“It doesn’t sound human”: The two tracks that show both sides of John Bonham, according to Dave Grohl
What makes a great drummer? Is it playing to the song or blowing the song out of the water? Well, perhaps John Bonham’s finest quality of all was that he made it clear there isn’t really much of a difference between those two sentiments.
Playing to the song and thundering with ingenuity all the way through it are one and the same when the drums become an integral driving force of explosive anthems. “Bonzo had it all,” Mike Portnoy once said, “somehow walking the fine line between power and finesse, between simple and complex… and he always made the song groove above all.”
David Lovering of the Pixies said the same, telling Consequence, “What would Led Zeppelin be without John Bonham? He was a pioneer, a gifted drummer and a genius.” He was also a stage presence, a soloist, and even scored songwriting contributions.
That makes him a pretty well-rounded force, which is perhaps why his number one fan is another star who spans a giant breadth of music from behind the kit: Dave Grohl. The former Nirvana drummer (who also happens to be a huge Pixies fan) has heaped huge praise on Bonham over the years.
But above all, what he sees in him is something resembling a ‘complete’ drummer, and he identifies two key songs that showcase that: one presents the side “that just doesn’t sound humanly possible”, and the other shows that he could also be “so purely human”.
The first is the flamboyant and bombastic ‘Achilles Last Stand’. Speaking about Bonham’s daring exhibition of skill on the track, Grohl said, “You can tell he’s taking chances as the tape rolls.” Adding, “There’s an amazing kick-drum pattern that propels the track. And there’s one fill right after the first verse that just doesn’t sound humanly possible.”
He’s not alone in this sentiment either. When discussing the searing song from Presence, frontman Robert Plant described it as “us at our least charming, and most proficient – a Bonzo track where nobody could even believe a human could do it.”
At 146 beats per minute, Bonham switches between 5/4 and 4/4 time like a metronome on speed and breezes through fills that bring colour to the hard rock rhythm in a way that effortlessly complements the Moroccan-influenced arpeggios that dominate the melody. That’s too much for one drummer to compositionally comprehend, let alone perform, leading many to think that there were quirks in the mix, but it was all Bonzo at his uncanny best.
Yet, he wasn’t always looking to boggle the mind with his magical fills, and on ‘When The Levee Breaks’, he approached the kit with a bygone soulfulness, honouring the bluesy nature of the old song. In some ways, this is the inverse of the inventive side of Bonham, delving into something more natural and expected, but no less groovy.
“That is a straight groove,” Grohl confirms, “It’s incredible to have a rock drummer that powerful, that crazy, that bad-ass, but with a groove so smooth. It’s so purely human, so fuckin’ smooth, man! It’s pure chocolate fuckin’ sex.” Whatever the hell that means.
Well, it takes one hell of a drummer to draw the compliment of being inhuman and human for the same blubbering fanboy, but somehow the dichotomy perfectly captures Bonzo and his mystic ways.
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