Bonzo: Birthday Boy

[five eight]

Looking through the archives I discovered this gem of a review from 1977 by Donna Zachary: Bonham played so long I thought the rest of the group had slipped out to have dinner or something.

[PencilZ]

Sounds like dennis chambers on a stern gig 5/8. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[five eight]

Dennis Chambers kicks but I'll take a half hour of Bonzo over a half hour of Dennis the Menace ten times out of ten. [img]rolleyes.gif[/img]

[FuseU1]

It's funny how i've heard even guys like Vinnie ["straight fr the horses mouth" at the now-infamous '84 clinic w TLanders], Weckl, Donati, Porcaro, & PCollins have all named Bonzo as an influence [like Phil Carter said in the "bootleg trades" post - i think he meant to be on 1 of the Zep topics instead really [img]wink.gif[/img] ]...
& to all u lucky [black] dogs who got to c LZ live, well, i envy ya...they came to Tpa Stadium in the late 70's [exact yr.?], but a riot broke out when a thunderstorm blew thru & delayed the show...it was "big" nat'l news at the time... lucky i wasn't there 4 that 1, even tho i prob wouldve if i hadnt been so young at the time....

[five eight]

The Tampa incident occurred on Bonham's last trip to American shores in 1977. I got to see Zep that year, as well as '69, '71 and twice in '73. Managed to get soundboard bootlegs of the two '73 shows years after the fact. A tape, especially a bootleg tape, is NOT an accurate reflection of the vibe of an arena event and oftentimes makes the music sound puny. But I love my bootlegs and listen to them more than I ever listened to Zep's records. I used to be in a band with a guy I call Semi Page and he liked to listen to boots because only single guitar lines can be played live. My friend could hear how Page dealt with consolidating all the overdubs.

Bonham played a lot more onstage than in the studio (listen to The Ocean and In The Evening on the DVD to hear what I mean) but the tempos were always good. He was capable of playing rolls faster than a jackhammer overdosing on crank, something he never did in the studio. One of Zep's strengths as a studio band was their great restraint. Live, however, was where the real deal went down. Without equivocation I will state for the record that LED ZEPPELIN WAS THE BEST BAND I HAVE EVER SEEN, BAR NONE.

Jimi Hendrix once remarked to Robert Plant, "That drummer of yours has a foot like a pair of castanets."

[FuseU1]

i'm jealous, 5/8...
Rush was pretty darn magical too [to me anyway] on their consecutive Mov Pics & Signals tours [at the heighth of their 'heyday' imho], between '80-2...
Yes kicked a** on their 90125 & Union tours [unfortunately, i didnt get to c them in their early heyday either]...
the CCEB1 [trio: - CC, JP, DW] tour in '85 [b4 the 1st record actually came out] was mind-blowing, to say the least, musically/technically...[beyond practically anything i'd seen to that date]...
CCEB1 came thru town again in '87 or 8 w Herbie Hancock's band; 4 the finale, HH & MBrecker came out & did a few tunes w CC, JP, FG, EM, & DW, which was ridiculous...
Never got to c Tull, ELP, Mahavishnu, Return to 4ever either...
[DID get to see Genesis, Kansas, Dregs, & Stv Morse Band [VRomaine in place of HotRod] tho, which was very cool]...
But 4 those of u who got to c LZ & those others i mentioned, live [those Tampanians def "got the shaft" back in '77]... u r some lucky bastinados, 4 shore....

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ May 28, 2003 05:06 PM: Message edited by: FuseU1 ]</font>

[five eight]

Don't be jealous, Fuse, you're still a young man and I'll be 50 next month (see my thread Where Drummers Go To Die). I saw Rush for the first time January 4th '77 (I save ticket stubs) and they absolutely killed me; they were touring behind All The World's A Stage then and the 2000 seat hall had maybe 400 people inside! I'll never forget they opened with Bastille Day and midway through the first verse Neil, Ged and Alex were all looking at each other funny. At the end of the first verse they stopped perfectly together, a downbeat, then dead silence. Alex raised his arms in the air. One roadie ran at him from the right and grabbed his guitar off his body; another roadie approached from the left and installed a new guitar. The changeover lasted only five or six seconds and with a nod from Neil they started exactly where they'd stopped. Alex's guitar had been out of tune. When the song was over Geddy said, "We're sorry about that. This is a song from our second album . . ." and they blithely started another number and put the glitch behind them. It was the most professional thing I've ever seen. Six months later when they came back with A Farewell To Kings (my favorite Rush album) the hall was sold out and I had a devil of a time getting tickets.

Rush was almost as good as Zep in concert in the late 70s. They were super-tight and Zep was super-loose. When Zep fucked up the beginning of In My Time of Dying in Ft Worth four months after the Rush show they just raggedly stopped the tune and Plant told the audience, "I'll tell you what we'll do, we'll start again." It was hilarious. Bozzio said in MD that Bonham could drag the time in such a way you could never copy and make it feel so good. That was Zep's tight but loose philosophy. I've heard them play the sloppiest of sets on bootlegs and it is the most raucous exciting vital rock and roll you could imagine. But Zep was great and could get away with those live sins of omission. Rush was pristine by contrast. Zep improvised and changed things around delibeartely to keep it interesting for them. I got the impression Rush played it note for note night after night with not a single moment of improvisation in their show. Nowadays that has changed slighty. Rush has never engaged in that by-the-seat-of-your-pants playing like the mighty Zep did.

I got see the Mahavishnu Orchestra with Cobham in the summer of '73 in a movie theater! Everything was much faster than the records; those lads sounded like they'd drunk way too much coffee. Bozzio said Ken Scott played him some Mahavishnu studio stuff that was 'a million miles an hour' but left it unreleased because it didn't translate to vinyl.

[PencilZ]

Two times this happenend and it spoilt the stern show for me.(as much as i like dennis)

Its funny how on the Knebworth show plant says thanks for the last 11yrs and yet, 1979 is 24yrs ago. Time flies!
After that show all you could see was these luminescent Green rings that they were selling at the show. In the pitch black camp site it looked like aliens had landed.