(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Thu 2 October 2025 17:12, UK
At the dawn of the 1970s, Led Zeppelin felt like the perfect amalgam of everything rock and roll had been building towards.
Sure, The Beatles may have shown everyone the way, but Jimmy Page’s idea for a band that would go in a thousand different directions and still tie everything back to the blues was a match made in rock and roll heaven. And while everyone likes to wax poetic about John Bonham’s drumming and Page’s riffs, no one has done more without getting the credit for it than John Paul Jones.
As much as Jonesy liked the idea of walking away from the spotlight and making the best music that he could with his friends, it was never like he went unnoticed, either. A lot of the most complex riffs in their catalogue came from him and even if he wasn’t the one putting together the arrangement, he would be flying up and down his bass whenever they took on more bluesy tunes like ‘The Lemon Song’.
But it almost makes sense why Jones would be the least recognisable member. The bass player in any group was about filling out the groove and getting out of the way of everything else, and yet the minute that the right person is taken out of the equation, everything is bound to fall apart. And when looking at the biggest names in bass playing, Jones knew the kind of power that he held on the four-string.
Outside of the fantastic keyboard and piano arrangements that he made on Zeppelin’s records, it’s clear that Jones studied under the true masters whenever he played. There was a lot of experience that he got from playing on sessions for most of his professional career, but there’s clearly a nod to people like James Jamerson whenever he fired up those walking basslines or the melodic flourishes on ‘Ramble On’.
Zeppelin were easily one of the most important rock acts to come out of England since The Beatles, but it’s not like Jones saw them as competition by any stretch. The Fab Four had broken down walls that no one had even known could be done at the time, and he had no problem putting Paul McCartney right at the top of his list whenever discussing his influences.
Despite having his own legendary tunes at the time, Jones knew nothing could compare to what Macca did, saying, “I think [McCartney’s] perfect. He’s always been good. Everything he’s done has always been right. […] He’s improved so much since the early Beatles days, and everything is still right.” Even if he was making that comment as The Beatles were falling apart, that didn’t mean McCartney stopped hunting for new sounds, either.
He had a knack for finding the right line for nearly anything he worked on, and when he separated from The Beatles, tunes like ‘Silly Love Songs’ and ‘Let ‘Em In’ proved that he still knew how to craft a hell of a pop song if the time called for it. And listening to Jonesy’s work in the studio, he seemed to be taking the same approach that McCartney did when commanding the studio.
Anyone could be a master of one instrument, but outside of being an amazing bassist, Jones saw someone that wanted to sample everything they could in McCartney. And while the former Beatle did have a few lesser albums in his catalogue that didn’t resonate with everyone, he was always going to have a soft spot in Jones’s heart for helping birth the idea of the eclectic rock and roll musician.
Related Topics