John Bonham’s two greatest Led Zeppelin performances, according to Robert Plant
Satan and the world of rock ‘n’ roll have always been somewhat connected. Led Zeppelin are no exception to this rule.
What’s interesting about Led Zeppelin being linked with the devil, though, is the reason that such a connection was made. A lot of rock bands didn’t shy away from satanism; they saw the connection and played into it. Look at AC/DC with ‘Highway to Hell’ or acts like Alice Cooper, who performed in a way that could only be described as demonic; however, Led Zeppelin didn’t do anything close to these extremes.
If anything, the band were the opposite, as their songs were often injected with themes of peace and heaven. Look at a track like ‘Stairway to Heaven’ which didn’t have a hidden meaning, but instead had themes of optimism and hope embedded into it. While they didn’t play into the demonic imagery of rock, people still connected them with beelzebub, because their talent seemed so otherworldly that ties with Satan were the only way to explain it.
Jack Black once joked about this when he was giving a speech about the musical magnitude of Led Zeppelin. “They say that Led Zeppelin sold their souls to Satan. Come on guys, you know you did! There’s no other way to explain your ungodly talent,” said Black, “I just wanna say thank you because while you’re in hell, the human race will cherish your heavenly jams until the end of time.”
While this seems like a harmless joke, it is the way a lot of people thought at the time. They heard the relentless rock of Led Zeppelin and couldn’t believe that the people making such a sound were of the same species. A deal with the devil was the only way to explain such talent. Well, there’s that, or maybe they just all came together through a love of music, creative desperation and a little bit of luck.
It’s hard to believe that chance played such a crucial role in putting together one of the most influential rock bands of all time, but it really did. Jimmy Page had the idea for the band after working with The Yardbirds and as a session musician for some time. His exposure to a range of genres gave him the idea to try and merge a range of them, but keep rock as the all-encompassing sound. It sounds good, but that wasn’t going to come easy, as he had to find the right bandmates.
They all came one after the other. John Paul Jones joined because he was familiar with Page and heard he was starting a band. Meanwhile, Robert Plant and John Bonham were introduced because all of the London singers and drummers were busy with other projects. Page was told by a friend of a friend that there were some great artists in Birmingham, which led to the guitarist discovering the band members he would go on to make history with.
The band probably wouldn’t have worked had it not been for such a great group of musical minds coming together. Their talent wasn’t just in their exuberance, but also in the fact that they knew when to withdraw. Each band member was capable of producing crazy sounds, but if they all did it all the time, their music would have become totally inaccessible. It was this ability to give his all and pull things back that made John Bonham such an exceptional musical talent. When talking about his best outings, Robert Plant picked two songs where Bonham read the track incredibly well and understood what he needed to do to bring out the best in the entire band, rather than just in his performance.
“‘Kashmir’, say, or ‘Song Remains The Same’. It’s the drummer that makes it,” he said, “Because Bonzo didn’t start flailing around like a demented octopus, like everybody else was doing at the time. I think he and Page were real close on the riffs and what he didn’t play.”
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