Hardest Led Zep song on drums and why

Toolate

Platinum Member
"I cant quit you babe" gets my vote. Thought it might make sense to have your answer up top.

THere are so many- moby dick is too easy an answer so lets leave that out.

I have been listening to it and it is killer. Swung in parts, stupid fast kkhats triplets like someone else is playing them, enormous swings in overall dynamics, mini fills 2x a bar, and a generally slow tempo so you really have to have some restraint and good time. Its the proverbial drumming gauntlet.

Would love to see a good cover of this if anyone has done one. I might in 10 years after I practice it all day every day..

What do you think?


(Hope no one quits after reading this)
 
another Zeppelin thread

I quit!!!!!

please beg me to stay!!!!
 
LMAO!!!

Arrrrrrrgh!

I've been trying to do that triplet on the bass drum JB does in Good times Bad times since I started playing. Still can't get it right.

I'm sure there's more. Rock n roll must be a hard song to play because nobody seems to play it quite right. At least not the cover bands that I've heard. I play it good though so don't worry about that.
 
My vote is Achilles last stand ....the first main fill in the beginning 2 min. Of the tune is worth a listen alone.

Bonzolead
 
My vote is Achilles last stand ....the first main fill in the beginning 2 min. Of the tune is worth a listen alone.

Bonzolead
+1. Made me work like a B*$%@&$ to learn it ....
 
Nobody's Fault is killer. I wouldn't even bother.

Achilles Last Stand
- after 32 bars I'm ready to for a stretcher.

But I can't play any Zep songs the way Bonzo does, not even close.
 
Fool in the rain has always been a toughy for me. I find the main beat really difficult, also the single foot triplets in the beginning of 'Good times, Bad times' is a killer.
 
"I cant quit you babe" gets my vote. Thought it might make sense to have your answer up top.

THere are so many- moby dick is too easy an answer so lets leave that out.

I have been listening to it and it is killer. Swung in parts, stupid fast kkhats triplets like someone else is playing them, enormous swings in overall dynamics, mini fills 2x a bar, and a generally slow tempo so you really have to have some restraint and good time. Its the proverbial drumming gauntlet.

Would love to see a good cover of this if anyone has done one. I might in 10 years after I practice it all day every day..

What do you think?


(Hope no one quits after reading this)
I reckon someone with a good feel for 12/8s and triplet time would get it done reasonably easy. The main groove's not complex, then work out some of the fills and you'd have 80% pretty quickly. I've got that double kick bit after the guitar solo written down somewhere.
 
Nobodys Fault seems more like a time excercise than a super challenging beat. Whats your issue with it? Listen to I cant quit you babe- there doesnt ever seem to be a pattern to any of it. Not to my ear anyway.

I dont even hear the fill in Achilles? WHen exactly?
 
Nobodys Fault seems more like a time excercise than a super challenging beat. Whats your issue with it?

Play with it and try to get it right and sitting well. You rarely get the chance to settle down.

Try covering it and posting the result MWUHAHAHA :)


Listen to I cant quit you babe- there doesnt ever seem to be a pattern to any of it. Not to my ear anyway.

Which bit? Apart from the accents at the end of the progression, for much of the song he's just playing time and tosses in a few fills. There's those tasty double kicks you mentioned but if you missed it and just played good clean time it would be no tragedy.


I dont even hear the fill in Achilles? WHen exactly?

Here's the fill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6S9oqJRclo#t=74s
 
Four sticks, its got weird timing and a feel on top of that ostinato on hats thats tough to copy. I've heard they didn't play it live really and that it might actually be 2 drum parts combined. Never even seen anyone try to play it.
 
Four sticks, its got weird timing and a feel on top of that ostinato on hats thats tough to copy. I've heard they didn't play it live really and that it might actually be 2 drum parts combined. Never even seen anyone try to play it.

From the Mick Wall biography:

"There was only one track on which the band consistently struggled and which they eventually came close to abandoning completely before a suitably 'refreshed' Bonzo came to the rescue, and which they consequently named after him - 'Four Sticks'. Based on Page's idea of creating a riff-based song based on a trancelike Indian raga, fluctuating between five- and six-beat meters, the band simply couldn't nail it until Bonham - returning in the early hours from a night out in London - downed a can of Double Diamond beer then picked up two drumsticks in each hand and laid the track down in just two takes.

And from the same source, Four Sticks was 'attempted' once only live, at least by LZ, at the K B Hallen, Copenhagen, 3rd May 1971. I may be wrong but I think Robert Plant used to do a version with one of his later bands.

I tried it once but I just couldn't keep the other two sticks between my toes.
 
Nobodys Fault seems more like a time excercise than a super challenging beat. Whats your issue with it? Listen to I cant quit you babe- there doesnt ever seem to be a pattern to any of it. Not to my ear anyway.

I dont even hear the fill in Achilles? WHen exactly?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF3DCq1B09g

Here you go the fill is @ 1:16 into the tune don't know how you could've missed it..lol

I also think "In my time of dying" the middle section of the tune..great Bonham indeed.

Bonzolead
 
Wanton song.. Have seen a few killer zep cover bands and have yet to hear anyone come close to the bd fill at :12. And :23 and a few other places too. So fast I find it hard to believe he did it with a single pedal.

Another vote for in my time of dying as well.. What a killer drum song
 
Fool in the rain has always been a toughy for me. I find the main beat really difficult

This kind of 1/2 time shuffle can be very tricky to pull off - especially getting the dynamic between the ghosts and rim shots right on the money. Although Fool in the Rain is not as fast as Rosanna - it ain't a walk in the park, not forgetting that wacky samba stuff in the middle [though that was admittedly recorded separately].

What always impresses me is that Bonzo could knock out those fast tuplets with a squeaky old Speed King. When you consider how much money and effort people spend on trying to find faster-than-light pedals these days it all seems rather superfluous.
 
Play with it and try to get it right and sitting well. You rarely get the chance to settle down.

Try covering it and posting the result MWUHAHAHA :)




Which bit? Apart from the accents at the end of the progression, for much of the song he's just playing time and tosses in a few fills. There's those tasty double kicks you mentioned but if you missed it and just played good clean time it would be no tragedy.




Here's the fill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6S9oqJRclo#t=74s
Didn't. mean to step on your toes Polly..I realized you replied after I did..haha

Still couldn't. believe he didn't. know what fill..lol and too think Robert Plant did all the vocal tracks on "Presence" from a wheelchair & it's one of my fav's because most of the tracks you don't. hear on the radio "Tea for One" while it's fairly easy is still a killer slow blues.

Bonzolead
 
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