The guitarist Jimmy Page knew was a genius before anyone else: “Easily the best”

Virtually every rock and roll guitarist for the past 50 years has hoped, on some level, to be able to knock out a tune like Jimmy Page. In many ways, the Zeppelin axeman is the archetypal rock and roll guitarist, establishing many of the most enduring images of hedonistic, flamboyant rock guitar playing. After all, Page spent the majority of the 1960s rubbing shoulders with the greatest movers and shakers of London’s blossoming music scene. “He came down from [Doncaster], and he was living in London,” Page once recalled. “He was sort of introducing himself onto the jazz scene and welcomed with open arms, as you can imagine.”