Glossary entry for
Page, Jimmy

A rumor has been going the rounds for years that Jimmy Page (famed former guitarist for Led Zeppelin, among many other gigs) had played with Them during a 1964 recording session that made it onto vinyl. Steve Turner's Too Late to Stop Now has this to say about the matter (pg 49-51):

In October 1964 [Them] recorded "Baby Please Don't Go", a number credited to Big Joe Williams, but later found to have been composed by Papa Harvey Hull and Long Cleeve Reid in the 1920's. [...] Jimmy Page, at that time one of London's brightest young session guitarists, was brought in for the recordings by Dick Rowe; he played a lick on it inspired by Paul Burlisson's riff on "Train Kept a-Rollin", by Johnny Burnette and the Rock'n'Roll Trio. He played some rhythm fills but would later be creditted with the impressive lead riff, something which both Alan Henderson and Billy Harrison deny was the case.

Van list member Patrick Clerkin notes that:

I met [Them keyboardist] Jackie McAuley some years back, when he was playing with his band "Poormouth" and I asked him about Jimmy Page's involvement with Them. He swears that Jimmy Page was not in the studio when he was recording, although Jackie McAuley did not play on all of Them's records. He said he heard later that Jimmy Page was taken in to add rhythm guitar on some of the tracks. He was very adamant that Billy Harrison played lead on "Baby Please Don't Go" and it annoys him to read that Jimmy Page has often been given the credit, where it was not due.

Billy Harrison backed this up in an interview in an issue of Wavelength.

Van list member Scott Swanson adds:

This is very interesting. Here's a quote from Page himself (c. 1977):

"...I should say that I was mainly called into sessions as insurance. It was usually myself and a drummer, though they never mention the drummer these days; just me.

On the Them session, it was very embarrassing because you noticed that as each number passed, another member of the band would be substituted for by a session musician. It was really horrifying. Talk about daggers! There'd be times you'd be sitting there-- you didn't want to be there, you'd only been booked-- and wishing you weren't there.

The group went in thinking they were going to record and all of a sudden they find these other people playing on their records. Okay, trouble with the guitarist...fair enough...but with Them, the organist was replaced, then the bass player's position was in jeopardy -- it's a miracle they didn't replace Van Morrison!"

Many sources credit Page with playing "second guitar" on the "Baby Please Don't Go"/"Gloria" single, so Harrison's contention that he played lead is quite plausible. And like McAuley said, Page may have been brought in after the songs were recorded just to shore up a few riffs -- he did that sort of thing all the time.

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