When I was getting my Ph.D., I became intrigued by the writings of the polemic 16th century German reformer, Martin Luther. That’s a pretty bold statement coming from Catholic like myself. Not only did this Augustinian Eremite challenge the fundamental social, political, legal and religious ideas of his time, he developed a sophisticated theology of his own. While I can’t claim to understand all the nuances of his doctrines of justification and sanctification, there are 2 things about Martin Luther that I admire. The first is the tremendous courage he displayed by taking on the Catholic Church, an institution that completely dominated European life in the Middle Ages and became corrupt. The reason I find this particularly admirable is probably due to my own disdain for authoritative figures which is rooted in my family who encouraged its members to speak up for themselves and maintain a fierce skepticism toward authority. An innate trait of the Irish I’ve been told. Anyway, for whatever reason, I respect Martin Luther’s tenacity.

The other thing I really like about Luther is his doctrine of vocation, or calling. While the idea of a calling had been used before the Reformation in reference to ministry and holy orders, Luther was the first to use the term to refer to secular occupations. He argued that one’s calling serves others thereby fulfilling Christ’s commandment to love one another. Luther wrote of 2 kinds of callings. The inner call relates to one’s conscience. The outward call expresses one’s service to the community through work. Therefore, when people contribute to society according to their God-given talents, they become what Luther calls a “mask of God” where God acts through them.

What does any of this have to do with Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White? On December 22, film director Davis Guggenheim, of An Inconvenient Truth fame, released his new documentary It Might Get Loud which profiles guitarists Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White. I had read about the documentary months ago while Guggenheim was editing it. Because I play guitar and have loved the instrument since I was a little girl, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the DVD. I purchased it on the day it was released and immediately popped it into my DVD player. Guggenheim is brilliant in his direction of the movie. He gathers the three guitar players together, each representing a different generation and nationality, to jam, discuss the guitar and teach each other songs. The film crew travels to locations in their pasts. Interviews and biographical data of each player are cleverly interwoven throughout the film. In essence it’s a story about 3 musicians who found their calling and how they have lived out that calling.

The film is full of interesting details about the lives of these guitarists. For instance, Page first encountered the instrument that would define his life when his family moved to a new home and he actually found a guitar there that had been left behind by the former occupants. Talk about Divine Providence interjecting into someone’s life.

Each man views playing the guitar differently. Page voices his amazement at how all guitarists have their unique styles of playing which reflect their personalities. For Edge it’s all about sound effects and trying to get the sound in his head to come out of the speakers. White seeks simplicity, pureness of sound. He discusses how technology, “a big destroyer of emotion and truth,” nearly ruined music in the 1980’s by creating a sound that was so processed “it wasn’t real anymore.”

One experience shared by all 3 men is an epiphanic moment—a particular instant that sealed their fates to the guitar. For White it was when he saw the Flat Duo Jets perform. With their single guitar, drums and 10 watt amp the duo seemed “backwards yet fascinating” causing White to reassess what “backwards” meant and redefine the way he viewed the guitar. For Edge it was when he saw the 1970’s British punk group, the Jam, play on a local variety show and realized “I can do that.” The moment came for Page when he first heard Link Wray’s “Rumble” with its “profound attitude” unlike anything he’d heard before.

At various times in the film each player discusses creativity. Page, once a highly successful session player, recounts how he showed up to work one day and sat down in front of reams of sheet music. He looked at it and realized that playing the music of others involved no creativity whatsoever—he was just playing what someone else wrote. So he quit, joined the Yardbirds and a flood of creativity ensued coming from some special place evoking his love of “intensity, tensions and crescendo.” White defines creativity as a struggle claiming “if you don’t have a struggle already inside of you or around you, you have to make one up.” Edge, the most articulate of the three, offers my favorite explanation of the creative process:

When you go into a managed forest you see a mass of tree trunks. Then at a certain point you look again. You realize they’re all in perfect rows. Clarity. Clarity of vision. What you’ve been looking at from the wrong angle and not seen at all. You labor, you sweat to see what you couldn’t see from that other perspective.

Passion, labor, angst, longing. It’s all part of these three musicians. But there’s immense joy too. That joy is illuminated when they play their instruments. Toward the end of the movie, Page says of the guitar: “Whether I took it on or it took me on I don’t know. The jury’s out on that. I don’t care. I’ve just really, really enjoyed it.”
I’ve enjoyed his guitar too. And I think I speak for rock fans everywhere when I say we’re really grateful that Page, Edge and White found their calling.

Mary McDonough

2 Comments »

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  Yes, this movie blew me away, completely. I watched it on a transatlantic flight - going and coming - FOUR times. I am going to buy it and watch it again. Your writing about it really hits so many of the movie’s high points. I agree with nreilly above - watching Page play Whole Lotta Love … wow. But what blew me away was how these three talked about their artistic - nay, souls’ - journeys.
  Thanks for writing this.

  Comment by Brian J. Foley — January 10, 2010 @ 11:29 pm

  
  

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  I am also a guitar player and watched “It Might Get Loud” last night. I am still thinking about it. I too was struck by the clear connection between the souls of these players and their guitars. Their music is clear soul talk. It looks like a relief for them as they play. I loved watching the faces of Edge and White as Page played….I think they wanted to pinch themselves.

  Comment by nreilly — January 6, 2010 @ 10:23 pm

  
  

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