Monday, February 10, 2020

KLEM FM


Bonzoleum, the maker of the video, clowns around, but I am entertained. He notes the stamina required to play the 12 minute song. I know because I was captivated by that very song as a 15 year-old when it first came out. I still consider it peak Bonham. That song alone probably took a point off my high school GPA: I liked nothing more than to skip school, go home, and practice songs in the basement much like in the video. It was addictive. I especially liked the shuffle beat that Bonham laid out in the middle during Page's guitar solos and also the snare drum marching fill at 9m 55s which is the direct precursor to every anthemic drum beat by U2. Bonzoleum nails the cover with only a few errors. I recently tried "air drumming" the whole thing and I'm thinking of doing this as aerobic exercise; air drums are even more strenuous because there is no bounce there.

Bob Dylan recorded a cover of "In My Time Of Dying" on his very first (1962) album:


Dylan's version traces back to recordings by various black southern artists, notably one by Blind Willie Johnson. The song's refrain "Jesus gonna make up my dying bed" in turn goes back to Psalms 41:3:
The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing, Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.
Our word Psalm derives from the Ancient Greek word ψαλμός (psalmos), said to describe the twitchy twangy plucking sound made by a harp or zither.* The Greek word in turn is a translation of the Hebrew word מזמור (mizmor) which is also rooted in "pluck." Psalms were sacred songs, poems, or poetic compositions used by worshippers.

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*There is an ancient stringed musical instrument called a psaltery (pronounced sawtery); here is how one sounded:


The psalm remains the same.

17 comments:

chickelit said...

Deborah, if you're reading this -- I still recall when you linked that White Stripes video Death Letter which eerily sounds like the Led Zeppelin Song.

windbag said...

The stamina element of music. I never understood how drummers do it, as it seems to be such a more physical instrument. We saw Joe Bonamassa at the Fox Theater in Atlanta a few years back. 2-plus hour show, no break, and Anton Fig on drums was a metronome start to finish. I've got a DVD of Bruce Hornsby that has some footage after a concert. He's got his wrists wrapped in ice.

Speaking of air drumming.

ricpic said...

It beggars belief that King David, who after all was a political figure involved in all kinds of power struggles and wars, was also the author of The Psalms, purportedly almost all of them. That's a lot of alls right there.

The Dude said...

Thanks for posting that, CL - I had never heard either version of that song before.

As I was listening to the first I got a phone call "I'll call you back, I'm rockin' out to the Zep!" The caller, who knows me, thought I had lost my damn mind.

Dylan's version is a bit more low key (go figure!) and closer to the American roots of that song. As for the versions stretching back in antiquity - I must do more research...

chickelit said...

@ricpic, thank you for that comment...I had forgotten that. I put the Greek word for psalm in because I'm learning Greek (another blog post, perhaps). I'm hoping to go there this summer.

@sixty: Glad you liked the Zep cover! I had a retort in mind in case you didn't like it.

The Dude said...

Dude - don't leave me hanging!

chickelit said...

@sixty, since you've never heard the version, allow me to chicksplain some subtleties. The banter at the very end is on the original vinyl -- where you hear Bonham cough and Plant says"cough". "That's gonna be the one" is John Bonham's voice. "oh yes thank you " is somebody else as is "come have a listen then." Page and the engineers kept that on the final version. Bonzoleum is foreshadowing that when he says that he practiced this song three times but hopes that this last one will be the take.

And the whole schtick of looking heavenwards is a double entendre because Bonzoleum's imagining talking to Bonzo up in heaven. This echoes the theme and story of the song about a dying man beseeching heaven, trying get in.

chickelit said...

That wasn't my retort -- I need a link for that. brb

chickelit said...

There was that time when you saw "Blues Hammer" in that bar and made those derogatory comments: link

The Dude said...

Blues Hammer is brilliant - I cannot imagine anyone playing Delta blues than more authentically than Blues Hammer. When he sings "I have been picking cotton all day long" you can sense the authenticity oozing out of him.

LOL.

Imagine Steve Buscemi having difficulty picking up chicks - him, a big Hollywood leading man.

"You're out of your element, Donny!"

This is a fun thread!

deborah said...

So Jack White is heavily influenced by Zeppelin?

WOW. So I just went to the bottom to comment and wrote the above, without reading the comments. To also link this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOS00ttAblQ

Then I thought I would scroll up and read the comments. Yes, I thought of Death Letter, too.

I really appreciate your attention to drumming. It is something I never considered doing, didn't even give it a thought. I think it's pretty much a guy thing.

The Dude said...

This is not the best example of my friend and teacher Beverly Botsford drumming, but she is holding down the beat while Khalid, Richard (here billed as Rico for some reason) and some randos carry on:

Golden Belt, 2011.

There are other videos of her playing, but I can't find the one from last November - she was on fire that night - holy schnike she was smokin'!

deborah said...

Cool, Sixty.

The Dude said...

She is an awesome drummer and has been a pro for 40 years.

chickelit said...

I really appreciate your attention to drumming. It is something I never considered doing, didn't even give it a thought. I think it's pretty much a guy thing.

The instrument is all out in the open -- you just don't see it up close. There's no sleight of hand like with stringed instruments. The instrument is very male, sort of like male reproductive anatomy.

deborah said...

She's neat, and what fun she's having. Look at you hanging with the cool kids :)

deborah said...

Chick, I shall meditate on that. The gal from Tuba Skinny straddles her bass drum and strikes it in a desultory manner.

Meg White's drumming is pooh-poohed, but she is adequate to the task. Especially cute in the Hardest Button to Button vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4dx42YzQCE