B: Bonham, John Henry

I read somewhere that everyone goes through their Led Zeppelin phase, no matter how old or for how long. To paraphrase the text I’m not going to be able to reference or describe eloquently, you could be a 15-year old awkward teen or a 30-year old stockbroker, but Zep takes hold and it’s all you want to hear. Like, nothing sounds better than “Black Dog” or that incredibly massive riff in “Moby Dick” and all it makes you wanna do is drink beer or sit on the hoods of Thunderbirds. It’s definitely happened to me, and tends to happen at least once a year. I was a late bloomer, not really digging them until my summer before Freshman and Sophomore years at college when I felt obliged to pick up Led Zeppelin I sensing that the emo well was kind of drying up.

Well.

From the first moment of “Good Times, Bad Times” it’s fairly obvious who’s in charge here. Yeah, there’s a great guitar line, but it’s one of the dime a dozen blues based riff that are pretty interchangeable in the Zep catalogue, so it’s not Jimmy Page. Plant can wail, but not here, he’s pretty reserved. Obviously it’s not John Paul Jones – guy plays bass and this ain’t Primus. It that crazy sonovabitch John Bonham and his maniacal right foot. He makes this group absolutely explode with drive. He punctuates bars with the perfect thundering fills and literally sounds like an octopus at times. (In trying to figure out what I was gonna write for this I listened to their live version of “Moby Dick” where Bonham solos for what seems like 3 hours. I’m surprised that dude’s arms are still on after that tour de force.)

I’m a guitar player, but I’ve always been way more drawn to the sounds of drums. Nothing’s better when a band has someone that can kick the shit out of their kit. But nothing’s better than if that same virtuosic drummer can fit in the pocket and give a song its pulse all while fleshing out and coloring a song with their skill. It’s obvious why Led Zeppelin split after Bonham died – they lost the guy the foundation of the group.

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