Jon Sutherland, Historian
Wednesday, March 08, 2000 03:40 PM

Famed Metal Historian Jon Sutherland Takes KNAC.COM On A Trip Through Heavy Metal Past

The legend of Led Zeppelin is so secure that is hard to believe the band wasn't huge instantly, but in reality they weren't. Times were different then. Bands built up their followings much more on word of mouth, great live shows, the English press and hopefully then they might get to American AM radio, which was well before they would ever become arena acts. Nearly every band had to slug out the club circuit to get any foothold at all here. It was like an unspoken command that any new band had to play the Whiskey and be judged there to get a leg up. That's where I saw some of the greatest rock shows ever. It's hard to beat a world class band in an intimate setting when their mission is to change the way rock should be played, and they are right. Led Zeppelin did it their own way and rocket launched that equation. Please let me tell you how Led Zeppelin did me in, and why I am forever grateful.

I was a massive Yardbirds fan, and I saw one of the two shows they ever did in L.A. when I was really young. Jimmy Page was really more of an after thought in the later days of the Yardbirds. After Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck departed, Jimmy was left with the scrap heap as the band fell apart. I have a rare vinyl recording where he first started to show glimpses of what Led Zeppelin would become. It included a song called "I'm Confused" which will forever be known as "Dazed And Confused," but it was hardly a famous tune then. When the first Led Zeppelin album came out it was greeted with a great big yawn. There was nothing ripe for radio on the album. The songs were too loose and bluesy, not compact and tight enough for AM radio. FM radio was just beginning to connect with the public and most people didn't have FM radios in their cars. It was a major investment at that time to buy a complete stereo that had both an AM and FM band on it that could power a turntable and deliver some seriously decibility (yeah I made this word up, and damn it, I like it!). My first really good stereo (which I still have) cost me the equivalent of a month's pay. Once the prices started to come down, FM radio could get into cars and this format could build an audience. The quality of the sound was so superior that I knew FM would eventually be the vehicle for music. That's about the same time Led Zeppelin I hit the streets, February I969.

The mighty promo radio teams the major labels have now had yet to exist. The labels waited to see what was going to play out with new adventurous bands instead of trying to ram a song everybody's throat before the audience was ready. They waited for the phones to ring instead of making the calls. The bands grew organically and right back in the day, that's why they lasted, they had a rock solid foundation. I think Led Zeppelin is example number one in this FM equation. They were so organically grown that when they peaked they owned everything, and today they still get played tons. I find it oddly ironic that "Stairway To Heaven" is the most played FM radio song of all time and Atlantic never saw fit to release it as a single, the public just picked it out and made it their favorite!

I always felt there was one inherent flaw in radio marketing. Instead of running around with a bucket of gasoline looking for a spark, why not let the people who spend real money decide. Then look for that spark and then get out the gasoline? Today they pour gasoline everywhere and hope a fire starts. Back then nobody gave a shit about market shares, stockholders, bean counters, A&R weasel fests. The band's shit had to be real or nobody was going to pay any money for it. To this day I still ask myself the same question every time I stand in front of a new band. Do they rock my world? Would I buy their album?

I hadn't heard a single note of Led Zep I when I bought it. I recognized Jimmy Page's name and vaguely knew who John Paul Jones was. I had seen Robert Plant's and John Bonham's names before in the underground press but I didn't really know what they sounded like. It was a daring time. I took a lot of chances on bands; some records were great finds some were instant Frisbees. Led Zep was a sonic head butt. Band one - Jon zero! I grew up on the Rolling Stones so that was my measuring stick in those days and this was so much more rootsy and real down and dirty than the Stones had ever been that I felt drawn in for some even more delicious sin.

I put the Hindenburg covered Zep I (which some critics dissed saying the band was in bad taste diminishing a disaster) in very serious heavy personal rotation. I told everyone who would listen about the album. I'm sure I convinced a couple of lampposts I had serious conversations with when missing a signal that Led Zep I needed to be in their album collection. I played it every day for months and when it started to sound crusty, I bought a new copy. I heard "Communication Breakdown" and "Good Times, Bad Times" on AM radio a couple of times, but it was quite awhile before the late night DJs were playing the real long songs like "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You," "You Shook Me" or "Dazed And Confused" on FM. Even though I had the record and could play it anytime I wanted, it was really cool to hear the songs on the radio. They sounded great with all that compression on them. Ironically, the station that played Zeppelin the most was KPPC, which was broadcasting out of Burbank on I06.7 FM. I always knew KROQ was originally a rock station!

Then I heard the Riff! I was driving across the Valley, in fact I can remember exactly where I was when I first heard "Whole Lotta Love." It was driving through Balboa Park by Birmingham High School in Van Nuys when I was paralyzed. I pulled over to the side of the road turned my radio up really fucking loud and thought I got a real serious problem now, 'I don't have this record!' I did a 180-degree turn and drove straight to College Records and bought Led Zeppelin II. It was like that in those days; you would just get shocked when something great came out. I could not believe how heavy the record was after how bluesy the first record was. I cherished the thought that a great new band was beckoning. The Stones were grieving over Brain Jones; Mick Taylor was on the way. The Beatles were in a stop and go mode at the time and the hard rock world was real fucking hungry for something gutsy. Rock and roll has always been riff oriented and when Jimmy Page face-planted "Whole Lotta Love" on our collective psyche I was a major casualty. I saw a quote in a magazine where Keith Richards called Led Zeppelin a fad, and as much as I loved the Stones, I thought he was just jealous.

My family moved to Las Vegas that year and I was left behind to finish school, so when that semester ended I headed out to the desert for the summer. It completely sucked, every day of it. Being seventeen in the land of twenty-one and sin did not work for me. I can honestly say the only day I liked being there was the night Led Zeppelin came through as openers for Vanilla Fudge. I loved Vanilla Fudge back then; hey, they were heavy! A year before I even drove out to Anaheim to see them open for the Bee Gees! I rallied a crew of about six, for my virgin Zep voyage and borrowed Mom's station wagon. We turned up for the show at least two hours early. The venue was a roller rink/ice skating room that was basically a big brick concrete shell. The stage was about two feet high and maybe fifteen feet deep. There was a big beige curtain that spanned the length of the room and behind it was backstage. With the room lit you could see through the curtains, recognize guitars, amps and all the equipment being moved around. Being tall enough I could see over the curtain that was about six feet tall. I thought I saw Carmine Appice walking around. I kept trying to get clues on where this evening's entertainment was heading. Slowly but surely the stage was revealed but there were no banners or any clue as to who would be playing. Vanilla Fudge was a bigger name at the time but Zep was coming on real strong as AM radio grabbed onto "Whole Lotta Love" big time.

When they turned down the lights there was a moment I will never forget. I was standing right up against the stage. My shins were pressed the band's tiny platform stage and I wasn't five feet from the band. I could have easily grabbed Jimmy Page's guitar and at times he played only a foot away from my face. Now realize that I had never even seen a color picture of the band. The only image I had in my brain was that promo picture that was on the back of the album. I didn't know Robert Plant had glowing blond hair as kingly and worthy as a lion's mane. I didn't understand how Jimmy Page could play a Les Paul that looked like he could barely hold it off the ground but what really floored me was Bonzo. He hurt me! Sure Jimmy's guitar was loud and Robert's vocals delightfully pierced my essence but Bonzo's bass drum kicks really hurt the way they bounced off my chest. At first I was a bit annoyed, even uncomfortable but I also was in no mood to give up the best seat in the whole world so I learned to deal with it.

When Jimmy Page broke out the violin bow on "Dazed And Confused" the bristles that had frayed were inches from my face and I felt incredibly privileged to be this close to rock deity. I was trying to just freeze as many frames in my brain that I could because it was such a stunning spectacle. Never in my life did I ever want to be inside photographer Neil Zlozower's camera more than that moment. I had just finished a communications class in school where the textbook said that a rock concert was too much stimulus for a human brain to absorb. The lights are too bright, the sound is too loud, the action is too dramatic, and I thought, "That's just about the way I like life. What's wrong with that equation?" There was so much mystery to this band. Having never seen anything more than that black and white photograph, I was overwhelmed by the sights, sounds, colors, and all the drama of that evening in Las Vegas in 1969. Robert Plant was so stunning; Jimmy Page was beyond unbelievable as a player and leader of the band. John Paul Jones filled the right spaces and Bonzo just totally kicked my ass, I felt absolutely defenseless to this assault.

I hadn't been programmed by a video clip; some record geek executive, or marketing director, as to what I was supposed to think about this band. Dude, I saw the real shit right the fuck at home plate and all I wanted to say was, "Thank You God! I am free!"

They busted out all the jams and then some. "Dazed And Confused" was a 15-minute orgy, "Whole Lotta Love" was a Sherman Tank in overdrive, headed for my forehead. "You Shook Me" and "How Many More Times" made me want many many more times. I loved the screaming festival between Jimmy's Les Paul plectrum induced squeals and Robert's ridiculously high pitched vocals. I felt an unforeseen redemption, and a freedom of what would now be possible that this band had completely exploded beyond rock's limitations. I was just loving life big time but I think Zep had begun to wear out their welcome. Led Zeppelin had indeed been the opening band this night and their set was now inching past an hour and a half. The bands had been flip flopping as headliners but I don't think anybody was capable of entertaining an audience that was so completely violated as this one. What was left for Vanilla Fudge to do? Led Zeppelin had stolen the show, the audience and even the town! We were going mad over this discovery, completely nuts. Slowly Zeppelin had to go. The solos wound down until there was only Bonzo left on stage. There was a large hum from the amps but he was well past that. He'd lost his sticks and hadn't bothered to replace them, using his hands. His drum set was being disassembled as he was playing. They took the high-hats, the bass drum, until he was down to one spotlight, a stool and a snare drum that was in serious jeopardy of not surviving the night. He would not leave until the roadies carried him away on his stool pounding his snare drum bloody and bare handed, still playing with a vengeance. I was riveted, and in shock, I thought I'd seen the Second Coming.

Vanilla Fudge did eventually get to perform but it was impossible to even make a dent on the audience after the deluge Led Zeppelin delivered on that hot and dry night. I told everybody I knew how great this band was. That was the mission we rock fans had back then. It was a brethren community. Everything except word of mouth was suspect. FM radio was slim and spotty. AM radio was too pop to make real rockers care. There was no video and no real TV, but if your best mate said, "I just saw the real shit," your best reflex was an instant journey to the local record store. I got so good at this game I used to go by record stores and tell the clerks behind the counters what albums were in their new release boxes! "Say, dude," I'd offer. "When you open that box I'd like to purchase the two copies of Led Zep III in there." I went back to Las Vegas the next year to visit and the saw the damage Zep had done was totally complete. They were now the band, no matter what 'Keef' had to say. There was a contest at the main rock station in town. Led Zeppelin was so hot it was insane. This poll was to determine what the greatest rock albums of all time were. "Gallows Pole" had just been played on Las Vegas main radio station for about three weeks as a single. Led Zeppelin III, which had even come out yet, it was just given a title, but it was voted as the third greatest album of all time! Talk about coming to completely conquer!

Led Zeppelin officially released 10 albums during their real time. I'm sure they sold a zillion tickets and got dumped on as much as any band critically that I can remember of and I think that is really weak. If Rolling Stone magazine only thinks five Led Zeppelin albums were worthy of praise and five were condemned as failures, I'd like to see the how they measure the success of what they put on the cover of their bloated 'zine? I saw Led Zeppelin all the way up and to the top it may have been nasty, rough and sloppy at times, but Led Zep always made my balls spin in the pocket every time on record and at the shows!

High culture critics always think they know better than all of us as to what is fine art is. As time passes, great popular music will always speak louder than those who feel compelled to try and deny the undeniable. Critics mean nothing to the masses that understand. The victors get to write history and as far as I'm concerned no band has ever had a greater legacy than that of Led Zeppelin on FM radio and they had to sneak in through the out door! I think we can all rest their case!

Oh yeah, a ticket to this show cost me all of two bucks!! But I got a million bucks worth of memories!