The Led Zeppelin song Jeff Buckley taught Tool how to play
While the members of Led Zeppelin were all incredible musicians, that didn’t mean they couldn’t do the simple stuff well. Some of their songs are as straight-ahead blues rock as it gets, while others are complex, multi-part odysseys with intricate time signature changes. Much of that versatility comes down to the brilliance of their rhythm section, with John Bonham and John Paul Jones on drums and bass, respectively.
Those who have covered the works of Led Zeppelin will know how demanding it can be to truly nail their more elaborate works, and at times, even the simple-sounding material can require an enormous amount of musical excellence. Whether it’s a local tribute act or a group of the most accomplished players on the planet, not everyone has it within their capacity to be able to nail a cover of a Led Zep song, and that only goes to further cement why they’re so revered.
Even guitarist Jimmy Page struggled with his own parts at times, with certain solos on record and in live capacities seeming rushed, and with clusters of notes where there shouldn’t be. You only have to listen to the lead break of a song such as ‘Heartbreaker’ to notice that Page was far from flawless, but that’s only because the parts that he was writing for himself to pull off demanded an enormous amount of dexterity to get 100% perfect.
However, those with a supreme knowledge of music theory and technical ability are the sorts of people who you might expect to get the parts of a Led Zeppelin song spot on, but in the case of Tool drummer Danny Carey, one of the band’s most straightforward songs has an intro that had him stumped for years. Considering that Tool are known for forcing complex time signatures and insane musical concepts into their compositions, you’d think that laying down a simple drum beat would be child’s play to Carey, but he couldn’t wrap his head around it until another legendary musician showed him the way.
The opening drum beat of ‘Rock and Roll’ is recognisable for how it seemingly shifts in tempo and time signature after the first few bars, transforming into a rapid 4/4 rock pattern, and for a large portion of his career, Carey had been hearing it incorrectly for years, unable to keep up with the precise pattern that Bonham had laid down. In an interview with music theorist Rick Beato, Carey said he “heard that backwards for so many years,” and couldn’t snap out of thinking of it in the way he’d embedded in his own head.
However, when Jeff Buckley paid him a visit in the studio while he was attempting to nail the beat, he made it plain and simple to Carey, despite it having confused him for many years as well. Speaking to Beato, he claimed that Buckley came in and proclaimed, “hey man, I know what the intro to ‘Rock and Roll’ is now,” before Carey began imitating its rapid, swung metre in the interview. “That’s it! Now I can hear it in my head, but it took a long time to count it that way or hear it in my head. I’ve played that song a million times too, and I just did it wrong.”
While it might seem straightforward upon a cursory listen, it clearly flummoxed two of the most talented musicians who pride themselves on their ability to play complicated musical parts. In fact, it didn’t even require a huge amount of musical knowledge to get the hang of it in the end, it only required a simple shift in perception for it all to fall into place.
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