Jimmy Page Reminded the Yardbirds’ Manager of a Schoolyard Bully
Jimmy Page was desperate to leave life as a session musician behind in the mid-1960s. The guitarist knew he had to quit as a session guitarist when producers asked him to play muzak instead of music. Yet the grass wasn’t all that much greener on the other side. Page hooked up with the Yardbirds and encountered a manager who didn’t like him because he looked like a bully but recognized his talent.
Yardbirds manager Simon Napier-Bell ‘never liked Jimmy Page’ because he looked like a bully but recognized the guitarist’s talent
Page turned down an initial invitation to join the Yardbirds in 1965. At that point, he still wanted to be a session player so he could learn more about recording techniques (which turned out to be immensely helpful when he produced Led Zeppelin’s albums). He recommended his friend, Jeff Beck, instead.
Page offered to take over on bass when the Yardbirds’ bassist suddenly quit. He butchered his first gig with the band, but they kept him on as a second guitarist alongside Beck. When he suddenly quit, Page inherited the Yardbirds’ lead guitarist role and a manager who didn’t like him since he looked like his childhood bullies.
Something about Page’s face made Napier-Bell dislike the visionary guitarist thanks to some childhood bullying (via Jimmy Page: The Definitive Biography):
“I never really liked Jimmy Page. He had a sneer about him. At school, the people who bullied me had this terrible, frightening sneer, and Jimmy Page reminded me of those people. People who sneer have usually had unhappy childhoods!”
Simon Napier-Bell
Page’s look made Napier-Bell despise him, but the manager/producer couldn’t ignore the guitarist’s skill. There was too much sheer talent beneath the sneer to ignore.
“I talked to Jimmy Page enough to know he was a real session player,” Napier-Bell said (per Jimmy Page: The Definitive Biography). “I knew he was a brilliant technician and admired by others.”
Page dealt with Napier-Bell’s attitude gamely and stuck with the Yardbirds long enough to see Peter Grant take over as manager. That partnership continued when the Yardbirds flew apart and Page built Led Zeppelin from the ashes.
The Yardbirds manager wasn’t the only person who hated Page and Led Zeppelin
Napier-Bell was shallowly judgemental regarding his opinion of Page. A sneer doesn’t seem like the best way to decide if you like a person. Still, he wasn’t the only person who didn’t like Page or Led Zeppelin.
Jack Bruce hated Led Zeppelin and the fact that people compared Page to Eric Clapton (who served as the Yardbirds’ first guitar player). The Cream bassist went so far as to say he thought fans were being sold a load of crap. His tirade missed the mark, but he wasn’t alone with his Led Zeppelin opinion.
Led Zeppelin didn’t appeal to Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker, the other two members of Cream. The ever-opinionated Keith Richard singled out Page’s playing as the only thing he liked about the band. The Who’s Pete Townshend hated Led Zeppelin and being compared to them but admitted he liked the four members as people.
The press also took shots at Led Zeppelin. Many publications believed the band was all surface and no substance. Rolling Stone magazine was hard on the band for several years, giving their albums poor reviews.
The list of people who disliked Led Zeppelin was shorter than the scroll of those who did, but there were some critics. Yardbirds manager Napier-Bell never liked Page because of his bully-like sneer, but he had no problem acknowledging the guitarist’s prodigious talent.
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