Led Zeppelin\u2019s golden-haired frontman\u00a0Robert Plant\u00a0once said, \u201cJohn [Bonham] was the greatest drummer in the world. I knew this because he told me so\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aside from that pithy remark, John \u2018Bonzo\u2019 Bonham also told the world that same thing by letting his braggadocio drumming do the talking. He was the thunder that made Led Zeppelin a storm to behold. As Tony Iommi said regarding the subtle but definable difference between Led Zeppelin and his own band, Black Sabbath, \u201cIn some bands, guitars are the thing. But in Led Zeppelin, the drums were the main power behind the band.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This notion was even ratified by Plant, who asserted, \u201cBonzo was the main part of the band. He was the man who made whatever Page, and I wrote basically work, by what he held back, by what he didn\u2019t do to the tempos. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anyone in the world who could replace him.\u201d Hence why they called it a day upon his tragic passing. And that unique style continues to enchant musicians to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Matt Helders of the\u00a0Arctic Monkeys\u00a0once said, \u201cHe\u2019s somebody that I always come back to. [\u2026] A fill he does at the end of the \u2018Moby Dick\u2019 solo \u2013 before the band comes back in. It gives me chills, and that\u2019s no exaggeration. I can hardly even express what it does to me. It\u2019s perfect, absolutely perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, it isn\u2019t the rattle of \u2018Moby Dick\u2019s\u2019 final throes that prised a bombastic comment from Plant. It was another track that he hailed as their most impossible piece of music. When discussing \u2018Achilles Last Stand\u2019 from Presence<\/em>, the frontman described it as \u201cus at our least charming, and most proficient \u2013 a Bonzo track where nobody could even believe a human could do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At 146 beats per minute, Bonham switches between 5\/4 and 4\/4 time like a metronome powered by a jar of Colombian coffee and breezes through fills that bring colour to the hard rock rhythm in a way that effortlessly complements the Moroccan-influenced arpeggios that dominate the melody. If it seems like a hell of a lot is going on in that sentence. That\u2019s because a hell of a lot is going on in the song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plant\u2019s comment now even has a strange AI-adjacent prescience to it, but back then, nobody could believe it was human for entirely different reasons. In fact, even now, the drumming eclipses anything AI could come up with because AI has to invent something new simply by assimilating what has come before, so the uniqueness of Bonham\u2019s beat here would certainly have it stumped. It doesn\u2019t seem to draw from anywhere or anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wrapping up just shy of 11 minutes, the volley is also a testament to Bonham\u2019s endurance. He might be a thunder of drums, but he\u2019s far from a passing storm. His ability to sustain not only his fury but also his innovation while never impeaching upon the crux of what Plant and Page were trying to do is something that goes near unrivalled in rock. As Plant would quip, it\u2019s almost barely human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This sentiment rubbishes\u00a0Keith Richards\u2019 criticism\u00a0when he alleged, \u201cI love Jimmy Page, but as a band, no, with John Bonham thundering down the highway in an uncontrolled 18-wheeler. He had cornered the market there.\u201d If it\u2019s 11 minutes of solid rattling innovation, then surely that\u2019s the height of control? He might have been heavy, but there was great artistry to his craft, like a tap-dancing giant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fact that this anthropomorphised octopus behind the kit lays this drum track down on a song that quotes William Blake and transposes Flamenco guitar to rock stylings is also a mark of\u00a0Led Zeppelin\u2019s excellence. There is so much going on that the brew they served up was always bound to be interesting.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n