Jimmy Page’s Musical and Romantic Relationship With Jackie DeShannon in 1964
Guitarist Jimmy Page is most known for forming the rock band Led Zeppelin with Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham. Before he started Led Zeppelin, Page worked as a session musician. According to Bob Spitz’s 2021 biography Led Zeppelin: The Biography, this led Page to meet Jackie DeShannon, a rock ‘n roll singer-songwriter.
Jimmy Page worked as a session musician
Page first started working as a session musician in 1963 when he was 19 years old. The guitarist reportedly worked five days a week, the most one could work as a session musician.
According to Led Zeppelin: The Biography, even though the work was demanding, Page had the personality and skill that made him cut out for the job.
“You never knew what you were going to do,” Page said in Led Zeppelin: The Biography. “Sometimes it would be someone you were happy to see, other times it was ‘What am I doing here?’”
Even though Page was good at what he did, Led Zeppelin: The Biography reveals that Page found the work to be “stifling.”
“What was stifling was not really knowing what you were going to be doing when you were booked for a session at a particular time. It could be anything from a group to some sort of Muzak type of thing,” Page said in the biography.
Jimmy Page met Jackie DeShannon in 1964
After working as a session musician for some time, Page ended up meeting DeShannon while at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios in 1964.
At the time, DeShannon was already a successful songwriter. She frequently collaborated with Sharon Sheeley and in early 1964 supported the famed group the Beatles on tour.
While DeShannon was working on new music, Page was suggested to come in for a demo session.
According to Led Zeppelin: The Biography, DeShannon said “Great, let’s have him,” when she heard of Page’s guitar skills.
Spitz writes that as soon as the two artists met they “had instant chemistry.”
The artists worked together and started a relationship
After Page and DeShannon met, they started writing songs together, which gave Page a new part of the music industry to explore.
The more they worked together, the more their professional relationship became romantic. According to Spitz’s biography, Page ended up accompanying DeShannon to the U.S. where he met with different producers and label executives.
Eventually, Page ended up in Los Angeles with DeShannon. At first, the two had success together writing songs that were commercially successful.
However, Spitz writes that “the output and the relationship couldn’t sustain themselves. The kind of songwriting they were doing wasn’t exciting enough for a player like Jimmy; it wasn’t where the action was, it didn’t break new ground. And relations with Jackie got too weird for his taste.”
So, Page left to return to England, one step closer to forming Led Zeppelin.
