Discovery for the sake of sharing
Just saw this entry over at Laughing Squid: 13 Year-Old Jimmy Page on the BBC Show All Your Own in 1957.
Go to this link, watch the YouTube video (a clip from this performance made it into the documentary It Might Get Loud). You'll notice a few things about young Jimmy Page and his skiffle buddies: 1. Most of them want to be scientific researchers. Jimmy wants to research germs and cancer. The drummer wants to research bigger biological entities not to make anything, he emphatically explains, but simply for discovery's own sake and because sharing what he discovers can be used by others to make new things. Wonderful. Then the other guitar player says he wants to be a research physicist and study electricity because it is "the lifeblood of the country now." It's amazing to see how inspired by technology, science and the simple concepts of discovery and understanding these kids were. 2. The bass player and the guitar player build things! The bass player made his own bass, and wanted to make a bigger and better one after all he'd learned in the process of making the one we see him play. The guitar player is making a balalaika. Goodness. Meanwhile young James Page is taking lessons and playing serious, non-skiffle music, and the drummer doesn't smile while he plays ... Because they all take the craft of musicianship incredibly seriously and recognize and embrace the complexity of it. 3. Watch Jimmy Page boogie down. He's not just performing, he's feeling it all. Truly beautiful stuff.
