BY STANTON MOORE
I want to be clear right off the bat that I don’t intend any of this information to detract from the legend of John Bonham. On the contrary, actually, Bonham is in my top three favorite drummers of all time. Everyone has influences. Bonham just drew from some of the coolest and hippest sources to create his own distinct, highly informed style. Knowing where some of his ideas came from and investigating those sources for myself has helped me understand Bonham on a much deeper level and has actually increased my respect and admiration for him. Special thanks to Tony McLung, Mike Dillon, Garry Allcock, and Geoff Nicholls, whose book John Bonham: A Thunder Of Drums, which he cowrote with Chris Welch, was a huge inspiration.
Elvin Jones
Ginger Baker, Carmine Appice, and other rock drummers may have played the RLF triplets before Bonham made them famous, but you can trace this idea back even further. You can hear Elvin Jones playing pre-Bonham Bonhamesque triplets on the Larry Young record Unity (1965) on the song “Softly As In A Morning Sunrise.” Listen at the end of the tune at 6:10.
Max Roach
At the beginning of his “Moby Dick” (1969) solo, Bonham often quotes Max Roach’s “The Drum Also Waltzes” (1966). Check out the YouTube clip titled “LED ZEPPELIN London Live 1970 – Moby Dick & Drums Solo by BONZO.” He begins his solo at around 0:40 by quoting the beginning of “The Drum Also Waltzes.”
Papa Jo Jones/Joe Morello
Bonham’s penchant for playing with his hands was definitely influenced by these two cats. YouTube Papa Jo’s 1957 solo and “Joe Morello – 1961 Drum Solo.” Check out some of the similar ideas, especially Morello’s triplet around 0:37!
Earl Palmer/Charles Connor
The opening to “Rock And Roll” is directly “borrowed” from Charles Connor’s intro to Little Richard’s “You Keep A-Knockin’” (1956). Bonham was a huge Earl Pamer fan. Earl played on most of the early Little Richard studio sessions, But Charles Connor played on this one. I’m pretty sure Bonham thought it was Earl. The “Rock And Roll” intro is also very similar (maybe even more so) to Earl Palmer’s intro to the Eddie Cochran tune “Somethin’ Else” (1959).
Bernard Purdie
It’s obvious that Bonham drew inspiration from Bernard Purdie’s famous shuffle from Steely Dan’s “Home At Last” off the Aja album (1977) for “Fool In The Rain.” But check this out, in 1968, before he joined Led Zeppelin, Bonham toured with a UK artist named Tim Rose. The album that they were touring on was recorded in 1967 with who on drums? Bernard Purdie! Check out “Whole Lotta Love” off Led Zeppelin II (1969) for some other specific “Purdie-isms.”
Clyde Stubblefield
Also, to me “Whole Lotta Love” is very similar to the second bar of Clyde Stubblefield’s groove on James Brown’s “Cold Sweat” (1967).