I’m okay with that.

I just have an obsession with When the Levee Breaks. I love that song.

U2 / The Cure / The Who / Metallica / Beastie Boys / Prince / Yes / Led Zeppelin

Failed the rest.

That Beastie Boys had me goin’ for a second there – I was thrilled to hear the opening beats of “When the Levee Breaks” and then suddenly there was that rap swipe sound. I think that one sound is all the Beastie Boys deserve credit for – the rest goes to John Bonham’s drumming and the record producer who captured that sound.

The wikipedia entry for “When the Levee Breaks” says the following about that drum recording:

According to Page, the song’s structure “was a riff that I’d been working on, but Bonzo’s drum sound really makes a difference on that point.”[4] The famous drum performance was recorded by engineer Andy Johns by placing Bonham and a new drumkit at the bottom of a stairwell at Headley Grange, and recording it using two Beyerdynamic M160 microphones at the top, giving the distinctive resonant but slightly muffled sound.[5][6] Back in the Rolling Stones’ mobile studio, Johns compressed the drum sound through two channels and added echo through guitarist Jimmy Page’s Binson echo unit.[3] The performance was made on a brand new drum kit that had only just been delivered from the factory.[3] The drum break has long been popular in hip hop and dance music circles for its “heavy” sound, and has been sampled for many tracks.[7] At one time the remaining band members took legal action against Beastie Boys for their use of this drum sample on “Rhymin & Stealin” from Licensed to Ill.