The drummer John Paul Jones thought nobody could match: “Wouldn’t be anybody like him”
Anyone who has done session work is usually aiming to collaborate with the best of the best. It’s no small feat to adapt to countless musicians on the fly and still feel like a natural part of the mix. Before Led Zeppelin had even formed, John Paul Jones was already pushing the boundaries of rock and roll in the psychedelic 1960s. Working with numerous percussionists during that time, he encountered many talents, but by his own measure, nothing could eclipse what John Bonham brought to the table when they finally joined forces.
When looking at the construction of Led Zeppelin, it’s not like they were poised for success right out of the gate. As much as Keith Moon’s crack that their career would falter, which led to their name, having various session musicians and Black Country hopefuls Bonham and Robert Plant coming into the fold should have had cautious optimism at best, considering Jimmy Page was leaving behind The Yardbirds.
But what he wanted to do went far beyond just the traditional bluesy scales. That had been the foundation for what he wanted with these supposed ‘New Yardbirds’, but once everyone locked in on ‘Good Times Bad Times’, they knew that they were working with some of the best tunes that anyone had heard out of England.
There were still some people who didn’t click with it, but no one could argue that Bonzo was a monster behind the kit. Whether it was just laying down a typical 4/4 rhythm or unleashing hell behind the kit, Bonham was practically a well-oiled machine whenever he played, managing to give people like Moon and Ginger Baker a run for their money whenever they attempted their drum solos.
In any rock band, drummers and bassists are like musical brothers, and once Jonesy locked in, he noticed something much different about how Bonham. Each of his hits was slightly behind the beat, and since Page was ahead of the beat, having the bassist lock in right in the middle led to their borderline chaotic sound whenever they performed live.
And once the band decided to call it quits after Bonham died, Jones contested that no one could ever attempt to replace him, saying, “We knew immediately that was the end of Zeppelin. John Bonham wasn’t the drummer of Led Zeppelin he was a quarter of it. We couldn’t just say, ‘We’ll get another drummer’, because a) there wouldn’t be anybody like him and b) it wouldn’t be the same band in the slightest.”
Because when breaking down their music, Zeppelin seemed to be more than just any one person. Page and Plant get a lot of the glory for putting together some of their classic tunes, but if there wasn’t that thunderous presence or Jones adding his lush arrangements to everything, the entire group would have collapsed.
So, really, the fact that the group decided to cut ties with each other wasn’t just out of human respect. It was the hard truth that no one could have possibly hoped to carry on in the same way with that much power.
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