John Bonham seems to have the ideal name for a great drummer, in my opinion. Those three plosive sounds seem to perfectly capture the pounding rock beat that characterized his career with Led Zeppelin, the stadium-sized rock band. This name, which is in 4/4, conjures up an entire era of music history where virtuosity reigned supreme. Furthermore, a musician should have played louder.
Undoubtedly, one of the loudest was Bonham. Just take a listen to “Black Dog” or “When The Levee Breaks.” You’ll understand how his metrical precision and animalistic strength define his style. This was a drummer who could easily hold their own against the incredible vocals of Robert Plant and the massive riffs of Jimmy Page. To put it plainly, he could hit things pretty damn good.
At the age of five, “Bonzo” took up drumming and put together a set of coffee tins and containers to mimic his early drum idols, Max Roach, Buddy Rich, and Elvin Jones. The young Bonham took to the instrument right away and developed an obsession with it. He became so fixated that he started to disregard nearly everything else. This prompted his schoolmaster to declare in a report that he would become either a millionaire or a dustman.
As Jimmy Page was assembling Led Zeppelin, Bonham had already been playing live for a while. After witnessing Bonham perform for Tim Rose at a Hampstead pub, Page was certain that he was the ideal match for him and eventually convinced Bonham to join his band for their new endeavor. As they say, the rest is history.
As one of the most innovative and technically proficient drummers of his era, Bonham is recognized today. While it must have been easy for Bonham to feel he was at the top of the game, he was kept in check by a drummer he considered to be the best drummer of all time. That man was Ginger Baker, the madman of pharmaceuticals and raiser of hell.
For Bonham, Cream’s drummer was the ultimate example of technical mastery. “I don’t think anyone can ever put Ginger Baker down,” Bonham once said about his hero. Baker was undoubtedly among the first drummers to elevate the status of the drum kit. His influence allowed drummers to assume front-and-center roles and even lead bands. While Bonham and a few others have also mentioned Gene Krupa in this context, Baker was the first to do so in a rock setting. As Bonham once remarked, “Before Krupa, people hadn’t paid much attention to drums, and Ginger Baker was responsible for the same thing in rock.”
“I think Baker was more into jazz than rock,” Bonham said, adding, “[Baker] was the first to come out with this ‘new’ attitude — that a drummer could be a forward musician in a rock band and not something that was stuck in the background and forgotten about.” He incorporates jazz into his playing. He consistently acts in 5/4 and three-quarter tempos. Being himself was always Ginger’s thing as a drummer.
Though Baker never really liked John Bonham, the two drummers would eventually cross paths. However, I don’t believe Ginger Baker had a strong affection for anyone besides his musical heroes. At one point, Bonham claimed that “there were only two drummers in British rock ‘n’ roll.” This seemed like an attempt to minimize Ginger Baker’s influence in the music scene. In his autobiography, Baker describes his response as “You cheeky little bastard!”
