Five years after ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Jimmy Page wrote a guitar solo that left him “frightened”

Jimmy Page found “Tea for One”, from Led Zeppelin’s 1976 album *Presence*, unusually difficult to play because it risked repeating the mood and structure of the earlier “Since I’ve Been Loving You”. He said he felt “frightened” and unsure how to make the solo his own, making the track a rare case where the guitarist struggled to find his signature approach.

Page recorded two versions, one with a solo and one without, and resisted playing a showy break that would clash with the song’s slow, weary atmosphere. The final solo uses hanging bent notes and brief flurries to sustain the tension across the track’s more than nine minutes, turning his hesitation into part of its character.