RE: Ian Wallace diary on Bonham (DVD) mid-2003

["Chris Hofgren" <chofgren@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

oops, sorry everyone - here it is:

Chris Hofgren
chofgren@xxxxxxxxxxx

----------------------------------------------------

[from Ian Wallace's web site diary]

June 21, 2003   http://diaries.krimson-news.com/IanWallace.shtml

So what?s been happening? Well, I played a gig with Annie Sellick, which I 
enjoyed very much. I think playing jazz may be my most favorite thing. But 
then again, if all I played was jazz then I would miss playing all the other 
stuff. For me, playing just one kind of music would be like eating just one 
type of food day in day out. Then again, if I did the Desert Island Disc 
thing, and I only had one record to choose it would have to be Miles Davis? 
Four and More. Oh, and the food would be sushi!

Last Sunday we went over to our friend Brain?s house just up the road for a 
wee party. Brain also has a studio in his house and we know many of the same 
people. Rick Kurtz was there and one of my fine drumming friends; Brian 
Owings. After much food was consumed, we sat down to watch the Led Zeppelin 
DVD. I liked it so much that I went out and bought it later in the week. The 
big eye opener for me was watching John Bonham and I have some thoughts on 
the subject.

The drummer in a band has the terrific and at the same time, terrifying 
responsibility of providing the pulse, the movement, the very heartbeat of 
that animal. They are the center from which all-else springs. That is indeed 
an awesome responsibility. If it is a band without a drummer then that role 
must go to another instrument, thereby making it not just another animal, 
but an entirely different species. And in this particular argument I don?t 
think that applies. I?ve often wondered why drummers are so important, 
especially in rock and jazz. This must be a strange statement coming from 
someone who only ever wanted to be a drummer. But that desire came from the 
very core of my being and it is something I rarely question. But when I do I 
still wonder, ?What is this quality that is so elusive and yet so vital?? 
After all, it?s just someone banging on things and not really making true 
melodic or harmonic notes. Yet this in itself is not true. The drums do 
create certain melodies and harmonies. But melodies and harmonies of a basic 
primordial source when man was still more ape-like than human. Drums are the 
second earliest form of instrument, second only to the human voice and one 
which has not changed too much since the dawn of time. Drums are still 
played using sticks and animal-like skins and pieces of metal. And I think 
that is maybe why, at least in my opinion, electronic drums, no matter how 
sophisticated, cannot touch the sound of real drums, lacking the movement of 
air from the striking of the stick onto the heads etc. But that is another 
subject and I do not want to digress at this time.

I always knew that Bonham was a special player, but after studying these 
DVDs I?ve begun to realize just what a truly sophisticated player he was. 
It?s no wonder Zeppelin ceased to exist when he passed over. There was no 
drummer who could replace him. And I think that was partly because most 
drummers who wanted to be him thought of him as this great behemoth of a 
player on constant maximum velocity and volume. But to my mind after 
watching these DVDs, nothing could be further from the truth. Especially in 
the later stages shown on the second DVD; Madison Square Garden, Earls Court 
and particularly Knebworth where his economy of movement belies the power of 
the sound that emanates from the drum set, and the even and articulate 
separation of his notes in rolls and fills is truly astonishing.

I had the opportunity of meeting him a couple of times. The first time was 
when the band I was in opened for them at the Marquee Club in London in, (I 
think), 1968. It was their first ever gig and they were called the New 
Yardbirds then. We stood backstage behind the drums and talked about drums. 
It was obvious to me that he was just as fanatical about the drums as I was. 
He?d obviously studied the great drummers of the past and it showed in his 
playing and style of playing. Whereas for example, Mitch Mitchell?s style 
came from Elvin Jones, I think Bonham came from Sonny Payne, Jo Jones, Buddy 
Rich and even Gene Krupa. He was a big band drummer playing rock and roll. 
And as deceptive as it was, it was quite sophisticated rock and roll, 
particularly in the tricks of time that Jimmy Page wrote into the music. Two 
examples that come to mind are Kashmir, a quite simple sounding 4/4 from the 
drums over a 3/8 riff. Yet the drums are so solid, playing perfect dynamic 
swinging time. The other is Black Dog, much more complicated in concept and 
Bonham creates a great pattern that is the glue for Page?s ideas. Page loved 
to put those little twists in; dropping a beat here, adding an eighth note 
there, layering songs with polyrhythmic riffs, and Bonham would always come 
up with some interesting groove that would invariably be the simplest common 
denominator. Not an easy thing to pull off. Another master at this is Steve 
Gadd who will find something to play that will seem simple and yet make it 
feel so good that there doesn?t seem to be any other way to play it.

Another thing I saw in his playing was the idea of crossing the bar lines 
when playing fills and displacing beats, (e.g. putting the whole or part of 
a pattern 1/16th of a beat ahead or behind the one). Very effective ideas 
and used by a lot of players today, (even I like to use these concepts), but 
I don?t remember seeing it done in the late sixties and early seventies from 
anyone else. Of course he was blessed with the great musicianship and 
rock-solid bass playing of John Paul Jones. If you can rely on your bass 
player, you can do anything!

I remember a while back reading many newsletters in ET about Bonham being 
just a basher and not a patch on some of the players in the prog scene. I 
didn?t agree with them then and after watching those DVDs I agree with them 
even less. In fact, I?d go as far as to say that they have absolutely no 
idea of what they were saying and they should wipe the drivel from their 
mouths and go back to their day jobs.

It is a great pity he?s not around today. Who knows what he might have 
accomplished. But he was a notorious party animal when on the road and I 
think he was even encouraged to be that way and possibly made to think, like 
Keith Moon, that he had to drink more than anyone else, take more drugs than 
anyone else and be the biggest hell raiser. Who knows? Maybe it comes with 
the territory. A pity.

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