Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham stood apart from his peers with a bag of tricks that made his sound impossible to copy. Yet he was like many other classic rock drummers in one way — he rarely received songwriting credits with his band. Still, Bonham wrote several Led Zeppelin songs, including one without any assistance at all.
John Bonham received writing credits for Led Zeppelin songs and revamped blues tunes
One of the traits that set Led Zeppelin apart from their contemporaries was the amount of democracy in the band. Founder Jimmy Page and ace multi-instrumentalist John Paul Jones came to the band with songwriting chops, but in time Bonham and singer Robert Plant became key contributors to all of Led Zeppelin’s songs.
Many of Zep’s early tunes were reworkings of blues standards. Page said he divided songwriting credits evenly in those cases.
Bonham’s favorite drinking song inspired “Out on the Tiles” from Led Zeppelin III. The drummer received a songwriting credit for it even though the finished product barely resembled the source material. While letting off steam while recording the intricate “Four Sticks” from Led Zeppelin IV, Bonzo attacked the drums with a Little Richard-inspired beat. That kicked off a jam that morphed into the classic track “Rock and Roll.”
Jones said Bonham never got enough credit for writing Led Zeppelin songs. Still, the drummer received more songwriting credits than most drummers. Bonzo’s name appeared alongside 24 tunes that became Zep concert staples.
The 24 Led Zeppelin songs Bonham helped write
Like Bonham, Ringo Starr, The Who’s Keith Moon, and Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones were also impactful drummers of the classic rock era. You could include Ginger Baker (Cream) and Mitch Mitchell (Jimi Hendrix) in that illustrious group, too.
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Unlike his contemporaries, however, Bonham received writing credits on 24 Led Zeppelin songs (per ASCAP). More than 20 saw the light of day as album tracks or live staples, including the drum solo “Bonzo’s Montreux,” a solo composition on the posthumous Coda album.
- “Bonzo’s Montreux”
- “Boogie With Stu”
- “Communication Breakdown”
- “The Crunge”
- “D’yer Mak’er”
- “Darlene”
- “The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair”
- “Good Times Bad Times”
- “Heartbreaker”
- “Hey Hey What Can I Do”
- “How Many More Times”
- “In My Time of Dying”
- “Kashmir”
- “The Lemon Song”
- “Moby Dick”
- “The Ocean”
- “Out on the Tiles”
- “Rock and Roll”
- “Sunshine Woman”
- “When the Levee Breaks”
- “Whole Lotta Love”
22, 23, and 24: The Led Zeppelin songs “Bathroom Sounds” (a vocal-less version of “Out on the Tiles”), “Driving Through Kashmir,” and “If it Keeps on Raining” (the inferior rough mix of “When the Levee Breaks”) listed Bonham as a songwriter.
Compared to Starr (18 total credits with The Beatles, many of them unreleased jams), Watts (10 Stones tunes), Baker and Mitchell (three songs with their bands), John Bonham’s list of Led Zeppelin songs appears prodigious.
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