HOW CHRISTOPHER DIETLER UNLEASHED THE KENNETH ANGER LUCIFER RISING JIMMY PAGE SOUNDTRACK IN THE WEST:
This sites purpose is to elevate the significance of a notoriously-enterprising man called Christopher Dietler (a.k.a. Frater Zardoz IV° P.I.). Not much has been written and little is known about Mr. Dietler, only that he was directly responsible for the release of a most historical record album as it relates to the greatest rock and roll band of all time “LED ZEPPELIN.” The album is titled “KENNETH ANGER’S LUCIFER RISING JIMMY PAGE SOUNDTRACK” and it was released on January 9th Nineteen Hundred Eighty Seven. This site offers a factual, accurately-illustrated chronology based on the firsthand observations of my good friend ‘Marcoz’ who respectfully agreed to participate and assist me with site construction. I consider him to be a foremost authority on the subject since he was once closely connected to Mr. Dietler at this most important historical space in time…
The story begins like this:
I met this guy called 'Marcoz' through a co-worker of my soon-to-be wife after hearing about his mutual interest in Led Zeppelin. As ridiculous as it sounds, these two gals (soon-to-be his wife too) decided that we should meet at their ‘Tupperware’ party. The year was 1981, the music world as we knew it was dying and we were both excited to gauge whether the other guy was worthy of a Zeppelin conversation. Once at the party, introductions were made and after a few minutes it became evident that we were both struggling with the rumors swirling over recent news detailing the death of Led Zeppelin’s drummer John Bonham on September 25, 1980. A point to reference was a London Evening News report linking Bonham’s death with ‘his obsession with the occult’ that offered a statement from an ‘unnamed close friend of the band’ who stated: “It sounds crazy, but (singer) Robert Plant and everyone around the band is convinced that dabbling in black magic is responsible for Bonzo’s death.” Like many others, we had gotten swept up in our own fantasies with this ‘Zeppelin/Occult’ mystique and got on so well that evening we made plans to meet again at my place in North Highlands, California. The weeks have now extended into years as we’ve gathered literally hundreds of times since our initial meeting, as friends and we still find the occasional time to celebrate the music and themes of the Mighty Zeppelin!
Over the first few months since Bonham’s death, our own local newspaper “The Sacramento Bee” published several articles, one seemed to infer that he’d brought it upon himself, engaging in a ‘12-hour drinking spree in which perhaps he drank 40 vodkas’ and we were both deeply saddened to learn this. The article listed even more assessments of the carnage left in Zeppelin’s wake in light of its connection and so-called dabbling in the occult. The London Evening News claimed even Robert Plant had feared his friends’ death was retribution for guitarist Jimmy Page’s obsession with the occult. The article stated that Page had been a student of the late Aleister Crowley and reported that the New Musical Express conducted an interview with a vocalist who confided to their reporters that he once ‘turned down a chance to sing with the band due to fear of Page’s black magic interests.’ The article also mentioned the mysterious death of Plant’s five year old son Karac dying of a rare virus, the death of a former Zeppelin record producer Keith Harwood and a photographer friend called Philip Hale who was found dead in another one of Page’s homes in Sussex, etc…
In as much as we were captivated by this intriguing occult mystery we spent considerable time listening to ‘audience style bootleg recordings’ and the easily attainable ‘BBC Broadcasts’ from 1969 and 1971. These fascinations eventually led to our creating a celebration night that we dubbed “Swan Song Led Zeppelin Musical Tribute.” This special all-evening extravaganza featured many unreleased studio outtakes and was highlighted with rare video performances. On those nights we elected to share in all the revelry that goes along with having a good time with a varying cast of hand picked, worthy characters. Marcoz and I are now well into our 25th year of friendship, still fast friends with the only difference being that our once large contingency of participants (some of which are dearly departed) has whittled down to only a few survivors, those being ourselves and a youthful group of our Son’s friends who are more than keen to get together with us to relive the experiences of our ‘curious’ past. It seems that a new young crop of Zeppelin fans are being born everyday!
It also appears that we are now the resident experts, however back in our day, there were only a few reliable sources to gain coveted knowledge about Led Zeppelin; one being the “The Led Zeppelin Definitive Biography” by Ritchie York published in 1976 which I feel, is the purest bio on the band. The second being “Led Zeppelin In The Light” by Howard Mylett and Richard Bunton, a book calked full of rare photographs and authoritative text that details the band’s year-by-year activities from 1968 to their tragic demise in 1980. Another of Mylett’s contributions “Jimmy Page Tangents Within A Framework,” a book that provides more great details and my personal favorite is one written by Robert Godwin titled “The Illustrated Led Zeppelin Collection” which is/was basically a pictorial guide for collectors and the first attempt to catalogue the growing list of bootleg recordings, publications and a tantalizing list of never before seen video clips...
Peaking our interests was the backwards recital in “Stairway To Heaven” (we did it ourselves, finger placed firmly on the outer edge of record, doing our very best to emulate the necessary 33-1/3 RPM speed) and the thought of an unreleased Jimmy Page musical composition titled “Swansong.” This track was especially interesting because it became the namesake of Led Zeppelin’s new recording label and subsequent logo that was inspired by the 1869/70 painting by William Rimmer titled “Evening Fall Of Day,” which depicts a similarly positioned winged god rising from the earth at sunset. Topping our fascination was the mere mention of the “Lucifer Rising Soundtrack” that was composed and performed by Jimmy Page for Kenneth Anger’s film of the same title. From the written perspectives available to us, it is apparent that Mr. Page verbally agreed and was quite honored to deliver a soundtrack to Mr. Anger that was supposedly premiered at a movie theatre somewhere in Los Angeles during the month of September 1976. This according to the information contained in Mr. Godwin’s publication under the bootleg album titled “Solo Performances,” where he notes that a ‘really terrible recording’ was available for the first time ever. It appears that a semi-ingenious person smuggled a portable recording device into the theatre and taped the audio portion unbeknownst to the others who gazed captivatingly at the movie screen and made this really terrible recording possible. It has been noted that Jimmy Page himself rented a rough cut of the film to show at an informal gathering, complete with his soundtrack in Los Angeles in early 1975.
Experience indicates that one can spend hours, days, weeks and possibly even years studying up on all the controversy that arose from Page’s association with Anger and the completion/incompletion of the infamous soundtrack and if you’re not careful a quick study of what some term as ‘the occult’ can be had at the same time, but your diligent research may or may not bring you any closures or absolute truths. Once a mystery, always a mystery seems to be an order from the menu of controversies at this magnitude…
Let’s begin with some personal assessments that are important to note. It appears that Kenneth Angers project started in 1966, but about 1967 a large portion of film disappeared with one of his collaborators saddled with the blame. A disillusioned Anger then moved to London in 1968 to continue working on the remaining footage. A portion of the film was pre-sold and a new shooting of the film began about 1970 and in 1971 he released an 8 minute version of his film to shop and was able to secure enough financial support to shoot footage in Egypt and Germany. This footage is said to be the 23 minute version of the film that Kenneth Anger provided to Jimmy Page in 1973. Jimmy once stated “The version I was involved in was the third version and after being shown the initial rushes, I started messing around with the instruments.” In other words, it was a very condensed version of a longer more complete film and it is our opinion that Page turned in what he honestly believed to be a finished audio product for that version of the film. We also believe the misunderstandings may have reached boil-over when Anger tried to persuade Jimmy to complete the soundtrack for the entire film and that Page might not have been up for the task for various reasons. Not to mention there must have been a culmination of ‘eccentricities’ in both personalities that caused a rather severe falling out and resulted in the much-ballyhooed fiasco in the printed press. Most notably a review written by Chris Salewicz for the New Musical Express in 1977 titled “Anger Rising: Jimmy Page and Kenneth's Lucifer.”
During our research it was easy to get carried away with the actual time frame and although it’s mentioned that Jimmy Page had been approached by Kenneth Anger as early as 1972, we are certain that Page hadn’t begun working on the instrumental soundtrack until after the end of Led Zeppelin’s American Tour that concluded with (3) filmed performances of their own at the famed “Madison Square Garden”’ in New York City (July 27, 28, 29, 1973). It has been assumed that after a bit of rest and relaxation, Page finally began working on the soundtrack sometime between the months of November 1973 and May 1974. During this time the members of Led Zeppelin were heavily involved with rehearsal sessions at Headley Grange, for their 6th album titled “Physical Graffiti.” Various published reports list this block of time for the experimental undertaking by Page and a similar notion that he somehow found the time to ‘finish working’ on the soundtrack during these somewhat disjointed recording sessions. Jimmy later stated “I’ve always got on very well with Anger. He’s a good friend, really. He’s never been as awe-inspiring and unapproachable to me as some would probably tell you. It’s just that…one day he asked me to toss some ideas around for a soundtrack and I went away feeling something, but never being able to really express it, until one day when it all sort of poured out and I got it down immediately to recording it.”
It has been mentioned that Jimmy witnessed his musical collaboration for the first time at a showing at the Museum of Modern Art and noticed that the music wasn’t synched up correctly to the film. When he was in America again in 1974 he delivered the music again so that Anger could attempt to get it right. The next showing was said to be in Berkeley, California and apparently Anger had succeeded in getting the soundtrack synched up properly and the reaction was said to be very good. All this fuss about not completing the soundtrack appears to be quite ridiculous when taking in to consideration claims by Jimmy that he’d given the completed soundtrack to Anger in plenty of time, even helped locate the screening/editing facility for the film in London. Furthermore, Page asserted that he offered Anger his Kensington home for accommodations and concluded by saying that he even loaned Anger a three-speed projector to make editing easier and advised him to add the music portion after assembling the footage. Digging even deeper, it would seem that Led Zeppelin’s late manager Peter Grant was mildly interested to invest into the completion of the film…
On the flip side, there are a few tantalizing sentiments from Kenneth Anger as relayed in the article by Salewicz:
“I haven’t laid eyes on Jimmy Page since early June and I’ve been trying to get in contact with him since then. I’ve fixed meetings through his office and been stood up half a dozen times. I’ve left messages on his Kafka-esque answering machine. All I’ve had is promises that the soundtrack is on its way, but nothing’s materialized. I’ve got a fuckin’ film to finish. The way he’s behaving is totally contradictory to the teachings of Aleister Crowley and totally contradictory to the ethos of the film. Lucifer is the angel of light and of beauty. But the vibes that come off Jimmy are totally alien to that – and no human contact. It’s like a bleak lunar landscape. By comparison Lucifer is like a field full of beautiful flowers – although there may be a few bumble-bees waiting to sting you if you are not careful. I’m beginning to think Jimmy’s dried up as a musician. He’s got no themes, no inspiration, no melodies to offer. I’m sure he doesn’t have another ‘Stairway To Heaven,’ which is his most Luciferian song. ’Presence’ was very much a negative, downer album. In the first place his commitment to Lucifer seemed to be totally serious, and he was very enthusiastic about the project. On the one hand he’s very into enterprise and hard work, but on the other hand he has this problem dragging him down…”
Well, if in fact there are two sides to every story, we are reasonably certain that Page and Anger both played significant roles in this unresolved matter that trudges on to this very day and it’s about time the third and possibly fourth sides of the story be told and therefore our story continues a bit like this:
Once upon a time, there was a second-hand record store in Sacramento, California called “Aftermath Records.” It was operated by the self-proclaimed ‘Joe the radical rock and roll record store owner and his ol lady Lynn,’ both representing pages torn from the Haight-Ashbury hippie annals in San Francisco. Joe was “Rolling Stones” fanatic and the two had moved from Chicago to Sac Town to realize their fortune in the second-hand record sales and although not quickly, but eventually out of business. Looking back on it, they were way ahead of their time in realizing the collectability of classic rock records and if it hadn’t been for them, both Marcoz and I would not have experienced some of our musical joys having missed many of these pioneering Rock ‘n’ Roll efforts. Thanks Joe and Lynn!
Marcoz tells that Joe had a knack for ‘seeing him coming’ and as soon as he entered the premises, the prices somehow doubled and everything that didn’t have a price tag tripled upon inquiry. Mr. Record Store Owner knew that Marcoz was always willing ante up and would often race home, then visit the ‘collector card/comic book shop’ next door to trade in a few of his prized baseball cards in order to fetch the necessary musical bounty of bootleg records in order to satisfy his insatiable musical thirst and we’re talking Mickey Mantle’s here. One day a stack of photocopied handbills appeared propped up on the counter depicting images of Jimmy Page and a strange looking man posing with fists in the air and led off with the slogan “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law”:
LED ZEPPELIN…JIMMY PAGE DISCIPLE OF ALEISTER CROWLEY…ZOSO…666
The advert detailed how Jimmy Page had composed and recorded the soundtrack for Kenneth Angers Crowleyian film, Lucifer Rising and for more information on Page and Crowley’s secret Magickal Order of the O.T.O. write: BOLESKINE O.T.O. P.O. BOX 94 CARMICHAEL, CALIFORNIA, 95608.
The flyer concluded with the words “Love is the law, love under will” and Marcoz concluded this to be a bit ‘out of his comfort zone’ and although not entirely interested, he quickly nabbed a few for good measures. Of course curiosity eventually does kill the cat and over a few passing years, more information came to light as we continued to feed our ‘Zeppelinly’ desires until the message on that fateful flyer got the best of both of us. One night Marcoz phoned and confessed that he’d just written a letter to the mysterious address seeking more information and on February 14th 1986 a strange envelope appeared in Marcoz’s mailbox adorned with an interesting ‘winged dragon’ image with the words ‘Ordo Templi Orientis’ emblazoned above the top of the mailer. The envelope contained a well-written hand typed letter from a person calling himself “Frater Zardoz IV° P.I.” beginning with a play on Jimmy Page’s now infamous “Led Zeppelin III” matrix run off inscription:
“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. It’s not only a good idea - IT’S THE LAW. “
The letter detailed this persons various interests, stated that he knew Kenneth Anger personally and that he was his daughter Thelema’s Godfather. Mr. Zardoz extended an open invitation to a meeting with the O.T.O. to be held on February 18th and March 21st whereas he promised a grand showing of the actual Lucifer Rising film and performance of a thing called the ‘Equinox Ritual/Minerval Initiation’ with a few of what he called his ‘Zeppelite Brothers.’ The letter was signed “Fraternally through the Zep. Love is the law love under will. Marcoz quickly phoned Mr. Dietler/Zardoz and asked if he could bring along his ‘Zeppelite Brother’…ME! The answer from Zardoz was a resounding ‘YES’ and from that point forward, Marcoz and I allowed our imaginations to run with wild thoughts of what we might be getting ourselves into realizing full well that anytime you dabble with ‘the forces’ it may be necessary for a reckoning. We were already ‘working for the man,’ raising our young families respectfully and our upcoming extra-curricular evening activity was not something we wanted to explain to our dutiful wives, however we were pleasantly surprised when they allowed us to participate (after we offered a somewhat ‘watered-down’ version of what we were about to attend) and it is safe to say that we were both scared shitless as the days counted down towards our hour of our departure…
As we drove up to Mr. Dietler’s residence and walked towards the door, we could see shadowy images of people through the thinly veiled curtains that haplessly shrouded the window and once entering his home, were quickly introduced to his wife, young children and a host of other strange ‘rob clad’ individuals who really looked the business (the O.T.O. business that is). It seemed that nobody was over-friendly or even mildly-concerned about our intrusion either as they milled about the place. Chris played the part of your slightly abnormal modern day cool side-burned-dude, mustachioed, longer than usual hair, wearing wire frame intensely dark-lensed glasses and spoke with an unusually booming ‘DJ’ style authoritative voice. Quite simply, he also seemed to be ‘the business’ and within an hour of uncomfortable mingling with his guests, the moment grew nearer to finally being able to watch a videotaped copy of the mysterious Lucifer Rising Kenneth Anger film!
Suddenly, we had reached the apex of our much anticipated moment, when Chris abruptly hushed his distinguished guests, gave a small dissertation about how he obtained ‘The Holy Grail’ of all Led Zeppelin artifacts, from Kenneth Anger after meeting him at a showing of the film in Sacramento in the early 1980s. He boasted of owning one of only four remaining prints of the film and of his intent to release the audio portion on a record album, then turned out the lights and the room went silent just as the video began to play. It was a ‘magickal’ moment and for obvious reasons, became an evening we will NEVER forget (dare we say more?). The film starts out with opening credits given to Kenneth Anger, shifting immediately to Jimmy Page as the capitalized words “LUCEFER RISING” emerges from behind the waters and backdrop of a fiery sunset. The film scenes vary from various Egyptian themes with Page soundtrack droning along incredibly well with the visuals of the film. As the film progressed Chris whispered a sparse narrative as we stared wide-eyed towards the television screen. One would have to be an expert to offer a more informed review, however our first and last impressions were that this eerily-monotonous soundtrack had absolutely nothing in common with the melodic music score that filmmaker Michael Winner commissioned Jimmy Page to deliver for the “Death Wish II Soundtrack” (released February 15, 1982).
Whereas my curiosity had quickly begun to smolder, Marcoz was more the ‘rock historian’ type, possessing the will to learn more and struck up a keen friendship with Dietler in no time and was quick to offer up his services and varying expertise to assist with the Chris’ desire to release the soundtrack to a now insatiably-thirsty worldwide audience, suffering from the lack of Led Zeppelin since the passing of John Bonham a few years earlier. This phenomenon was ripening with the new super-group Jimmy Page had formed with former Bad Company lead singer Paul Rodgers called “THE FIRM.”
In the early going, Dietler drove up to Marcoz’s house one blustery afternoon to ‘lift’ the soundtrack from the video in an attempt to re-master the unbalanced hissing recording through an extremely good equalizer, but it was evident that the soundtrack on the videotape was going to need a bit more work that just a simple EQ. From that point forward, Dietler’s project started to grow legs as he began seeking and eventually setting up session time with a recording studio in Los Angeles called “Golden Goose Recording” run by a guy called Dennis Rose who specialized in this new age thing called ‘digital transfer stereo process’ of analog/audio tape and in no time, Chris had formed a record company called “Boleskine House Records” with intent to actually press a 12-inch 45 RPM limited edition E.P. onto colored vinyl. He then took upon the enviable task of designing his own albums artwork, with a vision to enclose various bits of memorabilia, early press reports, an article from Billboard Magazine along with authenticity card within the product he officially titled “Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising Jimmy Page Soundtrack.” There were even a half dozen or so T-Shirts made for a few lucky recipients! Dietler then conquered the most pivotal piece of the puzzle when he successfully applied and obtained appropriate United States copyrights on both the film and soundtrack. Marcoz saw these original documents and can bear witness that they were in fact stamped, sealed and delivered!
Next step was promotion and Marcoz was thick into the mix after agreeing to prepare flyers operating under the self-implied moniker “M.V. Productions” The flyers were intended to be hand-distributed at the rapidly approaching “FIRM” concert scheduled at the Concord Pavilion in California on either May 25th or May 26th 1986 performance as well as the Cal Expo Amphitheatre show in Sacramento on May 30th. The flyers were designed using the now antiquated form of cut, paste, an ‘x-acto’ knife and little bit rubber cement. The completed flyers were quickly photocopied in the early morning hours at his workplace then sliced into four parts per 8-1/2” x 11” sheet, times a ream of paper (4 x 500 = 2,000 total). Marcoz agreed to participate in the ‘mass-mailer-assault’ at Cal Expo, but the show was cancelled reportedly due to lousy ticket sales. The much larger and dramatic plan was to storm the stage during the concert, fold the now 3”x5” flyers into little paper airplanes and toss them up onto the stage at Jimmy Page’s feet! Yes indeed, the deal would be done as Dietler commandeered an even more courageous friend to hand out hundreds of the flyers in the parking lot in Concord prior to the concert, precisely as Dietler had envisioned. Marcoz recalls the glee in Dielter’s voice describing how he’d discovered the proper technique to fling the tiny airplanes onto the stage in rapid fire succession and that "Pagey" obliviously swatted his leg to-and-fro at the ‘wee-winged-flyers’ as he sweated profusely across the stage. The well-calculated onslaught was finally halted by over zealous roadies who hurriedly rushed Dietler and his pal, effectively tossing them from the Pavilion by the scruff’s of their necks. The roadies not satisfied until the pair was ushered out of the parking area and wandered completely out of sight. It seemed obvious to Dietler that they knew exactly what was printed on the flyers…
Various concert reviews:
In all, The Firm shows were lackluster and one related newspaper account describes Page as being relegated to ‘virtual invisibility being holed up in his Scottish castle battling his chemical demons’ and that ‘those demons are now reportedly exorcised.’ The review states: ‘The Firm shows were long, drawn out affairs, even Page’s trademark violin-bowed guitar solos were all trotted out to little effect and that the numbers written by Paul Rodgers were what really sunk the show.’ Sacramento Bee music critic David Barton offered a fairly harsh report as he explains: “His solos, which were many, were as distinctive as ever – no one among his hundreds of imitators sounds anything like him; he is still original – but his fingers had a hard time keeping up with his brain, which resulted in scattershot solos of diffuse impact.”
Writer Joel Selvin expressed much the same ‘Trotting out every tired cliché of British blues-rock and not even bothering to put their hearts in it, without even the slightest pretense of caring about what they were doing – that it was surprising to see a proud artist like Page onstage in his outfit.’ In perusing the sparse articles, Selvin comes the closest to describing Dietler’s affairs by hinting: “The rowdy crowd didn’t seem to notice, cramming the isles, but they didn’t come to see the Firm really, they came to pay their respects to the remains of Led Zeppelin.” and paying respects was exactly what Chris Dietler did on this most memorable night.
In conclusion to the distribution of handbills, I wouldn’t exactly say it was a ‘dirty deed’ and we’ve always felt that Dietler meant no ill-intent; rather he was amused by it all, raking a little muck with the master magician and just wanted to let Jimmy know that the soundtrack was going to be released. Dietler had a great attitude through the entire experience and always held himself with a great deal of pride and respect towards Jimmy Page and Kenneth anger. The sting at the end of the tail being that Chris’ fix was to feel the exhilarating thrill of actually being a part of Led Zeppelin history…(We think he succeeded).
Within a few short months, the project reached fruition as the record album was now pressed, shrink-wrapped and awaiting delivery with one major detail left out. You see, on each album there was a blank space reserved for the placement of what Chris termed the ‘Qabalistic Issue Number.’ Not only was the album covered with ‘shrink wrap’ but the album was so slick that ordinary ink would not stick or properly dry for that matter, so Marcoz dug back into his box of tricks, being a skilled ‘draftsmen’ by trade, possessed a very steady hand and agreed to hand number each and every copy with a calligraphy pen using a non-water soluble ink. Even though numbering one-thousand copies seemed tantamount, Marcoz was not deterred as it was his belief that he could hand number them little at a time and immediately began by numbering only those that were pre-ordered for the nifty price of $19.95 plus $4.00 postage and handling. To complicate matters worse, the shrink-wrap had to be carefully sliced with a blade knife to create the necessary window to write the number, and then had to be matched with the tiny pre-stamped authenticity cards.
In the end, fewer than 100 copies were actually hand numbered and although it’s possible to find numbers in the high two-hundreds (253 to be exact is being offered for a whopping $666.00 through an internet site called ‘Go Antiques’ and an example appeared recently on eBay with the ‘smudge-stamped’ 494) and I know for a fact that 666 was issued to Dietler himself, but it doesn’t mean that there were 666 copies sold. Important to note that because of the early pre-order mailers, some folks had requested special numbers, quite possibly even 1000 for that matter. I requested and received 111 which was a combination of Jimmy Page’s hotel room numbers when he toured with Led Zeppelin in the United States. There are also rumors that 2,000 were pressed and that the first 1,000 were pressed on blue vinyl and the other 1,000 were multi-colored and this is NOT correct as ONLY 1,000 were pressed and ALL were on clear blue vinyl). Unless Mr. Dietler surfaces and provides an accurate accounting of sales, it is impossible to know for sure how many were sold and quite honestly the legacy and mystery is what’s most intriguing anyway…
This was an extremely exciting time for all involved, especially Dietler as he was busy phoning local/national radio and television stations to announce his soon-to-be-released album on none other than Jimmy Page’s 43rd Birthday (James Patrick Page born January 9, 1944). Amazingly enough, Dietler was even able to garner the attention of a very new music television program called “MTV” and their powers to be slated it’s ‘slug’ for airing on December 23rd and 24th 1986 whereas the soundtrack release was featured every hour, on the hour during the news segment called “The Week In Rock” hosted by the popular and colorful Video Jockeys of the day Adam Curry, Martha Quinn, Downtown Julie Brown and Carolyn Heldman to name just a few. (Note: the original broadcast sheet is laced with many snippets of erroneous information such as the release date being ‘last Friday on Page’s 43rd Birthday’ and that the soundtrack turned up at a ‘Black Magic lodge in Northern California’ which is also a bit of a stretch by the ‘newsies’ at MTV). Marcoz remembers monitoring a video tape on that day to catch nearly all of the announcements, but sadly he turned over the tape for Dietler’s running archive. However, we just discovered one of the earliest plugs as delivered by Carolyn Heldman tacked onto the end of a non-labeled video tape and you may view the snippet on this site as it’s quite interesting and most invigorating to see this mystery unfold on such a grand scale of absolutely free publicity. A celebration ensued at the now accomplished Dietler’s house as record sales were initially brisk and the music world was again Beelzebubbing!
Suddenly Chris announced that he was being served with a “Cease and Desist” legal notice from Mr. Anger’s lawyers and the project quickly began to sour. From that point forward, no more albums were sold or numbered and the cache of albums remained stashed away in a secret location until the heat subsided. Marcoz confesses that the nearly forty bundles of twenty-four albums per unopened case were crammed into his young son’s bedroom closet. So, when most children are scared of the monster that lives under their beds, this poor little guy must have been afraid of the one that now resided in his closet only this wasn’t just your ordinary monster…it was SATAN! (Note: in the film Lucifer is the light bearer and not Satan as in the Christian terms, according to some).
Well, the heat never did subside. Dietler was blocked from selling his prized album by a court injunction and eventually agreed with Anger out of court to turn over the digitally enhanced masters and various materials necessary to press anymore albums. We are not sure of the exact agreement or even how Dietler explained to Anger what happened to the remaining albums he’d pressed. We do know that Mr. Dietler claimed during a local Sacramento area college radio interview to have ‘sold out’ every copy, but I know that to be a bit of a stretch as Marcoz informed me that he kept the remainder of albums for what seemed like years. The entire radio interview can be heard during two parts of the media portion of this site. Marcoz eventually lost contact with Chris for such a long period of time that he felt that the records might never leave the closet. In the end, Marcoz was finally able to contact Dietler (then living estranged from his wife and two children), his life seemed to have suddenly crumbled, living alone in a bachelor style, poster-covered-shanty. The album hype was long gone and he was further disgraced after being expelled from the very Boleskine O.T.O chapter that he’d founded after placing a transgressing advertisement for his soundtrack album in their newsletter. Treasurer Bill Heidrick, of the Berkeley O.T.O. chapter claimed Dietler had subjected the organization to a libelous situation with Anger or Page and he appears to be correct in light of the legal actions taken by Anger.
Although his luck seemed to have run the gamut, he never lost his sense of humor for on his living room wall was a crudely-fashioned dartboard depicting a nude photo of his runaway bride for all to see and elevated himself properly in the Carmichael phone directory as none other than ALEISTER CROWLEY!!!
Dietler and Marcoz had met for the last time, the records were finally returned and he was rewarded with unopened case of twenty-four sealed record albums for his assistance and encouragement throughout the project. The two shook hands and that was the last time they’ve ever seen or heard from each other. Of course curiosity would often rein as we used to call the operator from time to time, asking for the number of Aleister Crowley, but after all was said and done, neither of us had the desire to actually pick up the phone and say even a quick hello. On a disturbingly-humorous note, although the soundtrack is unique in its own right, it’s not something that you want to play at a dinner party. However on Halloween, Marcoz liked to spin both 11 minute album sides with the volume cranked up, then strategically sit in the doorway of his home ready to pass out candy to anyone brave enough walk into the darkened entry way. Oddly enough, not much candy was given out during those years as the ‘trick-or-treaters’ in his neighborhood were usually directed away by their parental chaperons…
Just as certain as life has its ups and downs, it would seem that Marcoz also grew disillusioned over time and attributed his bad luck to his thoughts of his brush with ‘the occult’ and in a moment of ‘personal cleansing’ finally decided that enough was enough. During this unreasonable mindset, he immediately tried to contact the bootleg expert Robert Godwin to no avail before setting his sights on a noted author called Luis Rey who had just released a fantastic new book in 1993 titled “Led Zeppelin Live, An Illustrated Exploration of Underground Tapes.” Marcoz recalls that he was somehow able to phone Mr. Rey’s Editor Susan Hedrick and her husband Basil, spoke to them both in detail about the film and told of his association with Dietler. At first, they seemed quite keen, but later dismissed the significance of the Lucifer Rising stating that they’d already seen or had a copy of the film and weren’t impressed. Marcoz remembers asking for Luis’s mailing address to send him the valuable documentation, MTV broadcast sheet, court papers and various newspaper articles so that necessary updates could be made to correct his next edition. If the memory serves correctly, they willingly provided him with such details although he also got the impression that they didn’t entirely appreciate someone coming forward with more accurate information than the so-called experts…(or so he perceived).
Marcoz, seeing a positive light at the end of the tunnel, quickly and carefully packaged up the entire lot of neatly catalogued Luciferian items and sent them to the aforementioned address. Within a few weeks a notice appeared back in his mailbox that there was a mysterious parcel needing to be retrieved and paid for at the local post office. Arriving at the P.O. he was stunned to find that the same parcel he’d so carefully sent had been returned, stamped in blinding-red ink were these words: “REFUSED, RETURN TO SENDER.”
My very dejected and perplexed friend, drove slowly home and without any hesitation, got out of his car, walked methodically over towards the side of his house and promptly tossed the entire package and it’s contents into the bin, forever separating himself from what was stacking up to be somewhat of a tangled nightmare. After a few days of tossing things around in his mind and with assorted garbage atop the pile, he decided to retrieve a few important documents, most importantly the actual videotape that Dietler allowed him to copy those years ago (Note: the video is a second generation copy, made from Dietler’s video that he transferred directly from the lone 16mm film print). Lost however, is the mound of legal papers and a very important Sacramento area newspaper article about Dietler that is featured immediately below the video segment of this site. Of course we can’t forget the twenty-four count case of mint condition, sealed copies of the soundtrack. Looking back on this somewhat drastic episode, one that might make for an interesting and fairly substantial financial debate as these highly sought after albums routinely fetch upwards of $300.00 per copy (24 x 300 = $7,200.00).
Shortly after this episode, Marcoz shuffled over to my house unannounced, resignedly clutching a sealed manila envelope containing a few choice items of remaining documentation and gave them to me to place amongst my Zeppelin artifacts and told me that although it was against his better judgment, these items needed to be preserved for another day and life goes on...
Which brings me to this day as I conclude this recounting of our last ‘gathering’ when we both mustered the courage to dust off the contents of that bulging folder that was bequeathed to me those years ago. As we began discussing the history of it all, we both agreed to first kick that ‘fear of Satan thing’ to the curb and suddenly realized the importance of what Dietler had fashioned out of his modest home in little ol Carmichael, California. It was decided that a MySpace account would be setup to shed more light on the subject and thought we might try our best to best tell the story through the few remaining items as displayed upon this site, we’d also like to attempt to remove the sting away from Mr. Kenneth Anger and Mr. Jimmy Page because we feel it is our honor to shift the spotlight onto a courageous man known to us as Mr. Christopher Dieter as we believe him to be the ultimate conspirator towards them both…
Please enjoy these offerings, feel free to message as we promise to do our very best to answer any lingering questions or make corrections to any glaring errors on what we feel to be a very unique and special historical perspective as to the original release of this tantalizingly haunting soundtrack. Should anyone be mildly offended at this commentary, please come forward, state your name rank and serial number and we will be happy appease in every accordance with the laws. As for the ‘fairly substantial financial debate’…so much for better judgment!
In Conclusion:
At this time and for obvious reasons, we have chosen NOT to feature the actual Lucifer Rising 23 minute video as it appears that many websites have fallen victim to the ‘internet police’ and we are more than satisfied that the written account displayed on this site is what’s most important to us. Not to say that we might decide to present a snippet of the film once we’ve gotten sufficiently bored and are comfortable with the thought of an ‘unannounced razing’ of this site similar to that of a once mighty lead balloon. Another scenario that we would like to leave open is for a responsible historian who is willing to accurately chronicle the significance of the aforementioned events properly and with appropriate site credits. Until which time, our respective names shall remain private in perpetuity with this offer as an effort to protect the innocent.
With Respects to Our Zeppelite Brothers,
Frater Charloz and Frater Marcoz (August 19, 2007)
End Note:
Kenneth Anger was able to resume his work on the “Lucifer Rising” project in 1979 after receiving a grant from ‘National Endowment for the Arts’ and the final 29 minute version of his completed film was finally released in 1981 with the music performed by his original musical collaborator Bobby Beausoleil…
- END BIO –
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- LUCIFER RISING ON VIDEO -
MTV’S “THE WEEK IN ROCK” LUCIFER RISING SOUNDTRACK PLUG:
Starring Video Jockey Carolyn Heldman (January 1987) . . .
KENNETH ANGER SPEAKS:
Just One Question About Jimmy Page . . .
KENNETH ANGER HONORED:
10th Annual Outfest Achievement Award Winner (July 6~17 2006) . . .
- END VIDEO -
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A PAGE FROM THE OCCULT CARMICHAEL MAN DELVES INTO LED ZEPPELIN STAR'S PAST
THE SACRAMENTO BEE, METRO FINAL, ENCORE, Page EN6, Article 3 of 3, 1384 Words, Written by David Barton, Published on May 24, 1987:
Jimmy Page, the guitarist and producer who piloted Led Zeppelin to the status of most popular rock group of the '70s, has long had an interest in the occult.
One form that interest took was Page's work on the sound track to the film ''Lucifer Rising'' by Kenneth Anger. Page worked for three years on the sound track, coming up with 23 minutes of music, which had not been captured on vinyl.
Until now, that is. Christopher Dietler of Carmichael has taken the sound track off an original print of the Anger film and has pressed a record that he is selling through the mail and at small area record stores. This move has earned him some notoriety, including the disapproval of the O.T.O.
The what? The Ordus Templar Orientis -- Order of the Templars of the East, a small esoteric order of magi...
But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. This story begins more than a decade ago and involves some mysterious and even notorious characters.
In fact, the story of how the film and music were made and how it all ended up in Carmichael, Calif., is more interesting than the music itself.
Page's interest in the esoteric focused on Aleister Crowley, the English magician who dubbed himself "the Beast 666" and reveled in contemporary newspaper descriptions of himself as "the wickedest man alive." After his death in 1947, two dozen of his followers (who call themselves Thelemites) continued to espouse Crowley's philosophy as expressed in creeds such as "The key to joy is disobedience" and "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." Many Thelemites were members of the O.T.O., a group of occult adepts formed in 1902, which Crowley took over late in his life.
The most famous of Crowley's disciples is Page, though Sting is also reportedly interested and even the Beatles included his picture on the cover of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." Page at one time owned Crowley's Equinox Bookstore in London, owns the second largest Crowley book collection in the world and to this day owns and occupies Boleskine House, Crowley's home/temple on the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland. Trivia fans will note that Crowley's admonition "Do What Thou Wilt" is engraved in the inner groove of "Led Zeppelin III."
So when filmmaker Kenneth Anger, best known as writer of the lurid expose ''Hollywood Babylon,'' asked Page in 1973 to create a sound track for a film based on Crowley's poem "Hymn to Lucifer", Page jumped at the chance.
But in 1973, Led Zeppelin was at the height of its considerable fame.
Page's work for "Lucifer Rising" dragged on and on, until Anger finally fired him when Page delivered only 23 minutes of music in 1976.
The soundtrack was heard by the film buffs who have seen the film, but few of Page's fans have heard the music.
Dietler hopes to change that by making the sound track more widely available. But how did a state worker who lives in Carmichael with his wife and two kids end up releasing a legendary recording by one of the giants of contemporary music?
As a Zeppelin fan, Dietler had heard of the sound track and contacted Anger. According to Dietler, Anger told him he had lost the original master tapes. So Dietler got the filmmaker to sell him one of what are ostensibly the only four prints of "Lucifer Rising". Dietler had a friend remaster the sound track from the film and had it pressed onto vinyl.
The first 1,000 copies of the EP are pressed on blue vinyl, have a cover that features a gallery of Page and Crowley photos and is given an issue number, all of which Dietler says justifies the record's $20 price tag.
But even at that whopping price, Dietler said he has sold more than 300 copies in a month, including one to producer and Zeppelin fanatic Rick Rubin. Dietler says that future pressings will be offered at a lower price.
The record's music is its least interesting aspect, which perhaps explains why Page never bothered to bring it out himself. On it, he plays a guitar run through an early ARP synthesizer, the precursor to the contemporary guitar synthesizer. The music is a series of drones, a few chants, all of it murky, something like the sounds from "In the Light" or "Kashmir" from the Led Zeppelin album "Physical Graffiti", but not as well orchestrated. It is not Led Zeppelin.
But it matches the film well. In "Lucifer Rising", images linger and blend as actors playing Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris signal to each other across the Valley of the Kings, while other scenes show Lilith (played by singer Marianne Faithfull) climbing through ancient ruins as occult symbols flash on the screen. Later, Anger himself does a dance to summon Lucifer, who appears wearing a satin tour jacket with his name emblazoned across his back.
Page also appears for a split second in the film, holding an ancient stone tablet called the Stele of Revealing and looking at a wreathed photograph of Crowley. The still appears on the cover of Dietler's record.
Page's label, Atlantic Records, didn't know about Dietler's records, and issued a simple "no comment". Page's management in London also declined to comment.
Dietler hasn't heard from Page, but he has heard from the O.T.O. The Order has expelled Dietler and dissolved the dozen-member Carmichael chapter. "They were afraid of Page," said Dietler, "They were afraid that I had left them in a libelous situation by advertising the record" in the O.T.O.'s newsletter.
O.T.O. Treasurer Bill Heidrick, of the Berkeley chapter (the Order has 800 members in 17 countries) agrees with that, but puts the onus on Dietler. "He's not much of a business man," said Heidrick. Heidrick says that Dietler has no written permission from either Page or Anger, though he once claimed he did.
Instead, Heidrick said, Anger sold Dietler the film on the condition that he not use the sound track. Dietler denied this, saying that had read that Page wouldn't mind if Anger put out a sound track. Heidrick noted that this hardly constitutes permission.
Anger has been unavailable for comment.
Complicating the issue is Mystic Fire Video, a company co-owned by the head of the O.T.O. (who Heidrick would not name). Mystic Fire recently acquired the rights to the Anger films on video. So, according to Heidrick, Dietler is not only using the music without Page's permission, he also has a potential copyright conflict with the head of the O.T.O.
But while Dietler's esoteric activities have been nipped in the bud by the O.T.O., and copyright problems are still a threat, he has more plans for Zeppelin products. An avid collector of Zeppelin bootlegs, memorabilia and concert videotapes, Dietler plans to make a historical compilation of Zeppelin footage culled from tapes that include Scandinavian television performances from the group's first tour in '68, as well as promotional videos of everything from "Communication Breakdown" on, wary of selling a "bootlegged" product.
The album does not work as a piece of music, but that won't matter to many Page fans, who are notorious collectors on the level of Beatles or Grateful Dead fans. In the meantime, Dietler also has no plans to release the sound track to "Lucifer Rising, Part Two" (1980), a 45-minute film with sound track by a group under the direction of another famous personality: the Freedom Orchestra, recorded in Tracy Prison under the leadership of Charles Manson's lieutenant Bobby Beausoleil.
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