KMET – Jack Snyder, Paraquat Kelley, Mary Turner – December 4, 1980 – Rob Frankel Collection –
It’s almost the end of 1980, December 4th – first year of a new decade. You’ve been quietly mourning the 70s all year; those were your good old days, that’s when everything happened for you – all the good stuff – all the cash and prizes. Maybe Disco wasn’t exactly your thing, but then came The Ramones and it all went into warp-drive.
But you grew up with Led Zeppelin, you’ve been hearing them as long as you can remember – they were your go-to band; good times and bad, Jimmy Page knew what you were thinking and there was a song for it. Led Zeppelin never let you down.
But you heard today that Zepp was breaking up. You just heard it on the radio, on the news – they read a statement; Led Zeppelin were calling it quits. It was official. Now what?
You assumed they would be around forever – they were a band you were going to get old with – you couldn’t imagine life without them. Nope – it was true. Even though Bonzo, their drummer, died in September, you thought they’d carry on and keep it going. Secretly you wondered how Zepp would sound without Bonham, but you still knew they’d stay together.
Ever since 1980 got started, life wasn’t working out the way you thought it would – maybe this wasn’t going to be such a good decade after all.
Man, some future.
A special thanks to Rob Frankel for giving me a copy of this historic KMET aircheck. Pop Culture and Music History, all in one 45 minute slice – if you were mourning the loss of Led Zeppelin, as a lot of people did, it would all be overshadowed only four days later when John Lennon was killed. 1980 was something else!
