John Paul Jones

[these_go211]

zep is my all time fav as well. i was so pissed at page and plant for their snub at jones that i boycotted the page/plant tour. i feel sort of miffed now cuz i would have loved to have seen them but part of me is still glad i held to my principles.

and i'd agree that jpj has had the most interesting stuff post zeppelin. the man is brilliant. the only negative is that listening to zep boots it was probably unfair to ask him to try and sing the high parts live when the band played 'the battle of evermore'. but that sounds like nitpicking! well, at least we know he's human.

 

[OrionManMatt]

Shouldn't the high parts have been Tight Pants McGee's job? Seriously.

II is STILL in my top five albums of all time, if for nothing more than Jonesy's godlike bass lines on "The Lemon Song." It is the song I always turn to when I need a reminder of how you can hold the groove, be inventive, but not overplay. A great all-around song to learn from. I'm still trying to remember all of those parts.

 

[these_go211]

and don't forget his godlike bassline in 'ramble on' as well.....

 

[sethlow3]

JPJ is the man! " Good times bad times" is a perfect example of his use of tied notes. He is versitile with a pick and fingers when most kids feel like they have to be good at one or the other. He can groove and he's got the resume to prove it.

 

[KeithBMI]

...You're going to have to dig deeper to come up with someone that hasn't been discussed here...

No one ever talks about me!

 

[johnvice]

Isn't part of the reason why Jones was never involved in the Page/Plant reunions because it would make it "too much like zeppelin" or something. Not a particularly good reason really.

JPJ said himself ina a press release in 2000 that for the 1985 live aid, Page and Plant wanted to play as Led Zeppelin WITHOUT JPJ and inisted that he be included. Thus there was at worst some 'bad blood' for a while. At best, Plant and Page's got the better of them. I questioned if the Live Aid sans JPJ was Page and Plant's way of testing the water. If JPJ said nothing and Live Aid went off without him, the next step would be a full fledged Page/Plant tour without Jones and the profits split 2 ways.

That's exaclty what happened with Page/Plant CDs and a tour to grab the cash. I'm sure an accountant figured it would be mroe cost effetcive without the Zep brand name and JPJ getting 1/3 of the take.

John Paul Jones was the reason I became a musican and Led Zeppelin is my favorite recording artist. A full blown Led Zep reunion with Jonbes, Page and Plant would have been on of the biggest music events ever and capped their reputation as the best of the best.

Seeing them all live in the last 10 years, Robert's voice has deteriorated. Page (with the Black Crowes) seemed like a shadow of his former self and JPJ...

...I saw him from 15 feet away on the Zooma tour in 2000. His musical ability was awesome as he moved effortlessly from bass, keyboards, lap steel guitar, accoustic guitar, ukalale, mandolin.

My thought as I left that show was Robert who ? Jimmy who ?

 

[Excelite]

I've never participated in any posting about artists here on TB, but I saw this about JPJ and had to step in .

I would have to agree with what people said earlier, Zeppelin would not have gone the direction, nor been so good, if not for JPJ. I think I and II were by far his greatest works, although he has many other great songs scattered throughout. Did anyone notice how it seems he is a lot less present in Physical Graffiti? It seems as if they turned him down or something. Maybe its just me, but the only song where you can pull out the bass line significantly is In My Time of Dying.

I also think that, as a lot of us have to deal with, he was subject to the typical "oh, you're the bassist, you aren't as important" riff-raff, although I bet JPJ was behind most of their masterpieces.

I could go on and on about how I love JPJ and Zeppelin, but I am lazy

 

[Excelite]

Oh and now that I think about it, I guess when I refer to Physical Graffiti I mean the first disc more than the 2nd, but still, I think he could be there more.

 

[Peter Squire]

I come from that era where Zep had passed their peak and were about to disband. I was 10 when they broke up. It wasn't until I was about 15, and becoming serious about bass playing that I hooked unto my older brother's Zep collection. WOW!

JPJ, along with Geddy, were and are my all-time favourite bass players. Their structure, melodic and weaving lines and ability to ground the song make me admire and honour these kinds of bass players.

JPJ, to my mind, played bass like a keyboardist uses his left hand - very organic to the chord progression and not all flash, although he was doing some serious choppin there.

Geddy is a more flash-groove player, whilst still avoiding the kind of "I'm a killer bass player with a backing band" kind of virtuoso.

Chris Squire (another hero) is a bit more solo-ist style. Only Yes members all seem to solo at the same time....

So, for intelligent, moving and tastefully rockin bass lines, JPJ knows how to deliver.

 

[audiotom]

funniest comments in the JPJ P/P debate
"they seem to have found my phone number" R&RHoF
"Seems like it took a whole orchestra to replace me" after No Quarter

JPJ is too classy of a guy

Listen to old zep boots - 75 and before and you will hear a band that works spontaneously and can go into anything on a dime, seeing P/P several times their bass player (Plant's son in law) wasn't capable of free form improv

Bonham, Jones and Page could lock on anything

and when I saw them in 77 here is JPJ playing mandolin and bass pedals

I saw Jonesy on his own on the Zooma tour
lap steel, 4, 8, and 10 string basses
there was no need for Jimmy Page

 

[Peter Squire]

One of the world's biggest bands currently, the Foo Fighters, have JPJ guesting on one song off their acoustic side of the new album.

In three and a half minutes, as a sideman, he eats the Foo's for breakfast and puts them back in their shoebox in shame.

Great musician...

 

[these_go211]

***
"One of the world's biggest bands currently, the Foo Fighters, have JPJ guesting on one song off their acoustic side of the new album.

In three and a half minutes, as a sideman, he eats the Foo's for breakfast and puts them back in their shoebox in shame.

Great musician...
***
supposedly when jpj walked into the studio and sat down at the mellotron, he said "hello old friend", and then played a few lines from the rain song. grohl could just gape speechless hearing his hero belt out a favorite standing a few feet from him. that must have been pretty incredible to hear/see that from grohl's vantage point.

 

[OrionManMatt]

Actually, JPJ plays piano on "Miracle" (#3) and mandolin on "Another Round" (#4). Check the liner notes.

I'm sure Nate Mendel (bassist, former Sunny Day Real Estate bassist FYI) tripped out meeting him too. I know I would have too.

 

[georgestrings]

Besides being a great bassist, there's no doubt in my mind that JPJ's abilities as an overall musician contributed greatly to Zep as we know 'em...



- georgestrings

 

[Funkster]

JMO
Without JPJ there would have been no masterpiece they called Physical Graffiti, He wrote and produced most of that as he was the only band member in his right mind at that time, The rest of the band were Junkies.,,, JPJ is a musical genius. without him they wouldn't have been what they were.
Has Jimmy or Robert come out with anything original that is worth listening to in the last 15 years,, NO! other than rehashed Zep tunes that they just ruin! In the 80's The Firm was Paul Rogers baby and Plants solo stuff is utter crap except for the first solo album (Pictures at 11) that was written for him.
Yet everything Jonesey touches turns to gold. I think Jones did the right thing staying away from P&P in my opinion.
Don't get me wrong I love the mighty Zep as a whole just as much as the next guy but I really never dug Plant!, As for Page he lost it sometime in the late 80's.

 

[Sixmax]

I think his new solo-album is worth his fantastic bassplaying. The Thunderthief is absolutely a nice album, that lays many other bassists behind.

 

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

In fact, "In Through The Out Door" (the first LZ album I heard in my life) is practically a JPJ "solo" effort because those days Page was very heavily into heroin. The keyboard-heavy "Carouselambra", the beautiful synth solo from "All My love", the fake strings intro for the same song and "I'm Gonna Crawl" (first LZ tune I heard in my life because it was a radio hit here along with "In The Evening") and the Salsa-Samba mix on "Fool In The Rain"! It was cool to hear a rock pianist playing a Salsa tumbao. I really loved that. BTW, it was a big surprise for me to hear the more famous LZ works later specially because IMO, Robert Plant's voice is really subdued in "In Through The Out Door".

 

[Funkster]

In fact, "In Through The Out Door" (the first LZ album I heard in my life) is practically a JPJ "solo" effort because those days Page was very heavily into heroin. The keyboard-heavy "Carouselambra", the beautiful synth solo from "All My love", the fake strings intro for the same song and "I'm Gonna Crawl" (first LZ tune I heard in my life because it was a radio hit here along with "In The Evening") and the Salsa-Samba mix on "Fool In The Rain"! It was cool to hear a rock pianist playing a Salsa tumbao. I really loved that. BTW, it was a big surprise for me to hear the more famous LZ works later specially because IMO, Robert Plant's voice is really subdued in "In Through The Out Door".

You are so right Alvaro, That is pretty much a JPJ solo record, Plant could barely sing the lines and Pages guitar is not as out front as it used to be, I forgot what a great record ITTOD was!! Same story though the rest of the band were junkies when this record was made and JPJ was the only one with his head on straight. That my friend could be where P&P's resentment towards JPJ could have stemmed from that they were loosing control of Zep at this point never to regain it and the only way they they could was to do some watered down renuion tour in the late 90's with sitar drenched cover versions of there own tunes tuned to C#.

 

[Alan Vorse]

My friends and I joke around that JPJ must have been the only one to not sell his soul to the devil. The results: He's still alive, looks great for his age (ahem, Page, Cough) and has put out the best solo work. Don't forget, he has played keys and done string arrangements for Peter Gabriel and REM. Did anyone see him fill in on bass with Lenny Kravits on "Are You Gonna Go My Way" at '93 MTV awards? Smokin'.

 

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

I remember that I used to record cassettes with my favorite music for friends who really weren't into buying music and lots of times I used "Hot Dog" as a filler for ending a tape side because of its short duration.