The Excellent Jason Bonham

I've met Jason Bonham, I've even bought him a pint of cider in some bar on Sunset Boulevard. He won't remember me (or Julie for that matter). We were on our honeymoon, meandering about. He'd lost his car, that seemed a cool thing to have done, we bought him a drink. There were just the three of us in the bar, like we were in some neoclassical painting called 'The Rustics in LA' (however maybe this is something rock stars do all the time over there, like in 'Hey Dude Where's My Car'- how would we know?
I've spent most of the afternoon listening to him do the most incredible thing on Celebration Day. The weird thing is of course that I spent a good deal of time while enjoying that afternoon concentrating on him; could he do it, could he not, since the rest of the band (witness the beginning of 'Whole Lotta Love') can do it anyway so it seems, they have it in them, so 'is he going to show or isn't he?' as Plant asks beforehand- it says that in the liner notes- he does.
Jason does the thing big time.
So when I listen to this fabulous record (x3) a record I am even considering upgrading Memmmmemmem my my my HiFi to play, I am thinking not just of glorious shifts of guitar mania, or total vocal nuance in a fucking seriously live situation ( I was there, fucking amazing, long story, but that's not quite the point)  I'm not just thinking about how we ONLY NOW understand the genius of John Paul Jones, but I'm thinking about that 'up' of Jason Bonham. For to be honest, when I put The Rover on just afterwards from PG, all I can hear is his dad. So his performance is beyond fabuous, it is like sometime out of Homer, it really is Achilles last stand. Fucking geezer man, fucking geezer and better.