The ‘Mind-Blowing’ Song that Got Me into Led Zeppelin…and Why.
Up until the age or 4, possibly 5…most albums came by way of my Father. My Mom loved music too, however…she revealed to me one day that ‘she had never bought a record in her whole entire life…’ I literally could not understand the words coming out of my Mother’s mouth…I can not imagine my expression, but I remember her laughing as she told me that, so it must have been a good one.
My Father, on the other hand had one of the single best record collections I have ever laid my eyes on. Every album was better than the next…and very diverse and all inspired me in some way…obsessed with ‘Dusty in Memphis…’ especially the song ‘Breakfast in Bed..’ (I don’t know how thrilled he was that his little girl was so drawn to that particular song…lol) and tons of R&B…the best. I listened to so much Ray Charles, Al Green, Marvin Gay, and then what truly inspired me as a young songwriter…early Elton John, Carole King’s ‘Tapestry’ literally changed my life, Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and how could I not mention the brilliant Joni Mitchell…just surrounded by great music…and then one day, a gift. Something very new. Literally. It had just been released.
My Father handed me an album as I was sitting on my bedroom floor coloring. I remember saying…”What is a Led Zeppelin?” And “what does In through the Out Door mean…someone could get very hurt…” Instead of expanding upon my strange interpretation of the title of the album my Father told me to “just listen.” So I did…
And I liked it. It was certainly new. Never really heard anything like it before. But I became a little bit bored, until…
‘Fool in the Rain.’
I must have played that song twenty times in a row that day. I have always been a ‘less is more’ kind of girl, but this…this had no rules. Rules went out the window. Forget the piano! I was going to be a drummer! I wanted to play that song exactly the way Bonham played it…(yeah, right…a girl can dream…)
For the first few minutes or so, Fool In The Rain plays it pretty straight. I wasn’t exactly sure of what they were speaking about, but again, what drew me to the majority of songs..the lyrics, didn’t really matter all that much to me this particular day. It made something inside my belly stir. I couldn’t really explain it.
And there was Robert Plant and a very simple vocal melody line on the top. The gaps in the pattern become the pattern. And then there was no longer a pattern. Then…out of nowhere, Jimmy Page drops a Spanish-styled 12-string..well, I’m not sure what exactly, and Bonham uses his ride cymbal to make those six beats even more explicit then they already were, and the entire track tilts completly on its axis. It was almost disorienting— truly..I remember I felt a little bit dizzy…but I really didn’t mind, I was just so taken with the immense amount of talent that was impossible not to notice..even to a little girl who was still listening to ‘Free to be You and Me!’
Then…moments later, it’s gone. Gone!
There are very few rock bands in 1979 that were capable of pulling this off. Actually..I’m not sure any other band really did…not like them. Not like Led Zeppelin. Zeppelin does it, repeatedly, throughout the entire song, and it’s not a short song, though I wish it had been even longer.
Speaking of out of nowhere: Just as you’re getting a handle on it, along comes the whistle! And the Double-Time Piano!! (I remember sitting on my floor, pushing my coloring book to the side and wanting to run into our living room where our piano was and try to figure out how in the world to possibly recreate that!) I tried…and failed miserably. And suddenly we’re in the middle of some sort of South American amazing Brazilian colorful carnival….percussion and tamborines and Plant shouting “I gotta get it all!” even as he’s swallowed up by the mix. (Where’s Page in all this, btw?) Does he even play a note? What other Zeppelin song hits its climax with Jimmy Page absent from the proceedings?!?) But, its not over…That truly tremendous drum part….the drums…him. John Bonham.
John Bonham spent every one of his thirty-two years on Earth swallowing great big gulps of life, in both good and terrible ways…I had never been so taken with a drummer before…always a Ringo fan, (and always will be) and always able to recognize extremely talented drummers….Keith Moon, Mick Fleetwood, Ginger Baker….but as far as I was concerned, No One could singlehandedly elevate a song the way Bonham did.
Not everybody liked it, (and I’ll never understand why) but, if I remember correctly…Fool in the Rain was #5 of all Zeppelin songs, and never once played live. Not once.
And alas….All good things must end…The Eighties would soon be overrun with dozens of hair-metal acts trying their best, strip-mining Zeppelin’s surface layer for parts.
But the real thing, in all its crazy, complicated glory? That was already long gone. Bonham’s final farewell…he sure went out with a bang.
