The song Dave Grohl said “changed the world” of drumming
The entire story of Dave Grohl becoming the biggest frontman in modern music would have seemed impossible years ago.
It’s one thing for an artist to face the uphill battle of making their solo career, but the idea of the drummer from any iconic band becoming the biggest name in the group is a lot harder to come by than the lead singer striking out on their own. Even if Grohl had a great love of crafting the perfect song every time he sat down to make a Foo Fighters record, his first love was always going to be getting behind the drum kit.
Aside from being a lead singer, the drums are where Grohl is most carefree. There was a calculated way in which he held back in Nirvana, but whenever he’s playing one of his tunes, he equates his style to something akin to dancing half the time. Sure, there’s a method to it, but not everyone needs to be playing at the top of their game to get the right vibe for a song.
When Grohl finally decided to get out front, he knew enough to realise when something didn’t sound right. That’s the whole reason William Goldsmith was asked to leave in the first place, but when looking at the track record that the singer-drummer has had, could you really blame anyone for not playing up to his standards? He was taking cues from rock gods, and there was no way anyone was going to measure up.
After all, who in their right mind was going to argue with the guy who learned drums by jamming to Rush records in his bedroom. When you start your development listening to Rush, it’s always going to be impossible to pull that off with any other drummer, but beyond the prog legends, John Bonham was always the one person that Grohl followed in the footsteps of every single time he played.
Led Zeppelin may have been the result of the greatest musical minds coming together, but what ‘Bonzo’ did with the drum kit cannot be understated. There was always going to be room for him to fill in the space next to John Paul Jones, but from the first few hits on their debut record, Bonham was making sure that his drums were as important as any lead guitar riff blaring on top of it.
Grohl felt those bass drums hit his chest, and immediately he was head over heels in love, saying, “’Good Times Bad Times’ has the kick drum break that changed the world. If you have any aspirations to be a drummer, songs like [that] are absolutely crucial to you. Even if you can’t play them, you need to know about them”.
It’s not like Grohl was blowing smoke about his favourite band, either, as from the minute that Bonham’s drum hit on that first song, it was constantly pushing the group forward every step of the way. That kind of push-and-pull between ‘Bonzo’ and Jimmy Page is half of the mojo behind Zeppelin, and since both of them weren’t playing exactly on the beat, having Jonesy playing everything straight up the middle is what gave them a bit of unpredictability every time they came out with a new song.
No one ever knew what to expect when they got a Zeppelin record, but for Grohl, that was half the fun of being a fan. There was no way that ‘Bonzo’ could have planned every single thing that he played, but it was almost guaranteed that everyone was going to have the time of their lives listening to him.
