On this day 25 September

 On this day Led Zeppelin began recording Led Zeppelin I, the band's opening shot heard round the world. On this day 12 years later, Led Zeppelin was done. 

What made John Bonham such a great drummer? Not just the speed, strength, and power of his playing --which was considerable-- but his ability to hold the rhythm steady while all four of his limbs moved around the beat. 

Holder of elemental energies: Master of Drums. RIP Bonzo. Never forgotten.

1968 25 September On This Day - Led Zeppelin I recording begun
published 2020

1967 25 September On This Day The Yardbirds, Ten Little Indians recorded at Olympic Number Two Studio
♪  Ten Little Indians (Yardbirds 1967) Soundcloud

• 1966 Yardbirds - Liverpool, England at Liverpool Empire Theatre
• 1967 Yardbirds - Ten Little Indians recorded at Olympic Number Two Studio; Jimmy Page uses reverse echo effect
• 1980 John Henry Bonham death 

1967:

Ten Little Indians was written by Harry Nilsson for his 1967 Pandemonium Shadow Show album. The Yardbirds covered it that same year. Jimmy Page, who thought it was an "extremely silly song" (Uncut Magazine, January 2009), used engineering to salvage it with reverse echo, an effect that he was to use later on You Shook Me, Whole Lotta Love and When The Levee Breaks.

1980:

People have commented on the fact that Jimmy Page has never chosen to acknowledge John Bonham's death on the Jimmy Page On This Day website home page. To me it's no mystery: Jimmy Page has always been very protective of his personal life, and his feelings about Bonzo's passing would be a most unlikely thing he would discuss in such a public way. 

Jimmy Page has also said that everything that needs to be known about him can be found in his music. I believe this is true about any musician who is true to his art. John Bonham was and remains the only drummer I can consistently listen to and hear music, not just rhythm. He has been called the best rock drummer in the world, and I can't disagree. RIP Bonzo.

1971 John Bonham/Led Zeppelin, Belfast

1977 John Bonham/Led Zeppelin, Landover (L Hensley photo)

RIP Bonzo

♪

♪  Ten Little Indians (Yardbirds, 1967) YouTube
♪  You Shook Me (Led Zeppelin, 1969/2014 remaster) YouTube
♪  When the Levee Breaks (Led Zeppelin, Mothership 2007 remaster) YouTube
♪  Moby Dick (Led Zeppelin, Royal Albert Hall 1970) YouTube
♪  Bonzo's Montreux (John Bonham/Led Zeppelin, Coda Mix construction in progress 1976/2015 remaster) YouTube

 

On this day 12 September

 Oh, oh, O2!

♪ Bonzo's Montreux (Soundcloud)

• 1968 Led Zeppelin - Stockholm, Sweden at Tivoli Grona Lund,Stora Scenen
• 1976 Jimmy Page and John Bonham recording in Montreux Casino Studios
• 1998 Page & Plant - Mountain View, CA at Shoreline Amphitheatre
• 2007 O2 show announcement 

1968

Still performing as The Yardbirds, but not for long.

1968 Led Zeppelin - Stockholm, Sweden at Tivoli Grona Lund,Stora Scenen

1968 Billed as Yardbirds - not even the new ones

1976:
Bonzo's Montreux is one of my favorite pieces of music ever. Of course, I say that about so many of Led Zeppelin's and Jimmy Page's music, but this is different. Bonzo's Montreux is music at it's most basic, what humans have heard in the plink of raindrops and the slap of windshield wipers, the thing that makes toes tap and bodies sway.  This one song is music stripped to a fundamental component of human life, "the spatial representation of time as rhythm" (Ursula Leguin, The Dispossessed).  It is truly, as Jimmy Page puts it, John Bonham's drum orchestra.

Keyboard mentioned in Jimmy Page's On This Day post

1998 Page & Plant - Poster for Mountain View, CA show

2007 Led Zeppelin announces O2 show

2007:
"O2" of course, refers to the one-off "Led Zeppelin Reunion" (Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham).  The official name of the show was the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert.  It was a benefit to help raise money for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund for university scholarships in the UK, US and Turkey.

The 12 September announcements for the event mentioned a lineup that included Pete Townshend, Foreigner, Paolo Nutini, and Bill Wyman And The Rhythm Kings, with rumors of Mick Jagger playing the gig. Tickets for the show were £125 each, limited to two per person, distributed by ballot via online registration. Registration was supposed to close on Monday, 17 September, but in fact the website exceeded its bandwidth and crashed almost immediately upon the announcement.  According to Guinness World Records 2009, a world record was set for the "Highest Demand for Tickets for One Music Concert". Depending on the source you believe, there were no fewer than one million or as many as 20 million requests for tickets.

Pete Townshend declined to perform, reportedly saying, "They really don't need me."  It didn't matter whether he or anyone else showed up. For most of the world there was only one band that was going to play that night anyway: Led Zeppelin.

2009 5 March, Jimmy Page/Ross Halfin studio photoshoot

2009:
I posted this photo today because I like it. Is there any other reason necessary?

♪

♪  Bonzo's Montreux (Led Zeppelin, Coda 1976) YouTube
♪  Bonzo's Montreux (mix construction in progress) (Led Zeppelin, Coda 2015 remaster) 

♪  Page & Plant (Mountain View CA at Shoreline Amphitheatre, 12 September 1998)

♪  Ramble On (Led Zeppelin, O2 rehearsal Shepperton Studios 2007) YouTube
♪  For Your Life (Led Zeppelin, O2 rehearsal Shepperton Studios 2007) YouTube

On This Day 31 May

John Bonham was born on this day in 1948.

1969 31 May On This Day Led Zeppelin - New York, NY at Fillmore East

• 1948 John “Bonzo” Bonham born
• 1968 The Yardbirds - Los Angeles, CA at Shrine Auditorium
• 1969 31 May On This Day Led Zeppelin - New York, NY at Fillmore East
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - Inglewood, CA at The Forum
• 1977 Led Zeppelin - Greensboro, NC at Greensboro Coliseum

John Bonham

Led Zeppelin played the LA Forum on John Bonham's 25th birthday. When George Harrison and wife Patti dropped by to help celebrate at the hotel afterwards, Bonham threw both of them, fully clothed, into the swimming pool. (as reported by Newswire, June 1973)

John "Bonzo" Bonham, arguably the world's best rock drummer, was a core part of Led Zeppelin's success.

Around the same time in 1968 that Jimmy Page asked Bonham to join the new band that would become Led Zeppelin, "John had also been receiving other tempting offers from esteemed artists such as Joe Cocker and Chris Farlowe who were in positions to offer John more financially lucrative prospects. Plant and Grant bombarded Bonham with telegrams of persuasion (eight from Plant and fourty from Grant) sent to John at his favourite local pub: 'Three Men in a Boat' in Walsall. Bonham finally decided to accept Grant's offer, joining the band in early September 1968. Bonham said: "I decided I liked their music better than Cocker's or Farlowe's." Quote from http://www.johnbonham.co.uk/

1967 A young John Bonham and Robert Plant with Band of Joy

Bonzo at tea time

1971 Bonham & Page in Japan

1973 31 May John Bonham takes a bow on his birthday at LA Forum

1974 14 Feb Bonham presenting Keith Moon with a fake award
on stage during a concert featuring Roy Harper and Friends
at the Rainbow Theatre, London

1975 Bonham Earls Court

The essential John Bonham

John Bonham portrait by Jan Perssons

♪

♪ Happy Birthday Bonzo (Led Zeppelin, LA Forum 1973) YouTube
♪ Bonzo's Montreux (Led Zeppelin, CODA, recorded 1976 released 1982) YouTube

♫ John Bonham, Traps Magazine article by Chris Welch PDF 25 page download

♪ Mage Music 1 playlist at YouTube
♪ Mage Music 2 playlist at YouTube
♪ Page & Plant playlist at YouTube

On This Day 25 September

On this day Led Zeppelin began recording Led Zeppelin I, the band's opening shot heard round the world. On this day 12 years later, Led Zeppelin was done. 

What made John Bonham such a great drummer? Not just the speed, strength, and power of his playing --which was considerable-- but his ability to hold the rhythm steady while all four of his limbs moved around the beat. 

Holder of elemental energies: Master of Drums. RIP Bonzo. Never forgotten.

1968 25 September On This Day - Led Zeppelin I recording begun
published 2020

1967 25 September On This Day The Yardbirds, Ten Little Indians recorded at Olympic Number Two Studio
♪  Ten Little Indians (Yardbirds 1967) Soundcloud

• 1966 Yardbirds - Liverpool, England at Liverpool Empire Theatre
• 1967 Yardbirds - Ten Little Indians recorded at Olympic Number Two Studio; Jimmy Page uses reverse echo effect
• 1980 John Henry Bonham death 

1967:

Ten Little Indians was written by Harry Nilsson for his 1967 Pandemonium Shadow Show album. The Yardbirds covered it that same year. Jimmy Page, who thought it was an "extremely silly song" (Uncut Magazine, January 2009), used engineering to salvage it with reverse echo, an effect that he was to use later on You Shook Me, Whole Lotta Love and When The Levee Breaks.

1980:

People have commented on the fact that Jimmy Page has never chosen to acknowledge John Bonham's death on the Jimmy Page On This Day website home page. To me it's no mystery: Jimmy Page has always been very protective of his personal life, and his feelings about Bonzo's passing would be a most unlikely thing he would discuss in such a public way. 

Jimmy Page has also said that everything that needs to be known about him can be found in his music. I believe this is true about any musician who is true to his art. John Bonham was and remains the only drummer I can consistently listen to and hear music, not just rhythm. He has been called the best rock drummer in the world, and I can't disagree. RIP Bonzo.

1971 John Bonham/Led Zeppelin, Belfast

1977 John Bonham/Led Zeppelin, Landover (L Hensley photo)

RIP Bonzo

♪

♪  Ten Little Indians (Yardbirds, 1967) YouTube
♪  You Shook Me (Led Zeppelin, 1969/2014 remaster) YouTube
♪  When the Levee Breaks (Led Zeppelin, Mothership 2007 remaster) YouTube
♪  Moby Dick (Led Zeppelin, Royal Albert Hall 1970) YouTube
♪  Bonzo's Montreux (John Bonham/Led Zeppelin, Coda Mix construction in progress 1976/2015 remaster) YouTube

 
[updated 25 September 2020]

On This Day 12 September

Oh, oh, O2!

1976 11 September On This Day Jimmy Page and John Bonham record Bonzo's Montreux in Montreux Casino Studios
(2015 post date with different headline)
♪ Bonzo's Montreux (Soundcloud)

1976 11 September On This Day Jimmy Page and John Bonham record Bonzo's Montreux in Montreux Casino Studios
(2011 post date)
♪ Bonzo's Montreux (Soundcloud)

• 1968 Led Zeppelin - Stockholm, Sweden at Tivoli Grona Lund,Stora Scenen
• 1976 Jimmy Page and John Bonham recording in Montreux Casino Studios
• 1998 Page & Plant - Mountain View, CA at Shoreline Amphitheatre
• 2007 O2 show announcement 

1968 Led Zeppelin - Stockholm, Sweden at Tivoli Grona Lund,Stora Scenen

1968 Billed as Yardbirds - not even the new ones

1976:
Bonzo's Montreux is one of my favorite pieces of music ever. Of course, I say that about so many of Led Zeppelin's and Jimmy Page's music, but this is different. Bonzo's Montreux is music at it's most basic, what humans have heard in the plink of raindrops and the slap of windshield wipers, the thing that makes toes tap and bodies sway.  This one song is music stripped to a fundamental component of human life, "the spacial representation of time as rhythm" (Ursula Leguin, The Dispossessed).  It is truly, as Jimmy Page puts it, John Bonham's drum orchestra.

Keyboard mentioned in Jimmy Page's On This Day post

1998 Page & Plant - Poster for Mountain View, CA show

2007 Led Zeppelin announces O2 show

2007:
"O2" of course, refers to the one-off "Led Zeppelin Reunion" (Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham).  The official name of the show was the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert.  It was a benefit to help raise money for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund for university scholarships in the UK, US and Turkey.

The 12 September announcements for the event mentioned a lineup that included Pete Townshend, Foreigner, Paolo Nutini, and Bill Wyman And The Rhythm Kings, with rumors of Mick Jagger playing the gig. Tickets for the show were £125 each, limited to two per person, distributed by ballot via online registration. Registration was supposed to close on Monday, 17 September, but in fact the website exceeded its bandwidth and crashed almost immediately upon the announcement.  According to Guinness World Records 2009, a world record was set for the "Highest Demand for Tickets for One Music Concert". Depending on the source you believe, there were no fewer than one million or as many as 20 million requests for tickets.

Pete Townshend declined to perform, reportedly saying, "They really don't need me."  It didn't matter whether he or anyone else showed up. For most of the world there was only one band that was going to play that night anyway: Led Zeppelin.

2009 5 March, Jimmy Page/Ross Halfin studio photoshoot

2009:
I posted this photo today because I like it. Is there any other reason necessary?

♪

♪  Bonzo's Montreux (Led Zeppelin, Coda 1976) YouTube
♪  Bonzo's Montreux (mix construction in progress) (Led Zeppelin, Coda 2015 remaster) YouTube
♪  Ramble On (Led Zeppelin, O2 rehearsal Shepperton Studios 2007) YouTube
♪  For Your Life (Led Zeppelin, O2 rehearsal Shepperton Studios 2007) YouTube

On This Day 31 May

John Bonham was born on this day in 1948.

1969 31 May On This Day Led Zeppelin - New York, NY at Fillmore East

Led Zeppelin played the LA Forum on John Bonham's 25th birthday. When George Harrison and wife Patti dropped by to help celebrate at the hotel afterwards, Bonham threw both of them, fully clothed, into the swimming pool. (as reported by Newswire, June 1973)

• 1948 John “Bonzo” Bonham born
• 1968 The Yardbirds - Los Angeles, CA at Shrine Auditorium
• 1969 31 May On This Day Led Zeppelin - New York, NY at Fillmore East
• 1973 Led Zeppelin - Inglewood, CA at The Forum
• 1977 Led Zeppelin - Greensboro, NC at Greensboro Coliseum

John "Bonzo" Bonham, arguably the world's best rock drummer, was a core part of Led Zeppelin's success.

Around the same time in 1968 that Jimmy Page asked Bonham to join the new band that would become Led Zeppelin, "John had also been receiving other tempting offers from esteemed artists such as Joe Cocker and Chris Farlowe who were in positions to offer John more financially lucrative prospects. Plant and Grant bombarded Bonham with telegrams of persuasion (eight from Plant and fourty from Grant) sent to John at his favourite local pub: 'Three Men in a Boat' in Walsall. Bonham finally decided to accept Grant's offer, joining the band in early September 1968. Bonham said: "I decided I liked their music better than Cocker's or Farlowe's." Quote from http://www.johnbonham.co.uk/

1967 A young John Bonham and Robert Plant with Band of Joy

Bonzo at tea time

1971 Bonham & Page in Japan

1973 31 May John Bonham takes a bow on his birthday at LA Forum

1974 14 Feb Bonham presenting Keith Moon with a fake award
on stage during a concert featuring Roy Harper and Friends
at the Rainbow Theatre, London

1975 Bonham Earls Court

The essential John Bonham

John Bonham portrait by Jan Perssons

♪  Happy Birthday Bonzo (Led Zeppelin, LA Forum 1973) YouTube
♪  Bonzo's Montreux (Led Zeppelin, CODA, recorded 1976 released 1982) YouTube

♫  John Bonham Traps Magazine article by Chris Welch PDF 25 page download

R.I.P. Bonzo

One of the world's best drum solo ever, by one of the world's best drummer, who was a member of one of the world's best bands.

Bonzo's Montreux (studio) Album: Coda

John Henry Bonham (31 May 1948 – 25 September 1980)