Jimmy Page's Biggest Mistake?
Although Anger fired Page I’m sure he felt marooned by JP’s waning interest in a project that was extremely important to him. Some say that a tortured life is far, far worse than the prospect of death. Maybe that was Anger’s plan for Jimmy Page all along; to go on hurting him…a statue of gold, remember?
The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate that the Led Zeppelin Curse, whatever its origin may be, didn’t complete its objective on September 25th, 1980 but lives on to torment Jimmy Page. He may be incredibly wealthy and famous but JP has been in purgatory since Zeppelin crashed. He’s been unable to move forward (to any significant degree) creatively and all of his attempts to bring the remaining members of the group back together have sputtered and failed.
Following John Bonham’s death Page went into seclusion, continued his heroin habit and then putted about for years, getting involved in small projects here and there. For someone like Jimmy Page, a music industry veteran, this is decidedly unusual. Yes he eventually worked on the soundtrack to the movie Death Wish 2 and then there was the modestly successful group The Firm but something’s not right there. Once again, a curse does not necessarily have to result in overtly destructive and dramatic events. There can be moderate effects that pick away at a target over time.
Another factor is that curses, or any focused release of energy for that matter, do not necessarily follow a linear, time-constrained path. Once a curse is projected out into the universe it will try to manifest in the physical world regardless of time. For example, a centuries-old hex could circle the target seeking an opening forever; hunting that soul through innumerable life streams. Of course the malevolent energy will lose momentum if not regularly fortified by its creator or some sort of proxy like books or the media.
Old curses that are regularly discussed, studied, read about, etc. carry on through the attention / mental focus they are given. The internet chatter about Jimmy Page and the Zeppelin Curse is very much akin to an archaeologist repeatedly entering the mummy’s tomb and releasing the noxious mist.
Kenneth Anger, for lack of a better word, is an angry person and not one to forget a slight. Many years after the 1976 curse he had gone on record indicating that he hadn’t let go of the Lucifer Rising soundtrack dispute. Anger's salvo of caustic energy seems to have stunted JP’s creative growth and seal him into a permanent stasis of sorts. We'll never know for sure but it’s rather curious, don't you think?
