Laluxea

The sort of scene I’d like to see is where all the different facets of the arts in a musical sphere are accepted readily by the media and the public. At the moment, because of the press, as soon as one thing becomes really popular, that’s it - you’ve got to find something else, something new.

The whole thing that’s happening with us is the same as the James Taylor thing - but the complete opposite. People are starting to say: ‘Good lyricist, good song-writer but on stage, he sounds very samey after 40 minutes.’ I blame the press. Just let the musicians and the people get on with it - which is all the people ask for.

Many critics let their personal tastes jade what they’re seeing and hearing. It’s that whole thing of being put in a bag. Unfortunately, people are so trendy - that’s the terror of it.

ON CRITICISM

Criticism can be great - valid criticism, that is. I said it before and I say it again - if I play badly, I know I played badly and when I play well, I know I’ve played well. According to my capabilities.

But people shouldn’t go along expecting an enigma when they see this bloke on stage and expect to see the epitome of what they consider to be the best in rock guitar. They should realize he’s only a human being - another struggling musician trying to better himself.

That’s why there’s always this race about who’s the best - nobody’s the best. Because there’s always somebody who’s got a particular field who’s better than the bloke who’s claimed to be the best.

That’s what’s so good for me - that’s what makes the whole scene for me. But for these others, who always have to classify everything…

ON ERIC CLAPTON, GEORGE HARRISON

I went through what I think Eric may have gone through - it’s just the fact that suddenly everything you pick up seems to be going sour. You’re trying your hardest and everybody is putting you down every time you try something.

And I think for everybody who is really trying their hardest and is reasonably sensitive into the bargain, it’s gonna do a lot of damage, and I think it certainly did a lot of damage to Eric. I know another person it did do a lot of damage to - about three or four years ago - and that was George Harrison, who could hardly pick up a guitar because he just thought that every one thought he was a joke. It was obviously totally untrue as far as the public went, but as far as the press went, there were these snide comments and all that sort of thing.

I think it took him - well, he made a friendship with Eric and he went though the sitar thing, which was pretty valid and he did some good things on that. But as soon as he got with Eric, he became a guitar man, and he tried and he tried and he tried. Now he’s having a go and he’s won through. Which is good for him if he’s got the strength and the will to preserve … but for some people, it could shatter them totally.

ON THE BEATLES

It’s funny that since their split, you can see how important it was when the four of them were together.

I met Paul McCartney in New York recently and he was talking to me about the album he was doing - the second one, “Ram.” He said you can’t believe how hard it is when you’ve worked with people for that amount of time - the same four people working together - and you come up with a song. And you just say ‘alright, here it is’ and everybody just fits their bit in and it’s there. I know exactly what Paul means, because it’s like that with us.

He said it was so difficult to get it together with all fresh studio people. And I can sympathize with him. I know what it was like when I was playing sessions in London. The blokes would come in with their song, and every session musician would have to try and do his best. Obviously it wasn’t as good as the bloke’s own group, but some A&R man was saying, ‘Well, there’s got to be the session men, the group don’t match up to the quality we require.’

ON HIS OWN CHOICE OF RECORDS

All sorts of different things. Bert Jonsch is often on. Lots of early rock … lots of that. All the Sun stuff - it still sends shivers up my spine.

You put on something like the early Presley records and you hear the phrasing, you hear the excitement, and everyone’s really into it. At the end of “Mystery Train”, you hear them all laughing - it’s fantastic. And I can still get into those records because I know the excitement and the feeling that was there in those early days when they really knew that they were breaking into something - a new form of music.

ON ELTON JOHN

His albums are really, really good. For what he’s doing. I wouldn’t fault them. For his bag. But when he stands up and in sort of a yellow jacket, pink trousers, and silver shoes, then kicks over his stool which I thought was an incredible sendup of Jerry Lee Lewis, thinking oh yes, great in crowd humor. Then suddenly you realize that he’s serious and it’s a bit of a comedown after watching all that other stuff.

ON THE FOURTH LED ZEPPELIN ALBUM

Personally I lived with it for so long now - and seen so many mess ups by other people in the process of getting it together - that my senses have been battered into a pulp. I can’t ever hear it anymore. It’s become like that. I don’t mean I can’t put it on and listen to it. I mean, I can’t get anything out of it at all. It’s really a dreadful state to be in.

But the fact is that there were so many foul ups by engineers … basically engineers. Some of the tracks were started in December. That was at the Island Studios in London. I can’t remember it all. We’ve got such a backlog of stuff on tape now, that even when we release the new album, we’ll still have a lot in the can.

Anyway, after Island we went to our house in Hampshire, a place where we have often rehearsed, and we decided to take the mobile studio truck there because we were used to the place … we’d often rehearsed there, we lived there sometimes, and we just set the gear up. We took along the Rolling Stones’ mobile truck. Then as we thought of an idea, we got it down on tape right away, and a lot of tracks came out of that. Almost everything on the album.

In a way, it was a good method of doing it. The only thing wrong was that we got so excited about an idea, and we’d rush to finish its format and get it on the tape - it was like a quick productivity thing. We got so excited about having all the facilities there.

What we needed was about two weeks solid with the mobile truck. We only actually had about six days, but we should have made it two weeks. We needed one full week to get everything out of our system and getting used to the facilities, and then really getting together in the second week. That’s probably what we’ll do in the future, now we know the facilities we have available. John Paul Jones is getting a studio put in his house, and so am I. It seems to be the answer really.

You need the sort of facilities where you can have a cuppa tea and wander around the garden and then come in and do whatever you have to do, instead of walking into a studio … down a flight of steps into fluorescent lights and opening up a big door that’s soundproof and there’s acoustic tiles everywhere.

ON RECORDING STUDIOS

I personally get terrible studio nerves. Even if I’ve worked the whole thing out at home beforehand, I get terrible nervous playing anyway. But when I’ve worked something out at home which is a little above my normal capabilities, when it comes to playing it at the studio, well - to use one of our favorite expressions - my bottle goes. If it’s something that you can just knock off fairly easily, then fair enough. But when it gets a little more difficult, well. That’s one reason why I’m personally getting my own studio setup together at home.