empty Pockets Live in 2024. Stewart has worked with Peter White , Alan Parsons , Jimmy Page , Richard Thompson , Rick Wakeman , Francis Monkman , Tori Amos , and Tim Renwick , and more recently has played with Dave Nachmanoff and former Wings lead-guitarist Laurence Juber . Stewart appears throughout
6650-486: A track called "Scarlet" was cut (the same year he played acoustic guitar on The Stones' "Through the Lonely Nights"). Page reflected later in an interview with Rolling Stone ' s Cameron Crowe : "I did what could possibly be the next Stones B side. It was Ric Grech, Keith and me doing a number called "Scarlet". I can't remember the drummer. It sounded very similar in style and mood to those Blonde on Blonde tracks. It
6825-502: A traditional style, and is played on a combination of traditional and rock instruments. This incorporation of traditional British folk music influences gives British folk rock its distinctly British character and flavour. It evolved out of the psychedelia -influenced folk rock of British acts such as Donovan, the Incredible String Band , and Tyrannosaurus Rex , but was also heavily influenced by such American folk rock bands as
7000-505: A tribute to Led Zeppelin. During an interview for the BBC in connection with the induction, Page expressed plans to record new material in 2007, saying: "It's an album that I really need to get out of my system ... there's a good album in there and it's ready to come out" and "Also there will be some Zeppelin things on the horizon." On 10 December 2007, the surviving members of Led Zeppelin, as well as John Bonham 's son, Jason Bonham played
7175-601: Is the BibleCode Sundays . Celtic rock is also popular in Spain where bands such as Celtas Cortos have had a large following since the early 1990s. Medieval folk rock developed as a subgenre of electric folk from about 1970 as performers, particularly in England, Germany and Brittany, adopted medieval and renaissance music as a basis for their music, in contrast to the early modern and nineteenth century ballads that dominated
Al Stewart - Misplaced Pages Continue
7350-600: Is a fusion genre of heavy metal music and traditional folk music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. It is characterised by the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles (for example, Dutch Heidevolk , Danish Sylvatica and Spanish Stone of Erech). It also sometimes features soft instrumentation influenced by folk rock. The earliest folk metal bands were Skyclad from England, Cruachan from Ireland and Mago de Oz from Spain. Skyclad's debut album The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth
7525-482: Is cited by Page as being his inspiration to take up the guitar, and he would reprise Moore's playing on the song in the live version of " Whole Lotta Love " on The Song Remains the Same . He appeared on BBC1 in 1957 with a Höfner President acoustic, which he'd bought from money saved up from his milk round in the summer holidays and which had a pickup so it could be amplified, but his first solid-bodied electric guitar
7700-531: Is hard to remember exactly what he did given the enormous number of sessions he was playing at the time. In a radio interview, he explained that "I was doing three sessions a day, fifteen sessions a week. Sometimes I would be playing with a group, sometimes I could be doing film music, it could be a folk session ... I was able to fit all these different roles." Although Page recorded with many notable musicians, many of these early tracks are only available as bootleg recordings , several of which were released by
7875-457: Is never wasted". And that, actually, has governed my life. You know what I mean? That's a quote you can live by. But it's not my quote. So if I say it I always credit it to Napoleon. There is another way of saying any of the things you want to say, rather than rehashing someone else's words. … I think of songs as cinema, really. It's aural cinema. I want to show you a movie when I'm playing a song. That's essentially what I'm doing. And, of course,
8050-624: The Death Wish III soundtrack, were recorded and produced at his recording studio, The Sol in Cookham , which he had purchased from Gus Dudgeon in the early 1980s. In 1983, Page appeared with the A.R.M.S. (Action Research for Multiple Sclerosis ) charity series of concerts which honoured Small Faces bassist Ronnie Lane , who suffered from the disease. For the first shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Page's set consisted of songs from
8225-437: The 1967 Detroit riot . He would rise to top the charts in the 1970s with a number of his folk-rock recordings such as " Sundown " and " Carefree Highway " and eventually become known as a folk-rock legend. Some artists who originally produced with a harder edged rock sound found the ability to communicate more easily and felt more genuine in this method of delivery. In this category was Cat Stevens , who began in London much like
8400-471: The Al Stewart album Love Chronicles and played guitar on five tracks of Joe Cocker 's debut album, With a Little Help from My Friends . Over the years since 1970, Page played lead guitar on 10 Roy Harper tracks, comprising 81 minutes of music. When questioned about which songs he played on, especially ones where there exists some controversy as to what his exact role was, Page often points out that it
8575-625: The Bill Monroe bluegrass standard " Blue Moon of Kentucky "; Buddy Holly 's self-penned material, which strongly influenced both Dylan and the Byrds; Ritchie Valens ' recording of the Mexican folk song " La Bamba "; Lloyd Price 's rock 'n' roll adaptation of the African-American folk song " Stagger Lee " (originally recorded by Mississippi John Hurt in 1928); Jimmie Rodgers ' rock 'n' roll flavored renditions of traditional folk songs; and
8750-576: The Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and stayed there for three weeks, selling over a million copies in just five weeks in the U.S. The band's arrangement of "The House of the Rising Sun", which transmuted the song from an acoustic folk lament to a full-bore electric rock song, would go on to influence many folk rock acts but none more so than Dylan himself, who cited it as a key factor in his decision to record and perform with an electric rock band in 1965. The Searchers were influential in popularizing
8925-585: The Billboard pop albums chart and went gold in the US. It was followed by Mean Business in 1986. The band toured in support of both albums, but soon split up. Various other projects followed, such as session work for Graham Nash , Stephen Stills and the Rolling Stones (on their 1986 single " One Hit (To the Body) "). In 1986, Page reunited temporarily with his former Yardbirds bandmates to play on several tracks of
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#17328546847839100-493: The Box of Frogs album Strange Land . Page released a solo album entitled Outrider in 1988, which featured contributions from Plant, with Page contributing in turn to Plant's solo album Now and Zen , which was released the same year. Outrider also featured singer John Miles on the album's opening track "Wasting My Time". Throughout these years, Page also reunited with the other former bandmates of Led Zeppelin to perform live on
9275-481: The Celtic rock movement, medieval music was focused on by bands like Ripaille from 1977 and Saga de Ragnar Lodbrock from 1979. However, by the end of the 1970s almost all of these performers had either disbanded or moved, like Gentle Giant and Gryphon, into the developing area of progressive rock . In the 1990s, as part of the wider resurgence of folk music in general, new medieval folk rock acts began to appear, including
9450-503: The Death Wish II soundtrack (with Steve Winwood on vocals) and an instrumental version of "Stairway to Heaven". A four-city tour of the United States followed, with Paul Rodgers of Bad Company replacing Winwood. During the tour, Page and Rodgers performed "Midnight Moonlight", which would later appear on The Firm's first album. All of the shows featured an on stage jam of " Layla " that reunited Page with Beck and Clapton. According to
9625-708: The Newport Folk Festival on 25 July 1965, where he was backed by an electric band, was also a pivotal moment in the development of the genre. During the late 1960s in Britain and Europe, a distinct, eclectic British folk rock style was created by Pentangle , Fairport Convention and Alan Stivell . Inspired by British psychedelic folk and the North American style of folk rock, British folk rock bands began to incorporate elements of traditional British folk music into their repertoire, leading to other variants, including
9800-530: The Ritchie Blackmore project Blackmore's Night , German bands such as In Extremo , Subway to Sally or Schandmaul and English bands like Circulus . In Britain the tendency to electrify brought several progressive folk acts into rock. This includes the acoustic duo Tyrannosaurus Rex, who became the electric combo T. Rex . Others, probably influenced by the electric folk pioneered by Fairport Convention from 1969, moved towards more traditional material,
9975-768: The Treaty of Versailles , Prohibition , the Spanish Civil War , and the Great Depression . Juber produced the album, and went on to produce Stewart's subsequent studio albums. In 1995, Stewart was invited to play at the 25th anniversary Glastonbury Festival. In 2000, Stewart released Down in the Cellar , a concept album themed on wine. Stewart had begun a love affair with wine in the 1970s when, he admitted, he had more money than he knew how to spend, and so turned to fine wines. In 2005, he released A Beach Full of Shells , which
10150-504: The UK Album Chart . The album's blend of rhythm and blues -derived rock and abstract, poetic lyrics was immediately influential in demonstrating that intelligent lyrical content could be wedded with rock 'n' roll. The songs on the album saw Dylan leaving folk music far behind. Even with this folkier, acoustic material, Dylan's biting, apocalyptical, and often humorous lyrics went far beyond those of contemporary folk music, particularly
10325-760: The 12-hour show. In 1990, a Knebworth concert to aid the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre and the British School for Performing Arts and Technology saw Plant unexpectedly joined by Page to perform " Misty Mountain Hop ", " Wearing and Tearing " and " Rock and Roll ". The same year, Page appeared with Aerosmith at the Monsters of Rock festival. Page also performed with the band's former members at Jason Bonham's wedding. In 1993, Page collaborated with David Coverdale (of English rock band Whitesnake ) for
10500-573: The 1920s and 1930s, which had been reissued by Folkways Records ; Harry Smith 's Anthology of American Folk Music was particularly influential. While this urban folk revival flourished in many cities, New York City, with its burgeoning Greenwich Village coffeehouse scene and population of topical folk singers, was widely regarded as the centre of the movement. Out of this fertile environment came such folk-protest luminaries as Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton , Phil Ochs , and Peter, Paul and Mary , many of whom would transition into folk rock performers as
10675-450: The 1960s progressed. The vast majority of the urban folk revivalists shared a disdain for the values of mainstream American mass culture and led many folk singers to begin composing their own "protest" material. The influence of this folk-protest movement would later manifest itself in the sociopolitical lyrics and mildly anti-establishment sentiments of many folk rock songs, including hit singles such as " Eve of Destruction ", " Like
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#173285468478310850-578: The 1970s, Celtic rock held close to its folk roots, drawing heavily on traditional Celtic fiddle , pipe , and harp tunes, as well as traditional vocal styles, but making use of rock band levels of amplification and percussion. In the 1980s and beyond, Celtic rock was perpetuated by bands such as the Pogues , the Waterboys , Runrig , Black 47 , and the Prodigals . A more recent folk rock band based in England
11025-598: The 1970s, the country folk subgenre has been perpetuated by artists including John Prine , Nanci Griffith , Kathy Mattea , Mary Chapin Carpenter , and Iris DeMent . A subgenre of folk rock that combines traditional Celtic instrumentation with rock rhythms, often influenced by a wide variety of pop and rock music styles. It emerged from the electric folk music of the late 1960s and was pioneered by bands such as Horslips , who blended Gaelic mythology , traditional Irish music and rock. The British singer-songwriter Donovan
11200-458: The 1990s. It was not until the early 2000s when the genre exploded into prominence, particularly in Finland with the efforts of such groups as Finntroll , Ensiferum , Korpiklaani , Turisas , and Moonsorrow . The music of folk metal is characterised by its diversity with bands known to perform different styles of both heavy metal music and folk music. A large variety of folk instruments are used in
11375-739: The American and British charts. In particular, the Byrds' influence can be discerned in mid-1960s recordings by acts such as the Lovin' Spoonful, Barry McGuire , the Mamas & the Papas, Simon & Garfunkel , Jefferson Airplane , the Turtles , We Five , Love , and Sonny & Cher . It was during the rehearsals at World Pacific that the band began to develop the blend of folk music and Beatles-style pop that would characterize their sound. However, this hybrid
11550-458: The Atlantic. In mid-1965, folk singer-songwriter Donovan was also experimenting with adding electrified instrumentation to some of his folk and blues-styled material, as evidenced by songs such as " You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond " and "Sunny Goodge Street". In spite of his folky persona and repertoire, Donovan himself had always considered himself a pop star, rather than a folk singer. As
11725-600: The Beatles' impact on American popular culture effectively sounded the death knell for the American folk music revival . In addition to The Beatles, the two British groups that were arguably the most influential on the development of folk rock were the Animals and the Searchers . The Animals released a rock interpretation of the traditional folk song " The House of the Rising Sun " in the U.S. in August 1964. The song reached number 1 on
11900-481: The Beatles' music became even more explicit during 1965, with the release of " You've Got to Hide Your Love Away ", a folk-derived song with introspective lyrics, again influenced by Dylan. Although the Beatles themselves utilized folk as just one of many styles evident in their music, the underlying folk influences in a number of their songs would prove to be important to folk rock musicians attempting to blend their own folk influences with beat music . The effect that
12075-503: The Byrds did in the United States but toned down the sound more frequently with acoustic instruments. He performed songs that contained concern for the environment, war, and the future of the world in general. The Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell won many Grammy Awards with her folk rock/pop songs. British folk rock developed in Britain during the mid to late 1960s by the bands Fairport Convention , and Pentangle . It uses traditional British music and self-penned compositions in
12250-465: The Byrds entered Columbia Studios in Hollywood to record his song "Mr. Tambourine Man", Bob Dylan completed the recording sessions for his fifth album, Bringing It All Back Home . Of the eleven tracks on the album, seven featured Dylan backed by a full electric rock band, in stark contrast to his earlier acoustic folk albums. Dylan's decision to record with an electric backing band had been influenced by
12425-507: The Byrds, Love , and Buffalo Springfield. British folk rock was at its most significant and popular during the late 1960s and 1970s, when, in addition to Fairport and Pentangle, it was taken up by groups such as Steeleye Span and the Albion Band . Steeleye Span, founded by Fairport Convention bass player Ashley Hutchings , was made up of traditionalist folk musicians who wished to incorporate electrical amplification, and later overt rock elements, into their music. This, in turn, spawned
12600-601: The Cat peaking at No. 5 and Time Passages at No. 10, and both albums produced hit singles in the US ("Year of the Cat" No. 8, and "On the Border", #42; "Time Passages" No. 7 and " Song on the Radio ", #29). Meanwhile, "Year of the Cat" became Stewart's first chart single in Britain, where it peaked at No. 31. It was a huge success at London's Capital Radio, reaching number 2 on their Capital Countdown chart. The overwhelming success of these songs on
12775-538: The Edge and Jack White , he participated in the 2008 documentary It Might Get Loud . Page is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Rolling Stone magazine has described Page as "the pontiff of power riffing" and ranked him number three in their 2015 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time", behind Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton , and ranking 3rd again in 2023 behind Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix. In 2010, he
12950-679: The Led Zeppelin catalogue and old blues and rock standards. The last two concerts were recorded in Los Angeles and released as a double live album , Live at the Greek in 2000. Following the release of the live album, Page and the Black Crowes continued their collaboration by joining a package tour with the Who in 2000, which Page ultimately quit before completion. In 2001, after guesting with Fred Durst and Wes Scantlin 's performance of " Thank You " at
13125-562: The Led Zeppelin fan club in the late 1970s. Examples include early jam sessions featuring him and guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton covering various blues themes, which were included on compilations released by Immediate Records . Several early tracks were compiled on the twin album release, Jimmy Page: Session Man . He also recorded with Keith Richards on guitar and vocals in Olympic Sound Studios on 15 October 1974. Along with Ric Grech on bass and Bruce Rowland on drums,
13300-501: The Lovin' Spoonful as new folk-rock acts. Dylan also contributed to the creation of the genre, with his recordings utilizing rock instrumentation on the albums Bringing It All Back Home , Highway 61 Revisited , and Blonde on Blonde . In a broader sense, folk rock encompasses similarly inspired musical genres and movements in different regions of the world. Folk rock may lean more towards either folk or rock in instrumentation, playing and vocal style, and choice of material. While
13475-769: The MTV Europe Video Music Awards, Page once again continued his collaboration with Robert Plant. After recording a cover of "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It" for a tribute album, the duo performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 2005, Page was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of his Brazilian charity work for Task Brazil and Action For Brazil's Children's Trust, made an honorary citizen of Rio de Janeiro later that year and won
13650-516: The MacGregors and Themselves. Also in 1984, Page recorded with Plant as the Honeydrippers the album The Honeydrippers: Volume 1 and with John Paul Jones on the film soundtrack Scream for Help . Page subsequently collaborated with Rodgers on two albums under the name The Firm . The first album, released in 1985, was the self-titled The Firm . Popular songs included " Radioactive " and "Satisfaction Guaranteed". The album peaked at number 17 on
13825-497: The Miles Road house: "I don't know whether [the guitar] was left behind by the people [in the house] before [us], or whether it was a friend of the family's—nobody seemed to know why it was there." First playing the instrument when aged 12, he took a few lessons in nearby Kingston , but was largely self-taught: When I grew up there weren't many other guitarists ... There was one other guitarist in my school who actually showed me
14000-714: The Night ", Dave Berry's " The Crying Game " and "My Baby Left Me", Brenda Lee 's "Is It True", Shirley Bassey 's "Goldfinger" , and Petula Clark 's " Downtown ". In 1964, Page contributed guitar to the incidental music of the Beatles ' 1964 film A Hard Day's Night . In 1965, Page was hired by Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham to act as house producer and A&R man for the newly formed Immediate Records label, which allowed him to play on and/or produce tracks by John Mayall , Nico , Chris Farlowe , Twice as Much and Clapton. Also in 1965, Page produced one of Dana Gillespie 's early singles, "Thank You Boy". Page also formed
14175-840: The Redcaps, after the departure of guitarist Bobby Oats, Page was asked by singer Neil Christian to join his band, the Crusaders. Christian had seen a fifteen-year-old Page playing in a local hall, and the guitarist toured with Christian for approximately two years and later played on several of his records, including the 1962 single, "The Road to Love". During his stint with Christian, Page fell seriously ill with glandular fever and could not continue touring. While recovering, he decided to put his musical career on hold and concentrate on his other love, painting, and enrolled at Sutton Art College in Surrey. As he explained in 1975: [I was] travelling around all
14350-637: The U.S. folk community. The term "folk rock" was initially used in the U.S. music press in June 1965 to describe the Byrds' music. The commercial success of the Byrds' cover version of Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man " and their debut album of the same name , along with Dylan's own recordings with rock instrumentation—on the albums Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Highway 61 Revisited (1965), and Blonde on Blonde (1966)—encouraged other folk acts, such as Simon & Garfunkel , to use electric backing on their records and new groups, such as Buffalo Springfield , to form. Dylan's controversial appearance at
14525-481: The U.S. music charts. These groups were all heavily influenced by American rock 'n' roll , blues , and R&B —musical genres they had been introduced to via homegrown British rock 'n' roll singers, imported American records , and the music of the skiffle craze. These UK groups, known collectively as the British Invasion , reintroduced American youth culture to the broad potential of rock and pop music as
14700-455: The U.S. singles chart. The high-profile success of the Beau Brummels' music was important in demonstrating that a hybrid of folk and rock could potentially be translated into mainstream commercial success. Pre-dating the Beau Brummels' commercial breakthrough by almost two years, singer-songwriter Jackie DeShannon 's April 1963 single " Needles and Pins " marked, according to Unterberger,
14875-489: The UK, the folk group the Springfields (featuring Dusty Springfield ) had been releasing folk-oriented material featuring full band arrangements since the early 1960s, including renditions of " Lonesome Traveler ", " Allentown Jail ", and " Silver Threads and Golden Needles ". Although these records owed more to orchestral pop than rock, they were nonetheless influential on up-and-coming folk rock musicians on both sides of
15050-419: The US, Canada, Europe, and the UK. He is best known for his 1976 hit single " Year of the Cat ", from the platinum album of the same name. Though Year of the Cat and its 1978 platinum follow-up Time Passages brought Stewart his biggest worldwide commercial successes, earlier albums such as Past, Present and Future from 1973 are often seen as better examples of his intimate brand of historical folk-rock,
15225-466: The United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival . Performers such as Bob Dylan and the Byrds —several of whose members had earlier played in folk ensembles—attempted to blend the sounds of rock with their pre-existing folk repertoire, adopting the use of electric instrumentation and drums in a way previously discouraged in
15400-544: The Weavers , whose mainstream popularity set the stage for the folk revival of the 1950s and early 1960s and also served to bridge the gap between folk, popular music, and topical song . The Weavers' sound and repertoire of traditional folk material and topical songs directly inspired the Kingston Trio , a three-piece folk group who came to prominence in 1958 with their hit recording of " Tom Dooley ". The Kingston Trio provided
15575-711: The Who's first single " I Can't Explain " (although Pete Townshend was reluctant to allow Page's contribution on the final recording; Page also played lead guitar on the B-side, " Bald Headed Woman "). Page's studio gigs in 1964 and 1965 included Marianne Faithfull 's " As Tears Go By ", Jonathan King 's " Everyone's Gone to the Moon ", the Nashville Teens ' " Tobacco Road ", the Rolling Stones " Heart of Stone " (along with "We're Wasting Time") (also, Van Morrison & Them 's " Baby, Please Don't Go ", "Mystic Eyes", and " Here Comes
15750-516: The Yardbirds, but he declined out of loyalty to his friend. In February 1965, Clapton quit the Yardbirds and Page was formally offered his spot, but unwilling to give up his lucrative career as a session musician and worried about his health under touring conditions, he suggested his friend Jeff Beck. On 16 May 1966, drummer Keith Moon , bass player John Paul Jones , keyboardist Nicky Hopkins , Jeff Beck and Page recorded " Beck's Bolero " in London's IBC Studios . The experience gave Page an idea to form
15925-507: The album Coverdale–Page and a brief tour of Japan. In 1994, Page and Robert Plant reunited as Page and Plant for an initial performance as part of MTV's " Unplugged " series. The 90-minute special, dubbed Unledded , premiered to the highest ratings in MTV's history. In October of the same year, the session was released as the live album No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded , and on DVD as No Quarter Unledded in 2004. Following
16100-438: The band's folk-flavored sound Although folk rock mainly grew out of a mix of American folk revival and British Invasion influences, there were also a few examples of proto-folk rock that were important in the development of the genre. Of these secondary influences, Unterberger has cited the self-penned, folk-influenced material of San Francisco's the Beau Brummels as arguably the most important. Despite their Beatlesque image,
16275-513: The band's sound in June 1965, at roughly the same time as "Mr. Tambourine Man" peaked at number 1 on the Billboard chart. Within three months it had become the first folk rock smash hit, reaching number 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart . The single's success initiated the folk rock boom of 1965 and 1966, during which a profusion of Byrds-influenced acts flooded
16450-462: The band's use of minor chords , haunting harmonies, and folky acoustic guitar playing—as heard on their debut single " Laugh, Laugh "—was stylistically very similar to the later folk rock of the Byrds. Released in December 1964, "Laugh, Laugh" peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1965, while its similarly folk-flavored follow-up, " Just a Little ", did even better, reaching number 8 on
16625-529: The bands the Firm , the Honeydrippers , reunions and individual work, including film soundtracks. He also became active in philanthropic work. Page made a return to the stage at a Jeff Beck show in March 1981 at the Hammersmith Odeon . Also in 1981, Page joined with Yes bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White to form a supergroup called XYZ (for former Yes-Zeppelin). They rehearsed several times, but
16800-550: The book Hammer of the Gods , it was reportedly around this time that Page told friends that he had just ended seven years of heroin use. On 13 December 1983, Page joined Plant on stage for one encore at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. Page next linked up with Roy Harper for the 1984 album Whatever Happened to Jugula? and occasional concerts, performing a predominantly acoustic set at folk festivals under various guises such as
16975-473: The burgeoning folk rock scene and in establishing Dylan as a bona fide rock star, rather than a folksinger. "Like a Rolling Stone" managed to reach the Top 5 on both sides of the Atlantic. Five days after the release of "Like a Rolling Stone", on 25 July 1965, Dylan made a controversial appearance at the Newport Folk Festival , performing three songs with a full band. He was met with derisive booing and jeering from
17150-413: The commercial success of the Byrds' cover version of Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man ", along with Dylan's own contributions to the genre on the albums Bringing It All Back Home , Highway 61 Revisited , and Blonde on Blonde , initiated an explosion of emulators and imitators. Their success led record producer Tom Wilson to add electric guitar, bass, and drums overdubs to " The Sounds of Silence ",
17325-448: The concurrent offshoot of country rock . This successful blending of country, folk and rock styles led to pioneering country folk records by folk-influenced singer-songwriters such as John Denver and Neil Young during the 1970s. Country folk music usually displays a softer, more "laid-back" feel than the majority of country music and is often complemented by introspective lyrics, thus preserving its folk singer-songwriter roots. Since
17500-561: The conspicuously English folk rock music of the Albion Band, a group that also included Hutchings. In Brittany folk rock was developed by Alan Stivell (who began to mix his Breton, Irish, and Scottish roots with rock music) and later by French bands like Malicorne . During this same period, folk rock was adopted and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, and Cornwall, to produce Celtic rock and its derivatives. A subgenre originally arising from
17675-515: The earliest appearance of the ringing guitar sound that would become a mainstay of early folk rock. This use of cyclical, chiming guitar riffs was repeated on DeShannon's late 1963 recording of her own composition " When You Walk in the Room ". The following year, both songs would become hits for the Liverpudlian band the Searchers, who chose to place even greater emphasis on the jangly guitar playing in
17850-448: The early 1960s folk and country-influenced music of singer-songwriter artists such as Bob Dylan and Bobby Bare , as well as from folk revivalist vocal groups like the Kingston Trio. During the late 1960s, many folk rock artists including Dylan, Ian and Sylvia , and the Byrds began to incorporate a strong country influence into their music, drawing heavily on Hank Williams , Merle Haggard , and Buck Owens amongst others, resulting in
18025-648: The early 1960s include Judy Henske , Richard and Mimi Fariña , and the Mugwumps , the latter of which were a New York band featuring future members of the Lovin' Spoonful and the Mamas & the Papas. Also of note are the Australian band the Seekers , who had relocated to England in 1964 and reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart with " I'll Never Find Another You " in February 1965. Unterberger has noted that, although it
18200-501: The early folk-rock music emerged during a time of general global upheaval, the Vietnam War , and new concerns for the world by young people. In the United States, the heyday of folk rock was arguably between the mid-sixties and the mid-seventies, when it aligned itself with the hippie movement and became an important medium for expressing radical ideas. Cities such as San Francisco, Denver , New York City and Phoenix became centers for
18375-523: The era. Bands whose music was significantly folk rock in sound during the mid-to-late 1960s included Donovan , the Lovin' Spoonful, the Mamas & the Papas, the Youngbloods , Love , and, in their early years, Jefferson Airplane . In the mid-1960s, singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot began moving his folk songs into a folk-rock direction with recordings such as the percussion-driven "Black Day in July" about
18550-400: The festival's purist folk music crowd, but in the years since the incident, Dylan's 1965 Newport Folk Festival appearance has become widely regarded as a pivotal moment in the synthesis of folk and rock. Dylan followed "Like a Rolling Stone" with the wholly electric album Highway 61 Revisited and the non-album single " Positively 4th Street ", which itself has been widely interpreted as
18725-462: The first bands to craft a distinctly American sound in response to the British Invasion was the Beach Boys ; while not a folk rock band themselves, they directly influenced the genre and at the height of the folk rock boom in 1966 had a hit with a cover of the 1920s West Indian folk song " Sloop John B ", which they had learned from the Kingston Trio , who had learned it from the Weavers . Much of
18900-710: The first chords that I learned and I went on from there. I was bored so I taught myself the guitar from listening to records. So obviously it was a very personal thing. This "other guitarist" was a boy called Rod Wyatt, a few years his senior, and together with another boy, Pete Calvert, they would practise at Page's house; Page would devote six or seven hours on some days to practising and would always take his guitar with him to secondary school, only to have it confiscated and returned to him after class. Among Page's early influences were rockabilly guitarists Scotty Moore and James Burton , who both played on recordings made by Elvis Presley . Presley's song " Baby Let's Play House "
19075-464: The folk and country -influenced recordings featured on the Everly Brothers ' 1959 album Songs Our Daddy Taught Us . The moment when all of the separate influences that served to make up folk rock finally coalesced into an identifiable whole was with the release of the Byrds' recording of Bob Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man ". The term "folk rock" was coined by the U.S. music press to describe
19250-453: The folk rock band Pentangle in the late 1960s. Other notable folk rock artists with roots in the progressive folk scene were Donovan , Al Stewart , John Martyn and Paul Simon . They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid. You could only do that with other musicians. Even if you're playing your own chords you had to have other people playing with you. That
19425-432: The folk rock culture, playing on their central locations among the original folk circuits. The "unplugged" and simplified sound of the music reflected the genre's connection to a critical view of a technological and consumerist society. Unlike pop music's escapist lyrics, arguably a fantasy distraction from the problems in life, folk artists attempted to communicate concerns for peace, global awareness, and other touchstones of
19600-423: The folk-protest music with which he had been previously associated. On 20 July 1965, Dylan released the groundbreaking " Like a Rolling Stone ", a six-minute-long scathing put-down, directed at a down-and-out society girl, which again featured Dylan backed by an electric rock band. Released just as the Byrds' cover of "Mr. Tambourine Man" topped the charts in the United States, the song was instrumental in defining
19775-451: The gap between folk and rock. Mr. Tambourine Man's blend of abstract lyrics, folk-influenced melody, complex harmonies , jangly 12-string Rickenbacker guitar playing, and Beatles-influenced beat, resulted in a synthesis that effectively created the subgenre of folk rock. The song's lyrics alone took rock and pop songwriting to new heights; never before had such intellectual and literary lyrics been combined with rock instrumentation by
19950-447: The genre with many bands consequently featuring six or more members in their regular line-ups. A few bands are also known to rely on keyboards to simulate the sound of folk instruments . Lyrics in the genre commonly deal with fantasy , mythology , paganism , history and nature . Sources Jimmy Page James Patrick Page OBE (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician and producer who achieved international success as
20125-582: The greater incorporation of brass and orchestral arrangements into recordings at the expense of guitars. He stated that his time as a session player served as extremely good schooling: My session work was invaluable. At one point I was playing at least three sessions a day, six days a week! And I rarely ever knew in advance what I was going to be playing. But I learned things even on my worst sessions – and believe me, I played on some horrendous things. I finally called it quits after I started getting calls to do Muzak . I decided I couldn't live that life any more; it
20300-642: The group with a new line-up to fulfill unfinished tour dates in Scandinavia. To this end, Page recruited vocalist Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham , and he was also contacted by John Paul Jones , who asked to join. During the Scandinavian tour , the new group appeared as the New Yardbirds, but soon recalled the old joke by Keith Moon and John Entwistle. Page stuck with that name to use for his new band. Manager Peter Grant changed it to "Led Zeppelin", to avoid
20475-405: The guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin . Prolific in creating guitar riffs , Page's style involves various alternative guitar tunings and melodic solos, coupled with aggressive, distorted guitar tones. It is also characterized by his folk and eastern-influenced acoustic work. He is notable for occasionally playing his guitar with a cello bow to create a droning sound texture to
20650-441: The impetus to start recording with an electric backing band. As the 1970s dawned, folk rock evolved away from the jangly template pioneered by the Byrds, but their influence could still be heard in the music of bands like Fairport Convention and Pentangle . The Byrds themselves continued to enjoy commercial success with their brand of folk rock throughout 1965, most notably with their number 1 single " Turn! Turn! Turn! ". By
20825-545: The jangly sound of the electric twelve-string guitar . Many musicians in the collegiate and urban folk movements were already familiar with acoustic twelve-string guitars via the music of folk and blues singer Lead Belly. However, the Searchers' use of amplified twelve-strings provided another example of how conventional folk elements could be incorporated into rock music to produce new and exciting sounds. The Beatles' lead guitarist , George Harrison , also influenced this trend towards jangly guitars in folk rock with his use of
21000-531: The key transitional albums The Times They Are A-Changin , Another Side of Bob Dylan , and Bringing It All Back Home , he was a key architect of Dylan's electric sound. He is perhaps even better known, however, for first discovering Simon & Garfunkel at the tail end of the folk movement and then transforming them into folk-rock superstars with the unauthorized rock remix that made a number one hit out of their previously underappreciated song, "The Sound of Silence". Music critic Richie Unterberger has noted that
21175-613: The label was the recording " Diamonds " by Jet Harris and Tony Meehan , which went to Number 1 on the singles chart in early 1963. After brief stints with Carter-Lewis and the Southerners , Mike Hurst and the Method and Mickey Finn and the Blue Men , Page committed himself to full-time session work. As a session guitarist, he was known as 'Lil' Jim Pea' to prevent confusion with the other noted English session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan . Page
21350-586: The later 1970s, the band's output and touring schedule were limited by the personal difficulties of the members. Page explained that he had a very specific idea in mind as to what he wanted Led Zeppelin to be, from the very beginning: I had a lot of ideas from my days with the Yardbirds. The Yardbirds allowed me to improvise a lot in live performance and I started building a textbook of ideas that I eventually used in Zeppelin. In addition to those ideas, I wanted to add acoustic textures. Ultimately, I wanted Zeppelin to be
21525-437: The mid-1960s. The popularity and commercial success of the Byrds and Bob Dylan's blend of folk and rock music influenced a wave of imitators and emulators that retroactively became known as the folk rock boom. Although he started out as a jazz musician, the young, African-American Columbia Records producer Tom Wilson became known as the "mid-wife of folk-rock" for his seminal work behind the scenes. As Bob Dylan's producer during
21700-475: The music of these British bands, and the Beatles in particular, had on young Americans was immediate; almost overnight, folk—along with many other forms of homegrown music—became passé for a large proportion of America's youth, who instead turned their attention to the influx of British acts. The influence of these acts also impacted on the collegiate folk and urban folk communities, with many young musicians quickly losing interest in folk music and instead embracing
21875-417: The music. Page began his career as a studio session musician in London and, by the mid-1960s, alongside Big Jim Sullivan , was one of the most sought-after session guitarists in Britain. He was a member of the Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968. When the Yardbirds broke up, he founded Led Zeppelin, which was active from 1968 to 1980. Following the death of Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham , he participated in
22050-630: The musical history of the folk revivalist era. He played at the initial Glastonbury Festival in 1970, knew Yoko Ono before she met John Lennon , shared a London flat with Paul Simon (who was collaborating with Bruce Woodley of the Seekers ), and hosted at the Les Cousins folk club in London in the 1960s. Although born in Greenock, Al Stewart grew up in the town of Wimborne , Dorset, England, after moving from Scotland with his mother, Joan Underwood. His father, Alastair MacKichan Stewart, who served as
22225-715: The next 18 months I was living on ten dollars a week and getting my strength up. But I was still playing. While still a student, Page often performed on stage at the Marquee Club with bands such as Cyril Davies ' All Stars , Alexis Korner 's Blues Incorporated , and fellow guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton . He was spotted one night by John Gibb of Brian Howard & the Silhouettes, who asked him to help record some singles for Columbia Graphophone Company , including "The Worrying Kind". Mike Leander of Decca Records first offered Page regular studio work. His first session for
22400-417: The number-one spot. Led Zeppelin were the progenitors of heavy metal and hard rock, and their sound was largely the product of Page's input as a producer and musician. The band's individualistic style drew from a wide variety of influences. They performed on multiple record-breaking concert tours, which also earned them a reputation for excess. Although they remained commercially and critically successful, in
22575-515: The opinion of Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, writers who attempt to define the origins of folk rock "don't realise that the Beatles were responsible as far back as 1963". He cites " She Loves You " as one of the first examples where the Beatles introduced folk chord changes into rock music and so initiated the new genre. These songs were all influential in providing a template for successfully assimilating folk-based chord progressions and melodies into pop music. This melding of folk and rock 'n' roll in
22750-429: The original genre draws on music of Europe and North America, there is no clear delineation of which other culture's music might be included as influences. The American folk-music revival began during the 1940s; building on the interest in protest folk singers such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger , it reached a peak in popularity in the mid-1960s with artists such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez . In 1948, Seeger formed
22925-500: The output of Fairport Convention. This followed the trend explored by Steeleye Span, and exemplified by their 1972 album Below the Salt . Acts in this area included Gryphon , Gentle Giant and Third Ear Band . In Germany Ougenweide , originally formed in 1970 as an acoustic folk group, opted to draw exclusively on High German medieval music when they electrified, setting the agenda for future German electric folk. In Brittany, as part of
23100-430: The overtly English folk rock of the Albion Band and Celtic rock . "Folk rock" refers to the blending of elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the U.S. and UK in the mid-1960s. The genre was pioneered by the Byrds, who began playing traditional folk music and songs by Bob Dylan with rock instrumentation, in a style heavily influenced by the Beatles and other British Invasion bands. The term folk rock
23275-481: The planet this song, and I say "What is this?", they will say, "Oh, that's Reggae", or "Oh, that's Heavy Metal", or "That's Country & Western", or "Oh, that's Opera", you know what I mean? But that's not what I asked. They're answering a question I didn't ask. What they're saying is "That's the music". What I'm saying is "What is the song?" And the song is either "I've done you wrong", or, "Baby, I love you so", no matter what style it's played in. In other words, there's
23450-523: The poet Pete Morgan ) on the 1970 album Zero She Flies . During his 1999 UK tour, Stewart invited Morgan to read the lyrics as he performed this song in the Leeds City Varieties Theatre show of 7 November 1999. Stewart also invited Morgan to read the poem at the Beverly gig on the same tour, whilst Stewart took a short break, and Morgan subsequently read another poem from his works as well. In
23625-562: The project was shelved. Bootlegs of these sessions revealed that some of the material emerged on later projects, notably The Firm's "Fortune Hunter" and Yes songs "Mind Drive" and "Can You Imagine?". Page joined Yes on stage in 1984 at Westfalenhalle in Dortmund , Germany, playing " I'm Down ". In 1982, Page collaborated with director Michael Winner to record the Death Wish II soundtrack. This and several subsequent Page recordings, including
23800-424: The release of Year of the Cat . He was married to Kristine from 1993 to 2005 with whom he had two daughters. He subsequently married Jill on 12 September 2020. Stewart's historical work includes such subjects as: "Sirens of Titan", from Modern Times is a musical precis of Kurt Vonnegut 's novel of the same name . On occasion, Stewart has set poems to music, such as "My Enemies Have Sweet Voices" (lyrics by
23975-441: The rock 'n' roll derived repertoire of the British Invasion. Future members of many folk rock acts, including the Byrds, Jefferson Airplane , the Lovin' Spoonful, the Mamas & the Papas , and Buffalo Springfield, all turned their backs on traditional folk music during 1964 and 1965 as a direct result of the influence of the Beatles and the other British Invasion bands. Author and music historian Richie Unterberger has noted that
24150-483: The same year, Page played guitar for rap singer/producer Puff Daddy 's song " Come with Me ", which heavily samples Led Zeppelin's " Kashmir " and was included in the soundtrack of Godzilla . The two later performed the song on Saturday Night Live . Following a benefit performance in the summer where the Black Crowes guested with him, Page teamed up with the band for six shows in October 1999, playing material from
24325-512: The song became a hit on many US FM and college radio stations, which were flexible about runtime. Such airplay helped the album to reach No. 133 on the Billboard album chart in the US. Other songs on Past, Present and Future characterized by Stewart's "history genre" mentioned American President Warren G. Harding , World War II, Ernst Röhm , Christine Keeler , Louis Mountbatten , and Joseph Stalin 's purges. Stewart followed Past, Present and Future with Modern Times (1975), in which
24500-528: The songs are geographical too. One of the ways I get inspired to write a song – and this will always produce a song that sounds like nothing else (I can't recommend this highly enough) – I just open a world atlas, just at random, and whatever page I'm looking at, at least six songs immediately occur to me. … Folk-rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop , English and American folk music . It typically combines elements of folk and rock music together, it arose in
24675-481: The songs were lighter on historical references and more of a return to the theme of short stories set to music. Significantly, though, it was the first of his albums to be produced by Alan Parsons . In a highly positive retrospective review of Modern Times , AllMusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine described the album as "exquisite". Erlewine wrote that the album "establishes Stewart's classic sound of folky narratives and Lennonesque melodies, all wrapped up in
24850-437: The songs. In addition, a number of DeShannon's songs from the period, including "When You Walk in the Room", displayed a greater degree of lyrical maturity and sensuality than was usual for pop songs of the time. This heightened degree of emotional introspection was inspired by her love of Bob Dylan's folk songwriting and represents one of the first attempts by an American artist to absorb folk sensibilities into rock music. In
25025-673: The start of 1966, however, the group had begun to move away from folk rock and into the new musical frontier of psychedelic rock . The folk rock sound of the Byrds has continued to influence many bands over the years, including Big Star , Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers , R.E.M. , the Long Ryders , the Smiths , the Bangles , the Stone Roses , and Teenage Fanclub , among others. Five days before
25200-489: The template for a flood of "collegiate folk" groups between 1958 and 1962. At roughly the same time as these "collegiate folk" vocal groups came to national prominence, a second group of urban folk revivalists, influenced by the music and guitar picking styles of folk and blues artist such as Woody Guthrie , Lead Belly , Brownie McGhee , and Josh White , also came to the fore. Many of these urban revivalists were influenced by recordings of traditional American music from
25375-400: The time in a bus. I did that for two years after I left school, to the point where I was starting to get really good bread. But I was getting ill. So I went back to art college. And that was a total change in direction. That's why I say it's possible to do. As dedicated as I was to playing the guitar, I knew doing it that way was doing me in forever. Every two months I had glandular fever. So for
25550-501: The two albums, both of which still receive substantial radio airplay on classic-rock/pop format radio stations, has perhaps later overshadowed the depth and range of Stewart's body of songwriting. Stewart then released 24 Carrots (#37 US 1980) and his first live album Live/Indian Summer (#110 US 1981), with both featuring backing by Peter White 's band Shot in the Dark (who released their own album in 1981). While "24 Carrots" did produce
25725-402: The two-CD set To Whom it May Concern: 1966–70 . In 1970, Stewart and fellow musician Ian A. Anderson headed to the small town of Pilton, Somerset . There, at Michael Eavis 's Worthy Farm , Stewart performed at the first-ever Glastonbury Festival to a field of 1,000 hippies, who had paid just £1 each to be there. On the back of his growing success, Stewart released Orange in 1972. It
25900-508: The upbeat pop-oriented Last Days of the Century (1988), which appeared on smaller labels and had lower sales than his previous works. Stewart followed up with his second live album, the acoustic Rhymes in Rooms (1992), which featured only Stewart and Peter White , and Famous Last Words (1993), which was dedicated to the memory of the late Peter Wood (co-writer of "Year of the Cat"), who died
26075-405: The word, oh, I don't know, "pterodactyl" into a song. So that's fine. No "Oh"'s. No "Baby"'s. No "I miss you so"'s. And no "you done me wrong". No "bad"'s or "sad"'s. (b) And the other thing is, write about subjects that no one else writes about. Basically 90% of all songs seem to be either "Baby, I love you so", or "Baby, you've done me wrong". Now, when people look at songs, when I play anybody on
26250-419: The world outside North America. His first two albums for RCA, Year of the Cat (released on Janus Records in the US, then reissued by Arista Records after Janus folded) and Time Passages (released in the U.S. on Arista), set the style for his later work and have been his biggest-selling recordings. Stewart told Kaya Burgess of The Times : "When I finished Year of the Cat , I thought: 'If this isn't
26425-494: The year of its release. After parting ways with his longtime collaborator of almost 20 years, Peter White (who was credited on every studio and live album between Year of the Cat and Famous Last Words and also served as his regular songwriting partner), Stewart joined with former Wings guitarist Laurence Juber to record a concept album, Between the Wars (1995), covering major historical and cultural events from 1918 to 1939, such as
26600-435: Was Stewart's first album to receive a proper release in the United States, via Janus Records . It echoed a traditional historical storytelling style and contained the song "Nostradamus," a long (9:43) track in which Stewart tied into the rediscovery of the claimed seer 's writings by referring to selected possible predictions about 20th century people and events. While it ran too long for mainstream radio airplay at that time,
26775-472: Was a personnel manager at a plastic-coatings plant and his mother, who was of Irish descent, was a doctor's secretary. In 1952, they moved to Feltham , and then to Miles Road, Epsom , in Surrey. Page was educated from the age of eight at Epsom County Pound Lane Primary School, and when he was eleven he went to Ewell County Secondary School in West Ewell . He came across his first guitar, a Spanish guitar, in
26950-626: Was a second-hand 1959 Futurama Grazioso , later replaced by a Fender Telecaster , a model he had seen Buddy Holly playing on the TV and a real-life example of which he'd played at an electronics exhibition at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London. Page's musical tastes included skiffle (a popular English music genre of the time) and acoustic folk playing, and the blues sounds of Elmore James , B.B. King , Otis Rush , Buddy Guy , Freddie King , and Hubert Sumlin . "Basically, that
27125-496: Was also influential in developing Celtic rock during the late 1960s, with his albums The Hurdy Gurdy Man , Barabajagal , and Open Road , the latter of which actually featured a song entitled "Celtic Rock". The subgenre was further popularised in 1973 by Thin Lizzy , who had a hit with " Whiskey in the Jar ", a traditional Irish song performed entirely in the rock idiom. Throughout
27300-506: Was co-written by Stewart and Nachmanoff. In May 2015, Stewart performed the albums Past, Present and Future and Year of the Cat in their entirety at the Royal Albert Hall with a band that included Tim Renwick, Peter White and Stuart Elliott, who had appeared on the original recordings. In April 2017, Stewart was given a Lifetime Achievement award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, presented by Tony Blackburn , with whom he had once played in
27475-463: Was coined in the June 12, 1965, issue of the American music magazine Billboard by the journalist Eliot Siegel. Siegel used the term principally to describe the music of the Byrds, who had issued their debut album in the U.S. that month. In the same article, he wrote that Billy J. Kramer , Jackie DeShannon and Sonny & Cher had all started incorporating "folk-oriented material on singles", and he listed Rising Sons , Joe and Eddie and
27650-405: Was getting too silly. I guess it was destiny that a week after I quit doing sessions Paul Samwell-Smith left the Yardbirds and I was able to take his place. But being a session musician was good fun in the beginning – the studio discipline was great. They'd just count the song off and you couldn't make any mistakes. In late 1964, Page was approached about the possibility of replacing Eric Clapton in
27825-449: Was great, really good. We stayed up all night and went down to Island Studios where Keith put some reggae guitars over one section. I just put some solos on it, but it was eight in the morning of the next day before I did that. He took the tapes to Switzerland and someone found out about them. Richards told people that it was a track from my album". Page left studio work when the increasing influence of Stax Records on popular music led to
28000-466: Was mainly called into sessions as "insurance" in instances when a replacement or second guitarist was required by the recording artist. "It was usually myself and a drummer", he explained, "though they never mention the drummer these days, just me ... Anyone needing a guitarist either went to Big Jim [Sullivan] or myself." He stated that "In the initial stages they just said, play what you want, cos at that time I couldn't read music or anything." Page
28175-455: Was not a commercial success, peaking at number 80 on the Billboard 200 . Though their studio sound was fairly commercial at the time, the band's live performances were just the opposite, becoming heavier and more experimental. These concerts featured musical aspects that Page would later perfect with Led Zeppelin, most notably performances of " Dazed and Confused ". After the departure of Keith Relf and Jim McCarty in 1968, Page reconfigured
28350-502: Was not deliberately created; it evolved organically out of some of the band members' own folk music roots and their desire to emulate the Beatles. The band's folk influences, lack of experience with rock music forms, and Beatleseque instrumentation all combined to color both their self-penned material and their folk derived repertoire. The band themselves soon realized that there was something unique about their music and, with Dickson's encouragement, they began to actively attempt to bridge
28525-419: Was not strictly a folk song, "I'll Never Find Another You" was heavily influenced by Peter, Paul and Mary and featured a cyclical, twelve-string guitar part that sounded similar to the guitar style that Jim McGuinn of the Byrds would popularize later that same year. There are also a few antecedents to folk rock present in pre-British Invasion American rock 'n' roll, including Elvis Presley 's 1954 cover of
28700-488: Was not until 1956 and the advent of the skiffle craze that the British folk revival crossed over into the mainstream and connected with British youth culture. Skiffle renewed popularity of folk music forms in Britain and led directly to the progressive folk movement and the attendant British folk club scene . Among the leading lights of the progressive folk movement were Bert Jansch and John Renbourn , who would later form
28875-577: Was obvious. And it started me thinking about other people. —Bob Dylan reflecting on how the Beatles influenced his decision to record with an electric backing band Beginning in 1964 and lasting until roughly 1966, a wave of British beat groups, including the Beatles , the Rolling Stones , the Dave Clark Five , Gerry & the Pacemakers , the Kinks , and Herman's Hermits amongst others, dominated
29050-575: Was offered a weekly slot at Bunjies Coffee House in London's Soho in 1965. From there, he went on to serve as master of ceremonies at the Les Cousins folk club on Greek Street , where he played alongside Cat Stevens , Bert Jansch , Van Morrison , Roy Harper , Ralph McTell , and Paul Simon with whom he shared a flat in Dellow Street, Stepney, London. Stewart's first recording was on Jackson C. Frank 's debut album, 1965's Jackson C. Frank , playing guitar on "Yellow Walls". His first record
29225-538: Was ranked number two in Gibson 's list of "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time" and, in 2007, number four on Classic Rock ' s "100 Wildest Guitar Heroes". He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: once as a member of the Yardbirds (1992) and once as a member of Led Zeppelin (1995). Page was born to James Patrick Page and Patricia Elizabeth Gaffikin in the west London suburb of Heston on 9 January 1944. His father
29400-412: Was released in 1967. A revised version appeared in 1970 as The First Album (Bedsitter Images) with a few tracks changed, and the album was reissued on CD in 2007 with all tracks from both versions. Love Chronicles (1969) was notable for the 18-minute title track, an anguished autobiographical tale of sexual encounters that was the first mainstream record release ever to include the word "fucking". It
29575-618: Was released in 1991 and would be considered a thrash metal album with some folk influences, unlike Cruachan's early work which embraced the folk element as a defining part of their sound. It was not until 1994 and 1995 that other early contributors in the genre began to emerge from different regions of Europe and beyond. Among these early groups, the German band Subway to Sally spearheaded a different regional variation that over time became known as medieval metal . Despite their contributions, folk metal remained little known with few representatives during
29750-542: Was set in places varying from First World War England to the 1950s rock 'n' roll scene that influenced him. In 2008, he released Sparks of Ancient Light , produced, like his most recent albums, by Laurence Juber. On this album he weaves tales of William McKinley , Lord Salisbury , and Hanno the Navigator . A video for the song "Elvis at the Wheel" was released in December 2013. Stewart and guitarist Dave Nachmanoff released
29925-407: Was the favoured session guitarist of record producer Shel Talmy . As a result, he secured session work on songs for the Who and the Kinks . Page is credited with playing acoustic twelve-string guitar on two tracks on the Kinks' debut album , "I'm a Lover Not a Fighter" and "I've Been Driving on Bald Mountain", and possibly on the B-side "I Gotta Move". He played rhythm guitar on the sessions for
30100-632: Was the single "The Elf" (backed with a version of the Yardbirds ' "Turn into Earth"), which was released in 1966 on Decca Records and included guitar work from Jimmy Page (later of the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin ). Stewart then signed to Columbia Records (CBS in the UK), for whom he released six albums. Though the first four of these attracted relatively little commercial interest, Stewart's popularity and cult following grew steadily through albums that contain some of Stewart's most incisive and introspective songwriting. Stewart's debut album, Bedsitter Images ,
30275-458: Was the start: a mixture between rock and blues." At the age of 13, Page appeared on Huw Wheldon 's All Your Own talent quest programme in a skiffle quartet, one performance of which aired on BBC1 in 1957. The group played "Mama Don't Want to Skiffle Anymore" and another American-flavoured song, "In Them Ol' Cottonfields Back Home". When asked by Wheldon what he wanted to do after schooling, Page said, "I want to do biological research [to find
30450-446: Was voted "Folk Album of the Year" by the UK music magazine Melody Maker and features Jimmy Page and Richard Thompson on guitar. His third album, Zero She Flies , followed in 1970 and included a number of shorter songs which ranged from acoustic ballads and instrumentals to songs that featured electric lead guitar. These first three albums (including The Elf ) were later released as
30625-464: Was written after a tumultuous breakup with his girlfriend and muse, Mandi, and was very much a transitional album, combining songs in Stewart's confessional style with more intimations of the historical themes that he would increasingly adopt (e.g., "The News from Spain" with its progressive rock overtones, including dramatic piano by Rick Wakeman ). The fifth release, Past, Present and Future (1973),
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