(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Thu 4 December 2025 21:38, UK
From the moment he left The Yardbirds, Jimmy Page had a clear vision for what he wanted Led Zeppelin to be.
He had spent years in the session scene playing what everyone wanted him to play, and when listening to the first few bars of ‘Good Times Bad Times’, it was like he finally had the opportunity to roam free and play whatever kind of blues he wanted without having to worry about singles. This was a sea change going on in rock and roll, but it wasn’t like everybody was on board with them.
Then again, it’s not required by law that every single rock and roll fan needs to like Led Zeppelin. There are definitely certain listeners that would much rather gravitate to what The Beatles or The Rolling Stones were doing around this time, but when you listen to the first opening bars of ‘Whole Lotta Love’, you can hear the beginnings of what the 1970s were going to sound like in Page’s licks.
But even though Page was the ringmaster, the band was the epitome of a democracy. The basis of a song might start with Page’s lick or something that John Paul Jones came up with, but if it didn’t have John Bonham’s pummelling drums or Robert Plant wailing over the top of everything, it would cease to be perfect half the time they play. Each of them had their own role, and if Page was the brains, Bonham was the band’s beating heart.
Did he have a few times where he went overboard playing a drum solo? Absolutely, but no one needed to complain for a second whenever he got behind the kit. Even if the band were four guys pushing rock and roll forward, Bonzo could have been just as entertaining if you gave him nothing but a tambourine, but some of his heroes were never all that enamoured with what the drummer was playing.
Although Ginger Baker claimed that Bonham could never swing his drums, Page felt that the Cream drummer was merely jealous of what Zeppelin had done, saying, “I was a bit disappointed by that. His criticism was that Bonham didn’t swing. I was like, ‘Oh, Ginger. That’s the only thing that’s undeniable about Bonham.’ I thought that was stupid. That was a really silly thing of him to say.” And when listening to those later records, it’s clear that Bonham swung better than anyone else.
Whereas most drummers may have got to where they are through brute force, Bonham would always have a pocket whenever he played. Just listen to the way that the drums fit into the mix on ‘When the Levee Breaks’ or the shuffling beat in the middle of ‘Fool in the Rain’. That’s not done by someone who didn’t have a strong sense of feel, but Baker was always coming from a different world.
Because, really, Baker was never a rock and roll drummer at all. He was a jazz drummer throughout most of his career, so when listening to people like Ringo Starr and John Bonham play drums, it was clear that they weren’t trying to maintain their musicianship on the same level as people like Gene Krupa or Buddy Rich. They served the song, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing at all.
If anything, it’s a musician’s biggest strength to lay back every now and again the same way Bonham did. He was a heavy hitter until the day he died, but what made him the greatest rock and roll drummer on the planet was his ability to absolutely demolish his kit and then find a way to bring a song down at the right time.
Related Topics