John Bonham, Led Zeppelin’s drummer, is not only on every list of the greatest drummers of all time but is also usually found at the top and for good reason. He gave everything you’d expect from the archetypal rock drummer: heaviness, swaggering style, and innovation in the genre, but with unmatched skill and unequaled spirit.
Here, we’ll explore one of Bonham’s best-known grooves: the half-time shuffle, employed on Led Zeppelin’s “Fool in the Rain.” It’s a beat that’s so iconic, it’s regularly referred to as “The Bonzo Shuffle” after the nickname given to him by his bandmates. Although Bonham didn’t invent the beat, his unique swagger was what made it popular.
Led Zeppelin Through the 70s
In the early 1970’s, Led Zeppelin were trailblazers of a heavier, darker vision for rock music that was beginning to find its voice. On their masterpiece album, Led Zeppelin II, the band perfected their heavy swinging sounds, and later, on another work of mastery, Led Zeppelin IV , they added a twist of fantastic and esoteric lore informed by Tolkien and the Middle Ages. The band refused to release singles and was shrouded in mystery and intrigue, leading their albums to become cultural events.
They continued to ride the crest of this wave until their 1975 tour, supporting yet another classic album, Physical Graffiti. After that, however, the tides began to turn. They were fatigued from relentless touring and partying and were beginning to crack from the strain. Over the next several years, they suffered various tragedies and were even sometimes seen as dinosaurs in the wake of the newly burgeoning punk movement. By 1979, they were viewed as the aristocracy of rock.
The band’s contemporaries dealt with the advent of punk in varying ways. The Rolling Stones and The Kinks, both viewed as rebellious at their inception, returned to street-level rock with great success. Pink Floyd took it in stride, eventually having a significant influence on indie rock and electronica. Others, such as Paul McCartney, embraced experimentation, such as on McCartney II, and some ignored punk and its ethos altogether — think Yes’s Going for the One.
The music world waited to see how Zeppelin would react to the new wave, but the band members were no longer the young upstarts of 1969 who electrified university stages. They were now rich conquerors, struggling to stay afloat through difficult times and a rapidly changing world.
The album In Through the Out Door stands as an ambivalent response. Neither an affirmation nor a rejection of punk, the album finds a band in transition — aware of an altering landscape, but healing from a litany of internal problems and personal loss, including the tragic death of Robert Plant’s son, Karac.
They added synthesizers and streamlined their compositional approach on some songs, such as “All of My Love” and “In The Evening,” while trying their hand at playful variations of their sound on others, such as “South Bound Suarez.” It is here, within this transition, where we find Bonham’s greatest grooves within the song “Fool in the Rain.”
The Beat Itself
The “Fool in the Rain” drum technique is one that all drummers try to master at some point in their career. On the first listen, it sounds simple, but upon further inspection, any intermediate interpreter is left feeling intimidated. That’s its beauty — the profound technique that gives the impression of ease.
Bonham played this half-time shuffle characteristically loose, dragging and leaving ghost notes throughout, as he so often did in his music. His kick pattern feels like it’s never quite where you expect it, and the open hi-hat on the “and” of one contributes a playful bounce. And yet at no time does it feel overdone, despite the level of difficulty. It’s the ideal challenge for any ambitious drummer.
The original source of the beat is Bernard Purdie, whose shuffle is the gold standard, as evidenced in “Home at Last” by Steely Dan. The fact that Bonham wished to emulate him and improve upon his approach speaks volumes of Purdie’s talent and influence.
It isn’t necessary to get into time-signature technicalities to observe the contrast between the two versions. Purdie’s rendition is tighter and more disciplined. There’s a locomotive grace in its timing, a machine-like glide. Bonham’s is purposefully imperfect, lumbering, and unmistakably human, while bursting with his signature swagger. Side by side, Bonzo’s fingerprints can be immediately spotted all over his variation.
Influence and Legacy
Jeff Porcaro’s groove on Toto’s “Rosanna” has been described as a combination of Bernard Purdie’s shuffle and John Bonham’s “Fool in the Rain” beats, adding a third part to the lineage. Purdie created it, Bonham made an indelible impression upon it, and Porcaro refined it for pop radio.
For most listeners, however, “Fool in the Rain” remains the definitive iteration of the half-time shuffle, and a testament to Bonham’s creative genius. Purdie’s version has a swinging feel and was created for and with precision — the modus operandi for Steely Dan’s album-making process. But Bonham’s version was something else entirely.
In terms of legacy, attempting to play “Fool in the Rain” remains a rite of passage for every serious drummer. There are hundreds of videos on social media of drummers trying to play the Bonzo Shuffle. Someone even created something called “The Bonhamizer,” a coding project that can be used to apply Bonham’s feel to other songs. The point is, people are still trying to master this groove decades later, not because it’s perfect, but because it’s singular.
Forever Remembered
In September 1980, just one year after recording “Fool in the Rain,” John Bonham died unexpectedly. Led Zeppelin disbanded soon after, rightly agreeing not to continue without him. This song sadly ended up being one of the last pieces he would record, and as bombastic as he already was, it is a fitting example of where he might have been heading as an artist. Like the rest of the band, he was an expert interpreter of his genre, and “Fool in the Rain” demonstrated how he had continued to mature as a musician, playing with fresh restraint.
Where those creative impulses might have taken him next, we will regretfully never know. But his enduring influence on all rock drummers of the past fifty years proves that neither the Bonzo Shuffle nor any of his other iconic grooves will be forgotten anytime soon.
