1 00:01:42,235 --> 00:01:44,669 Man, you know who says you need to buy a guitar? 2 00:02:39,660 --> 00:02:44,063 It's like a piece of sculpture. Wonderful span of wood varnish. 3 00:02:44,898 --> 00:02:49,062 The whole aroma of it. Like a woman, you know? 4 00:02:49,403 --> 00:02:51,803 You can caress it like a woman. 5 00:02:54,241 --> 00:02:57,404 Every element, the wood, the finish., 6 00:02:57,744 --> 00:03:01,180 and all the different aspects are there in the sound. 7 00:03:03,650 --> 00:03:08,314 Electric conveys, like, amplification., energy. 8 00:03:11,591 --> 00:03:13,650 It's all part and parcel of who I am., 9 00:03:13,727 --> 00:03:17,527 is playing the electric guitar and bonding with it. 10 00:03:29,242 --> 00:03:30,937 It's gonna be very interesting. 11 00:03:31,044 --> 00:03:32,443 It's gonna be very interesting 12 00:03:32,546 --> 00:03:38,041 because both are really, really strong character guitarists. 13 00:03:38,185 --> 00:03:40,619 Both White Stripes and Zeppelin 14 00:03:40,721 --> 00:03:44,122 were able to do something that was their own., was unique. 15 00:03:44,224 --> 00:03:46,624 and had never been done before. 16 00:03:46,727 --> 00:03:49,719 When the three of us get together, what's gonna happen? 17 00:03:49,796 --> 00:03:50,922 Probably a fistfight. 18 00:04:17,491 --> 00:04:19,391 There's a lot of soul in this guitar. 19 00:04:19,459 --> 00:04:22,724 When Jack plays it, it just goes wild. 20 00:04:24,931 --> 00:04:30,392 This is Edge's main... His main enchilada. This is the brain of the system. 21 00:04:30,470 --> 00:04:34,338 It's going to be interesting to see him layering his effects. 22 00:04:34,841 --> 00:04:37,275 He's known to be a sort of sonic architect. 23 00:04:41,281 --> 00:04:44,773 I plan to trick both of these guys. That's basically what I'm gonna do. 24 00:04:44,851 --> 00:04:48,287 Trick them into teaching me all their tricks. 25 00:04:58,431 --> 00:05:00,456 We're going there to have a chat. 26 00:05:00,534 --> 00:05:03,094 But it just so happens that the instruments 27 00:05:03,170 --> 00:05:05,468 are sort of there as well, so who knows? 28 00:05:29,830 --> 00:05:33,459 -What's this, Edge? -It's a little... It's a form of yoga. 29 00:05:34,868 --> 00:05:37,530 It actually was devised in Wales. 30 00:05:38,905 --> 00:05:40,668 It's called Daboke. 31 00:05:42,475 --> 00:05:45,410 Are you... What's the BlackBerry to do with it? 32 00:05:45,712 --> 00:05:49,148 It's just a little adaptation I've made 33 00:05:49,216 --> 00:05:52,879 just to make better use of time. 34 00:05:53,186 --> 00:05:55,086 Does Sting do this? 35 00:05:55,522 --> 00:05:58,514 He doesn't do Daboke, he does some other kind of yoga. 36 00:06:09,102 --> 00:06:12,367 I'm very interested in what hardware can do 37 00:06:12,772 --> 00:06:15,070 to an electric guitar sound. 38 00:06:15,609 --> 00:06:17,577 I love effects units. 39 00:06:18,612 --> 00:06:21,206 They've always pushed music forward. 40 00:06:21,414 --> 00:06:22,608 When he pushes a button... 41 00:06:22,749 --> 00:06:27,049 Let's say that button addresses that unit, you know? 42 00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:29,384 This button addresses that unit. 43 00:06:29,456 --> 00:06:30,718 And it's very rarely 44 00:06:30,790 --> 00:06:37,286 that he will use the same sound ever again in 20, 23 songs. 45 00:06:54,748 --> 00:06:58,309 The guitars are set per song 46 00:06:58,952 --> 00:07:01,250 with their output Ievels. 47 00:07:01,321 --> 00:07:05,985 They're dedicated for that song and that guitar level is... 48 00:07:06,826 --> 00:07:12,162 He sets his effects to receive that guitar level in a particular way. 49 00:07:21,775 --> 00:07:23,265 I drive everyone crazy. 50 00:07:23,343 --> 00:07:26,938 I drive myself totally crazy, trying to get the sound 51 00:07:27,013 --> 00:07:30,449 that I can hear in my head to come out of the speakers. 52 00:07:31,618 --> 00:07:35,019 It's my voice, that is my voice, what's coming out of the speaker. 53 00:07:42,529 --> 00:07:43,655 That'd be wicked. 54 00:07:51,004 --> 00:07:53,199 Take out the TC. 55 00:08:24,704 --> 00:08:29,505 Technology is a big destroyer of emotion and truth. 56 00:08:31,678 --> 00:08:34,010 Opportunity doesn't do anything for creativity. 57 00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:36,844 Yeah, it makes it easier, and you can get home sooner. 58 00:08:36,916 --> 00:08:39,350 but it doesn't make you a more creative person. 59 00:08:48,561 --> 00:08:52,088 That's the disease you have to fight in any creative field. 60 00:08:52,198 --> 00:08:53,256 Ease of use. 61 00:09:13,119 --> 00:09:14,245 All right, sing it. 62 00:09:18,792 --> 00:09:19,952 Yeah. that's it. 63 00:09:20,060 --> 00:09:23,393 By the time I'm getting into teenage years, like, late '80s and things like that, 64 00:09:23,463 --> 00:09:25,556 I don't remember that many rock 'n' roll bands 65 00:09:25,632 --> 00:09:28,260 being around that were that popular. 66 00:09:28,601 --> 00:09:30,068 Things were changing so much in music. 67 00:09:30,136 --> 00:09:32,798 The technology was taking over so much. 68 00:09:32,906 --> 00:09:34,464 Technology was heavily distracting everybody. 69 00:09:34,574 --> 00:09:37,907 I mean., people started spending weeks trying to get the perfect snare drum 70 00:09:37,977 --> 00:09:39,877 and gated reverb sound. 71 00:09:44,317 --> 00:09:46,649 That's right. That's right. 72 00:09:46,820 --> 00:09:49,653 So processed, it wasn't real at all anymore. 73 00:09:54,127 --> 00:09:55,651 Just go up top. 74 00:10:08,475 --> 00:10:09,965 If you really want to get girls to pay attention 75 00:10:10,076 --> 00:10:12,169 kick that chair out like... 76 00:10:46,880 --> 00:10:50,816 Because of the amplification and the tactile quality of it., 77 00:10:50,884 --> 00:10:54,718 you can hear the very, sort of, characteristics of each player. 78 00:10:56,956 --> 00:11:01,518 People have just tried to stretch the limits, come up with new techniques. 79 00:11:02,128 --> 00:11:05,529 There's always something new that other people are bringing to the table 80 00:11:05,632 --> 00:11:08,567 that is to be reckoned with very seriously. 81 00:11:33,092 --> 00:11:34,559 Dynamics., 82 00:11:36,896 --> 00:11:38,761 Iight and shade., 83 00:11:40,600 --> 00:11:43,160 whisper to the thunder. 84 00:11:46,072 --> 00:11:50,338 sort of invite you in, sort of intoxicating. 85 00:12:26,112 --> 00:12:27,636 Well, the thing that fascinates me about it., 86 00:12:27,780 --> 00:12:31,307 and always has about the six strings, no one has ever approached... 87 00:12:31,451 --> 00:12:36,320 They all play in a different way and, you know,. their personality comes through. 88 00:12:36,456 --> 00:12:39,823 During my time as a songwriter and performer, 89 00:12:39,959 --> 00:12:44,726 I've kind ofwatched and felt that I was seeing the end of the guitar 90 00:12:44,831 --> 00:12:48,164 as a kind of focus for popular music. 91 00:12:49,002 --> 00:12:52,165 And yet every time I think it's kind of counted out. 92 00:12:52,305 --> 00:12:54,296 it flares up somewhere else. 93 00:12:54,407 --> 00:12:58,571 I keep guitars that are.. you know... The neck's a little bit bent, 94 00:12:58,678 --> 00:13:01,670 and it's a little bit out of tune, and I want to work and battle it 95 00:13:01,814 --> 00:13:06,478 and conquer it and make it express whatever attitude I have at that moment. 96 00:13:06,586 --> 00:13:08,679 I want it to be a struggle. 97 00:13:09,756 --> 00:13:12,350 I have no idea what these are, but... 98 00:13:38,551 --> 00:13:43,113 My early demos were real sketches. They weren't fully fleshed out. 99 00:13:49,729 --> 00:13:52,323 That's interesting. That ended up... 100 00:13:55,401 --> 00:13:59,462 It's the music that tells us the direction the song should go. 101 00:13:59,572 --> 00:14:04,737 As writers, we start with the feeling and everything follows from that. 102 00:14:07,747 --> 00:14:11,478 These guitar parts ended up in the final version. 103 00:14:11,584 --> 00:14:14,849 so this could be discovering, you know, 104 00:14:14,921 --> 00:14:19,085 those particular voicings of the chords and what have you. 105 00:14:36,442 --> 00:14:38,273 Four, five,. six. 106 00:14:39,445 --> 00:14:41,106 Four, five,. six. 107 00:14:42,949 --> 00:14:45,679 Bono's actually calling out the timing. 108 00:14:46,219 --> 00:14:47,914 That's funny. 109 00:14:48,020 --> 00:14:49,612 Four, five, six. 110 00:14:53,459 --> 00:14:56,019 'Cause the first section's in a different time signature, 111 00:14:56,129 --> 00:15:01,066 so it was a little bit of a head trip to go between the two. 112 00:15:01,467 --> 00:15:04,129 One, two, three, four, five, six. One... 113 00:15:04,270 --> 00:15:07,103 But you can count it in different ways. 114 00:15:07,974 --> 00:15:11,137 ...six. One, two, three, four, five, six. 115 00:15:11,444 --> 00:15:16,973 One, two, three, four, five.. six. 116 00:15:18,985 --> 00:15:21,613 Or you can go, one, two, three, one, two, three. 117 00:15:21,721 --> 00:15:23,655 It's Iike a waltz beat. 118 00:15:24,323 --> 00:15:27,156 One,. two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two.. three. 119 00:16:20,713 --> 00:16:25,616 When you start to treat the sound, you start to invoke locations. 120 00:16:25,718 --> 00:16:29,381 As I'm working, I'm often thinking about., "Where is this? " 121 00:16:30,890 --> 00:16:32,858 Where is this location? 122 00:16:36,462 --> 00:16:42,230 Wow. there was a whole science block there when I was Iiving here. 123 00:16:42,368 --> 00:16:43,733 That's amazing. 124 00:16:44,203 --> 00:16:49,231 We played on a kind of flat area over there with, 125 00:16:49,375 --> 00:16:51,741 I wouldn't say a paying audience... 126 00:16:56,749 --> 00:16:58,546 We all got up here. 127 00:16:58,985 --> 00:17:01,419 Larry was back here obviously 128 00:17:02,555 --> 00:17:04,921 and I think I was on this side. 129 00:17:05,391 --> 00:17:08,417 -You were there? -Yeah, I was this side, yeah. 130 00:17:09,095 --> 00:17:10,722 Actually, and have been ever since. 131 00:17:19,605 --> 00:17:22,096 This was where we used to rehearse. 132 00:17:22,775 --> 00:17:25,539 Now, this is really the very.. very beginning for us, you know. 133 00:17:25,611 --> 00:17:30,947 So, this was Mr. McKenzie's room, and he was very nice to us. 134 00:17:32,118 --> 00:17:37,954 So, rhearsal was 1 0 minutes of clearing away desks and chairs, 135 00:17:38,090 --> 00:17:40,285 and then an hour of 136 00:17:41,527 --> 00:17:43,518 seeing if we could get anything together. 137 00:17:43,629 --> 00:17:46,462 None of us could play at this point, really. 138 00:17:46,799 --> 00:17:50,360 For a while, we would come and we would try and go through songs, 139 00:17:50,469 --> 00:17:53,632 and it was really bad. Like, really, really bad. 140 00:18:12,391 --> 00:18:15,656 The thrill was just being able to do it even if you did it badly. 141 00:18:28,741 --> 00:18:30,003 Hello. 142 00:18:33,746 --> 00:18:35,680 We're always worried about being satisfied. 143 00:18:35,815 --> 00:18:38,841 When you become satisfied, it's sort of like you just die. 144 00:18:46,425 --> 00:18:49,485 My name is Jack White.. and this is my big sister, Meg White, on the drums. 145 00:18:49,595 --> 00:18:52,860 Thank you for letting us into your home. We really appreciate it. 146 00:19:07,713 --> 00:19:11,274 What can I do with three strings on a guitar instead of six? 147 00:19:14,887 --> 00:19:16,787 It takes me three steps to get over 148 00:19:16,889 --> 00:19:20,325 to play the organ in the middle of this song. Put it four steps away, 149 00:19:20,393 --> 00:19:23,954 then I'll have to run faster and I'll push myself harder to get to it. 150 00:19:39,245 --> 00:19:41,213 Meg and I don't even talk about what the first song's gonna be. 151 00:19:41,313 --> 00:19:42,405 We just go out and play. 152 00:19:42,548 --> 00:19:44,641 Think of something fast, hurry up and think of something, 153 00:19:44,750 --> 00:19:46,741 because these guys want a show. 154 00:19:48,087 --> 00:19:49,554 People know when something's fake 155 00:19:49,655 --> 00:19:53,091 and they know when something's rehashed and rehearsed. 156 00:19:53,259 --> 00:19:55,318 They know when you're telling the same joke between songs 157 00:19:55,428 --> 00:19:58,226 that you told in Poughkeepsie last night. 158 00:19:58,431 --> 00:20:00,160 They can smell it. 159 00:20:13,412 --> 00:20:16,609 I play really old guitars, plastic guitars. 160 00:20:20,753 --> 00:20:22,584 If you want it easy you buy a brand-new Les Paul 161 00:20:22,688 --> 00:20:24,849 or a brand-new Stratocaster. 162 00:20:33,299 --> 00:20:37,201 And this is my main guitar that I played live 163 00:20:37,303 --> 00:20:40,101 for my 1 0 years in the White Stripes. 164 00:20:40,206 --> 00:20:42,367 It's a hollow piece of plastic. 165 00:20:42,475 --> 00:20:45,535 And you got this at Montgomery Ward's department store. 166 00:20:45,644 --> 00:20:49,444 Sears sold Silvertones and Montgomery Ward sold Airlines. 167 00:20:49,648 --> 00:20:54,051 I want to show you, Jack, what the... If you just take this and... 168 00:21:11,403 --> 00:21:13,894 Yeah, that's it. Pick a fight with it. 169 00:21:14,006 --> 00:21:16,804 That's what you gotta do. Pick a fight with it and win the fight. 170 00:21:16,909 --> 00:21:18,467 He's Iearning. 171 00:21:19,845 --> 00:21:22,814 I'd like to introduce Led Zeppelin to you. 172 00:21:28,687 --> 00:21:32,418 On bass guitar, John Paul Jones. This is John Paul Jones. 173 00:21:36,762 --> 00:21:38,923 On drums. John Bonham. 174 00:21:43,936 --> 00:21:46,097 Lead guitar, Jimmy Page. 175 00:21:51,610 --> 00:21:53,601 And myself, Robert Plant. 176 00:21:54,713 --> 00:21:57,181 We were so comfortable playing with each other 177 00:21:57,283 --> 00:22:00,013 that we could take it in any direction. 178 00:22:04,223 --> 00:22:08,216 The four members of the band had taken on this sort of fifth element. 179 00:22:13,132 --> 00:22:16,795 Passion, honesty and competence. 180 00:22:18,571 --> 00:22:20,402 Absolute musical heaven. 181 00:23:01,447 --> 00:23:02,573 Wow. 182 00:23:05,084 --> 00:23:08,076 Boy, oh, boy, this brings back some memories. 183 00:23:11,023 --> 00:23:14,618 Yeah, this is... Well, come straight into the entrance hall 184 00:23:15,628 --> 00:23:18,961 and this is the hall where the drums were set up 185 00:23:19,098 --> 00:23:22,590 and where Levee Breaks was recorded. 186 00:23:29,708 --> 00:23:32,199 We had been recording in this room here. 187 00:23:32,311 --> 00:23:34,575 Bonzo had ordered a new drum kit. 188 00:23:34,647 --> 00:23:38,310 His tech, you know, his road manager, had set it up in the hall. 189 00:23:38,450 --> 00:23:42,887 And when Bonzo came out, he started playing it in this thing, 190 00:23:42,988 --> 00:23:44,546 and it was this huge expanse. 191 00:23:46,825 --> 00:23:49,623 You're getting the drums reflecting off of the walls, 192 00:23:49,728 --> 00:23:52,128 you know.. this wonderful ambience to the drums. 193 00:23:55,467 --> 00:23:58,630 Yeah, you can hear the reflective surfaces. 194 00:23:58,737 --> 00:24:01,501 You know, it's really live and ambient. 195 00:24:02,574 --> 00:24:05,737 We had a recording truck parked on the outside here. 196 00:24:05,844 --> 00:24:09,109 And you'd be running the wires from their cables 197 00:24:09,181 --> 00:24:11,809 with the mic Ieads, running them into the house. 198 00:24:11,917 --> 00:24:15,580 The mics were put up here over the banisters here. 199 00:24:18,257 --> 00:24:21,351 In those days, the drummer would be in a little booth 200 00:24:21,493 --> 00:24:25,691 so the drums were just totally, you know,. crushed. 201 00:24:27,333 --> 00:24:28,664 This was quite radical. 202 00:24:28,767 --> 00:24:32,601 After this you heard of other, you know.. drummers 203 00:24:32,705 --> 00:24:36,641 and bands looking for lift shafts and things to record in, 204 00:24:36,709 --> 00:24:38,939 to get the height, you see. 205 00:24:49,455 --> 00:24:53,653 We'd done three albums that were recorded in the studio. 206 00:24:53,726 --> 00:24:56,354 And this was another approach. 207 00:25:27,092 --> 00:25:30,027 As a kid, what was going on in the music 208 00:25:30,095 --> 00:25:34,225 was as important to me as what was going on vocally and lyrically. 209 00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:36,261 and it always was. 210 00:25:45,677 --> 00:25:48,271 Just word of mouth and grapevines. 211 00:25:50,449 --> 00:25:51,746 Isolation. 212 00:25:54,119 --> 00:25:58,021 We moved house and the guitar was there, left behind. 213 00:25:58,123 --> 00:25:59,215 It was one of these, sort of, 214 00:25:59,291 --> 00:26:02,590 weird interventions of the guitar into our family. 215 00:26:03,595 --> 00:26:07,429 It was just Iike a sort of ornament left behind at the house. 216 00:26:23,482 --> 00:26:26,815 For anyone who could play guitars, they all played skiffle. 217 00:26:28,120 --> 00:26:31,556 That was the sort of community project at the time. 218 00:26:34,293 --> 00:26:37,660 Played on massive guitars and washboards. 219 00:26:39,665 --> 00:26:41,223 Local cuisine. 220 00:26:43,969 --> 00:26:47,461 Very, very English. Pre-rock this is. 221 00:26:51,477 --> 00:26:54,071 We all weaned on that music. 222 00:26:54,179 --> 00:26:57,671 It was like a sort of rock 'n' roll breastfeeding of it. 223 00:26:57,816 --> 00:27:01,684 I went to school one day after hearing this stuff 224 00:27:01,820 --> 00:27:03,617 and seeing Lonnie Donegan on the television. 225 00:27:03,689 --> 00:27:06,954 This guy actually had a guitar and he was playing Rock lsland Line. 226 00:27:07,025 --> 00:27:08,458 It was like, "Wow." 227 00:27:08,527 --> 00:27:10,119 And I said, "I've got one of those at home." 228 00:27:10,195 --> 00:27:12,595 And he said, "Bring it along and I'll show you how to tune it." 229 00:27:12,698 --> 00:27:15,496 Well, that was more accessible to be able to start to play. 230 00:27:15,601 --> 00:27:17,364 Right, you could put a band together pretty easily. 231 00:27:17,503 --> 00:27:19,869 I mean, you could get to know one chord and just strum it all day 232 00:27:20,005 --> 00:27:21,267 and be having a great time, you know. 233 00:27:38,390 --> 00:27:42,053 We were a Iittle local band and we were playing around 234 00:27:42,194 --> 00:27:45,288 school dances, and not even the slightest, 235 00:27:45,397 --> 00:27:49,299 mildest consideration that that would go into something. 236 00:27:49,401 --> 00:27:52,131 There wasn't this driving thing, that the minute you hit your teens, 237 00:27:52,237 --> 00:27:54,068 you gotta be famous. 238 00:27:55,574 --> 00:27:57,303 What are your two names? Yours is? 239 00:27:57,409 --> 00:27:59,070 -James Page and... -David Houston. 240 00:27:59,211 --> 00:28:00,542 And you're just learning to play the guitar? 241 00:28:00,646 --> 00:28:02,580 -Yes, from a teacher. -From a teacher. 242 00:28:02,714 --> 00:28:04,181 Do you play anything except skiffle? 243 00:28:04,249 --> 00:28:05,580 Yes, Spanish and dance. 244 00:28:05,717 --> 00:28:07,981 Do you? What are you gonna do when you Ieave school? 245 00:28:08,086 --> 00:28:09,144 Take up skiffle? 246 00:28:09,254 --> 00:28:11,745 No.. I want to do, well.. biological research. 247 00:28:23,235 --> 00:28:27,069 Dublin in the mid-'70s was really economically very challenged. 248 00:28:31,777 --> 00:28:34,211 The economy was in the toilet. 249 00:28:38,617 --> 00:28:42,280 We just didn't believe that anything could change. 250 00:28:53,465 --> 00:28:54,762 There has to be more than this. 251 00:28:54,866 --> 00:28:59,360 This is not the only thing that is on offer here. 252 00:29:41,513 --> 00:29:43,105 You want to figure out how you want to play guitar. 253 00:29:43,181 --> 00:29:44,944 what your niche will be. 254 00:29:45,017 --> 00:29:47,281 You just start digging deeper. 255 00:29:48,353 --> 00:29:51,322 When you're digging deeper into rock 'n' roll. 256 00:29:51,423 --> 00:29:53,948 well, you're on a freight train headed straight for the blues. 257 00:30:09,541 --> 00:30:13,944 1930s, really scary version of the blues. 258 00:30:15,647 --> 00:30:17,478 If you go back and listen to some of these songs, 259 00:30:17,549 --> 00:30:22,145 I mean, you can't really believe that they were even recorded to wax. 260 00:30:23,055 --> 00:30:25,489 Robert Johnson. Dark Was the Night. 261 00:30:25,557 --> 00:30:27,149 Blind Willie Johnson. 262 00:30:27,793 --> 00:30:30,318 '"I asked her for water, she gave me gasoline. " 263 00:30:30,896 --> 00:30:34,229 Minor key, anti the establishment. 264 00:30:36,335 --> 00:30:38,326 Questioning themselves. 265 00:30:39,171 --> 00:30:40,661 Painful. 266 00:30:43,475 --> 00:30:46,672 There's a tension in that music that you can feel. 267 00:30:47,913 --> 00:30:50,814 It just feels like there's this place where, you know. 268 00:30:50,916 --> 00:30:54,317 my soul rests and those guys were expressing it. 269 00:31:05,864 --> 00:31:08,355 In the Bible, God cursed the ground. 270 00:31:08,433 --> 00:31:12,096 so that the man will always be... Will have to work hard. 271 00:31:13,438 --> 00:31:18,034 Whether you're a farmer, or a carpenter, or a guitar player, or whatever it is. 272 00:31:18,110 --> 00:31:20,874 you have to fight these man-made materials. 273 00:31:29,788 --> 00:31:32,018 Fifteen-minute guitar solos, 274 00:31:32,124 --> 00:31:35,890 15-minute organ solos or the drum solos. 275 00:31:35,961 --> 00:31:39,021 There was a huge element of self-indulgence. 276 00:31:39,131 --> 00:31:44,228 Professional rock musicians who looked down upon their fans. 277 00:31:45,303 --> 00:31:49,137 Those old colors were dead. , and we wanted none of it. 278 00:31:55,647 --> 00:31:58,810 Spinal Tap, that's a movie that I watched. 279 00:31:59,718 --> 00:32:04,087 I didn't laugh, I wept. It was so close to the truth. 280 00:32:06,324 --> 00:32:09,259 Music really was searching at that moment. 281 00:33:16,728 --> 00:33:19,788 I'd listen to anything with a guitar on it when I was a kid, you know... 282 00:33:19,898 --> 00:33:20,990 Yeah. 283 00:33:21,066 --> 00:33:25,162 ...that was being played, and all those different approaches and the echoes, 284 00:33:25,237 --> 00:33:28,206 but the first time I heard the Rumble. , it was like... 285 00:33:28,306 --> 00:33:31,036 That was something that had so much profound attitude to it. 286 00:33:31,142 --> 00:33:33,235 -Yeah, it really does. -lt really does. 287 00:33:36,515 --> 00:33:41,748 Now he's starting to increase a vibrato on his amplifier. 288 00:33:42,254 --> 00:33:45,246 You hear... And it gets more intense. 289 00:34:11,383 --> 00:34:15,217 Most of my day was spent going through these records, 290 00:34:15,287 --> 00:34:17,050 Iistening to sounds, 291 00:34:17,889 --> 00:34:20,289 or playing guitar with the sounds. 292 00:34:24,129 --> 00:34:26,620 I was pulled in through those speakers. 293 00:34:28,199 --> 00:34:30,633 This wonderful guitar playing. 294 00:34:32,137 --> 00:34:34,469 Got to get to grips with that. 295 00:34:34,973 --> 00:34:36,964 Just two people, bass. 296 00:34:38,977 --> 00:34:41,537 Go home and see ifyou can play it. 297 00:34:48,587 --> 00:34:51,613 All these old friends that I used to visit on a daily. 298 00:34:51,723 --> 00:34:55,489 almost hourly, almost a per-minute basis. 299 00:34:57,829 --> 00:35:00,992 Okay. Might get loud for a second. 300 00:35:14,279 --> 00:35:19,080 As kids, we were so experimental with whatever was around. 301 00:35:26,024 --> 00:35:27,685 Taking stuff apart, 302 00:35:29,027 --> 00:35:32,121 we were always tinkering, always messing around. 303 00:35:33,965 --> 00:35:38,368 We built a guitar when my brother was 16. I was 14. 304 00:35:41,373 --> 00:35:45,605 Literally hand-wound the magnets to make the pickups. 305 00:35:48,613 --> 00:35:50,547 Every little component. 306 00:35:55,553 --> 00:35:59,614 Got wood from Barry O'Connell's parents' place. 307 00:36:01,493 --> 00:36:04,485 Hand-carved the neck. , hand-carved the body. 308 00:36:05,397 --> 00:36:07,991 sawed the grooves, put the fret wire in, 309 00:36:08,066 --> 00:36:11,558 every aspect, and put it together. 310 00:36:19,744 --> 00:36:23,009 I mean, it wasn't the best guitar that's ever been made. 311 00:36:23,081 --> 00:36:24,810 but it functioned. 312 00:36:37,262 --> 00:36:39,753 Never wanted to play guitar, ever. 313 00:36:40,265 --> 00:36:42,426 Everyone plays guitar. 314 00:36:43,501 --> 00:36:45,196 What's the point? 315 00:36:53,178 --> 00:36:56,614 I'm the youngest of 10 kids, and there was just stuff around. 316 00:36:56,715 --> 00:36:58,842 A microscope, a power tool. 317 00:37:04,355 --> 00:37:05,879 When you're in a family of 10 kids, 318 00:37:05,957 --> 00:37:08,926 I mean, it's just a given. You're gonna be sharing all day long. 319 00:37:09,027 --> 00:37:11,723 Hand-me-down clothes, hand-me-down toys. 320 00:37:11,963 --> 00:37:15,091 Different interests. and everyone's in and out all the time. 321 00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:17,930 Some people are walking to work, some people are taking the bus. 322 00:37:18,036 --> 00:37:20,368 Competition, fighting for food. 323 00:37:20,472 --> 00:37:24,374 You push each other over. You muscle your way into situations. 324 00:37:25,910 --> 00:37:29,402 My brothers, a bunch of them were musicians, 325 00:37:29,481 --> 00:37:31,813 bass, keyboards, played guitar. 326 00:37:39,324 --> 00:37:43,283 I got really into drumming, playing along with the records. 327 00:37:43,394 --> 00:37:45,828 Those rhythms got into me early. 328 00:37:48,666 --> 00:37:52,500 100% only caring about music and rhythm. 329 00:37:53,605 --> 00:37:57,507 I had a bedroom that was about seven by seven feet, really small. 330 00:37:57,609 --> 00:38:00,510 There was so much junk I had collected. 331 00:38:01,913 --> 00:38:04,279 I had two drum sets in there, 332 00:38:05,016 --> 00:38:08,179 a guitar amplifier and a reel-to-reel and no bed. 333 00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:10,283 I took the bed out. 334 00:38:11,022 --> 00:38:14,458 I slept on a piece of foam on an angle by the door. 335 00:38:31,042 --> 00:38:33,510 The thing that we started out with is a clear idea 336 00:38:33,611 --> 00:38:36,341 of what we did not want to sound like. 337 00:38:36,447 --> 00:38:41,043 Time to bop with the best in rock and pop on this week's Top of the Pops! 338 00:38:46,291 --> 00:38:50,785 Top of the Pops was this longstanding pop TV show. 339 00:38:52,564 --> 00:38:54,156 Most of it was pretty anemic. 340 00:38:59,571 --> 00:39:03,905 If one out of the 10 items on the show was cool, you were lucky. 341 00:39:08,580 --> 00:39:12,016 That was the only live music that we could get to see. 342 00:39:12,083 --> 00:39:14,313 Making their debut on this week's Top of the Pops, 343 00:39:14,419 --> 00:39:17,081 here's The Jam and an effervescent new 45. 344 00:39:17,188 --> 00:39:19,019 One, two. three. four! 345 00:39:33,271 --> 00:39:37,002 It was like somebody just lit the touch paper on this bomb. 346 00:39:37,942 --> 00:39:41,844 So unexpected. I'd never seen anything like it. 347 00:39:43,548 --> 00:39:45,846 And a hope for a new beginning. 348 00:39:52,557 --> 00:39:54,457 It was like a switch went on. 349 00:39:57,729 --> 00:40:00,527 If we believed fully in what we were about, 350 00:40:00,965 --> 00:40:05,061 that actually was far more important than how well you could play. 351 00:40:10,475 --> 00:40:14,206 Our limitations as musicians were ultimately not gonna be a problem. 352 00:40:15,713 --> 00:40:17,908 I was like, "l can do that. " 353 00:40:24,822 --> 00:40:26,483 Total commitment, 354 00:40:26,925 --> 00:40:31,259 getting across what you wanted to say in as straightforward a way as possible. 355 00:40:31,329 --> 00:40:34,162 I started inventing chords to get that sound. 356 00:40:34,265 --> 00:40:35,732 that kind of ringing sound. 357 00:40:35,833 --> 00:40:38,063 Most people play E like this. 358 00:40:39,170 --> 00:40:44,301 Full of a sort of rich, complex tone, 359 00:40:44,409 --> 00:40:49,608 which is a combination of all the major elements of the chord. 360 00:40:49,681 --> 00:40:52,844 I always wanted to simplify it and make it more pure, 361 00:40:52,951 --> 00:40:57,945 and so I found ways of playing those chords where I'd eliminate certain notes. 362 00:41:00,291 --> 00:41:04,022 So there's a more clear sound. 363 00:41:04,195 --> 00:41:09,258 You probably hear it more... As opposed to... 364 00:41:14,305 --> 00:41:17,763 Really paring it down to the absolute bare minimum. 365 00:41:18,643 --> 00:41:21,203 When it's so simple, you can turn it up really Ioud 366 00:41:21,312 --> 00:41:23,542 and it's got more aggression. 367 00:41:46,337 --> 00:41:47,895 Is it right to the C? 368 00:41:48,006 --> 00:41:50,998 -No, actually, what I meant is... -lt can't be. 369 00:41:51,075 --> 00:41:52,303 Yeah. 370 00:42:06,424 --> 00:42:08,585 And then up to the hook. 371 00:42:26,277 --> 00:42:28,177 -Right. -Are you sure about that C? 372 00:42:28,279 --> 00:42:29,871 -Okay. -That sounds good, doesn't it? 373 00:42:29,947 --> 00:42:31,744 Sounds great, guys. Roaring, yeah. 374 00:42:31,849 --> 00:42:33,214 Punk-rock nihilism. 375 00:42:33,284 --> 00:42:36,879 -There's a bit of the punk rock in this man. -I think there's some punk left in there. 376 00:42:50,535 --> 00:42:52,696 Distortion, anger. 377 00:42:54,238 --> 00:42:55,967 the punk ideal. 378 00:42:56,808 --> 00:43:00,300 Guys or someone maybe who got picked on, like a lot of us did, in high school. 379 00:43:00,411 --> 00:43:03,471 This is our chance to, you know, push you down now. 380 00:43:12,056 --> 00:43:15,992 Southwest Detroit, a tough town. 381 00:43:16,994 --> 00:43:19,656 It puts up with a lot and keeps going. 382 00:43:24,769 --> 00:43:28,933 There was very few white families left in the '80s. 383 00:43:30,441 --> 00:43:31,738 My family had a stiff upper lip. 384 00:43:31,843 --> 00:43:35,677 Well, we're not leaving. We're not running away like everybody else. 385 00:43:39,016 --> 00:43:42,918 I lived in an all-Mexican neighborhood. Mexican Town. it's called. 386 00:43:43,020 --> 00:43:45,181 It was uncool to play guitar. 387 00:43:45,289 --> 00:43:46,654 To play an instrument was 388 00:43:46,757 --> 00:43:49,590 the most embarrassing thing you could probably make up. 389 00:43:50,761 --> 00:43:54,288 But hip hop and house music, that's what everyone wanted to hear. 390 00:43:54,365 --> 00:43:57,095 DJs and rappers. 391 00:43:58,703 --> 00:44:01,866 It was very uncool to actually play an instrument. 392 00:44:02,607 --> 00:44:05,804 There was no record store, no guitar shop. 393 00:44:08,546 --> 00:44:11,379 Nobody liked rock 'n' roll or blues music. 394 00:44:31,235 --> 00:44:35,331 By the time I'm 15, I'm playing more and I'm pretty reasonably accomplished. 395 00:44:38,743 --> 00:44:42,907 Pop music was rubbish, so we weren't gonna be playing that. 396 00:44:48,519 --> 00:44:52,922 Playing blues music, music of the Chess catalog, 397 00:44:53,424 --> 00:44:55,415 not going with the flow. 398 00:44:58,095 --> 00:45:02,088 Planning winter gigs, coming out hot, getting in the back of the van. 399 00:45:02,200 --> 00:45:04,259 There's not proper heating in the van. 400 00:45:05,269 --> 00:45:07,931 I thought, "This is getting really tiresome. " 401 00:45:09,373 --> 00:45:12,274 Sleeping on the equipment in the back of the van, 402 00:45:12,376 --> 00:45:14,367 driving to the next gig. 403 00:45:15,780 --> 00:45:20,376 Getting ill, heavy bouts of influenza. 404 00:45:21,953 --> 00:45:25,252 I just thought, it's like beating your head against a wall here. 405 00:45:25,356 --> 00:45:27,449 And I figured that it was... 406 00:45:27,558 --> 00:45:31,619 Best thing to do at that point was actually retire. 407 00:45:37,702 --> 00:45:39,636 So I went to art college. 408 00:45:40,905 --> 00:45:43,965 Just as much as I wanted to play guitar. 409 00:45:44,742 --> 00:45:46,972 I also wanted to be an artist. 410 00:45:49,413 --> 00:45:51,904 It had always been something in me. 411 00:45:53,818 --> 00:45:58,084 I wanted to know the techniques of oil painting, life drawing. 412 00:45:58,656 --> 00:46:01,420 graphic design, sculpture 413 00:46:03,561 --> 00:46:06,086 and the techniques used by the old masters. 414 00:46:19,010 --> 00:46:22,173 You know, I apprenticed out to a lot of people when I was younger. 415 00:46:24,181 --> 00:46:28,117 I was an apprentice in an upholstery shop when I was a teenager. 416 00:46:30,955 --> 00:46:33,082 Brian Muldoon was the master of the upholstery shop 417 00:46:33,190 --> 00:46:35,818 and he was the one teaching me, and he played drums. 418 00:46:35,926 --> 00:46:38,258 Well, I guess I'll play guitar then. 419 00:46:38,596 --> 00:46:40,461 So when we were done with our workday 420 00:46:40,531 --> 00:46:44,695 we'd move the couches over. and set up and play in the shop. 421 00:46:48,806 --> 00:46:53,368 Surf and rockabilly, Dick Dale, and trying to absorb everything. 422 00:46:54,879 --> 00:46:56,005 He'd pick me up from school. 423 00:46:56,113 --> 00:46:57,774 I'd start tearing down the furniture, 424 00:46:57,882 --> 00:47:00,851 ripping off fabric and cotton off of old chairs. 425 00:47:00,951 --> 00:47:03,613 gluing fabric to foam on weird curves, 426 00:47:04,722 --> 00:47:06,690 tearing off all of the old fabric. 427 00:47:06,791 --> 00:47:09,191 You can imagine all the stuff that's inside of a couch. 428 00:47:09,293 --> 00:47:12,558 M&M'S, cereal, and babies' toys. 429 00:47:16,901 --> 00:47:18,960 Here's how you sew a welt cord. 430 00:47:19,070 --> 00:47:22,506 or here's how you sew a fly strip on the back of a decking. 431 00:47:22,573 --> 00:47:24,632 He exposed me to punk music. 432 00:47:24,742 --> 00:47:27,142 The Velvet Underground, The Cramps. 433 00:47:27,244 --> 00:47:31,305 Really took me under his wing to be an employee and to play music together. 434 00:47:32,550 --> 00:47:35,917 And then I started writing songs. We kind of became a band. 435 00:47:36,354 --> 00:47:39,346 We got to put out a record and we called it The Upholsterers. 436 00:47:41,258 --> 00:47:44,421 So, this song is Froggy Went a-Courting, 437 00:47:44,528 --> 00:47:47,156 you know, the folk song, Froggy Went a-Courting. 438 00:47:48,499 --> 00:47:51,662 But I'd never heard it like this before though. 439 00:47:54,705 --> 00:47:57,196 I was really into the drummer first off, l... 440 00:47:58,943 --> 00:48:00,205 Oh, yeah. 441 00:48:04,382 --> 00:48:06,680 And this right here, it blew my mind here. 442 00:48:20,965 --> 00:48:24,526 The Flat Duo Jets. , two-piece band from North Carolina. 443 00:48:25,236 --> 00:48:28,364 Guitar, drums and vocals, just like me and Meg. 444 00:48:33,377 --> 00:48:36,608 I went and saw him play and I was blown away. 445 00:48:38,282 --> 00:48:40,716 There was nothing on stage. There was nothing there. 446 00:48:40,785 --> 00:48:44,312 He was using a little 10-watt amp and Silvertone guitar. 447 00:48:54,632 --> 00:48:57,658 Headed in, what I would have thought at the time, backwards direction. 448 00:49:04,809 --> 00:49:09,007 I had to reassess what backwards meant in my mind. 449 00:49:12,583 --> 00:49:15,814 That opened up a whole new inspiration for me about the guitar. 450 00:49:24,261 --> 00:49:26,821 I started to leave the drums alone a little bit. 451 00:49:35,673 --> 00:49:38,141 The first guitar I ever bought. 452 00:49:38,275 --> 00:49:40,607 This was, you know, brand-new when I bought it. 453 00:49:40,678 --> 00:49:42,009 It's just been with me ever since. 454 00:49:42,112 --> 00:49:46,014 And when we recorded our first album with Steve Lillywhite, 455 00:49:46,116 --> 00:49:49,176 we were in the studio in Dublin and we did the backing tracks. 456 00:49:49,286 --> 00:49:53,518 And he said, "You know, Iet's do some overdubs with a different guitar." 457 00:49:53,624 --> 00:49:55,785 I said, "What do you mean? 458 00:49:55,860 --> 00:50:01,821 "We only have one guitar. This is the only guitar we own in the band." 459 00:50:16,647 --> 00:50:20,583 I was 17. I think,. the summer of '78. 460 00:50:23,821 --> 00:50:26,517 And my family actually were in New York. 461 00:50:27,892 --> 00:50:29,553 It was like walking into a movie for me. 462 00:50:29,660 --> 00:50:32,993 I mean, I remember, not only did they speak like they did in the movies, 463 00:50:33,063 --> 00:50:35,497 but the cars looked like they did in the movies. 464 00:50:36,166 --> 00:50:39,932 That's actually how people spoke. That's actually what the place looked like. 465 00:50:48,879 --> 00:50:50,506 It's a burden when you have a truck or a van, 466 00:50:50,581 --> 00:50:53,550 because everybody you know wants you to move their stuff for them, you know. 467 00:50:53,617 --> 00:50:55,278 So every time you get a phone call. 468 00:50:55,386 --> 00:50:59,379 you're like, "Yeah, I'll come help you move your stove or your safe. "' 469 00:51:05,596 --> 00:51:08,531 I helped my brother move a refrigerator. 470 00:51:09,567 --> 00:51:13,799 Him and his wife started managing a St. Vincent de Paul store. 471 00:51:15,072 --> 00:51:18,633 It's like a Salvation Army kind of store in Detroit. 472 00:51:19,743 --> 00:51:22,576 So I helped him move a refrigerator there. 473 00:51:28,619 --> 00:51:31,713 The sunburst. Tobacco sunburst. 474 00:51:32,623 --> 00:51:36,320 My first electric. Just tremendous. 475 00:51:36,427 --> 00:51:38,725 Just couldn't believe it when I actually got it home. 476 00:51:38,796 --> 00:51:40,991 and there it was in the house. 477 00:51:42,933 --> 00:51:44,230 Fantastic. 478 00:51:48,472 --> 00:51:51,464 This was the one. This was the one that I was after. 479 00:51:53,777 --> 00:51:57,907 I went around to the stores on the street 480 00:51:58,015 --> 00:52:01,109 and found Stuyvesant Guitars. 481 00:52:04,488 --> 00:52:06,956 Guitars everywhere, people everywhere. 482 00:52:10,260 --> 00:52:11,921 This instrument was just there, calling out to me. 483 00:52:16,100 --> 00:52:17,590 This Explorer. 484 00:52:22,539 --> 00:52:25,440 I was really starting to go on my way then. 485 00:52:26,110 --> 00:52:31,446 My technique started to improve. It became like a total addiction, 486 00:52:32,149 --> 00:52:36,176 to the point where actually I was now starting to take it to school. 487 00:52:36,286 --> 00:52:39,687 And I'd be practicing during the recess breaks. 488 00:52:40,824 --> 00:52:44,123 And then it got to the point where the guitar was confiscated. 489 00:52:44,194 --> 00:52:47,891 They thought it was going to be counterculture or something. 490 00:52:48,198 --> 00:52:50,689 It wasn't doing any harm to anybody. 491 00:52:52,202 --> 00:52:53,965 Not then, it wasn't. 492 00:52:55,973 --> 00:52:59,136 So, when I helped him move the refrigerator, he said, 493 00:52:59,209 --> 00:53:01,302 "'Well, how about taking this guitar for payment? 494 00:53:01,378 --> 00:53:03,403 "'Thanks for helping us, " you know. 495 00:53:03,547 --> 00:53:06,243 And I loved it so much I couldn't believe it. 496 00:53:09,153 --> 00:53:12,054 I was like,. "Whoa, man, that was worth it. " 497 00:53:25,836 --> 00:53:29,328 I plugged it into an amp in the room and just could tell. 498 00:53:29,406 --> 00:53:32,000 This was the kind of guitar that had possibilities. 499 00:53:32,076 --> 00:53:34,374 There were songs in this guitar. 500 00:53:35,946 --> 00:53:39,905 Twenty minutes in this store just defined the sound of the band. 501 00:53:41,285 --> 00:53:42,616 This better work out. 502 00:54:31,235 --> 00:54:35,137 I had ideas about modifying or kind of designing my own guitar. 503 00:54:35,239 --> 00:54:37,730 I liked the body shape of this one. 504 00:54:37,808 --> 00:54:40,902 I was trying to customize one of these Gretsch guitars for The Raconteurs. 505 00:54:48,585 --> 00:54:51,145 When people take a guitar that's known for a certain sound 506 00:54:51,255 --> 00:54:53,246 and throw it into a whole different context, 507 00:54:55,592 --> 00:54:56,684 something interesting happens. 508 00:55:23,654 --> 00:55:27,112 Knowing that there was a threshold. to volume, 509 00:55:27,191 --> 00:55:29,386 I wanted to get more sustain out of things. 510 00:55:30,794 --> 00:55:33,854 I bumped into this chap, Roger Mayer. 511 00:55:34,464 --> 00:55:37,900 and all he told people was he worked at the Admiralty. 512 00:55:39,136 --> 00:55:40,899 Did I have any ideas? 513 00:56:06,496 --> 00:56:10,990 I had this record at home of a guitar that had a lot of sustain on it. 514 00:56:11,068 --> 00:56:14,003 And I got him to come around and have a listen to it. 515 00:56:14,071 --> 00:56:15,663 I said, "Can you get that?" 516 00:56:16,440 --> 00:56:20,035 And he went away and came back with this phenomenal thing. 517 00:56:23,413 --> 00:56:26,678 A distortion pedal which overloads the signal. 518 00:56:30,687 --> 00:56:35,386 overdrive the sound and make it sound pretty rude. 519 00:57:05,889 --> 00:57:08,255 This is what I'm actually playing. 520 00:57:15,065 --> 00:57:19,001 That's it. The rest is the foot pedal, the effects, the whole thing. 521 00:57:19,102 --> 00:57:20,569 You know, so if you're on an acoustic, trying to say.. 522 00:57:20,637 --> 00:57:23,800 "Here's my new riff. It's a really cool riff. Listen." 523 00:57:34,284 --> 00:57:35,683 Oh, my Lord. 524 00:57:37,454 --> 00:57:38,512 Wow. 525 00:57:39,823 --> 00:57:43,418 That's impressive. That's great. 526 00:57:44,594 --> 00:57:48,496 It was a single cutaway, and I had this brilliant Iuthier 527 00:57:48,598 --> 00:57:50,361 in Seattle, Randy Parsons. 528 00:57:50,467 --> 00:57:52,799 And he made it a double cutaway for me. 529 00:57:52,869 --> 00:57:55,770 And then I said, "Well, Iisten, I have an idea. 530 00:57:55,839 --> 00:57:57,534 "Can you just... Can you put a silver... 531 00:57:57,641 --> 00:58:00,769 "A Green Bullet harmonica mic on the guitar, 532 00:58:00,844 --> 00:58:02,641 "so I can just take it out, and right there?" 533 00:58:28,505 --> 00:58:32,305 I got this echo unit and I brought it back to rehearsal. 534 00:58:32,376 --> 00:58:37,473 and just got totally into playing, but listening to the return echo 535 00:58:40,150 --> 00:58:45,918 filling in notes that I'm not playing, like two guitar players rather than one. 536 00:58:50,861 --> 00:58:54,991 The exact same thing, but it's just a little bit off to one side. 537 00:58:56,333 --> 00:58:59,598 I could see ways to use it that had never been used. 538 00:59:00,504 --> 00:59:02,597 Suddenly everything changed. 539 00:59:10,547 --> 00:59:11,741 So, Jimmy, what... 540 00:59:11,848 --> 00:59:14,874 You know, those early songs that you played on in the studio, 541 00:59:14,951 --> 00:59:16,509 -what did you actually play on? -Yeah. 542 00:59:16,586 --> 00:59:18,349 I mean, that I would have heard, 543 00:59:18,422 --> 00:59:22,381 -like, there's all these legends about... -Well,. sometimes you could hear what I did, 544 00:59:22,459 --> 00:59:24,689 and other times, you couldn't hear what I did. 545 00:59:24,761 --> 00:59:26,888 But, I mean, I was on Goldfinger. 546 00:59:26,963 --> 00:59:28,055 That was fantastic. 547 00:59:28,131 --> 00:59:31,726 Yeah. She did one take and collapsed at the end of it. 548 00:59:31,802 --> 00:59:35,033 But, you know, it was huge, huge big orchestra in the EMl number one, 549 00:59:35,105 --> 00:59:36,868 which was a massive, great studio, you know. 550 00:59:36,940 --> 00:59:39,067 They did a lot of film stuff in there. 551 00:59:39,142 --> 00:59:42,305 -And. Iike. The Kinks stuff? . -I did some Kinks stuff. 552 00:59:42,412 --> 00:59:43,811 -Really? -Yeah. I didn't... 553 00:59:43,980 --> 00:59:46,471 I mean, you know, it all got out of hand, you know,. about what I had done 554 00:59:46,583 --> 00:59:49,450 -and what I hadn't done. -Really.. it became, like,. the stuff of legend. 555 00:59:49,553 --> 00:59:52,317 You know, before you knew what it was, you'd done everything. 556 01:00:01,231 --> 01:00:06,669 I was filling in, in an interval band at a club called The Marquee Club, 557 01:00:07,804 --> 01:00:09,931 playing on Thursday evening. 558 01:00:14,678 --> 01:00:18,842 And somebody asked me, said, "Would you like to play on the record?" 559 01:00:26,423 --> 01:00:30,655 The record just bubbled in on the lower end of the Top 20. 560 01:00:32,195 --> 01:00:34,186 Then it moved so quickly. 561 01:00:35,632 --> 01:00:39,500 The invitations to do more records were so frequent after that. 562 01:00:44,875 --> 01:00:49,869 An apprenticeship, going into recording studios. 563 01:00:53,817 --> 01:00:55,876 "Can you put a riff to this?" 564 01:00:56,219 --> 01:01:00,883 A song with all its parts, the verses, the choruses, the middle eights. 565 01:01:00,991 --> 01:01:03,482 Feel free to add Iight detail on it. 566 01:01:05,028 --> 01:01:08,555 The musical notation, you needed to be right on top of it. 567 01:01:14,971 --> 01:01:17,531 I could put on all these different hats. 568 01:01:17,641 --> 01:01:21,737 Film music or a jingle. "Well done. Jimmy, that's great. " 569 01:02:01,618 --> 01:02:06,021 By the time I was about 18, somebody played me Son House. 570 01:02:07,290 --> 01:02:08,382 That was it for me. 571 01:02:14,764 --> 01:02:18,222 This spoke to me in 1, 000 different ways. 572 01:02:18,301 --> 01:02:22,135 I didn't know that you could do that. 573 01:02:22,239 --> 01:02:24,139 Just singing and clapping. 574 01:02:24,241 --> 01:02:26,732 And it meant everything. It meant everything about rock 'n' roll. 575 01:02:26,810 --> 01:02:30,439 everything about expression and creativity and art. 576 01:02:31,147 --> 01:02:34,913 One man against the world in one song. 577 01:02:55,105 --> 01:02:58,165 That's my favorite song. Still is. 578 01:02:58,675 --> 01:03:01,906 It became my favorite song the first time I heard it and it still is. 579 01:03:02,779 --> 01:03:05,111 I heard everything disappearing. 580 01:03:08,351 --> 01:03:10,251 It didn't matter that he was clapping off time. 581 01:03:10,320 --> 01:03:14,017 It didn't matter that there was no instruments being played. 582 01:03:15,458 --> 01:03:18,518 All that mattered was the attitude of the song. 583 01:03:29,673 --> 01:03:31,607 Jumping off into the unknown. 584 01:03:36,212 --> 01:03:40,979 Hope and have faith that the next chord or the next few notes will come to you. 585 01:03:44,721 --> 01:03:47,053 On occasions, you get nothing 586 01:03:47,157 --> 01:03:50,149 and you come out feeling like a complete idiot 587 01:03:50,226 --> 01:03:51,523 and that you don't know anything, 588 01:03:51,628 --> 01:03:55,462 and you can't play guitar and you can't write songs. 589 01:04:14,217 --> 01:04:19,553 There's this little house on the coast of an area outside Dublin, called Howth. 590 01:04:26,896 --> 01:04:30,024 We decided that this is where we would rehearse, 591 01:04:30,100 --> 01:04:33,035 Ieading up to the recording of the War album. 592 01:04:42,912 --> 01:04:46,678 There have been bombs here before, but nothing of the scale of yesterday's. 593 01:04:47,217 --> 01:04:50,277 And as the full implications of the number of dead and injured 594 01:04:50,387 --> 01:04:53,117 and the destruction to property became apparent, 595 01:04:53,223 --> 01:04:57,887 it's also clear that the South now has a serious security problem of its own. 596 01:05:02,065 --> 01:05:04,590 Bombs going off on a weekly basis. 597 01:05:06,870 --> 01:05:08,804 So many lives destroyed. 598 01:05:09,973 --> 01:05:14,103 Perverted, distorted idea of freedom. 599 01:05:17,447 --> 01:05:19,142 No Iife was sacred. 600 01:05:33,496 --> 01:05:37,455 Yhe crunch came. This one day I went into this session. 601 01:05:37,567 --> 01:05:40,934 I saw this big ream of paper in front of me. 602 01:05:43,973 --> 01:05:46,498 I started to get very uncomfortable. 603 01:05:49,446 --> 01:05:53,007 There was no run-through. They counted you in, and off you went. 604 01:05:57,687 --> 01:05:59,587 It literally was Muzak. 605 01:06:01,958 --> 01:06:03,619 I'm not actually creating anything. 606 01:06:03,693 --> 01:06:07,094 I'm interpreting whatever it is that's written down now. 607 01:06:07,163 --> 01:06:09,597 And I'm even doing Muzak sessions. 608 01:06:14,137 --> 01:06:15,866 Tearing my hair out. 609 01:06:18,608 --> 01:06:20,439 And I've got to get out of it. 610 01:06:31,221 --> 01:06:34,384 And I thought about it for a Iong time, for days. 611 01:06:35,625 --> 01:06:37,786 There's this whole new world that's just opened up in front of me 612 01:06:37,861 --> 01:06:41,388 and I have to figure out, "How do I get there? 613 01:06:41,865 --> 01:06:44,197 "'Am I not allowed to get there?" 614 01:06:55,678 --> 01:06:59,580 Bono put it to me, he said, "You know, Edge, I think maybe if you 615 01:06:59,682 --> 01:07:02,242 "'would do a bit of time on your own. " 616 01:07:09,926 --> 01:07:12,986 I remember feeling, "Well, can I write? 617 01:07:15,598 --> 01:07:19,034 "'You know, am I a writer, or am I just a guitarist?" 618 01:07:24,107 --> 01:07:26,940 This is it. This is the day of departure. 619 01:07:28,111 --> 01:07:32,207 I wanted to get out there, and I had a lot that I really wanted to do. 620 01:07:48,698 --> 01:07:53,260 The minute that I was in The Yardbirds. , that bow was out immediately. 621 01:07:58,141 --> 01:08:01,872 I shed this coat off of me. , and then I wanted to try everything 622 01:08:01,945 --> 01:08:04,311 that was breaking rules. I wanted to do things that sped up. 623 01:08:04,414 --> 01:08:07,781 I wanted to do things that were Iike playing a bow and hurting people's ears. 624 01:08:14,390 --> 01:08:17,655 I started to look for ways to get away with it 625 01:08:18,328 --> 01:08:21,297 and not be some sort of white-boy blues band. 626 01:08:22,231 --> 01:08:24,825 And we went and played open-mic night. 627 01:08:27,236 --> 01:08:28,669 We were kind of in our own little world. 628 01:08:31,507 --> 01:08:33,134 Meg didn't really want to do it. 629 01:08:35,111 --> 01:08:36,635 I was pushing her. 630 01:08:36,746 --> 01:08:38,509 If I put her behind the drums, 631 01:08:38,615 --> 01:08:41,345 then, you know, maybe something interesting will happen. 632 01:08:41,451 --> 01:08:44,978 She just played like a little caveman and a little child. 633 01:08:46,656 --> 01:08:49,489 We started to form everything around Meg. 634 01:08:50,259 --> 01:08:52,750 We saw a bag of peppermint candies. 635 01:08:53,129 --> 01:08:54,858 I said, "Well, that should be on your bass drum. 636 01:08:54,964 --> 01:08:57,990 "'We should paint that on your bass drum. " 637 01:08:58,468 --> 01:09:01,164 By this time, I had found a red guitar. 638 01:09:03,606 --> 01:09:10,341 This red guitar and the peppermint candy dictated the aesthetic of the band. 639 01:09:14,350 --> 01:09:18,013 White Stripes became the big way to get away with it. 640 01:09:18,655 --> 01:09:22,887 By having a brother-and-sister band that was, you know... 641 01:09:22,992 --> 01:09:25,290 Red, white and black was the complete aesthetic. 642 01:09:25,361 --> 01:09:26,953 And it was childish. and we're presenting ourselves 643 01:09:27,030 --> 01:09:29,191 in a real childish manner, almost like cartoon characters. 644 01:09:29,298 --> 01:09:31,289 And a lot of distractions to keep people away 645 01:09:31,367 --> 01:09:33,062 from what was really going on, 646 01:09:33,169 --> 01:09:36,536 which was, we were just really trting to play this,. you know. 647 01:09:36,639 --> 01:09:38,539 You know, still are, so... 648 01:10:44,941 --> 01:10:46,772 I would just go to D with it sort of in a blues way,. 649 01:10:46,876 --> 01:10:49,401 and I was just singing a Son House lyric. 650 01:10:54,984 --> 01:10:57,043 And then we go to D, then... 651 01:11:09,432 --> 01:11:11,992 Floating around blues structures. 652 01:11:26,983 --> 01:11:29,144 Did the press understand what you were doing? 653 01:11:29,252 --> 01:11:31,152 No, I don't think they did. 654 01:11:31,254 --> 01:11:33,814 I didn't think they had a clue what we were doing, 655 01:11:33,923 --> 01:11:38,690 as each album changed in its sort of concept and variety. 656 01:11:48,504 --> 01:11:50,529 The reviews were terrible. 657 01:11:50,840 --> 01:11:53,673 They didn't understand what we were doing. 658 01:11:54,677 --> 01:11:58,773 They gave the fourth album a one-paragraph review. 659 01:11:59,849 --> 01:12:02,215 Now, there's a lot of material on that. 660 01:12:02,318 --> 01:12:06,186 Black Dog, there's Levee Breaks, there's Stairway to Heaven. 661 01:12:07,190 --> 01:12:08,680 One paragraph. 662 01:12:28,211 --> 01:12:30,873 They didn't have a clue what was going on. 663 01:12:32,215 --> 01:12:35,548 I just didn't even bother to read music papers after that. 664 01:12:41,190 --> 01:12:43,249 This car bomb has gone off. 665 01:12:44,427 --> 01:12:48,659 This bar has been raked with machine gun fire. 666 01:12:55,071 --> 01:12:58,563 Total disregard for human life. 667 01:13:08,618 --> 01:13:10,916 We're not buying into this. 668 01:13:16,759 --> 01:13:19,091 I just remember being in a rage. 669 01:13:28,104 --> 01:13:31,972 When you go past a managed forest, 670 01:13:34,110 --> 01:13:37,079 you see a mass of tree trunks. 671 01:13:44,954 --> 01:13:49,789 Then, at a certain point, you Iook again, and you realize they're all in perfect rows. 672 01:13:53,095 --> 01:13:54,289 CIarity. 673 01:13:58,334 --> 01:13:59,995 Clarity of vision. 674 01:14:03,339 --> 01:14:07,673 What you've been looking at from the wrong angle and not seeing at all. 675 01:14:10,479 --> 01:14:11,810 You labor. 676 01:14:12,648 --> 01:14:15,981 You sweat to see 677 01:14:16,085 --> 01:14:19,612 what you couldn't have seen from that other perspective. 678 01:14:22,858 --> 01:14:26,157 I just remember just scrambling to try and put it down 679 01:14:26,262 --> 01:14:28,992 before that moment passes and fades. 680 01:14:39,442 --> 01:14:43,776 And picking up the guitar and that's what I came out with. 681 01:16:33,122 --> 01:16:37,889 You know, I come in here and sometimes it's just not a great day. 682 01:16:37,960 --> 01:16:42,624 but there's always gonna be something if you just keep going. 683 01:16:47,570 --> 01:16:51,131 If you don't have a struggle already inside of you or around you. 684 01:16:51,240 --> 01:16:53,174 you have to make one up. 685 01:16:54,276 --> 01:16:56,767 These little things during the day. 686 01:16:58,247 --> 01:16:59,805 Extreme feelings. 687 01:17:00,149 --> 01:17:01,980 Something that made you angry or something that made you 688 01:17:02,084 --> 01:17:03,813 upset orjealous. 689 01:17:54,570 --> 01:17:57,698 You wrote the essence of Stairway to Heaven before you got here. 690 01:17:57,806 --> 01:17:59,671 -Yes, I had... -What is your process 691 01:17:59,808 --> 01:18:01,673 when you write a song? 692 01:18:04,046 --> 01:18:06,241 I can't tell you what the process is. 693 01:18:06,348 --> 01:18:12,412 It changes from one thing to another, but it usually comes just from... 694 01:18:12,521 --> 01:18:14,318 For anybody who's writing or, 695 01:18:14,390 --> 01:18:17,826 you know, whether they're writing written word or music or whatever, 696 01:18:17,893 --> 01:18:21,056 it just comes from the creative spark, really. 697 01:18:21,664 --> 01:18:22,824 It's all very spontaneous, 698 01:18:22,898 --> 01:18:26,925 but, you see, the whole reason for being here was for that. 699 01:18:40,616 --> 01:18:44,575 The double neck came as a result of Stairway. 700 01:18:44,853 --> 01:18:46,787 Stairway was done on the acoustic, 701 01:18:46,889 --> 01:18:51,349 with all these electric guitar string parts on it that build it up. 702 01:18:51,427 --> 01:18:53,554 I thought to myself, "How am I going to do this on stage?" 703 01:18:53,629 --> 01:18:58,931 So, it became a necessity relative to the song, if you like. 704 01:18:59,034 --> 01:19:02,197 'Cause then you could do the six-string part, 705 01:19:02,271 --> 01:19:05,365 the acoustic part, electric, of course, but the solo on this, 706 01:19:05,441 --> 01:19:07,466 -and do the rest of it on the 12. -Right. Yeah. 707 01:19:21,156 --> 01:19:25,217 Being a studio musician, you certainly don't speed up. 708 01:19:25,761 --> 01:19:30,460 One of the things that I really wanted to do straightaway was crescendo and speed. 709 01:19:47,316 --> 01:19:49,181 I liked this idea of movement. 710 01:19:59,862 --> 01:20:01,921 Pulse, push. 711 01:20:02,531 --> 01:20:05,864 Rise and fall in its intensity, in its power. 712 01:20:07,803 --> 01:20:09,828 Light and shade. 713 01:20:09,938 --> 01:20:12,498 Wouldn't I want to be employing that? 714 01:20:31,560 --> 01:20:34,154 That was something that was gonna keep increasing, 715 01:20:34,229 --> 01:20:38,165 building, accelerating, from the beginning to the very end. 716 01:20:38,701 --> 01:20:40,225 Iike an orgasm. 717 01:21:44,566 --> 01:21:48,229 Every night that we went on stage, it was living. 718 01:21:49,605 --> 01:21:51,800 Totally living at every point. 719 01:21:54,810 --> 01:21:59,144 The spark had become the flame and the flame was burning really bright. 720 01:23:18,727 --> 01:23:20,058 That's it. 721 01:23:46,221 --> 01:23:52,421 Yhere's a total concentration on music and creativity and writing. 722 01:23:58,166 --> 01:24:00,066 Pushing the boundaries. 723 01:24:01,770 --> 01:24:03,761 Looking over the horizon. 724 01:24:05,941 --> 01:24:10,173 Musicians that were absolutely on top of their game. 725 01:27:08,724 --> 01:27:09,884 Great! 726 01:27:10,525 --> 01:27:11,617 Nice. 727 01:27:16,031 --> 01:27:17,623 Nice. That's it. 728 01:27:29,878 --> 01:27:32,369 You're supposed to join the family. 729 01:27:33,915 --> 01:27:36,577 You're supposed to become part of it. 730 01:27:36,651 --> 01:27:38,778 That family of storytellers. 731 01:27:52,167 --> 01:27:56,831 When it goes down into that break bit. It's, yeah... It's G. Yeah. 732 01:27:57,439 --> 01:28:00,169 -D, C.. C, G. -Okay. Yeah. 733 01:28:00,275 --> 01:28:01,674 G. B minor? , 734 01:28:01,810 --> 01:28:04,005 -G, D, C, it's the... -Right here. I see. Yeah, okay. 735 01:28:04,112 --> 01:28:06,012 The biggest thrill is creating something 736 01:28:06,114 --> 01:28:09,242 that has the power to really connect with people. 737 01:28:09,951 --> 01:28:12,579 That"s why I took up the guitar in the first place. 738 01:28:12,654 --> 01:28:15,817 What's the note here for the vocal? For me, if I do it lower. 739 01:28:19,094 --> 01:28:20,152 Oh, that. 740 01:28:21,696 --> 01:28:23,664 I can do the high, but... 741 01:28:25,467 --> 01:28:26,957 Afraid I can't hit it. 742 01:28:27,969 --> 01:28:30,961 -I can't sing. I'm hopeless. Yeah. -Really high ones, isn't it? 743 01:28:31,039 --> 01:28:34,873 Whether I took it on, or it took me on, I don't know. 744 01:28:35,377 --> 01:28:37,277 The jury's out on that. 745 01:28:37,612 --> 01:28:39,204 But I don't care. 746 01:28:40,382 --> 01:28:43,442 I just really, really enjoyed it. That's it. 747 01:28:49,057 --> 01:28:53,323 I just noticed, I've been playing the wrong second chord in the verse. 748 01:28:53,395 --> 01:28:56,057 -Have you? -It's a B minor,. actually, not an E minor. 749 01:28:58,400 --> 01:29:00,834 -Shit. -Yeah, that's better. 750 01:29:00,902 --> 01:29:03,393 For me, it was a much bigger world. 751 01:29:03,638 --> 01:29:07,005 I had a voracious appetite for everything. All of it. 752 01:29:22,524 --> 01:29:24,685 Music keeps progressing and moving on 753 01:29:24,759 --> 01:29:26,920 and people come up with new ideas and new tricks 754 01:29:27,095 --> 01:29:30,155 and new ways to tell the same story in a different way. 755 01:29:47,182 --> 01:29:49,343 We"re all doing the same thing, 756 01:29:49,451 --> 01:29:51,715 attempting to share something with another human being. 757 01:30:16,645 --> 01:30:19,978 In essence, we are effectively the same band. 758 01:30:21,249 --> 01:30:23,979 We're a little bit more complex. 759 01:30:24,085 --> 01:30:29,819 But we're really still the band that's crowded into the small little rooms, 760 01:30:30,892 --> 01:30:32,553 trying to play with each other 761 01:30:32,661 --> 01:30:36,256 and find those clues that will take us somewhere new. 762 01:30:36,331 --> 01:30:39,596 Now, exactly where this note was I have no memory. 763 01:30:39,668 --> 01:30:41,226 But this is where it was put. 764 01:30:47,575 --> 01:30:51,238 I loved this whole idea of, you know, getting a band together. 765 01:30:51,346 --> 01:30:53,644 So I was definitely gonna do something. 766 01:30:53,748 --> 01:30:57,479 But if Larry had not put the message up, I would have been in some other band. 767 01:30:57,585 --> 01:30:59,917 I don't know. It wouldn't have been U2. 768 01:31:00,021 --> 01:31:04,014 God knows who it would have been. And if, you know, would l 769 01:31:05,126 --> 01:31:07,117 be doing what I am now? Probably not. 770 01:31:11,633 --> 01:31:14,033 I mean, I could be doing anything. 771 01:31:16,371 --> 01:31:20,432 I'd be, I don't know, working in a bank somewhere or something. 772 01:31:38,793 --> 01:31:41,387 The day when you pick up a guitar 773 01:31:41,496 --> 01:31:44,363 and there's nothing coming through whatsoever. 774 01:31:44,466 --> 01:31:46,991 There's no new pieces, no new ideas. 775 01:31:49,571 --> 01:31:53,063 And that's the sort of gift that any creative person has. 776 01:31:53,675 --> 01:31:57,509 There's always that point that that might happen to you. 777 01:31:58,580 --> 01:32:01,811 Or you're too old to be able to pick the guitar up. 778 01:32:02,751 --> 01:32:07,245 And we're just trying to keep that day far, far away and out of sight. 779 01:33:06,314 --> 01:33:10,148 This one's called Claudette. After the actress CIaudette Colbert. 780 01:33:10,385 --> 01:33:12,148 My tattoo artist did all this for me. 781 01:33:12,253 --> 01:33:16,417 He's really good at doing this on people, so we figured he'd be doing it with... 782 01:33:16,491 --> 01:33:19,824 I bought him a wood burning tool, so he could burn her face on the side of it. 783 01:33:19,928 --> 01:33:22,328 I made the pick guard, so it looks like a brunette. 784 01:33:46,087 --> 01:33:48,282 And you come out and bring your amp out here all the time? 785 01:33:48,356 --> 01:33:49,846 Yeah. Yeah. 786 01:33:50,458 --> 01:33:55,521 It's my thing. You know, I Iike to get out here in the elements and rock out. 787 01:33:56,764 --> 01:33:58,629 Yeah, with the islands. 788 01:33:58,700 --> 01:34:04,104 The islands I always find very inspiring for those long echo, delayed sounds. 789 01:34:18,119 --> 01:34:20,053 It's an actual theremin. 790 01:34:30,732 --> 01:34:33,496 It hasn't got six strings, but it's a lot of fun. 791 01:35:02,096 --> 01:35:04,394 I notice you have a picture of the Fab Four. 792 01:35:04,499 --> 01:35:08,265 It's actually not so much reverence for The Beatles. 793 01:35:08,369 --> 01:35:11,861 It's a kind of haircut reference for the crew. 794 01:35:28,957 --> 01:35:32,791 We almost had an accident with a suit and a cell phone. 795 01:35:34,529 --> 01:35:37,396 He was probably right in the middle of saying the words "totally organic." 796 01:35:53,581 --> 01:35:58,041 Look at that. Somebody's put the lyrics to Glad to See You Go on their Iocker. 797 01:35:58,152 --> 01:35:59,983 What a coincidence. Okay. 798 01:36:00,655 --> 01:36:02,384 We used to play this song. 799 01:37:35,000 --> 01:37:56,999 Subtitles By: Dan4Jem