Like any rock ‘n’ roll group, Led Zeppelin would sometimes have arguments. The band had assumed The Beatles’ mantle and expanded to become the largest group on the globe, but such recognition carries some obligations. There is an inevitable cocktail of pandemonium waiting to be delivered at every hotel or studio bar when you combine a mixture of egos and charisma with an abundance of creativity and pressure to provide wheelbarrows of cash to those around you.
Because of their supremacy during the 1970s, the group—which included Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, John Bonham, and Jimmy Page—managed to avoid any significant breakups or strained egos. They achieved this, for the most part, by concentrating on their mission: creating beautiful music.
Led Zeppelin is a band where each member stands as a master of their craft. Page’s virtuoso guitar work is perfectly complemented by John Paul Jones’ impeccable rhythm, while Plant’s powerful, mythical vocals rival Bonham’s thunderous, Thor-like drumming. On stage and in the studio, the quartet was unstoppable. However, in the studio, creative tensions inevitably surfaced as each member pushed to bring their own musical vision to life.
This meant that the group had to proceed with songs that not all of the band members were necessarily on board with. More specifically, there is one track that Page and Bonham both agreed they hated: ‘All My Love‘. The tune showcased a softer side to the band and one the power players of the group were not so keen to show.
While the 1970s encapsulated the group’s rise to the top professionally, personally it would become a tortuous decade, one that would ultimately end their 12-year run, following the premature death of drummer John Bonham. Many would argue that the drummer was the glue that kept the group together, signifying their trademark powerful sound and unique position in the rock world. Without Bonham, they simply could not go on.
Looking back on the album in 1993, Page said he and John Bonham considered it “a little soft” and he called out the softest target of them all ‘All My Love’ directly. “I was a little worried about the [‘All My Love’] chorus,” Page said in an interview published in Brad Tolinski’s Light and Shade.
“I could just imagine people doing the wave and all of that. And I thought ‘That is not us. That is not us’.” However, Page didn’t want the song to be taken off the album as it was one that Robert Plant delivered straight from his heart.
It was OK in its context, he remarked, but going forward, he wouldn’t have wanted to go in that route. Of fact, the truth is that Led Zeppelin had grown up together in many respects even before they became well-known as rock stars. They experienced both positive and negative experiences that not many others had. Thus, even though Page and Bonham were never big fans of “All My Love” as a symbol of what Led Zeppelin stood for, they demonstrated their friendship with the song by allowing it to be included on the record.
