ABSTRACT

A series of photos, laid out on a single page, tells a story about the status of the electric guitarist in 1970s rock. 'The Led Zeppelin Story', a brief history of the band's career, was published in 1975 by London rock journal Melody Maker in anticipation of Zeppelin's first British concerts in two years. The chapter focus on the career of Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin to analyze the significance of the electric guitar in 1970s rock music. It examines more closely Page's status as guitar hero by drawing attention to one of the more curious details of the above mentioned photograph of the guitarist: the violin bow. The relationship between Page and Plant alluded to above wan-ants further attention, for they present an important example of the sorts of relationships that were established between men in hard rock performance. In the rock world of the 1960s and 1970s, a similarly competitive dynamic existed among lead guitarists.