A new clip has just been released from the upcoming documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin, which features surviving Led Zeppelin band members Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones reminiscing about the first time they jammed together.
Page says he suggested the first song they should play together was “Train Kept A-Rollin,” a song popularized by Page’s former band The Yardbirds, which went on to become a concert staple for Led Zeppelin.
“(Jimmy said) ‘Train Kept A-Rollin’ do you know it?’ I said ‘nope,’” Jones says in the clip. “He said, ‘Well it’s a 12 bar and it’s got this riff.’ ‘OK, count it in.’ And that was it – the room just exploded.”
“We just kept playing it, doing like solo breaks and all the rest of it, and Robert’s improvising,” Page adds.
When it came to hearing Plant’s vocals for the first time, Jones notes, “I’d never heard anything like it.”
“I was expecting this cool soul singer and there’s this screaming maniac with this fantastic voice and fantastic range,” he says. “I was like, ‘What [are] you doing up there? You’ll hurt yourself, man!’”
As for what the jam felt like for Plant, he says, “It was devastating, because it seemed like that had been what I’d been waiting for.”
The clip also features archival audio from the band’s late drummer John Bonham talking about the session.
“Well, I was pretty shy,” he said. “The best thing to do when you’re in a situation like that is not to say much and just to soldier along and suss it all out.”
Becoming Led Zeppelin will open exclusively in IMAX theaters on Feb. 7, with early access screenings in 18 markets starting Feb. 5. It will then hit theaters nationwide on Feb. 14.
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