Chords for What Makes John Bonham Such a Good Drummer?

Led Zeppelin stormed onto the music scene in 1968.
[F] Their raucous [E] take on rock and roll redefined the genre and made them the biggest band on earth for the better part of a decade.
[D] Though every member of the band was musically gifted, there was one who laid down [Dm] a rock-solid foundation for the group to grow on.
[E] Ask anyone in the band where their powerful [Am] sound came from and they'd all give you the same answer.
[Em] Drummer John Bonham.
Let's take a look at what [E] made Bonzo such a force behind a drum kit.
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_ _ _ What you just heard is the intro to Good Times, Bad [D] Times, the opening track to Led Zeppelin's debut album.
For most of the world, this song was their introduction to John Bonham and from the first listen, his style was evident.
Listen to the bass drum throughout the song.
Instead of playing the bass clean on every beat, Bonham accents the beat with triplets, which spices up the rhythm.
A triplet is a grouping of three notes played within the length usually assigned to one.
Let's give it a listen.
[E] Now we [D] change, that's what you do, all those [Eb] things [E] are messed up, yeah.
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_ [A] _ See how he adds flair to the drum beat by breaking up the rhythm with these triplets?
This kind of groove isn't new, mind you.
Bonham was heavily influenced by jazz [F] musicians like Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich.
It's just that not many drummers had applied this to a rock context until Bonham came along.
Let's give a listen to Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones.
This track was released in 1964, four years before Zeppelin hit the [B] scene.
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_ [D] _ [E] Hear how this drum beat is tight and on top of the beat, giving the song a kind of steady urgency.
Now let's compare that to a John Bonham beat.
Check out Heartbreaker.
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_ [B] _ _ Notice how Bonham plays around with his bass [E] drum, throwing in little accents and just changing the flow of the bar.
It's this kind of laid back rhythm that really helps the band gel with each other and get into a particular kind of groove.
Bonham got the idea for these syncopated grooves by listening to a [Gm] lot of funk music, [Gb] especially James Brown.
This kind of drumming is [Cm] impressive enough on its [E] own, but to truly appreciate John Bonham's greatness, we need to look at the way that he worked with his band.
Ron Nevison was an engineer who worked on several Zeppelin albums.
He said that part of what made the band work so well was the way that Bonzo played along with guitarist Jimmy [G] Page.
The [E] essence to me of the whole Zeppelin thing was John Bonham following the guitar.
He would take the riff and [Gb] he would make that his drum part.
Instead of just doing it 4-4 and getting with the bass player, he got in with the guitar player.
Getting in with the guitar riff helps tighten up and energize Led Zeppelin's sound.
Listen for it here in the Immigrant song. _ _ _
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And here it is again [G] in the Wanton song, this time a little more complicated.
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_ _ _ _ And we'll give you one more example with When the Levee Breaks.
Listen to how Bonham stays tight with Page even when the song changes its phrasing.
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_ _ _ _ _ [Fm] Did you hear it?
This kind of chemistry between the band becomes especially important when they move towards more complex pieces of music.
Let's look at Kashmir for example, one of the [D] band's most iconic songs.
So the drum beat of this song is in 4-4 time, meaning that there are four beats to a bar and a quarter note is worth one beat.
4-4 time is a pretty standard time signature used in a lot of music, especially rock.
However, on top of Bonham's steady 4-4 time, the string and guitar are playing in a 3-4 feel, meaning that there's only three beats to each phrase.
As a result, the drum and string phrases only sync up on the strong beat once every 12 beats.
Let's give it a listen.
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_ _ By mixing the [Bb] time signatures, Zeppelin add a kind of tension [E] to the song, and it really meshes well with the intense feeling of the escalating strings.
In order to do these kind of time signature tricks, the band needs to be rock solid with their rhythm, which comes from Bonham.
This relationship is pushed to its limits in Black Dog.
The song is an acrobatic exercise in time signatures and phrasing, but it keeps a steady rock feel throughout, thanks to Bonham.
One of the most interesting parts of the song is the pre-chorus.
In this section, the guitar and bass riffs actually move by half a beat with each repetition.
The band is effectively playing in 9-8 time over Bonham's 4-4 drums, but you wouldn't know it without a close inspection.
Listen to the way that the guitar hook moves around the drum beat, never matching up in the same part of the [A] bar.
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[Am] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ [C] Did you hear the way that the guitar and bass became out of sync with the drums?
It can almost sound sloppy if you don't realize that every member of the band is working meticulously as a tight unit to create this.
John Paul Jones called the kind of feeling that it creates a stomp groove.
And this kind of groove can't exist without Bonham locking down the beat.
With a less steady drummer, this breakdown could have easily fallen into chaos.
So let's look at one more drum piece.
Fool in the Rain is hands down my favorite Bonham beat, and it's absolutely incredible.
There's a lot going on in this beat, so let's see if we can't break it down.
So first of all, the beat is polyrhythmic, meaning that there are two different rhythms happening simultaneously.
One of the rhythms comes from the hi-hat, where Bonham lays down steady triplets, opening and closing the hats for emphasis on certain notes.
He complements this with ghost notes on the snare, notes that are barely audible and more meant to provide a feel to the song than anything else.
Beneath this comes the second rhythm, where Bonham plays a swung half-time shuffle on his bass and snare.
As if the beat wasn't enough, the piano and guitar lines are playing in 12-8 time over the 4-4 beat.
This gives a syncopated triplet feel to the song that's impossible not to get with.
Let's give it a listen.
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_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ [F] John Bonham was a truly one-of-a-kind drummer, and his steady foundation helped Led Zeppelin do incredible things [G] musically.
[C] Even in this video, [F] I've only begun to scratch the surface [C] of what made him such a great drummer.
So next time you're spinning Zeppelin, listen a little closer to the drum kit. _ _ _ _
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