https://dontforgetthesongs365.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/how-led-zeppelins-communication-breakdown-sparked-the-ramones-american-punk-rock-revolution/
For years critics and devoted followers have been trying to brand Led Zeppelin as originators of Heavy Metal but Jimmy Page has always resisted this distinction as he told author Mick Wall in his book, When Giants Walked The Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin, “I had a whole sort of repertoire in my mind of songs that I wanted to put into this new format […] I was seeing all this sort of dynamic. Because my tastes were all-encompassing, musically, it wasn’t down to one particular thing. It wasn’t just blues, it wasn’t rock’n’ roll. It wasn’t folk music or classical music. It went all the way through the whole thing.” Page was right he didn’t just invent Heavy Metal, craft almost perfect folk gems like “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” or perfect the bluesy style rock inspired by Robert Johnson; with this 1969 live BBC sessions version of “Communication Breakdown,” Page would unknowingly inspire The Ramones and spark the Punk Rock revolution in America.
Yes, you read right, Led Zeppelin created punk rock; Just ask Johnny Ramone who credits Page’s down stroke style “Communication Breakdown” as being the foundation for the sound of the Ramones. Mickey Leigh of The Rattlers was the one who not only introduced Johnny to Led Zeppelin as he explained in his book, I Slept with Joey Ramone: A Family Memoir, when he recalled this famous exchange with the future guitarist of The Ramones when he wrote, “One day, I started playing Led Zeppelin’s “Communication Breakdown,” and John was really impressed.
“Wow, you know about down strokes, huh?” John said.
“Whaddaya mean, down strokes?” I answered.
“Ya known, how you’re picking everything downward” John said, motioning.
“I’m just trying to play how it sounds.” I explained.
“Yeah, well that’s really important,” John told me. “Most people don’t realize that. That’s how rock & roll should be played. All of it! Everything should be a down stroke.” In retrospect, I believe Johnny had begun formulating the concept for the Ramones sound even back then.” Even Mick Wall agreed with Leigh when he wrote referring to “Communication” in his book, When The Giants Walked The Earth, “[…] with its spikey, down stroke guitar riff [“Breakdown”] was proto-punk; the sort of speeded up, one-chord gunshot the Ramones would turn into a career a decade later.”
https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/apr/14/led-zeppelin-good-times-bad-times-communication-breakdown-unreleased
And from Good Times Bad Times into Communication Breakdown. I think it was Julian Cope who suggested that hardcore punk was simply the result of American teenagers trying and failing to master playing Communication Breakdown, and that sounds wholly plausible. It's as ferocious as Zeppelin ever got, yet you can also hear it reaching back to Page's previous life as a 60s session star: take the chorus alone and it sounds like freakbeat, rather than the dawning of heavy metal.
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