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.
THE STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS
SWISS CHEESE There was another instrumental John Bonham drum track recorded by Zeppelin, but it wasn’t released until after his death: Bonzo’s Montreux. Put together in the control room by Jimmy Page during sessions at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland in September 1976, Bonzo’s Montreux was never performed live, although parts of it were incorporated into Moby Dick on their aborted 1977 US tour.
Why Page felt it necessary to record a second – and, frankly, inferior – Bonham drum showcase remains unknown. Perhaps Page, the “weaver of sonic tapestries” simply wanted to play around with the then-new Eventied Harmonizer, which he used on the track to create a steel drum sound ,and the final “gliss-phrases” were developed during mixing with the Harmonizer’s keyboard controller.
Bonzo’s Montreux finally saw the light of day on Led Zeppelin’s posthumous Coda album in 1982.