Riff of the Day: "Rush," John Rutsey, and John Bonham

Time for a little comparison of John Bonham's massive drumbeat in Led Zep's "The Immigrant Song" versus a few songs from the debut self-titled Rush album.

I've been listening to "Rush" for maybe 20 years. I think I found it in the bargain bin at a truck stop. I really didn't like it at first, given that my first Rush album was "Moving Pictures." It's easily the most un-Rush-like of all their works. A big part of their sound and style comes from drummer/lyricist Neil Peart, who introduced fantasy, science and science fiction, literature, mythology and psychology as themes for songs and entire albums. Through Peart, Rush quickly got a rep as the "thinking man's rock band."

"Rush," on the other hand, had a guy named John Rutsey as the drummer. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson shared lyric- and songwriting duties on such songs as "Need Some Love":

I'm runnin' here, I'm runnin' there, I'm lookin' for a girl
'Cause there's nothin' I need there's nothin' I want more in the whole wide world
Well, I need it quick and I need it now, before I start to fade away
That's why I'm searching, that's why I'm lookin' each and every day.

Oo, I need some love! I said I need some love!
Oo, yes I need some love...this feelin' I can't rise above!
Yeah, yeah!

Well I been hustlin' here, I been hustlin' there, I been searchin' for about a week
And I started feelin' this strange sensation--my knees have started gettin' weak!
Well I need what keeps a young man alive--I'm sayin' I need it now
I'm gonna get my message across to you somewhere and somehow!

If this had been my intro to them, I probably wouldn't have gone any further. The guitar and bass chops are solid and as impressive as anything from their later efforts, but I tend to prefer something less hormonal in my lyrics. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know, it's "Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll"--but sex and drugs are way overrated. Actually, so is most Rock 'n' Roll, now that I think of it.

Years went by, interest waned, until a couple of years ago when I was listening-without-listening to the album on my iPod. I heard something in Rutsey's drumming that I hadn't paid attention to before: in several songs, he's playing an almost complete lift of Bonham's drum track from the main verse part of Zep's "Immigrant Song."

"Immigrant Song"

h_h |s.sss.sss.sss.ss|s.sss.sss.sss.ss|
snr |.---q---.---q---|.---q---.---q---|
kck |s.ss.s.ss.ss.s.s|s.ss.s.ss.ss.s.s|

A period is a rest--for clarity, I'm just leaving it at that.


The first song I noticed Rutsey's "lifting" in was:

"Before and After" (track 6)--main verses

h_h |e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-|e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-|
snr |.---q---.---q---|.---q---.---q---|
kck |s.ss.s.ss.ss.s.s|s.ss.s.ss.ss.s.s|

He's slowed it down and it playing a straight-8th on the high-hat, but there's that Bonham bass drum thumping out from the back of the stage!

...then I heard it in this one:
"What You're Doing" (track 5)--main verses

h_h |e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-|e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-|
snr |.---q---.---q---|.---q---.---q---|
kck |s.ss.s.ss.ss.s.s|s.ss.s.ss.ss.s.s|

Again, Rutsey's playing it note-for-note on everything but the high-hat, just like the previous song (Bonham was running a 16th-note pattern with a skip).

Then I noticed it one night while I was learning the bass line for a really good Bluesy song:

"Here Again" (track 4)
slow, triplet 16ths

h_h |e--e--e--e--e--e--e--e--|e--e--e--e--e--e--e--e--|
snr |.-----q-----.-----q-----|.-----q-----.-----q-----|
kck |s..s.s..s..ss..s.s..s..s|s..s.s..s..ss..s.s..s..s|

Hope I got that right. Music notation isn't my first language, and if things go very far past straight 8th notes I get lost. Kind of funny, me wanting to put little riffs up for review.

Anyway, for this one, Rutsey slowed the pattern down almost to a crawl, but now he's running triplet 16ths (blues, eh?) and giving the Bonham bass a little swing. I'd really rather he'd kept this one and done something different for the other two songs.

So here I am, listening to the album while I put this writeup together, and damned if I don't hear the Bonham beat again as the main riff in the verses and choruses of the final cut, "Working Man". I've never noticed that until now! It's slowed down almost as much as for "Here Again," but played straight like in the other two examples.

Sheesh. Almost the entire second half of the CD:
Finding My Way
Need Some Love
Take a Friend
* Here Again
* What You're Doing
In The Mood
* Before & After
* Working Man

...but the cassette version was arranged this way:

A:
Finding My Way
* What You're Doing
In The Mood
* Working Man

B:
* Before and After
Need Some Love
Take a Friend
* Here Again

Much more spread-out, much less obvious. This riff's the foundation for the entire Zep song--the guitar and bass follow the bass drum. Very distinctive, and something that shouldn't be lifted for more than one song on an album--and even then, not for the whole freaking SONG. Rutsey was a competent drummer; I'm disappointed--and amused--that he did four out of eight this way.