rivers always reach the sea

“The launch of Swan Song, where I'm wearing a pink denim suit with piping on it, with a green shirt. That brings to mind the old maxim: ‘Pink and green, not fit to be seen.’ So, OK, I'll wear pink and green.”

– Vogue magazine

Before they left New Orleans, Atlantic Records boss Ahmet Ertegun threw a party for the band at Cosimo Matassa's Jazz City. Soul food comprised the menu that night and all of New Orleans' best R&B and rock legends would perform: Willie Tee, Art Neville and the Meters, Ernie K-Doe, the Wild Magnolias, Snooks Eaglin and the Olympia Brass Band. Rauls helped coordinate that party and remembers the event like it was yesterday.

"They didn't need some ritzy ballroom", he says. "Just going to a funky, soulful recording studio in a beat down part of New Orleans and to meet the guys they grew up listening to–they were in seventh heaven. Willie Tee was still alive, Ernie K-Doe was there, Professor Longhair–all these guys were former Atlantic artists that Ertegun had a relationship with. To bring them out at Cosimo's party, it gave the band a woody."

Jimmy Page performs on stage at Madison Square Garden for the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary Concert in New York City, New York, May 14, 1988.