Why Jimmy Page’s Guitar Makes ‘You Shook Me’ a Rare Led Zeppelin Song
You won’t find many pictures of Jimmy Page without a guitar in his hands. That makes sense. He quit his lucrative gig as a session guitarist before he joined the Yardbirds and founded Led Zeppelin. His talents and international fame led to hundreds of photos of Page holding guitars he made famous. You won’t find one of Page playing a Gibson Flying V, even though it makes a memorable appearance on “You Shook Me” from Led Zeppelin I.
Jimmy Page used one guitar on every ‘Led Zeppelin I’ song except for ‘You Shook Me’
Page turned down an invitation to join the Yardbirds and recommended his friend Jeff Beck instead. Beck repaid Page for not taking the job by giving him the Fender Telecaster guitar he had been using.
Page played the proto-punk of “Communication Breakdown,” the bowed guitar of “Dazed and Confused,” and the rough blues of “I Can’t Quit You Baby” on Led Zeppelin I through his Telecaster.
The outlier was “You Shook Me.” According to a Guitar World interview, Page took a Gibson Flying V for a test drive and used it to record the song. The tune includes one of Page’s best solos, including the moment where the Flying V nearly fried the amplifier:
“It’s hard for people to believe, but I just used my Fender Telecaster for the entire album, except for one track. Somebody was trying to sell me a Gibson Flying V at the time … I asked them if I could just try it out. I brought it into Olympic [Studios] and used it on “You Shook Me.” With those big humbuckers, it was so powerful you can hear it breaking up the amp in the middle of the song. I could’ve tidied it up, but I really liked hearing the amp really struggle to get the sound out. It’s really fighting through the electronics to get out of that speaker.”
Jimmy Page on playing a Gibson Flying V guitar on “You Shook Me”
Page’s guitar army included a Danelectro with a non-standard tuning on a handful of Led Zeppelin songs and several Gibsons. But the Flying V, which he told Guitar World he couldn’t afford, only made it to the front lines once.
Page frequently played Gibson Les Paul guitars in Led Zeppelin
Page didn’t buy the Flying V, but he was proud of how it sounded on “You Shook Me.” Beck cried with anger when Page played Led Zeppelin’s version of the song. Page’s band had taken what was a staple of Beck’s live set and one-upped him.
He played a Flying V for Led Zeppelin only once, but Page used several Gibson guitars during the band’s career.
When his house sitter ruined the Telecaster, Page made a major change to a sunburst Gibson Les Paul for Led Zeppelin II. He acquired the guitar from future Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh. Page also employed an all-black Les Paul custom dubbed Black Beauty that he lost in 1970 but recovered decades later.
Page asked Gibson to build a special double-necked guitar so he could perform “Stairway to Heaven” live. The crimson and black Gibson SG-shaped instrument became famous because of Page.
The first five Zep albums are sneakily impressive because of the guitar tones
Page made all his guitars sound distinct no matter which model he used. He did it all with rudimentary equipment on the first five Led Zeppelin albums, which makes it even more impressive.
The backward echo on “Whole Lotta Love,” the ringing chords at the beginning of “Celebration Day,” the sharp howl all over “Dazed and Confused,” and the fat tone on “You Shook Me” are all instantly recognizable. Page’s creative guitar playing and sound on those songs needed just a few pieces of equipment to come together.
“All I had to really work with was an overdrive pedal, a wah-wah, an Echoplex, and what was on my guitar,” Page said, according to Led Zeppelin FAQ author George Case. “It wasn’t a lot, and I had to create the entire range of sounds found on the first five Zeppelin albums.”
Jimmy Page’s guitar on “You Shook Me” makes it a rare Led Zeppelin song — the only time he recorded with a Gibson Flying V. The guitarist’s ability to wrangle a multitude of tones from basic equipment was just as rare.
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