The Doors Forum

Lucifer Rising: Jimmy Page’s insane,
amazing, unused soundtrack to the Kenneth Anger film

-dangerousminds.net





I think it’s safe to say that the music composed (and performed alone) by Jimmy Page and intended for Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising, but not used, was/is among the very most sought after Led Zeppelin, or in this case Zep-related, bootleg recordings.

The story has long been a foundation of the Led Zeppelin mythos: Page and the mercurial Magus of Cinema had a falling out, then Anger did his patented “curse” routine very publicly going so far as accusing Page of being a mere “dabbler” in the occult and a rich, lazy junkie. Rock journalists began to wonder if Anger’s curse had worked when a succession of tragic events saw Robert Plant badly injured in a 1975 car accident, Plant’s five-year-old son Karac dying suddenly in 1977 and the death of John Bonham in 1980 that instantly ended Led Zeppelin’s reign as the world’s biggest rock group.

There are always two sides to every story and Page maintains that he had given the project financial support, put Ken up in one of his homes (Aleister Crowley’s Boleskine House in Scotland, no less) and lent him film editing equipment. Moreover, he’d given Anger 23 minutes of amazing music. Anger needed an additional five minutes from Page to complete Lucifer Rising, but it was slow arriving and after a shouting match with Page’s wife, he threw a major hissy, “firing” Page and viciously denouncing him—for years—in the media:

“He’s a multi-millionaire miser. He and Charlotte, that horrible vampire girl – the druggie that got him on heroin – they’re both junkies. They had so many servants, yet they would never offer me a cup of tea or a sandwich. Which is such a mistake on their part because I put the curse of king Midas on them. If you’re greedy and just amass gold you’ll get an illness. So I did turn her and Jimmy Page into statues of gold because they’ve both lost their minds. He can’t write songs anymore.”

It’s not like Jimmy Page wasn’t busy back then (the time period in question roughly corresponds to the time Led Zeppelin IV was being recorded), plus Uncle Ken can go from sweet and utterly charming to homicidal in like two seconds flat. (I’ve met Jimmy Page, as well. He was super-friendly, easygoing. An old school gentleman, informing me as he shook my hand that he had been gifted with not one, but two copies of my Book of Lies occult anthology. I know which side of this tale I come down on: Jimmy’s! Look, I admire and revere the films of Kenneth Anger. I think he’s a truly great artist, touched by genius, even, but he’s effing nuts...)

Eventually Page’s music escaped in 1981—probably sourced from the magnetic track from an early 23-minute-long “to be continued” print of Lucifer Rising that Anger showed potential investors (I’ve seen this, it’s pretty incredible)—when it hit the bootleg market as “Solo Performances by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant,” a limited edition LP with a green wax seal (I have one of these, it sounds like frying dogsh#t). Another blue vinyl version was released in a “Kabbalistically numbered limited edition.” Better quality digital versions started making the rounds on torrent trackers around 2005 and last year Jimmy Page released the music he’d composed for Anger’s film via his website on very limited edition red vinyl that sold out instantly.

The music itself is wonderfully perverse: a languid but steadily building Middle Eastern-sounding drone, festooned with evil chanting, tabla, screaming mellotron, a sonically shifting low frequency foreboding ambiance and shimmering 12-string guitar work. It’s a mad, diabolical symphony of beautiful evil; a fascinating piece of unconventional aggressively avant garde music from one of the rock era’s most mysterious living legends.



Although Page’s music was not used, the guitarist does make a cameo appearance in Lucifer Rising bearded and staring at a wreathed portrait of Aleister Crowley while holding an Egyptian stele.


Page does not often talk to journalists about his interest in the occult, but in a 2008 Guitar World interview, he did reveal a few fascinating tidbits about his creative process:

Guitar World: There was always a certain amount of speculation about your occult studies. It may have been subtle, but you weren’t really hiding it.

Page: I was living it. That’s all there is to it. It was my life – that fusion of magick and music.

Guitar World: Your use of symbols was very advanced. The sigil on Led Zeppelin IV and the embroidery on your stage clothes from that time period are good examples on how you left your mark on popular culture. It’s something that major corporations are aggressively pursuing these days: using symbols as a form of branding.

Page: You mean talismanic magick? Yes, I knew what I was doing. There’s no point in saying much about it, because the more you discuss it, the more eccentric you appear to be. But the fact is – as far as I was concerned – it was working, so I used it. But it’s really no different than people who wear ribbons around their wrists: it’s a talismanic approach to something.

Well let me amend that: it’s not exactly the same thing, but it is in the same realm. I’ll leave this subject by saying the four musical elements of Led Zeppelin making a fifth is magick into itself. That’s the alchemical process.

In Rolling Stone’s December 2012 cover story “Jimmy Page Looks Back,” Page said “...there was a request, suggesting that Lucifer Rising should come out again with my music on. I ignored it.”

Below, the unused Jimmy Page score for Lucifer Rising:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSfBaLBvGCg

i remember all the hype with the film, pretty spacey stuff...

lovemygirl wrote:i remember all the hype with the film, pretty spacey stuff...

Yeah, sad Jimmy's hard work and music never made it to film. Who knows the real story behind the falling out but it's too bad all 'round.

...what i have read, Kenneth Anger was very upset about the length of recorded music Page created in three years time, only about 28 minutes long. Anger then started to shred the guitarist's reputation in the press... after all was said and done the film was olny 28 minutes long and the final musicial score was done by bobby beausoliel and the freedom orchestra, bobby was once in the band Love and became a part of the Manson murders, he recorded the music in prison....

...all weird stuff...

lovemygirl wrote:...what i have read, Kenneth Anger was very upset about the length of recorded music Page created in three years time, only about 28 minutes long. Anger then started to shred the guitarist's reputation in the press... after all was said and done the film was olny 28 minutes long and the final musicial score was done by bobby beausoliel and the freedom orchestra, bobby was once in the band Love and became a part of the Manson murders, he recorded the music in prison....

...all weird stuff...

Bobby was considered by LoVE, though was never really a part of LoVE. He may have sat in on a song or tried out for the band, but he was never a serious contender to make it as a LoVE member. But weird stuff all round...and Manson's connections to the 60's LA music scene is chilling--Beach Boys, Springfield..they all knew him and his efforts to make it in the music scene--he even wrote a song for the Beach Boys, I think it was, and Dennis Wilson was a part of Manson's scene for a short while until Dennis' Brothers intervened, but he just weirded everyone out. Now we know why.

Some clarifications on this one.

The officially released version from Jimmypage.com was not on red vinyl but standard heavyweight black vinyl.

There was a release of 418 numbered copies, the first 93 of which were signed by Page.

There is also a standard unlimited vinyl edition.

I bought a copy (unsigned number 366) and whilst it is interesting enough it's not something I'll listen to very often (hence the limited release I suppose). If you are familiar with the violin bow experiments from the 1975 versions of Dazed and Confused, then it's more of the same with additional tablas and chanting etc.

The quality of the package and vinyl is excellent however, with a real attention to detail.

Tracks are

Side One
1) Lucifer Rising - Main Track

Side Two
1) Incubus
2) Damask
3) Unharmonics
4) Damask - Ambient
5) Lucifer Rising - Percussive Return

The set comes with liner notes by Page himself.

The main Lucifer Rising part was recorded by Page at his London Tower House and not Boleskine House as some reports state.

...good facts phantom......

Circa 1965, Beausoleil was a member of Arthur Lee's band the Grass Roots, which later changed its name to Love. Lee claimed to have bestowed the nickname "Bummer Bob" on Beausoleil due to a drug burn. Beausoleil claims that Lee named his band Love in reference to another of his many nicknames — "Cupid." Circa 1966, Beausoleil joined a band called The Orkustra; bandmate David LaFlamme went on to greater success with It's a Beautiful Day. Following his stint in The Orkustra, Beausoleil put together the band he called The Magick Powerhouse of Oz.

In the late 1970s, with the permission of the prison, he composed and recorded the soundtrack for Kenneth Anger's movie Lucifer Rising after Anger's first choice, Jimmy Page, couldn't manage to deliver enough music for the film after three years of waiting, according to Anger.[citation needed] The official Beausoleil soundtrack was released on CD (along with archival material from The Orkustra and The Magick Powerhouse of Oz) in 2004. He's also recorded and released two albums of instrumental material (Orb and Mantra).

lovemygirl wrote:...good facts phantom......

Circa 1965, Beausoleil was a member of Arthur Lee's band the Grass Roots, which later changed its name to Love. Lee claimed to have bestowed the nickname "Bummer Bob" on Beausoleil due to a drug burn. Beausoleil claims that Lee named his band Love in reference to another of his many nicknames — "Cupid." Circa 1966, Beausoleil joined a band called The Orkustra; bandmate David LaFlamme went on to greater success with It's a Beautiful Day. Following his stint in The Orkustra, Beausoleil put together the band he called The Magick Powerhouse of Oz.

In the late 1970s, with the permission of the prison, he composed and recorded the soundtrack for Kenneth Anger's movie Lucifer Rising after Anger's first choice, Jimmy Page, couldn't manage to deliver enough music for the film after three years of waiting, according to Anger.[citation needed] The official Beausoleil soundtrack was released on CD (along with archival material from The Orkustra and The Magick Powerhouse of Oz) in 2004. He's also recorded and released two albums of instrumental material (Orb and Mantra).

Right, Nicole. Beausoleil was a part of pre-Love Grass Roots (not sure how long, but couldn't have been more than a few months) when Bryan joined the band; Bryan was more of a magnetic star & better talent, so Bobby was let go, also due to the fact they weren't getting paid enough (at Ciro's?) to support two rhythm guitarists. Bryan was the obvious choice. From what I've read, Bobby was good on guitar, an amiable quiet guy...tragically, too much of a follower and not a leader, on or off stage. Some members of Love felt bad about letting Bobby go, wondering if they had not, would future events have been changed...at least for Bobby.

The Phantom Engineer wrote:

There was a release of 418 numbered copies, the first 93 of which were signed by Page.

I'll quote myself, as the specific numbers of this limited release intrigued me. I can't pretend to understand all of this but this is what I found. Doesn't appear random ...

*
418 is a Gematria of the word 'ABRAHADABRA'

ABRAHADABRA = 418
ABRAHADABRA has 11 letters
ABRAHADABRA = 1+2+2+1+5+1+4+1+2+2+1 = 22

The five letters in the word are: A, the Crown; B, the Wand; D, the Cup; H, the Sword; R, the Rosy Cross; and refer further to Amoun the Father, Thoth His messenger, and Isis, Horus, Osiris, the divine-human triad.

Also 418 = ATh IAV, the Essence of IAO
418= BVLShKIN, or Boleskine
418= RA HVVR, or Ra Hoor
418= ∑(13-31)

---------------------------

**
93 as it is written in 'The Book of the Law', the Law of Thelema is stated as "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law".

It is further said, "Love Is The Law, Love Under Will".

The two primary terms in these statements are Will and Love, respectively. In the Greek language, they are Thelema (Will) and Agapé (Love).

Using the Greek technique of isopsephy, which applies a numerical value to letters, the letters of both of these words when added together equal 93:

Thelema = Θελημα
Θ (Theta) = 9 +
ε (Epsilon) = 5 +
λ (Lambda) = 30 +
η (Eta) = 8 +
μ (Mu) = 40 +
α (Alpha) 1
= 93

Agapé = Αγαπη
Α (Alpha) 1 +
γ (Gamma) 3 +
α (Alpha) 1 +
π (Pi) 80 +
η (Eta) 8
= 93

The relevance of this technique is found in the art of correspondence. When two words have the same value, they are said to have a meaningful connection. In this case, it is considered significant that the two central concepts of Thelema—Will and Love—are of equal value, and therefore have a direct connection.

Also worth noting that this was released specifically on 20th March 2012, the Spring Equinox.