Jimmy Page’s opinion on John Paul Jones as a musician

The musicianship between Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones was absolutely incredible and crucial to creating all of Led Zeppelin‘s influential and acclaimed albums. Each member had his own strengths as a musician, but John Paul Jones is perhaps the most overlooked of the four. Over the years, Jimmy Page has talked about Jones and shared his opinion of him as a musician.

Jimmy Page’s opinion on John Paul Jones as a musician

Jimmy Page always had huge respect for John Paul Jones and liked him since they were still working as session musicians in London. But in his opinion, Jonesy was only able to really show what he was capable of after he joined Led Zeppelin. “John Paul Jones, he (was) a fine session musician, he (also) done some arranging. But he never had the chance to show what John Paul Jones could do until he was in Led Zeppelin and the same with Robert Plant. As I say, you can hear these master musicians playing together,” Page told 92NY.

Over the years, Jimmy described him as a super-accomplished musician and of course a master musician. It was Jones himself who heard that the guitarist was putting a band together and called him. “John Paul Jones heard I was getting a band together and call me out. He said: ‘I hear you are putting a band together. Would you consider me on bass?’ I said: ‘Ok, marvellous’. Because I’ve played with him in the studio at some various sessions.”

He continued:

“Robert had a short time when he played with John Bonham but (John) was off and playing around. (He was) starting to make a name for himself outside of Birmingham. We had this one rehearsal in a small rehearse room. We all knew instinctively from that point that we’d never felt anything like that before. Because it was four musical equals with this sort of communion. From that point I got everyone to come to my house. We started rehearsing, recording and as I say, it’s a very fast route.”

“Because the Yardbirds breakup in July, August (are the rehearsals), we were actually recording by the end of September. We’ve done some dates in Scandinavia, a handful of dates but it was good. I was very keen to be able to play the material live. We had a set together, of other material as well as our own material. So that we could do that in front of an audience before we went into record,. That (way) we could keep the thing really fresh,” he told Academy of Achievement (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).

John was not only important as the band’s bass player but also played keyboards and helped write many songs and arrangements. The fact that both he and Page had a lot of studio experience made it easier for the band to record their albums. It helped Plant and Bonham feel comfortable in that environment. Apart from ABBA, Led Zeppelin is one of the few bands among the best-selling ones in which a member of the group produced all the albums in their discography since Jimmy Page was the one who produced them all.

Jason Bonham said that Jones and Page would sometimes have disagreements about music

Although the musicianship in Led Zeppelin was amazing and could be heard on their albums and during their shows, there were sometimes musical disagreements. According to John Bonham’s son, drummer Jason Bonham, who played with Jimmy Page during his early solo career and later with Led Zeppelin at their 2007 reunion, he witnessed this happen between Page and Jones.

“He’s a well-educated (John Paul Jones) — there’s a certain bracket, and I don’t know what the American equivalent is. He conducts, he can chart, orchestra, you know, hands down. So much so that there was a time when we were rehearsing with those guys, and we were doing a part, and Jimmy, Mr. Page, was counting it as guitar cycles. He’d do it and say, ‘That’s 16 guitar cycles. That’s right, isn’t it, John?’ And John goes, ‘Whatever.’ He goes, ‘No, no. John, we’re right, aren’t we?’ And John goes, ‘We’ve never been right. What’s the point of continuing now? You do it your way and I’ll do it the correct way!'” Jason Bonham told Pat Monahan’s podcast in 2015.

Although John Paul Jones reunited with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page as Led Zeppelin in the 80s, they didn’t invite him to be part of their Page & Plant project in the 90s. When the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, he joked during his speech. He said: “Thanks for them finally remembering my phone number”.

What John Paul Jones said about Jimmy Page

After the 2007 reunion, Jimmy and Jones considered touring as Led Zeppelin with another singer since Robert Plant wasn’t interested in doing more shows. It is known that other vocalists like Steven Tyler were considered but it ultimately didn’t happen. Around that time, when asked if Jimmy Page was still as good as he had been in the ’70s, John Paul Jones praised him. He said that he had always been one of his favorite guitar players.

“Yeah, he really is. He really is (good), he was always one of my favourite guitarists. I know it sounds obvious. But he was and as soon as we started in rehearsal, I was just amazed to hear how he’d kept everything and actually improved, I thought. He seemed to have grown since I saw him last,” he told UNCUT in 2008.

Jimmy Page wasn’t the only member of Led Zeppelin who also worked as a producer. John Paul Jones also produced many important records over the past decades. He was the producer of The Mission’s second album, “Children,” which peaked at number two on the UK charts. That album is best known for the song “Tower of Strength.” In 1992, he did the orchestral arrangements for the R.E.M. songs “Drive,” “The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite,” “Everybody Hurts” and “Nightswimming”. They were all part of the 1992 album “Automatic for the People.”

In the 60s, Jones wrote the arrangement and played bass on Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow” in 1967. That same year he did the string arrangement in The Rolling Stones song “She’s a Rainbow”.