“Sexy, held-back groove”: Robert Plant picks John Bonham’s most refined performance
Keith Richards has never been known for his kindly ways. So, it’s no surprise that even found room to be cutting about John Bonham. “As a band, I felt aptly named, it never took off for me musically,“ he said on his website. “At the same time, Jimmy Page is one of the best guitar players I’ve ever known. Bonham was a hell of a powerhouse drummer, although I think he’s kind of heavy-handed, myself — that’s when the ‘Led’ comes in.”
In truth, that’s pretty much the only way you could criticise John Bonham. He eclipsed all his peers in just about every department, so the only recourse left for any naysayers was to look at his most bombastic strength – his unrivalled power – and opine that he was overdoing it. He was the proverbial thunder of drums, and for many, that was an exhibition of the height of the art form in a rock ‘n’ roll setting, but for a select few, it was an open door for criticism.
However, Robert Plant would point these rare critics towards the anthem that he thinks defines him best. When speaking to Vulture about the songs that remind him most of the late sticksmith and his otherworldly ability, the vocalist commented, “I could say ‘When the Levee Breaks’. It was an absolutely stunning recording.”
The song, from the band’s fourth album, features Bonham in a waltzing mode. He grapples with the old blues classic in an extremely refined and modernist way, showcasing that beneath the power and prowess, there was also a great deal of discerning. As Plant continues, “John is playing such a sexy, ridiculously laid-back and held-back groove — he bought us a lot of credits when sometimes we were the guys at the front of the band and behaving a little coquettish.”
At its core, the performance is just a basic straight eighth rock beat, which grounds the track in its original routes while the rest of the group gets inventive. But he also subverts this simplicity with moments of quirky syncopation and ghosted notes. So, even at his most “held-back”, he’s still delivering something that only he could.
Then there’s the aftercare of the groove. In order to get the howl from the past motif he was going for, Bonham’s beat was actually recorded in a stairwell at Headley Grange with the microphones planted three stories above him. This creates a novel organic echo chamber that really layers the song with immense character, all driven by his ghostly position in the rear view of the mystic melody.
It defines his majesty and exemplifies the control he was capable of. As Jason Bonham proudly told Q, “It’s the drum intro of the Gods. You could play it anywhere and people would know it’s John Bonham. I never had the chance to tell dad how amazing he was – he was just dad.” That original is the product of caring for every aspect of the drumming without overriding what the rest of the group were doing.
As the engineer Andy Johns said of Bonham’s innovation, “I had never heard anything like it, and the drum sound was quite spectacular.” Not bad for an old powerhouse. Seen through different eyes to the cutting Keefs’, maybe bringing the ‘Led’ to Led Zeppelin is the height of praise.
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