A weird one that occasionally crops up from time to time is a rumour that Jimmy Page once said that Buck was his favourite guitarist...

I've seen people say stuff like the following: "Asked how did it feel to be the world's greatest rock guitarist, Jimmy Page said 'I don't know, you'll have to ask Buck Dharma.'"

People often seem to cite this as being said during an unsourced interview in a magazine they can't recall...

But is it true? It'd be nice if it was, but I've actually come across the above quote before, but in another context - the quote I saw had Clapton replying "Why don't you ask Jeff Beck?"

To be honest, I'm pretty sure it's an apocryphal quote that's been attributed to all manner of different musicians down the years...

Furthermore - did BOC's and Zeppelin's spheres ever intersect along their very differing timelines? Could they actually have ever had the opportunity to meet one another...?

Obviously, BOC have never played with Zeppelin, but I know they've crossed paths at least once when BOC played LA's Shrine Auditorium in 1975. Page and Plant were there to introduce label-mates "Pretty Things" onstage, and they were also staying at BOC's Hyatt House hotel...

That means that there's a decent chance that Jimmy has heard Buck play live, even if it was from a backstage vantage point.

However, I've never seen any indication that Buck has ever met Jimmy Page personally, but obviously I stand to be corrected on that one...

BTW: the Underbelly once played "The Scene" in New York two days before a subsequently cancelled Zepp mini-residency there in Feb 1969, which is a bit of a stretch, but the closest convergence I've ever come across was that Stalk Forrest were once scheduled to be one of the many support acts (along with the Stooges, MC5 etc) supporting Zeppelin at the 1970 Eagle Rock Festival in Boston.

However, this got the kibosh by the Mayor and the rescheduled gig, a much scaled down event, was sadly absent of any Stalk Forrest involvement.

Now onto the idea that Page ever said Buck was his favourite guitarist...

As far as I can tell, this whole idea stemmed from a promotional bit of hype in a magazine article from around the time of the first album's release.

Columbia used to do this neat thing where they replaced the standard LP inner sleeves of their current records with a newspaper-style presentation highlighting the various record releases on their roster.

The first BOC LP received such a treatment - here's what it said next to their entry:

Cluing In
The Blue Oyster Cult are a leather bunch from Long Island who appear to be a live version of "A Clockwork Orange." Their unexplained and oftentimes arbitrarily violent nature rears its ugly head, and the result is that you're gonna be reaching for your cod piece.

Guitarist Buck Dharma is the guitarist of the future and as for the present, Changes magazine claims he's Jimmy Page's favorite guitarist. Rock writers R. Meltzer and S. Pearlman have supplied lyrics for the band and these words really provide a big clue for their slowly unwinding puzzle. Take, for example, "The Workshop of the Telescopes":

By Silverfish Imperetrix,
Whose incorrupted eye
Sees through the charms of
Doctors, and their wives
By Salamander, Drake, and the power that was undine
Rise to claim Saturn, Ring and sky
By those who see with their eyes closed
You'll know me by my black telescope...

Get behind The Cult before they get behind you.

So that would seem to point to the whole thing being cooked up by a "Changes" article - presumably a review of the first album. I haven't yet managed to locate the article - if you ever come across it, please let me know - but I can guarantee you one thing: whoever wrote it, it's just another example of BS hype brought to you courtesy of the Pearlman Brain Trust (namely, one of Sandy's critic mates, or "shill," as Meltzer might put it...)

Furthermore, a number of people have said that their copy of the first album contained a sticker on the cellophane saying something along the lines of "Jimmy Page's favorite new guitarist"...

All I can say about that is that my copy didn't have one, so I've never actually clapped eyes on one of these stickers myself, and to be honest, I don't think that info is accurate... the only stickers that I've seen on the first album contained the following 5 quotes:

BLUE ÖYSTER CULT:
"The one single album to take with yourself to that desert isle! THE BEST EVER! Even better than "Aftermath" or the first by the Band!... The first album with not a single bad cut since 1967!" - Changes
"Parents and priests always used to warn of the dangers inherent in rock and roll. Maybe this is it." - Rolling Stone
"It may seem like outrageous overstatement at this stage of the game, but it could well be the album of the 7O's." Circus
"Don't ever look at them when you're feeling paranoid; they'll frighten you!" - New York Daily News
"All here for real and it's only 1972. Get behind the Blue Öyster Cult before they get behind you."! - Creem

So, as you can see, "Changes" is mentioned in the quote on the sticker, but there's nothing about Buck or Jimmy Page.

Also, when Gordon Fletcher came to do his review of "Tyranny and Mutation" for "Rolling Stone #132" [April 12, 1973] he said:

"There's nothing comforting about Don (Buck Dharma) Roeser's guitar, though, it's fuckin' explosive! Jimmy Page's favorite guitarist, you say?"

I say "review", but Gordon, too, was well aboard the Pearlman promotional Hype wagon at the time, but it did seem to help cement the fanciful link between Buck and Jimmy in people's minds.

So, although I very much hope one day to see the actual text that inspired the comparison, I am 100% certain that it is actually a load of old bollocks (sorry to get technical...)

I've therefore had to (reluctantly) label the whole idea of Jimmy Page saying Buck is his favorite guitarist as a "myth"...

BTW: Here's an interview with Page in which he was asked who his favourite guitarist(s) were...

Basically, it's Jimi Hendrix, followed by a number of other notable fretboard luminaries - Beck, Clapton, Alvin Lee, Townsend etc - who are mentioned in dispatches.

I didn't spot Buck listed, unfortunately... Still, never mind, Buck - you're definitely on my list... it's just that I'm not... erm... Jimmy Page... :-)