When Duane Allman threatened to kick Robert Plant’s ass: “What the fuck is this?”
By the time that Led Zeppelin reached America, they had momentum like a rocketship.
Jimmy Page had made sure to build up the hype through the roof whenever they played, and with only a few tunes under their belt, they could practically level any stage they played to the ground. There was nothing getting in the way of them becoming one of the biggest bands in the world, but it’s not like everyone was smiling and jumping up and down when Robert Plant took to the stage for the first time.
If you were sitting there in the audience listening to Zeppelin for the first time, though, Plant was already a bit of an oddity compared to every other hard rock singer. There had been Mick Jagger bringing some piss and vinegar to The Stones, but no one could have believed that someone was able to have the same bellow as Janis Joplin with the musical gusto of Howlin’ Wolf. This was the birth of hard rock singing, but it took a little while to sink in as well.
You have to remember that a few years after the British invasion got started, there was already an American music scene rising to the forefront. While The Beach Boys were the closest competitors to The Beatles back in the day, there was a lot of noise coming from the American South as well. Some may have found their way to California, but looking at everyone from Tom Petty to Don Henley to Stevie Nicks, each of them made every count when they were onstage.
Although none of those artists were always the most energetic performers in the world, that didn’t matter so long as the music was able to move people. Nicks could make ‘Rhiannon’ feel like an emotional exorcism whenever she played, but the beauty of listening to Eagles was knowing that everything would be pristine once they got onstage. But that wasn’t how the Allman Brothers Band operated.
They wanted to have the music carry them in the same way that the greatest jazz musicians could, so when Zeppelin first arrived, they were treated to the kind of show where music was treated like an afterthought. And when the ‘Percy’ persona showed up with his open chest prancing around the stage, it took everything in Duane’s power not to take matters into his own hands when watching them from the wings.
According to original drummer Butch Trucks, Duane was absolutely fuming over Plant’s stage moves, saying, “Robert Plant starts running all over the stage with his velvet pants on, and we were all looking at each other, like ‘What the fuck is this?’ Duane got up and said, ‘I’m either going to go up there and kick the fuck out of that guy or we’re leaving.’ And we all got up and left. It just infuriated Duane. He was so let down by one of his gods.”
But in the case of Duane, this felt more like a difference in musical approaches. Zeppelin could definitely jam in the same way that the Allmans could, but rather than stretching out their songs with different solo sections, it was easier to have Plant onstage bringing more showmanship to the equation than disappearing midway through a song so Page could play a theremin or break out the violin bow.
Even if Duane wasn’t a fan of seeing one of his favourite bands butcher their own show, it wasn’t simply about hitting everything right on the money, either. Zeppelin were on the verge of chaos at all times, and while that might seem unprofessional for some people, that kind of chaos makes it all the more rewarding when seeing them nail it whenever they finally locked in on something.
