“It was so truthful”: The live band who eclipsed Led Zeppelin in Duff McKagan’s eyes
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall when Led Zeppelin‘s first gig took place in a small basement room in Chinatown, and they realised that they were going to be one of the biggest bands in the world.
When the four first came together, they hadn’t played with one another yet, and the first hour or so of their jam was spent essentially trying to work out what kind of music they wanted to make. However, when they started covering an old Yardbirds song called ‘Train Kept A-Rollin’, it was as though everything clicked into place.
John Paul Jones said that the whole room “exploded”; meanwhile, Robert Plant was so enamoured with the sound they had come across, he was worried about playing too much, at the risk of diminishing its importance. “I remember the little room, all I can remember, it was hot and it sounded good; very exciting and very challenging,” he said, “Because I could feel that something was happening to myself and to everyone else in the room. It felt like we’d found something that we had to be very careful with because we might lose it.”
That sound that they stumbled upon at this jam session was taken all over the world, as a lot of people who saw the band perform live called them one of the greatest acts on the planet; however, that wasn’t an opinion shared by Duff McKagan, the bassist from Guns N’ Roses. He got to see Led Zeppelin play live, and while he was certainly impressed with their massive sound, he also found the disconnect between band and audience got in the way of the gig being something he was well and truly able to draw from.
“I’d seen Led Zeppelin, loved it, at the King Dome [in 1977], but they’re way far away, you know, you can’t touch them, they’re Led Zeppelin,” he said, “They fly away in a jet plane that says ‘Led Zeppelin’ on it!”
So, what appealed to the bassist more? Well, also towards the end of the ‘70s and the beginning of the ‘80s, punk music was finding form. One of the biggest players in this unpredictable scene was The Clash, as they had already succeeded in becoming big names in the UK, but wanted to take their sound overseas.
They knew that people in big cities were likely aware of them, but they felt that the rock fans on the outskirts of countries like America should also be listening to what they’re doing. As such, they set out on tour around the States in a bid to find a new audience. One of the people they managed to connect with when embarking on this tour was Duff McKagan. They had a great live sound, sure, but the gig went even further than just the music.
When Duff looked onto the stage, he didn’t see an untouchable band as he did with Zeppelin; he saw a group of musicians with whom he could genuinely connect. The private jet was left behind for simpler modes of transport, and as the band were stripped of all glitz and glamour, Duff realised that becoming an artist wasn’t an unrealistic dream.
“That gig changed my life […] These guys…like, so exotic, from England, at the Paramount, and there was 150 people there, and they were just…it was so truthful,” he said. Comparing their tour transport with that of Led Zeppelin really tells you everything you need to know, as Duff noted, “The Clash pulled up in a station wagon”.
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