John Bonham of Led Zeppelin

This past Wednesday at the Key Club we opened up the Bonzo: The Groove Remains The Same show, a tribute to John Bonham of Led Zeppelin. Everyone already knows that John Bonham is the greatest rock drummer of all-time, but watching 25 legendary rock drummers perform his songs right in front of you made it all that much easier to realize how incredible the drum parts are.

We thought it would be fun to give our top 5 best Led Zeppelin songs based on John Bonham’s drum parts. It’s basically impossible to distill his work down to only five songs, but we’re gonna give it a try anyway.

5. Good Times, Bad Times

"Good Times, Bad Times" from Led Zeppelin I

It seems fitting to start this list with album one, side one, track one. Led Zeppelin kicked off their debut album with a song that features a simply amazing drum part. First and foremost, it’s just a cool part all-around, with interesting and unique fills that kick in when the rest of the band rests. This is truly one of John Bonham’s greatest strengths – writing creative parts regardless of any technical ability.

But the most incredible thing about the song is the kick drum. It sounds like a double bass drum pattern, but it’s performed with only a single kick drum pedal. For 40+ years now, this song has sent drummers back to the woodshed to not only figure out how he played it, but to work up their own ability to pull it off.

4. Kashmir

"Kashmir" from Physical Graffiti

Everything about this song is huge, including the drum part. It’s just a massive, steady, unrelenting groove, pounded out for over eight minutes. There are few fills in this song — it’s primarily just one long, massive groove. Bonham plays perfectly placed beats on the kick drum, with more of his signature heel-toe kick drum pedal technique. It’s a masterclass on groove and playing for the song.

And while it’s not necessarily part of Bonham’s drum part, it is interesting to point out the flanger effect that was used on the drum’s overhead mics, giving the cymbals that unique swishing/whooshing sound. We actually used this same technique in the middle section of “Fix.”

3. Immigrant Song

"Immigrant Song" from Led Zeppelin III

At first listen, you might not realize how great this drum part is. For many, it wasn’t until the live version on How The West Was Won was released that it became clear just how awesome this drum part was. How massive, and heavy it was.

Disregarding the power of the song for a moment and looking at the structure of the part, it’s a perfectly developed accompaniment to the guitar riff. As with guitar solos, it’s not what you play, but what you don’t play. Here John Bonham is playing three of four sixteenth notes in beats 1 and 3, giving the song the perfect space to breathe and groove.

2. Achilles Last Stand

"Achilles Last Stand" from Presence

The single kick drum pattern on this song is again incredible, somewhat complex, but a perfectly syncopated pattern. The kick propels the song forward and helps give it a lot of energy and tension. Added to this is a lot of really cool accents on the hi-hat.

The snare part when the song breaks into 5/4 is simple, yet effective and brilliant.

To top it all off, there are tons of incredible fills throughout, where Bonham uses everything from only the snare, to long rolls across the snare and toms, to snare rolls interspersed with cymbals, to interplay between the snare and hi-hat.

1. When The Levee Breaks

"When The Levee Breaks" from Led Zeppelin IV

The beat that most likely launched the careers of countless drummers. Everyone recognizes this drum beat. It’s another masterclass on how to create a groove. Simple, yet incredibly effective.

While the guitar part is sort of droning and fairly static, the drums help keep things interesting by adding a fair amount of activity with the kick pattern.

The recording technique for the drums is again pretty interesting. There were just two mics used at the top of a stairwell, while the drums were in a large hallway below.

What would you put on the list?