Guitar Tricks Insider June/July Edition | Page 34

COVER STORY and to forge the bold, acousticdriven material that dominates Led Zeppelin III (1970) – an album that remains one of Page’s fondest studio creations. Page took extra care with III when he recently remastered the entire Zeppelin catalog for a deluxe reissue series, wherein he also found a number of outtakes, demos, and alternate mixes he finally felt worthy of including as bonus material in the companion double-CD and boxset releases. Page takes particular pride in what he did on “Hangman,” which is how he refers to Zep III’s “Gallows Pole” – one of his most notable acoustic tour de forces: “All of that rhythmic guitar that’s underneath and sunk down in the final mixes – that’s real interesting. It’s interesting to hear those cross-rhythms on the final mix. Hearing it come out like that was cool.” The live extended blues workout “Since I’ve Been Loving You” is presented on the bonus disc for Zep III in a completely different take. Page explains, “It was done a few days before we did the final one, where we take it much cooler as far as the approach is to the vocal and the guitar, and all of it. That’s why we recut it – because it’s really intense and the guitar is really hard on it there. If there had been another take of that one, the guitar would have been different again. I was exploring the whole way through. I was always trying to stretch it. But then so was everybody else. You can tell that from Robert’s vocals. He was really on top of it on this one. The idea that night was to go in and do something that was quite radical when it came to the blues. A lot of people were just doing the blues as renditions. But I think that while Zeppelin’s approach on ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’ is 34 DIGITAL EDITION JUNE/JULY