(John Bishop)
When you recall Led Zeppelin’s music, the first thing to come to mind isn’t soft, pretty sounding love songs. Of course not. It’s how badass they sound while singing about two things: sex and Lord of the Rings. [I’m only half joking with the latter, as there are actually up to six Zeppelin songs with direct references to JRR Tolkien’s classic fantasy series.] But Zep fans already know this, just like they already know if you seek out their music beyond the hits, you actually will find quite a few romantic ballads in their discography. Probably no band fits the label ‘sex, drugs and rock & roll,’ more than Led Zeppelin. So you wouldn’t think these guys were legitimately interested in girlfriends or relationships. And yet, none of them were single during their tenure as rock gods. Including bad boy, ladykiller, founding member and lead guitarist, Jimmy Page.
The woman who seems to have made the biggest impression on Jimmy’s life was a French fashion model named Charlotte Martin [not to be confused with a singer-songwriter from the 2000s with the same name]. Jimmy very rarely talks about his personal life, unsurprisingly considering all the wild and lurid rumors surrounding his legendary band’s reputation. In his 2010 photo memoir, Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page, the only women he features from his love life are music artist Jackie DeShannon, his two ex-wives and Charlotte. Much like Beatles muse Jane Asher, Charlotte is famous for turning down interviews related to her famous ex-boyfriends. In fact, Jimmy wasn’t even the first guitar god she was involved with. That would be Jimmy’s peer and fellow Yardbird Eric Clapton, whom Charlotte was the girlfriend of his whole time in the blues-rock trio Cream in 1966-68. All while dating and living with Eric and later Jimmy, Charlotte was as in demand for designers and photographers as her fellow rock girlfriends Pattie Boyd, Kim Kerrigan and Samantha Juste. The French lady posed for various popular magazines such as Vogue and Petticoat in the late 1960s and early 1970s; participated in a photoshoot promoting the Beatles’ brief-lived clothing store Apple Boutique in 1967; and can be seen with Eric on the inner sleeves of Cream’s 1967 magnum opus ‘Disraeli Gears.’
(Barry Lategan)
After Eric and Charlotte broke up the same time Cream disbanded in late 1968, the blonde met Jimmy over a year later backstage a Zeppelin concert during the guitarist’s birthday on January 9th, 1970. For the next 12-13 years, Jimmy and Charlotte lived together, produced a daughter—future music photographer Scarlet Page—in 1971 and had one of the most chaotic relationships in classic rock history. Arguing, brief separations, drugs, infidelity, addiction and lots of passion. And yet…they still managed to last over a decade together? Even longer than Led Zeppelin were together. Supposedly, it really was love at first sight for the pair, when Jimmy instantly left previous girlfriend Pamela des Barres for Charlotte the night he met the latter. The new couple were inseparable the first year of their relationship, with Charlotte even tagging along the band’s 1970 tour, which was rare for wives and girlfriends of the band members. Jimmy’s input to Zeppelin was primarily guitar and the production soundboard, so most of the lyrics to those lovely ballads found on their albums were written by LZ vocalist Robert Plant. But during a Page & Plant concert in 1994, the frontman half-joked that the duo composed the track ‘That’s the Way’ from ‘Led Zeppelin III’ (1970) “about a half hour after Jimmy’s daughter Scarlet was conceived.”
I guess you could say Jimmy and Charlotte found each other appealing the same way Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara did in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. Shockingly, Charlotte and Jimmy ended on more amicable terms than the fictional couple, with the model supporting the guitarist’s recovery from heroin the last few years together. Despite many classic rock fanatics knowing about her existence, Charlotte has chosen to be one of the rare, famous ex-girlfriends to keep her mystique. A big part of it is because she’s still friendly with Jimmy and Eric, and wants to keep her privacy. But another, I think, is that neither Pattie Boyd nor former Zeppelin road manager Richard Cole portray the former model in a particularly flattering light in their memoirs. So she might not want attention on any negative stories or portrayals of her out there, even if she isn’t on most of the world’s radar. Whatever her personal history, Charlotte seemingly found peace after leaving both the fashion world and rock music community; since she’s now married and a painter with grandkids. Mystery, allure and intrigue, Charlotte has a place in history just like Jimmy and Eric.
My favorite article of yours so far. I learned a lot about my guitarist on my favorite band. Thank you.
Great article, Megan!!