I have to say I was blown away when Jimmy Page played the opening riff of Whole Lot Of Love at the closing ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympics. It was, for me at least, completely unexpected. Sure, I knew it was Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin up there on top of the red double decker bus, but I just presumed he was there as window dressing to add some cred to whatever song Leona Lewis was about to sing. Sort of like when Slash from Guns N Roses played guitar on that Michael Jackson song (that I can't be bothered googling to remember the name of).
But when Leona's vocal intro faded to nothing and Jimmy started that riff ... OMFG!
The hairs went up on the back of my neck. Jimmy Page, from Led Zeppelin, is PLAYING Whole Lotta Love and a GAZILLION people are watching it WORLDWIDE! Not a watered down 'pop' version but the original dude playing the same dirty guitar riff the same way he played it 30 years before. Sure, you can argue that it's just an example of yesterday's rebellious rock re-packaged as pop product for today's mass market consumers but I give them all mad props anyway.
Having worked in event management I know that who ever came up with the idea of Jimmy Page playing Whole Lotta Love at the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics to promote the 2012 London Olympics would have had to push shit up hill to get it accepted. David Beckham kicking a football? A no-brainer. But Jimmy? That was a master stroke.
Any chance we'll be seeing The Sex Pistols performing Pretty Vacant* at the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics? I love that opening riff too.
(*C'mon, there's no way they'd be allowed to play God Save The Queen!)
[NB: I was hoping to post a YouTube clip of Jimmy's performance but the Olympic Games Megacorp have shut them all down. Just keep searching for it yourself and maybe somewhere you'll get lucky. It's worth a peep.]
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