SOLVED: Photo of the Moment - CSNY & Jimmy Page, 1974

Neil Young, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills & Jimmy Page
1974
Photo by Joseph Stevens
(Click photo to enlarge)

This past weekend, we posted a Photo of the Moment of Neil Young, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills & Jimmy Page.

Matt -- a longtime regular TW reader -- had earlier sent it along with a note to us asking if we knew anything about the photo.

It appeared to be from the time of the 1974 stadium tour in a nightclub somewhere. Given Jimmy Page was in the photo, it seemed possibly CSNY concert at Wembley Stadium, London, England, 1974-09-14?

And what's up with Neil playing a Rickenbacker guitar?! No one has ever seen that before???

So we "fan-sourced" the photo and lo & behold within a few hours we had our answer.

Syscrusher commented:

In my book "Neil Young: The Visual Documentary" by John Robertson it says that after the Wembley show, "CSNY attend a party at Quagliino's in Piccadilly, where Young and Stills jam with members of Led Zeppelin and The Band, performing Vampire Blues and On The Beach among other songs."

And Robert "Stringman" posted on our wall on Facebook | ThrashersWheatNeverSleeps (42):

From John Bonham's site 1974 14 September. John Bonham and Jimmy Page jam with Neil Young at Quaglilino's Restaurant in London after a show at Wembley Stadium featuring Joni Mitchell, C.S.N. & Y and The Band.

Stefano Frollano added:

This photo was shot by Joseph Stevens and it was first published back in 1978 in Carole Dufrechou book "Neil Young". The book has two editions with some slight differences.

Anonymous added:

And the date is listed in Ghosts On The Road by Pete Long. It was after the Wembley Gig. It´s a shame that you can´t see it on the photo but that´s John Bonham on drums!

Unfortunatly no tape from that performance is known to exist!

From comment by Surfer-Joe:

Later that same day the musicians turned up at a post-gig party in Quaglino’s. This most famous of London’s society restaurants had been opened by Giovanni Quaglino in the 1930s. It eventually closed in the 1980s and was subsequently rebuilt in 1993 by Terence Conran on the same location (16 Bury Street, St James’s Place).

Thanks Matt, Syscrusher, Stefano & Stringman! And thanks to all the TW readers and the excellent "fan-sourcing"! (See Crowdsourcing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)



Which reminds us of another time when Jimmy Page and Neil Young got together and jammed all night long...

---

Jimmy Page and Neil Young

"When The Levee's Gonna Break" 

Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and Neil Young 

1995 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

With the announcement yesterday of next year's inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (major congratulations to inductee Graham Nash & The Hollies!!!), we thought it would be nice to rewind to one of the most epic post-ceremony jams of all time. 

 

Led Zeppelin & Neil Young
by LeBalayeur

 
If you have not seen this clip of Jimmy Page and Neil Young dueling on Led Zeppelin's "When The Levee's Gonna Break" you must really do so. A bit of history was made on the evening that Neil Young was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on January 13, 1995. After the induction ceremony, Young joined Led Zeppelin onstage for an all out guitar showdown with Jimmy Page. Performing a 10 minute "When The Levee's Gonna Break", Page and Young traded licks in what turned out to be a remarkable moment in TV rock. Even jaded guitar masters were slack jawed.

Robert Plant segues into the Buffalo Springfield classic "For What It's Worth" at one point (6:35). Not to be outdone, Robert Plant picked up a guitar and began to jam with the guitar greats and seemed to be having the time of his life hopping and twirling about.

Towards the end at about 7:30, after seemingly endless jamming and soloing between the two guitar legends, a clearly exhausted Jimmy Page drops his hands from his guitar as if to concede defeat by Young. At the conclusion of the song, Page and Plant hugged Young as they left the stage. Just before the camera cuts, one can see Page patting Neil's amplifier as if to say, "You've got a hell of a sound from your equipment."

Later in 1995, Neil Young wrote the song "Downtown" (on the "Mirror Ball" album) about that historic night in New York City. From the lyrics "Downtown":

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
Downtown
Let's go downtown

In Jimmy McDonough's biography of Neil Young "Shakey", Neil said of Page's work: "I'm a hack compared to him. He can really play." No word yet on what Robert Plant and Jimmy Page thought of the night.

But McDonough continues in the biography "Shakey" to let Neil know of his displeasure with the pairing. From MOG: These Amps Go To 12 by Jonh Ingham:

[McDonough] couldn't understand why his hero should play with the group; from his writing he obviously thought they weren't worthy to share the stage. Which only shows the limitations of a fan. When your hero's nom-de-guitar is The Volume Dealer it would be more surprising if he didn't want to get on stage with guys he's probably studied for pointers since Page first surfaced in The Yardbirds.

Admittedly, when your hear an audio version of the meeting, it can be hard to discern just what's going on. But this video really lays it out. Neil makes all the noise while Page is happy to just crunch down on the riff and wring every last ounce of weight from it. The best bit for me is when Plant decides to join in and straps on another Les Paul and starts to create havoc with one note.

McDonough was most outraged that Plant started to sing the Buffalo Springfield song 'For What It's Worth', which all trufans know was a Stephen Stills song. I'm guessing that in the heat of the moment, '60s West Coast fan Plant wasn't thinking about who wrote what song. Or maybe he was just commenting on what was happening on stage."

Finally, on Led Zeppelin's 2004 Double DVD it is interesting to note Robert Plant's spontaneous incorporation of a few lines from Neil Young's 'Down by the River' and 'On the Way Home' during the epic song 'How Many More Times.'





Led Zeppelin & Neil Young at Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 1995
More on other musicians who have jammed with Neil Young.

---

---