{"id":646923,"date":"2026-06-19T09:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T09:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/646923\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T09:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T09:21:14","slug":"the-1971-john-bonham-groove-that-remains-unmatched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/646923\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1971 John Bonham groove that remains unmatched"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"John<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ John Bonham<\/p>\n

Thu 18 June 2026 18:45, UK <\/p>\n

The roar of John Bonham<\/a> is unparalleled. With groove, thunder, and intricacy, he reinvented the role of a sticksmith in rock.<\/p>\n

A drummer\u2019s job tends to be a thankless task in rock music. Although most people see the percussionist of any band as expendable, the fact that they can lay down a groove and control the entire song from the inside out is the kind of finesse that takes years of practice to truly master. <\/p>\n

While Bonham became a genius through brute force in Led Zeppelin, a force that Keith Richards would question as out of control, Robert Plant would beg to differ with the Stones man, and he still believes that the measured drum groove of \u2018When the Levee Breaks\u2019 was something that only Bonzo could pull off.<\/p>\n

Then again, it\u2019s not like the basic rhythmic pattern of the song is all that special. The final track off Zeppelin\u2019s untitled record is certainly a heavy piece of brilliance, but that basic shuffle is something that a lot of drummers can start off with to get a groove going before graduating to more ambitious pieces like \u2018Rosanna\u2019 by Toto.<\/p>\n

But it has less to do with the technique and more to do with the feel put into it. Outside of having to keep tempo with Bonham\u2019s groove, the fact that they put copious amounts of echo on the final track just makes it feel like it\u2019s a monster stomping across the land, or better yet, those titular flood waves that are about to envelop the town.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy<\/p>\n

If anything, this is a more straightforward version of what Zeppelin was used to. During their prime, Plant prided himself on being in a group that could take their sound in different directions musically, saying, \u201cMy daughter\u2019s boyfriend started telling me that part of \u2018Black Dog\u2019 was a mistake because there\u2019s a bar of 5\/4 in the middle of some 4\/4. Well, my dander was up at that, so I pulled out the record and plonked it on and said, \u2018Listen, you little runt, that\u2019s no mistake. That\u2019s what we\u2019re good at.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonham could have easily played something intricate like he had been doing across the record like \u2018Four Sticks<\/a>\u2019, but sometimes it\u2019s better just to let the song play you than the other way around. Compared to the Memphis Minnie original, Bonham plays like a man possessed on this song, almost like he\u2019s trying to paint a picture of how he\u2019s leaning into the rhythm, always crashing in whenever Page enters with those guitar stabs.<\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n

For all of the great drum tunes Bonzo has performed on, Plant still thought this was one of his crowning achievements, saying, \u201c\u2018When the Levee Breaks\u2019 was a giant step. Nobody other than John Bonham could have created that sex groove, and many have tried.\u201d There\u2019s no doubt that some have tried to match that sleazy energy, but some of the best musicians of the modern age didn\u2019t even bother trying.<\/p>\n

As Jason Bonham said of his father\u2019s performance on the blistering 1971 track, \u201cIt\u2019s the drum intro of the Gods. You could play it anywhere, and people would know it\u2019s John Bonham.\u201d Indeed, it captures his bluster and brooding mix perfectly, a mix that Dave Grohl described as thrilling because you \u201cdidn\u2019t know what was going to happen next \u2013 like he was teetering on the edge of a cliff.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The former Nirvana drummer continued, \u201cNo one has come close to that since, and I don\u2019t think anybody ever will. I think he will forever be the greatest drummer of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the world of hip-hop and beyond, \u2018When the Levee Breaks\u2019 has been a fixture of sampling ever since the first days of scratching records. In fact, this might be one of the most sampled drum breaks this side of James Brown\u2019s \u2018Funky Drummer\u2019, being used on everything from \u2018Rhymin\u2019 and Stealin\u201d by Beastie Boys to Beyonce using it on the song \u2018Don\u2019t Hurt Yourself\u2019 with Jack White.<\/p>\n

Or maybe the endless sampling is just a case of every artist playing it safe. Because even if you get one of the greatest session players alive into the studio to create that kind of groove, no one is going to equal the magic of what the booming Bonham did effortlessly naturally. <\/p>\n

He might have solo\u2019d better on \u2018Moby Dick\u2019, and maybe \u2018Four Sticks\u2019 is more complex, but as far as groove goes, perhaps Plant is right that \u2018When the Levee Breaks\u2019 remains unmatched despite how many people have tried.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> The Far Out Led Zeppelin Newsletter<\/p>\n

All the latest stories about Led Zeppelin from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ John Bonham Thu 18 June 2026 18:45, UK The roar of John Bonham is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,25705,10866,128,23837,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-646923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-john-bonham","tag-led-zeppelin","tag-music","tag-robert-plant","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}