Re: Jimmy Page to perform at closing ceremony of Beijing Olympics

["Wyatt Brake" <wyattbrake@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/2603561/Led-Zeppelin-classic-too-racy-for-Olympics.html
OR
http://tinyurl.com/6oc9z9

This is really ridiculous.  It's like The Doors on Ed Sullivan.

"After choosing the song for the closing ceremony on Sunday they
decided that some of the lyrics would have to be omitted or re-written
amid concerns that they could cause offence.

The song was chosen as the centrepiece of an eight-minute £2.5million
British segment at the event in Beijing at which the Olympic flag will
be officially passed to the London Mayor Boris Johnson.

Organisers of the London 2012 Games commissioned the band's guitarist
Jimmy Page to record a new version of the song to be performed on top
of a special red double-decker bus accompanied by Leona Lewis, winner
of the ITV reality television show The X Factor, with David Beckham
looking on.

But, according to London 2012 officials, Lewis - who grew up in east
London close to the Olympic site - requested a change to the song's
second verse because she was worried they would not make sense for a
female singer.

In the original, recorded in 1969, frontman Robert Plant sings, "I'm
gonna give you every inch of my love".

But in the version that will be sung tomorrow, however, Lewis changes
the words to "every bit" of my love.

The band also agreed to a request from organisers to drop the third
verse, which includes similar sexual innuendoes, to fit in to the
eight-minute performance."

Probably some American television executive worried about the
puritanical outrage convinced the Brits there would be scandal if the
adjustment wasn't made...
Okay, so I don't really believe THAT, but I still think it's absurd.

They said "record" - so I'm interpreting that to mean this will be a
miming/lip-syncing performance?

Oh, well... at least he'll be on TV and looking cool.  Maybe Jimmy
will be wearing an Olympic jumpsuit.... ;-)

-Wyatt

____________

On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 6:20 PM, Meg Ireland <megireland9@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I have no doubt that if it is indeed "Whole Lotta Love", the lyrics
> will be modified to suit the occasion.
>
> Guy Pratt's blog never said he was "Led Zep bassist".
>
> This is what he said:
>
> "You may also be interested to know that when Jimmy Page and Leona
> Lewis perform 'Whole Lotta Love' at the end of the Olympics, that's me
> playing bass on it."
>
> The entry used to be at the footer of the August 19 entry. Pratt was
> probably forced to remove it from his blog by the London games
> organisers. The whole Page-Lewis appearance was originally meant to be
> a surprise in the first place but it leaked out from an unknown source
> in the committee.
>
> Meg