Jimmy Page is Still God

There are certain times when everything comes together so beautifully, it is just impossible to think that there is no such thing as Karma.

Last Saturday night we considered going to a movie, but there wasn't anything grabbing me. For the first time in my life, really, the first time, I started to read movie reviews online. Randomly I clicked to the Boston Globe to read a review and barely noticed a Led Zeppelin banner ad. I can't remember ever clicking on a banner ad either. Maybe once, 10 years ago, when they first appeared, but not recently. I clicked to another page and then I realized that I saw something about Led Zeppelin and went back. The banner was still there, announcing that a new, digitally remastered version of The Song Remains the Same was being released and was playing... in Boston. Well I was reading the Boston Globe. It was on Tuesday night at 8:00. I considered seriously if I could get to Boston and back in one night No, it seemed impossible because my mother-in-law had to be taken to the airport on Tuesday at 5:30 (no way was I going to fly, too expensive) and we would never make it. Oh well.

Then, about an hour later, it occurred to me that if the movie was playing in Boston it might be playing in New York. A little googling, and sure enough, playing in New York, one night only on Tuesday. I bought 3 tickets, Jeannine said she would come too, and we were on our way. (Janice: if you read this, you are seriously lame for not coming.)

Then on Sunday we went to the airport to pick up my mother-in-law who was visiting for a few days on her way back from Tunisia. While we waited for her to not find her lost luggage, we browsed the newsstand and the only thing I really wanted to read was an issue of GuitarWorld Magazine that had a photo of Jimmy Page (with white hair) on the cover. Again, how often does one have the opportunity to browse magazines? For me, never. I rarely even go into the supermarket anymore. But the magazine was encased in plastic wrap. How annoying was that. So I read about Britney and Angelina instead. Not satisfying in any way.

So where is the karma? When we went to the movie, GuitarWorld Magazine was sponsoring it, and giving out free copies of the issue that I had coveted in the airport. It all came together so beautifully. And all because I LOVE JIMMY PAGE and because all of these fates brought it together to make sure I found out about the only time in 30 years the movie would be playing in the theater. (Note to the film distributors: you did a terrible job promoting this event, the theater was barely half full and nobody else I know had heard that it was playing.)

The famous 1976 movie The Song Remains the Same is certainly an all time classic. Back in Jr. High I went to see it dozens of times, never tiring of watching Jimmy Page's fingers fly across his double neck guitar or Robert Plant push push pushing all the way through the movie. Heavenly.

I took Max to see it, who is approximately the same age as I was when I was obsessed with this movie. He also loved it and is now a true Zeppelin fan. This from the same boy who fell asleep when we took him to see the live show of Zappa Plays Zappa, which we thought he would love. Not so much.

This movie was badly shot and has the weirdest effects imaginable for a rock and roll film. It has sequences that make no sense, with gangsters and shootings and colored liquid shooting straight up out of a dead guy's neck. There are horses and castles and English countryside, car racing, and even little children frolicking in the stream. There is John Paul Jones reading Fee Fi Fo Fum. There is Jason Bonham playing the drums - he must have been about 5, and now he is playing with the reunited Led Zeppelin (one show only this week in England, bah!) And there is Jimmy Page climbing up a mountain to get to a hooded figure whose face changes from old to young to old again. And of course the legendary parts with Jimmy playing his guitar using a bow, with the bow strings fraying as he makes incredible music. And of course, there are the closeup shots of Robert Plant's crotch, so close, and his pants so tight, you pretty much don't need much imagination to know what he looks like naked.

Needless to say, I love this movie. I love Jimmy Page. I love Led Zeppelin. I don't love many things, but this I love.

Next stop: Led Zeppelin The Ride is coming to Myrtle Beach this May. 6 minutes of roller coaster timed to the song Whole Lotta Love. Oooooooooooooh I really can't bare to wait.