John Bonham

And I'll just add this. Drinking will kill you. It did John, and so many, many others. We do what we do, but we need to remain stabilized. Music in general, and drumming in particular, is best enjoyed in a clear-headed and sober state.

One drink you say. I'm sure John's drinking escalated, he died a mortal in drunkenness. Don't evade the facts. Drinking devours the body, and John was not immortal.

He died a horrible death.

On that note.....I'm off for a beer!!
 
Any pictures of those good times?

A story about the man himself :

Many years ago, around 1970 ish, a fellow drummer friend of mine decided to do a marathon drum playing session for charity. There was only him and his helpers. It was set up in a room at Stourbridge Cricket Club ( West Midlands UK ) and was expected to last a few days. He used his kit and borrowed mine as well so as to have plenty of variety.

One of our close friends was Martin Lickert who at the time was chauffeur to Ringo Star. Martin arranged to bring John Bonham to visit us during the event to give support.

He duly came and stayed a couple of hours, firstly talking drums then sat behind our improvised double kit and while my friend just played the ride to keep his marathon going, John treated us to his hands only section of Moby Dick, answered questions and showed us anything we wanted to know.

I stood right behind his right shoulder while he played my kit talking to him as he played. Later we sat and had a pint, just one !

He talked drummer to drummer, a real nice, down to earth man, and I was very privileged that day, although I didn’t really know it at the time. All I have left of that kit is a cymbal and somewhere a press cutting of the event.

People knock him sometimes and say he wasn’t a nice person. I met him and he was just one of the lads, a genuine guy who was quite willing to come and support us mortals, to play and talk drums.
 
The local press were there and somewhere I have the news cutting. Will have to search and will also ask the marathon drummer mate if he has anything. Will scan and post it if possible.
 
I also forgot to mention Cozy Powell. Powell and Bonham were good friends and he was another peer of Bonzo's that he respected as well. And yes Carmine was another peer that he respected, when Vanilla Fudge was the headliner for one Zeppelins first tours Carmine and Bonzo were always trading ideas. And Carmine is responsible for getting Bonham the Ludwig endorsement.

An interesting note, that after Bonham's death Cozy Powell was the only drummer that Zep considered as a replacement, for various reasons, before deciding to not carry on.
 
In my opion one of the greatest drummers of all time, Fool In The Rain, When The Levee Breaks, Poor Tom all great grooves. Moby Dick...out of this world and Good Times Bad Times with all the triplets and his lightning fast foot. And D'yer Maker the very first Zeppelin song i could play. One thing i loved about John Bonham is that all his drums seem to fit in the song. Any other comments on John Bonham


p.s. My first post :)

I think John is simple yet complex. He's got a great GREAT bass foot. and his grooves are amazing. a great example of the "simple yet complex" idea is the amazing Kashmir. Simple yet complex. thats how amazing he is. :)
 
I think John is simple yet complex. He's got a great GREAT bass foot. and his grooves are amazing. a great example of the "simple yet complex" idea is the amazing Kashmir. Simple yet complex. thats how amazing he is. :)
and complex listen too "the Crunge" & "Achilles Last Stand" no over the top complex but jammin' none the less.

Bonzolead
 
Bonham had a really well balanced mix of feel and complexity/technicality. He added in just the right amount of technical stuff to make a groove into something special.
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"When the going gets tough, the tough get going!"

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He was absolutely using a single pedal. Ludwig Speed King in fact. Double pedals were not comercially available until many years after his death.
 
Mr. Bonham was not addict to double bass drum, in fact he only played it once but the rest of the Zeps nerver liked it. As far as twin pedal usage, at that time, era is hard to believe.

Out of the subject: not even Ian Paice used twin pedal at that time. He only played double bass drum for the song "Fireball".
 
Does anyone know if John used a wood beater, or a felt beater on his Speed King? I only ask because I've heard a few rumors it was wooden, and when I met Jason, he used one wooden beater, and one felt beater on his DW8002 pedals.
 
Of coarse he's playing with a single pedal. It's tough even for naturals to learn; to give you an idea of how tough, his own son has to use double pedals; he can't even play his dad's music with a single.

I remit you to my post below. Bonham is a nice drummer; but by NO means fast. Have you heard any drummers in the past...30 years? Jason can easily play what Bonham plays with a single, heck, 90% of professional drummers can. If he says otherwise, or uses a double pedal for single parts (which I doubt), it's probably just to elevate his father's playing.
As I said in my original post, can you *really* not do it? Then it's you who's more special than Bonham in regards to bass drum speed.
 
I remit you to my post below. Bonham is a nice drummer; but by NO means fast. Have you heard any drummers in the past...30 years? Jason can easily play what Bonham plays with a single, heck, 90% of professional drummers can. If he says otherwise, or uses a double pedal for single parts (which I doubt), it's probably just to elevate his father's playing.
As I said in my original post, can you *really* not do it? Then it's you who's more special than Bonham.

His foot is fast. And, I highly doubt 90% can do what he did. And as far as Jason, he doesn't use double for single parts, but mainly just in the fills. He only told me from his own mouth he couldn't do everything his dad did with a single. That's why I said that.
 
His foot is fast. And, I highly doubt 90% can do what he did. And as far as Jason, he doesn't use double for single parts, but mainly just in the fills. He only told me from his own mouth he couldn't do everything his dad did with a single. That's why I said that.

Mike Mangini

Steve Smith

Jason Bonham

Some YouTube unknown

Just type for a drum cover of that one, pretty much everyone who isn't a beginner gets it right. What does Bonham really play faster than that part in GTBT? Even faster stuff was and is being done constantly.
I think it's actually negative to Bonham's reputation to go on and on about bass drum speed, when he should be taken into account for so many other things.
As for Jason, yeah he's got a video in which he explains his "left hand isn't as strong as his father's was" or something like that. But really, he's a professional, do you honestly believe there's something stopping him from practicing for a couple of months and getting a 5 times stronger hand than Bonham? I am pretty sure, as I said before, that Jason just likes to honor and elevate his father everytime he's talking about him; as I don't see any other explanation to this.
And yeah, I know those guys hardly constitute 90% of all professional drummers, but not all sessionists and so got youtube videos playing relatively fast on the single pedal; doesn't mean they can't (easily) do it.


Fox.
 
Mike Mangini

Steve Smith

Jason Bonham

Some YouTube unknown

Just type for a drum cover of that one, pretty much everyone who isn't a beginner gets it right. What does Bonham really play faster than that part in GTBT? Even faster stuff was and is being done constantly.
I think it's actually negative to Bonham's reputation to go on and on about bass drum speed, when he should be taken into account for so many other things.
As for Jason, yeah he's got a video in which he explains his "left hand isn't as strong as his father's was" or something like that. But really, he's a professional, do you honestly believe there's something stopping him from practicing for a couple of months and getting a 5 times stronger hand than Bonham? I am pretty sure, as I said before, that Jason just likes to honor and elevate his father everytime he's talking about him; as I don't see any other explanation to this.
And yeah, I know those guys hardly constitute 90% of all professional drummers, but not all sessionists and so got youtube videos playing relatively fast on the single pedal; doesn't mean they can't (easily) do it.


Fox.

John had great speed with his bass, nothing negative could come from it. And yes a lot of other drummers could do it, but he was the one who did it first with a single pedal.

And you're really not getting it, Jason said he can't do everything his dad did on the bass.. He even said "I've tried and tried."

No-one will ever reach John's level entirely.
 
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