February 15th, 2005
It’s Been a Long Lonely, Lonely, Lonely, Lonely, Lonely Time
On Sunday Jenks informed me that someone out there has found a bunch of studio outtakes of what is believed to be Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, and posted them here: http://www.disndat.com/bonham.
We listened to them all, and both of us are convinced that it’s really him. If you know your Zeppelin you can tell what songs he’s playing. You can faintly hear the songs start in his headphones before he comes in. You can even hear him talking himself through the track and grunting when he does a hard fill…
You have no idea what kind of a discovery this is for me.
Where were these when I was 15? When I was listening intently to Led Zeppelin I, Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin III, the fourth album (which, as any true Zeppelin fan will tell you, is untitled. Though it is most commonly known to as “Led Zeppelin IV,” it may also be referred to as “Zoso” or “The Runes”), Houses of the Holy, and Physical Graffiti, struggling to hear the nuances of Bonham’s playing under all 12 of Jimmy Page’s guitar overdubs?
I actually haven’t listen to Led Zeppelin in a while, but I was instantly reminded that the drumming is sparse, but executed with a tremendous amount of feeling.
No one could make drums sound like Bonham. Everything I’ve ever read or heard about him claims he hit them so hard that the mics had to be placed on the opposite end of the room from his kit. As a result, you get this warm, open, thunderous sound. Even these tracks are so awash in natural reverb, I can’t tell exactly what he’s doing.
And now he’s gone…while flashy, overly-technical classic rock drummers like Neil Peart live on. I don’t like Neil Peart. That’s right, I said it. I don’t care if he does have a PhD in percussion. It’s always seemed to me like a Rush recording session consists of Mr. — sorry, Dr. — Peart laying down whatever pops into his head, with no rhyme or reason, while the rest of the band is across town, in a completely different studio, figuring out how the songs are actually going to go. This would explain those cascading rolls across 15 toms, that appear smack in the middle of a verse, stepping all over everyone else’s parts. When I hear that kind of thing, and I just want to pick up my speakers and scream into them, “What the hell are you doing!?!”
Bonham did some showy stuff, too, but he saved it for when it was appropriate. More than anything, I think he understood what it meant to be in a band, and how to compliment the rest of the group.
All I have left to say is thank you, mystery internet guy, for posting these tracks. If anyone else wants to hear rock drumming at it’s finest, give this stuff a listen. Mystery internet guy claims he’s taking them down in a few days, never to post them again.
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