Jimmy Page on Work

by Ernie Stanley

excerpt from Rolling Stone's interview in 2007 with the newly reformed Led Zeppelin (YES!!!)

How would you characterize the way Led Zeppelin rehearsed for concerts in the Seventies? How would you get ready for a tour?

We would just go in and jam. The hardest part of the Led Zeppelin set list in those days was actually taking numbers out, to put in new ones. Inevitably, we'd want to play some new numbers from the current album. But sometimes we'd only play one of them, because we didn't want to lose the old numbers. As a result, the set kept getting longer and longer and longer. That was one of the reasons the shows were so long — we just enjoyed playing so much. If we had a rehearsal to go on the road, we'd go over some links within the set, segues between numbers — then afterward, just jamming, coming up with new things that would disappear into the ether. Of course, it was work. But it wasn't a chore. It was something to enjoy and savor.



Jimmy Page's answer struck me as incredibly insightful to the way western societieers live their life. So many people go to college, go to high school, go through any laborious ideal simply to make money. This abstract thing called money, which has little physical basis behind it (other than in Austria) now rules our life. Curiously absent from any discussion we had on tribal cultures was the notion of currency. These "primitive" people either pay for services in tangible forms, food, clothing, shelter or do not even consider the concept of payment. Most professions are completed by the best person, or the chosen person and not out of necessity to live (other than hunting/gathering, which is in itself paying for life).

I question if the reason why many people find themselves unhappy is because they are forced into money making positions simply to make money to survive. What if everyone worked in a profession they loved, like artists do? What if everything was an art in itself, rather than a mode of money-making based around technology and efficiency?