Ah, the drum solo. The moment when the other band members retreat backstage to hoover the sherbets, gargle the fizz, change instruments and discuss the merits of the audience. Depending on the drummer’s talent and stamina, this can be a short interlude, or a half-time intermission.

The late, great John Bonham’s “Moby Dick” is one hell of drum solo, and his performances of the track ranged from two minutes to twenty. Like the book - epic. Bonham may have died thirty-one years ago, but he is still considered the greatest drummer who ever lived. An incredible accolade for a self-taught musician, who started banging out rhythm at the age of five, on tin boxes, coffee cans and whatever came to hand. His mother bought him a snare drum and 10, and he received his first drum kit for his 15th birthday. Bonham favored heavy sticks, or “trees” as he called them, which delivered the best and heaviest sound possible. As Roger Taylor of Queen once said

The greatest rock ‘n’ roll drummer of all time was John Bonham who did things that nobody had ever even thought possible before with the drum kit. And also the greatest sound out of his drums - they sounded enormous, and just one bass drum. So fast on it that he did more with one bass drum than most people could do with three, if they could manage them. And he had technique to burn and fantastic power and tremendous feel for rock`n`roll.

Artist Alex Itin has used Bonham’s epic track, to great effect in his brilliant stream-of-consciousness, short animation Orson Whales. Itin has pulled together Welles reading of Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick (with some added champagne), over Bonham’s genius drumming and his own wonderful and distinctive illustrations, drawn on pages from Melville’s book.  Itin is artist-in-residence at the Institute for the Future of the Book, you can check out more of his excellent work here.
 

 
Bonus clip of Bonham’s ‘Moby Dick’, after the jump…
 

 
I had the soundtrack album to Son of Dracula when I was a kid—you could buy it for 99 cents in any cut out bin in America in the late 70s—and although I didn’t really like the music that much, it featured impressive album cover art that opened out from under Harry Nilsson’s cape (see below). It just stayed in my record collection, unlistened to, but still pretty cool. It’s not like the film ever achieved “legendary lost film” status in my eyes, but when I saw a VHS bootleg for sale one day at the Pasadena Flea Market (there was a huge section of the market devoted solely to rock memorabilia and bootlegs of every stripe back in 90s) I scooped it up.

 
Hmmmm… It’s not like I can stand here before you and tell you it’s great—because it’s definitely not—but do take Ringo Starr’s comments on Son of Dracula as the gospel truth:  “It is not the best film ever made, but I’ve seen worse.” He ought to know, he co-produced this turkey. )He’s also being a bit cagey with that statement because he’s mum on exactly how many worse films he’s seen? One other? Dozens? I’d guess it’s a number Ringo counts on just one hand…).
 

 
Featuring hard-partying musician Harry Nilsson as “Count Downe” a vampire rock musician who is about to be crowned Overlord of the Netherworld when he falls in love with a mortal and has a change of heart, and Ringo as—who else—Merlin the Magician. Son of Dracula contains celebrity cameos from Nilsson’s hard-partying rocker mates Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham and Keith Moon (see a pattern forming here already?) and a band that included Peter Frampton, Klaus Voorman and Leon Russell.

It used to be that this film was impossible to see, but now, thanks to the wonderful innovation that is YouTube, you can have it in your very home—the entire film—from right where you are sitting now…