“Drumming was the only thing I was ever good at.”
- John Bonham
Today was the birthday of John (Bonzo) Bonham (1948), legendary drummer of Led Zeppelin. Rolling Stone magazine voted him “The Greatest Drummer of All Time." I don't know a thing about drumming to argue otherwise, but I have to think almost anyone would put him at or near the top.
He was influenced by jazz drummers like Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa, funk drummers in James Brown's band and by Carmine Appice, a contemporary drummer of his from the group Vanilla Fudge. Bonham blended all those strains into his own special sauce and applied them to create Zeppelin's singular sound. He, in turn, shaped many drummers that came after, like Dave Grohl, Neil Peart and Matt Cameron.
Even for the colossal excesses of the music world in the 60s and 70s, Bonham was a drinker and partier of olympic proportions. On the night of September 24th, 1980, Bonham, having consumed prodigious quantities of vodka, fell asleep alone. Sometime in the early hours of the 25th, he died of pulmonary aspiration. That's the medical term for choking on your own vomit. He was 32. This ignominious passing put him in the company of Jimi Hendrix and AC/DC's Bon Scott who had previously died in the same sad way.
The remaining three members of Zeppelin agreed that they could not continue without Bonham. They called it quits in December of 1980. Led Zeppelin, a band that had attained near mythical status was no longer.
No matter what Zeppelin song you spin, Bonham's presence is as undeniable as gravity.