Moby Dick
It may have begun its life as a modest instrumental showcase for drummer John Bonham on Led Zep II, but when he played it live the song took on an epic life of its own.
Viewing again close-up footage of 21-year-old John Bonham performing Moby Dick at Led Zeppelin’s now legendary January 1970 show at London’s Royal Albert Hall is as astonishing now as it was when it first appeared in 2003 on the glorious live DVD collection. Powerful, brutal, pagan. When he gently lays down the sticks a few minutes in and begins playing the drums with his bare hands, it becomes shamanistic. Not just pitterpatter tom-toms, but snapping at the snare, beating the big bass drum, the skins, the rims, the cymbals… Bonzo, as he was known with great affection and fear, performing his showcase live was never just about music.
Moby Dick may have begun as a relatively modest instrumental filler tucked away near the end of Led Zeppelin II, but live on stage it had already become emblematic of Bonham’s thrillingly belligerent spirt. No vocals, no cheap talk, this was all action, all the time.
Whenever Moby Dick was performed live in the 70s, it grew like magic beans from the four-minute album track to the 15-minute showcase of 1970; to over 20-minutes by 1972; tipping over 30 minutes some nights by the time Zeppelin were lurching through their final catastrophic US tour in 1977, depending on how much cocaine Bonzo had snuffled. Before playing Moby Dick he would reach down and grab handfuls of coke from a bag at his feet and rub it all over his nose and mouth.
You could also – if you listened very hard – detect a certain sensitivity in Bonham’s otherwise brutal assault. Something hauntingly tender that spoke to the deep well of emotion lurking at the heart of his personal drum-orchestra, his personal madness.
Moby Dick had begun as Pat’s Delight, named after John’s beloved wife Pat. He loved playing the drums in Zeppelin
