‘Damned Damned Damned’: the punk album Robert Plant called “brilliant stuff”
Rock ‘n’ roll emerged in the 1950s through the shaking knees of Elvis Presley and the rhythmic fingers of Little Richard. The genre combined centuries of musical evolution into a highly marketable product just in time for a technological and countercultural revolution that culminated in the simplicity of punk. Throughout the 1960s, an arms race ensued during which bands like The Beatles and The Beach Boys fought for salience.
As The Beach Boys and The Beatles traded fire with progressive releases like Revolver and Pet Sounds, rock music began to inch towards the explosion of prog-rock. Simply put, prog-rock was a genre wave that sought complexity, often to the point of esotericism. Even widely revered proponents like Pink Floyd and Genesis alienated some listeners with tortuous compositions over 20 minutes in length.
While the prog-rock wave threw out tome remarkable music, its detractors in the proto-punk and later punk waves sought a punchy simplicity in protest. As prog-rockers but also progenitors of heavy genres like punk and metal, Led Zeppelin strode an intriguing line in the 1970s. While members of Yes may have stood in stark contrast to John Lydon, Robert Plant was acutely receptive to punk and even felt that Led Zeppelin passed a baton to the genre’s stalwarts.
Speaking to Q in a 2018 interview, Plant discussed Led Zeppelin’s role as heavy rock innovators and prog-rock befuddlers. He noted that ‘Ozone Baby’ and ‘Wearing and Tearing’, two tracks Led Zeppelin recorded in the late 1970s and released on the 1982 compilation album Coda, proved that, alongside the complex material, they could do punk.
“We were so busy trying to write eight-minute epics about crossing the Atlas mountains,” Plant mused, reflecting on Led Zeppelin’s penchant for complexity. He felt that, in the midst of their competitive progression, the band had lost touch with the rock ‘n’ roll spirit at their roots. Plant said they had “forgotten all about The Phantom on Dot Records in 1959 singing ‘Love Me’ for the best part of one minute, 43 seconds.” Supposedly, as far as Plant is concerned, this classic song held the key that would eventually unlock punk rock.
Plant felt that Led Zeppelin “were over” by the time punk rock took over in the UK. Despite his prog-rock inclinations, Plant was thankful for the punk wave and had a particularly soft spot for The Damned. “Jimmy and I went to a couple of punk clubs to see The Damned because they were – when Nick Lowe produced that album [Damned Damned Damned] with ‘Fan Club’ and ‘New Rose’ – it was just brilliant stuff.”
The Led Zeppelin frontman elaborated on the punk band’s appeal. “It had substance, and it also had a melody,” he beamed. “It had so much drive about it. That was where things needed to go. I quite understand that ‘Close to the Edge’ by Yes might be difficult for a 17-year-old kid in a bedroom to deal with or even a 77-year-old kid, but The Damned ‘Fan Club’ was just amazing.”
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