NPR Music's Bob Boilen talks with Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin about a song that changed his life, "Rock Island Line," by Lonnie Donegan.
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: Jimmy Page is a guitar legend. Just to refresh your memory...</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: Page is one of the founding members of the rock band Led Zeppelin. For the book "Your Song Changed My Life," NPR Music's Bob Boilen spoke to Page about the song that changed his life, and it's not a hard-rocking song. The story begins when Jimmy Page was 8. His family moved from the London suburbs to the town of Epsom. And in their new home, someone had left behind a guitar.</s>JIMMY PAGE: It was the campfire guitar, you know? It was sort of, you know, round hole - yeah, literally that, like a campfire. But it did have all the string on, which was pretty useful.</s>LONNIE DONEGAN: (Singing) I got all livestock. I got all livestock. I got all livestock. And the man say, well, you're all right boy; just get on through. You don't have to pay me nothing.</s>JIMMY PAGE: And there was this sort of explosion of music in the '50s. And what we had over in England was this guy Lonnie Donegan. The song I'm going to sort of give as an illustration of this is "Rock Island Line."</s>LONNIE DONEGAN: (Singing) I got pig iron. I got pig iron. I got all pig iron. Now, I'll tell you where I'm going, Boy - down the Rock Island Line. She's a mighty good road.</s>JIMMY PAGE: I mean, he was superb. It was absolutely superb. But there he was, playing, like, an acoustic guitar. Sort of every Saturday there would be a show on the television where usually he was on every other week, and it was just something to behold at the time, just his whole passion and the way that he deliver this material.</s>JIMMY PAGE: Now, the thing is that he'd been in a jazz band prior to that, and he really understood all of this sort of blues, American country, blues and all of that. By the time you get to the end of this, he's really spitting it out - "Rock Island Line." It's fantastic stuff.</s>LONNIE DONEGAN: (Singing) Down the Rock Island Line - she's a mighty good road. The Rock Island Line is the road to ride. Yeah, the Rock Island Line - she's a mighty good road. But if you want to ride, you got to ride it like you find it. Get your ticket at the station of the Rock Island Line.</s>JIMMY PAGE: So this guitar was there, and then somebody showed me how to tune it up - somebody at school. Then I started strumming away like - not (unintelligible) but having a go, just sort of strumming chords and all of that stuff. You'll find so many of the guitarists from the '60s will all say Lonnie Donegan was the influence. So here you go. Have a listen.</s>LONNIE DONEGAN: (Singing) The Rock Island Line - she's a mighty good road. And if you want to ride, you got to ride it like you find it. Get your ticket at the station of the Rock Island Line.</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: That's Jimmy Page of the band Led Zeppelin. He was talking with NPR's Bob Boilen about the song that changed his life, Lonnie Donegan's recording of "Rock Island Line."</s>LONNIE DONEGAN: (Singing) The Rock Island Line - she's a mighty good road. And if you want to ride, you got to ride it like you find it. Get your ticket at the station of the Rock Island Line.