"Moby Dick" & John Bonham-Led Zeppelin Drum Fill Influences

John Bonham's classic drum solos in "Moby Dick" and Fills with Led Zeppelin are some of the most famous rock drum solo of all time. John Bonham listened to jazz & incorporated it in to the great rock of Led Zeppelin. You can hear the influence of Jazz drum greats Max Roach & Joe Morello in the clips on this page. First, starting at :59 seconds, you can hear the influence of Max Roach's "The Drum Also Waltz's". As soon as Bonham hits the cymbal in unison with the guitar chord, he is in to a 3/4 progression (just Bass Drum on 1, Hi-Hat on 2 for 4 bars, then adds a swing feel on the toms on "2&3&!" Then listen to Max Roach's "The Drum Also Waltz's (From the album Drums Unlimited 1966) clip which is below that:

Next, a classic Bonham figure was the 16th linear triplet, often in the pattern of "snare - tom - floor tom - bass drum" (and sometimes two bass drum strokes after it). Listen to "For Big Sid" (also from Max Roach's Drums Unlimited 1966 album), then the classic Zeppelin tracks which contained this similar pattern in Moby Dick Solo (Studio and Live), Stairway to Heaven (Fill), Rock & Roll (at the end)

Listen to the studio solo (and of course when you watch the live versions) for these types of patterns:

Listen to the fill in Stairway at 6:23:

Now listen to the drum solo at the end of "Rock and Roll":

Furthermore, John Bonham was known for playing some of his solos with his hands. Below is a clip of Legendary Drummer Joe Morello playing with his hands in 1961, then a live solo where John Bonham plays with his hands:

Playing with his hands beginning at 3:30

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