The greatest Led Zeppelin songs written by John Bonham
Drummers often get given a pretty raw deal within the rock and roll world. While percussion is an utterly essential aspect of any decent rock outfit, drummers often have a reputation as being somewhat disposable. Even when it comes to the iconic hard rock progenitors Led Zeppelin, the heaps of praise received by the band are usually directed at the songwriting and guitar mastery of Jimmy Page or the vocal excellence of Robert Plant, but rarely the incredible drumming of John Bonham.
Bonham’s drumming was an essential aspect of Led Zeppelin’s distinctive sound, providing the pioneering hard rock outfit with a seemingly endless deluge of infectious beats. Upon the drummer’s audition for the group, bassist John Paul Jones once recalled, “As soon as I heard John Bonham play, I knew this was going to be great. We locked together as a team immediately.” However, when it came to the songwriting of the group, it was largely Page and Plant who dominated proceedings.
This should not be all that surprising, given Page was the one who started the band in the first place, bolstered by his celebrated work as a session musician and a vital member of blues rock visionaries The Yardbirds. Nevertheless, Page did not pen all those groundbreaking Zeppelin tracks on his lonesome. Throughout their discography, every band member had a hand in composition and songwriting, even Bonham.
Over the course of their celebrated discography, Bonham was credited as a songwriter on a total of 24 Led Zeppelin tracks. These compositions range from relatively obscure live tracks like ‘Sunshine Woman’ to colossal hits like ‘Good Times Bad Times’. While his songwriting might have paled in comparison to that of Jimmy Page, many of the tracks he helped to pen for Led Zeppelin remain beloved rock classics to this day.
The five best songs John Bonham wrote for Led Zeppelin:
‘Bonzo’s Montreux’
Bonham’s drumming has always been pretty awe-inspiring. When viewed in isolation, however, the energy and rhythm of the man is difficult to even comprehend. ‘Bonzo’s Montreux’ is a four-minute drum solo recorded by Bonham during some 1976 sessions in Montreux, Switzerland. Later included on the posthumous release of Coda in 1982, the track remains one of the greatest examples of Bonham’s distinctive playing style.
While the song might not be the most popular Led Zeppelin track out there, it acts as a good exemplar of what Bonham could achieve entirely on his own, away from the influence of Jimmy Page and the rest of the group. ‘Bonzo’s Montreux’ is essential study material for any aspiring drummer.
‘How Many More Times’
Led Zeppelin always knew how to bow-out with style, and the final track from their 1969 debut is a perfect example of that fact. The eight-and-a-half-minute epic ‘How Many More Times’ is, in essence, a homage to the blues rock that had first inspired the band. It is also one of only three tracks from the eponymous album which featured a songwriting credit for Bonham.
Much of the discourse surrounding this track focuses on Page’s innovative use of bowed guitar, but Bonham’s drumming is equally worthy of note. Perfectly encapsulating the energy and improvisational quality of Bonham’s playing style, this track certainly stands out as one of the drummer’s greatest writing contributions to the hard rock outfit.
‘Kashmir’
Arguably Zeppelin’s defining track, ‘Kashmir’ was performed at nearly every live performance by the band following its initial release on 1975’s Physical Graffiti. Written and perfected over three years, the song is incredibly complex, featuring multiple different rhythmic metres, which would have caused many musicians to throw in the towel. Given the prevalence of different metres, Bonham’s drumming was essential to the song’s success.
Although the bulk of ‘Kashmir’ was written by Plant and Page, it simply would not have been the same without the talented percussion laid down by Bonham. In fact, it is that beat that manages to tie the song together. Without it, the track would feel strangely disjointed and lost – darting from one time structure to another without coherence. In essence, that is why Bonham was so important to the sound of Zeppelin; he tied it all together.
‘When the Levee Breaks’
Taken from Led Zeppelin IV, ‘When the Levee Breaks’ is something of a rarity within the discography of Led Zeppelin, seeing the band embrace a style akin to country blues rather than their usual blues-based hard rock. The song was originally penned by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy back in 1929, but Led Zeppelin managed to make the track their own thanks largely to the contributions of John Bonham.
Plant’s vocals were far too similar to the original version of the song to claim any amount of originality, and although Page’s guitar stylings set the new version apart a little, it was still demonstrably a cover song. In the end, it was the innovative percussion contributed by Bonham that allowed Zeppelin to claim the song as one of their own. As a result, the track became a firm fan favourite and one of only two tracks on the album to feature Bonham as a songwriter.
‘Rock and Roll’
Led Zeppelin incorporated various different styles and influences over the course of their time together but, in essence, they were an adrenaline-fueled rock and roll band. As a reflection of this fact, their 1971 track ‘Rock and Roll’ quickly became one of their most recognisable anthems. Reportedly, the song initially arose from a jam session led by, you guessed it, John Bonham.
The story goes that Bonham was riffing on the drum intro to Little Richard’s ‘Keep A-Knockin’, and Page contributed an old-school rockabilly guitar riff, forming the skeletal origins of ‘Rock and Roll’. This incredible origin story perhaps gives some indication to the inclusion of the captivating drum fills performed by Bonham on the track. The drummer certainly had no shortage of highlights during his time with Zeppelin, but ‘Rock and Roll’ was certainly his finest hour.
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