Heightening

On a plane home the other day I saw the documentary “It Might Get Loud” - a film featuring three guitar playing legends - Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White. The film shows how each of them were inspired and how their careers unfolded. One story in the movie touched a nerve for me. Jimmy Page was talking about recording the track When The Levee Breaks in an old manor house in the English countryside. They set up the drum kit in the front hall, above which was a vaulted high ceiling. Instead of moving the drums into the main room where the rest of the equipment was, John Bonham started playing out in the hall, quickly realizing that the uniquely high ceiling added a massive amount of “height” to his sound. This created the now legendary drumming sound on that track. Other bands tried to recreate it by recording in elevator shafts.

Loved this for a the marriage between serendipity and a great creative leap. It made me ask- what brands have recently “heightened” their sound in a unique way…and then one for you: what have you done lately to “heighten” what you do?

This post was originally going to be about Tiger Woods and Gillette, following on from the Thierry Henry post earlier in the month, but there’s so much stuff being written about him now, that I find the whole thing depressing.  Far better to be inspired by something that adds height, rather than focus on a guy keeping his head down for the foreseeable future.