View From the Phlipside - Jimmy Page

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, Radio, the Movies and more.  I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View From the Phlipside.

Time for me to show my age.  While I was still pretty young during their heyday Led Zeppelin spent a lot of my life at the pinnacle of the rock god category.  Leading the way to that pinnacle was the screaming, throbbing, pulsing guitar work of Jimmy Page.  There had never been anything like them before and there’s been mostly wannabes ever since.  You may or may not like Led Zeppelin but there is no arguing their place in the history of rock and roll.  Particularly of the heavy variety.  These were the poster children for the life of sex and drugs and rock and roll.

So for fans of a certain generation the announcement that Jimmy Page was publishing an autobiography is pretty exciting news.  1985’s NY Times bestseller “Hammer of the Gods” was a fairly amazing look at the group and I recommend it to all fans of Led Zeppelin and students of rock history.  But this, this would the inside story.  All the great stories finally shared.  The back stage debauchery, the chemically enhanced perceptions, and the music.

Well one out of three ain’t bad.  Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page may be the strangest autobiography ever made.  It’s 500 pages of photographs.  And not the backstage stories finally revealed sort of photos.  No this is 500 pages of photos dedicated to the music.  Page feels that this is the best way to document his life and work.  He says any more traditional kind of autobiography will probably have to wait till he’s dead.  Given that he’s only 66 that might actually be a while.

But the part that really slays me in all of this isn’t the subject matter or lack thereof.  No, it’s mostly the price.  For your very own copy of Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page you’d better be ready to shell out $685.  That’s right more than a dollar a page.  Now it must be said that this is no ordinary book.  In addition to what I hear are some truly gorgeous photos you get Morrocan leather binding and an authentic autograph of the rock guitar god himself.  You will also own one of only 2,500 copies of the book ever to be printed.

I just stared at that price when I read about it.  And I didn’t know whether to laugh or get mad.  Let’s face it, at that price, you’re getting hammered by the gods.


Call that the View From the Phlipside.

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010