John Bonham

John Bonham
John Bonham was the ultimate definition of a rock drummer and the stalwart backbeat to Led Zeppelin, considered by many as the best rock group of all time. When the Yardbirds crashed and burned in 1968 Jimmy Page was left with the rights to the name and a string of concert dates to fulfill. Page first hooked up with session bassist John Paul Jones. After a couple of jams they backed Donovan on his “Hurdy Gurdy” Album. Page then began to hunt for a lead singer. Page tried to recruit Terry Reid of Procol Harum who declined the invo but recommended “Robert Plant”. So they set out to find this mysterious lead singer known as “The Mohican”. What they found in Plant was a powerful vocalist with incredible range and charismatic stage presence. Plant suggested John Bonham from his old Birmingham group “Band of Joy”. Bonham was a pounder, he worked construction most of his life and was very strong. He used large oversized drumsticks which punctuated his trademark booming blasts. The boys got together and were tinkering around trying to pick a song to play and settled on “train kept a rollin'”. By the end of the song everyone was completely astounded. They also reworked a Yardbirds tune called “I’m Confused” into “Dazed and Confused”. They played their first live debut at Surrey University on October 15th, 1968. The group then embarked on a tour of Scandinavia under the name “The New Yardbirds”. By the time they returned to England they were known as “Led Zeppelin”. (Coined by Keith Moon, who said “there going to go down like a lead zeppelin, although one rabid DEATH ROCK fan insists it was Jeff Beck who suggested the title while mulling around in the studio with Moon and Page). The band then signed on with Peter Grant , one of the most notoriously shrewd managers in the history of rock and roll. Grants deals would later make Zeppelin ( and himself) extremely rich. Grant wanted his boys to sign with “Atlantic” but Epic owned their contract, until a loop hole was discovered. Jimmy Page had never penned his name to the contract ! They recorded their debut album in 30 hours. Atlantic was floored by this new “power blues outfit” and Grant secured a lucrative world wide deal. Zep released their debut album in March of 1969 and with little or no promotion it had crawled into the top ten spot on Billboard within two months. The album contained reworkings of some Willie Dixon tunes plus the classics “Good Times Bad Times” and “Communication Breakdown”. Zeps first US tour was opening for the “Vanilla Fudge”. But Zep was soon to be headliners. In October of 1969 the boys released “Led Zeppelin II” and established themselves as bonifide superstars and gave birth to the term “heavy metal”. Led Zep II contained such classics as “Whole Lotta Love”,”Heartbreaker”, “Living Lovin’ Maid” and “The Lemon Song” and the Bonzo Bash “Moby Dick”. In October 1970 “Led Zeppelin III” was released, a collection of Crosby, Stills and Nash type tunes it left most Zep fans confused and pissed off, although it did contain the single “Immigrant Song”. At this point is when Zep shifted from the “power blues” format and began developing a new format. This format manifested itself with the release of November 71’s Led Zeppelin four. Although actually untitled it became known as the “ZOSO” album. Depending on your taste buds, “ZOSO” is considered Zeps finest. This is a matter of rock critic opinion of course. “ZOSO” also contained one of rocks greatest songs “Stairway To Heaven”. This and Skynyrd’s “Freebird” were the rock anthems of the 70’s. April 1973 saw the release of “Houses of the Holy” and the accompanying tour was filmed. The tour broke box office records previously set by the Beatles. In 1974 Zep formed it’s own label “Swan Song”. In March of 1975 Zep released the two record set “Physical Graffitti” which reached number one by August of 75. Personally I found it plodding and hard to listen to. Although I did make it through the whole thing once but it took 5 giant size magic mushrooms and a bottle of Jack. Ok..now back to the arts. The Zep machine began to wind down in 1975. Plant was sidelined with a back injury sustained in a car accident. The Zep party machine did not though, by now of course “Bonzo” had been hitting the sauce pretty good. In April of 1976 Zep released the disappointing “Presence”. Not even mushrooms could help this one. The resulting tour was canceled due to the death of Plant’s son Karac. GRIM REAPER MOMENT – The only time I saw Zep was during this tour. We made the trek up from Miami to Tampa in a 74 Mercury Montego listening to the 8-track “Fleetwood Mac Rumours”. By the time we got into Tampa Stadium it must of been 100 degrees. We got burned on Quaaludes, Mescaline and Pink THC. The chick I was with said she was going backstage and would be right back, I never saw her again. As soon as Zep came out to perform a big black cloud engulfed Tampa Stadium. They played three songs from an album I didn’t even like and it started pouring. although the rain subsided in 10 minutes Zep got into there limo’s and bolted. 70,000 people rioted. Bottles thrown everywhere, fist fights breaking out…while we were fleeing for our lives I stumbled across a couple fornicating in the mud. On the way back the guy sitting in the front passenger seat starting mooning passing vehicles. Close to Ft. Myers on highway 41 we all got arrested by Florida State Troopers. I guess the Zep bad karma at the time rubbed off a little on all of us.THE END OF A GRIM REAPER MOMENT In October of 1976 with the band in limbo they released “The Song Remains The Same” recorded during the 73 tour with accompanying rockumentary film. A two record set it contained overblown versions of Zep tunes. One whole side was “Dazed and Confused”. This kept the Zep fans at bay but internally disinterest was mounting in the band. “Bonzo” was actually into raising cattle but was more into raising the bottle and his alcohol binges were becoming more frequent. Led Zep was then inactive for a year and a half and Zep fans began to wonder if they would continue.Then in late 1978 the group began work on “In Thru The Out Door”. The record was mainly put together by Plant and Jones as Bonham and Page would rarely show-up. Released in August of 1979 “In Thru the Out Door” showed a mellower Zeppelin but overall was a decent album and garnered FM airplay with “In The Evening”,”Fool in The Rain” and “All of My Love”. Zep embarked on an European tour and were preparing for a US tour when on September 25th, 1980 “Bonzo” was found dead at Page’s house of what was described as asphyxiation,he inhaled his own vomit after excessive vodka comsumption. (rumour has it at over 30 shots). On December 4th, 1980 Jimmy Page released a statement that they could no longer continue as they were. John “Bonzo” Bonham was 32 years old.