Jimmy Page Pays Tribute to Steve Albini: He ‘Leaves a Real Legacy’

Jimmy Page paid tribute to the late Steve Albini, who served as recording engineer and mixer for the 1998 album, Walking into Clarksdale, a collaboration between Page and his former Led Zeppelin bandmate, Robert Plant.

“I was very sad to hear of Steve Albini’s passing this week,” Page wrote in an Instagram post. “Robert and I worked with him in 1997 on our album, Walking Into Clarksdale — a record I’m still really proud of.

“I had a strong connection with Steve, we all did on that album, and he came with such pedigree and experience as one of the world’s leading mixers and audio engineers,” Page continued. “He loved working with analogue tape, in fact his own band was called Shellac. He was so passionate and knowledgeable, really dedicated to the cause during our recording sessions at RAK and EMI Number Two Studio at Abbey Road.”

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Page also praised Albini’s past recordings, citing Nirvana’s In Utero and albums by Pixies and Bush as ones he especially liked. “He had an impressive C.V. and leaves a real legacy,” Page wrote.

In a 2020 interview posted to YouTube, Albini recalled reading an interview with Plant before they worked together, in which he talked about hugging the final album by Big Black, one of Albini’s bands, to his chest. Later, Plant approached Albini about working together and asked Albini to send him examples of records with female singers and acoustic instruments that he’d recorded. They liked what they heard and commenced work on Clarksdale.

“It [was] enormously intimidating to be around people with that kind of pedigree and experience,” Albini said. “And it was gratifying to be asked and to realize that I was satisfying them.” He also said he simply enjoyed being around Page and Plant and hearing their war stories.

“My admiration for them as musicians and as people grew during that session,” he said. “Jimmy Page is known as a guitar player and as a producer and as the guy who put Led Zeppelin together. But what impressed me the most about him was his ability to listen with incredible detail. He could hear a playback of something and pick out little details that he liked or didn’t like with incredible acuity. You could hear two passages that, to you and me, would sound identical. To him, he could hear that there was a missed emphasis on the third note of the second tuplet of the triplet section or whatever. Him being able to listen to the music in precise detail … I described it as him being able to see every bird in the flock.”

Albini added that his favorite Led Zep album was their second LP.

Since his death, many artists Albini worked with have shared memories and tributes of him. PJ Harvey wrote that Albini “taught me so much about music and life,” Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan shared that Albini helped the band sound “bigger than we were in real life,” Butch Vig spoke about their friendly rivalry, and Foo Fighters dedicated “My Hero” to Albini at a concert.

Santiago Durango, who played guitar next to Albini in Big Black, praised Albini’s humanity. “He was a loyal and lifelong friend because he was a decent man,” Durango told Rolling Stone. “He was a much better friend than I deserved. He had a long marriage to Heather because he was a decent man. My heart aches for Heather. He never screwed anyone over because he was a decent man. He was a caring and giving person because he was a decent man. His unexpected passing has left a huge hole in my life.”

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