@bdp24 ,
What Bonham does is play an overly-long (imo) run around his toms,
duplicating, on his "untuned" (drums are tensioned, not tuned to notes,
generally speaking) instrument (specifically his tom toms) what Page is
already playing. Playing those notes all around his toms serves no
musical purpose (there’s that term again), and creates a one-dimensional
style of music, with no depth, no layers. True, Bonham doesn’t play
that way all the time in every song, but it IS his basic approach.
Recall the guitar, drum, and bass parts in "Good Times, Bad Times", for
example; all three are accenting the same rhythm. SO one dimensional!
Ah, I see what you are saying with this statement. I'll admit there are times when his fills are overdone and could have been more restrained. I'll make the excuse that he was trying to take Carmine Appice's licks to the next level. :-)
IMO, part of Bonzo's brilliance is how he plays a rhythm that is complementary to the guitar. He's not just there to provide a beat or be the rhythm section, and as
@shadorne stated, he plays behind the beat and he still always lands on "1."
You make a valid point with
Good Times, Bad Times, but it was the early days and looking back we could also go on about how unrefined Jimmy Page's guitar playing was. But what came out of LZ-I was a unique marriage of American blues and hard rock; a very different take on the "Riff Rock" of the day.
My last comment on Zep is that as they progressed as a group, you will find plenty of counterpoint in their music with a great deal of depth.
Now, the Band with Levon Helm as a drummer was a very different experience, I'd even call it a different genre than Zep. Brilliant writing and musicianship which influenced many artists in many different types of music.
Rock music includes so many different styles, that the term "greatest drummers" would actually include a very large membership.
