BONZO'S MONTREUX / 40 YEAR MEMORIAL/ * Read the description

40 years ago today, the devastating news of the death of John Bonham came as a heavy blow to all of us who loved his drumming. I was a freshman at Lane Tech high school, and I will never forget the awful feeling when a classmate told me that morning, that he heard on the radio, on his way to school that Bonzo had died. He saw that I had happily taken my full page Chicago Tribune Led Zeppelin tour announcement and ticket application form, out of my folder. I got up extra early that day to fill out the application for tickets to the upcoming dates the band were supposed to play at The Chicago Stadium in November. The paper came out overnight, in the wee small hours of Sep 25, so I woke up early at 5:30am to get my copy, fill out the form and post mark it ASAP. I was so happy and confident that I got my application sent early and was eagerly anticipating finally seeing my heros, especially Bonzo, in person! I had become obsessed with them about a year before and spent most of 8th grade and that summer of 1980, fanatically learning as much as I could , by listening to the albums at home, and tapes in my Walkman whenever in transit. At first I didn't really believe this kid, thinking maybe it was a false alarm. But, as I made my way through the halls during the passing period to my next class, the halls were abuzz with the terrible news... some kids were crying. I was crushed. Such a huge loss, to this day.

So, in honor of the 40th anniversary of his passing, I decided to do this video. A couple months ago I did a short video where I talked about some of my thoughts about this piece, particularly regarding which drums he may have used, and if he used two bass drums.

It is my opinion that he did use a double bass drum set up, at least for parts, because of the way the bass drum parts are phrased. It just doesn't sound like straight 16ths , even though I think he was capable of it. It's very unusual for him to play them that way, and there is no other song where he played 16ths at that tempo, quite like that. When The Levee Breaks has some straight 16ths but the tempo is slower and it sounds different...it doesn't have the bounce, or 'swing' like Bonzo's Montreux. Despite that , I decided to play the parts with one bass drum, which was very challenging! Also, Jimmy Page did mention that "overdubbed bass drums, snare drums, tom toms"...etc were used. We won't know for sure unless studio session photos come out!

I am also certain that there are 4 distinct tom tones, so I think he must have used at least one more tom. There is some speculation about which kit he brought to Mountain Studios. Maybe the amber kit, with an extra 13x9, or the black swirl Vistalites which had multiple concert toms ? Or, maybe he already had the steel kit in Sept of 1976? Or maybe he was using a completely different kit, like that weird Staccato kit. Whatever the case, the toms are higher pitched tuning than normal, and there are 4 pitches audible. They also sound different than the drums on Presence which were most likely a green sparkle kit. So, I decided to use a 13 and 14 inch tom up top, and I tried to match the pitches I heard as close as possible. I used the gold sparkle 24, 13, 14, 16, 18 set -up because I don't have an extra tom in maple.

It's not perfect but I was surprised, and pleased with the results. I basically recorded it in three sections, and it took me about 2 to 3 hours to get everything done including the overdubs. I hope it's a fitting tribute, and i hope you all enjoy it.

Long live Bonzo's art!

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