Led Zeppelin didn’t sit back when the punk movement came along – the band decided to give as good as they got.
In the late 70s, battle lines were being drawn – a new wave of groups were dismantling the largesse of the progressive era, taking rock back to small clubs in the process. Loud, raucous, and in your face, punk was designed as a Year Zero moment, demolishing all in front of it.
Led Zeppelin, though, weren’t to be swayed. When the band emerged in the late 60s they were the biggest, loudest, brashest phenomenon around, so singer Robert Plant opted to go toe-to-toe with punk groups in the volume stakes.
‘Wearing And Tearing’ was his riposte to the punk movement. Penned during sessions for the keyboard focussed album ‘In Through The Out Door’, it returned Led Zeppelin to their heavy roots, the crunching power chords from Jimmy Page riding one of John Bonham’s most feral, animalistic drumming performances.
Robert Plant loved the song – he wanted it released as a single ahead of their epochal 1979 show at Knebworth, but Jimmy Page wasn’t so sure.
The frontman once said: “I love ‘Wearing and Tearing’, which Page and I wrote together. We were so pissed off with the whole punk thing saying, ‘What do those rich bastards know?’ First of all, we knew that we didn’t have that much dough. Secondly, we knew more about psychobilly than they did.”
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Eventually released on the ‘Coda’ collection – released in the aftermath of Bonham’s death, and the group’s split – ‘Wearing And Tearing’ has come to be adored by Led Zeppelin fans.
When Robert Plant and Jimmy Page performed at Knebworth in 1990, the singer finally got his way – ‘Wearing And Tearing’ was loud and proud on the set list.
The first time ‘Wearing And Tearing’ was ever performed live, you can revisit that moment below.
New documentary Beyond Led Zeppelin is out now.
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