- Born John Baldwin in 1946 in Kent, son of a music-hall pianist and arranger
- Studio musician in London before 1968: Donovan, the Rolling Stones, Dusty Springfield, Jeff Beck
- Bass, Hammond, clavinet, Mellotron, mandolin and all the arrangements for Led Zeppelin
- The riff for Black Dog and the string arrangement for Kashmir come from his head
In a band, there’s always the one you mention last. In Led Zeppelin, that role went to John Paul Jones, and it’s one of rock’s great injustices. Behind the shirtless singer, the double-neck guitarist and the loudest drummer of the decade, a quiet guy held half the music. Without him, Kashmir has no strings, Trampled Under Foot has no groove and Black Dog doesn’t even have a riff.
Before Led Zeppelin, John Paul Jones already held half the London studios
John Baldwin was born in January 1946 in Sidcup, Kent. His father Joe was a pianist and arranger for post-war dance orchestras, and the kid grew up backstage in music-hall venues. Piano first, church organ next, then electric bass at fourteen, the day he understood what that instrument could bring on a contract. At twenty-one, he was part of the handful of studio musicians all over London wanted.
Between 1964 and 1968, his signature was everywhere without ever appearing on a cover. He laid down bass and keyboards for Donovan, Dusty Springfield, Lulu, Jeff Beck. Above all, he arranged: the strings on She’s a Rainbow by the Rolling Stones are his. The job was comfortable, well paid, and it was starting to seriously wear him out: dozens of sessions a month, advertising jingles squeezed between two hits.
John Paul Jones is a stage name. In 1964, Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones’ manager, suggested he take the title of a maritime adventure film to sign his first solo 45. On his birth certificate, the bassist is John Baldwin.
The phone call that changed everything
The story comes down to reading a newspaper. His wife Maureen spots a brief note: Jimmy Page is looking for musicians to revive the Yardbirds. She tells him to call. The two men had crossed paths a hundred times in London studios, notably on Beck’s Bolero, and Page said yes within a minute. In September 1968, they rehearsed in a basement on Gerrard Street with an unknown singer and drummer from the Midlands, on a cover of Train Kept A-Rollin’. All four have told the same story since: the room shook.
John Paul Jones’s bass, or the art of holding the house up
His early instrument is a Fender Jazz Bass from the early 60s, sunburst finish, heard on the first four albums. Two single-coil pickups, a narrow neck: an instrument made for a studio musician who switches from a soul session to a pop session in the same day. In the studio, he often plugged straight into the console. On stage, he pushed an Acoustic 360, the folded cabinet amp that gives that round, huge low end from 1969-1972.
The most striking thing remains his placement. Listen to Ramble On: the line never doubles the guitar, it tells a second story underneath. On The Lemon Song, he holds six minutes of jazz-like counterpoint without losing the tempo. On Good Times Bad Times, he slips a sixteenth note into every gap left by Bonham. The work of a bassist-arranger: every note is placed so the song holds together, not to be noticed. A principle to take to the bass section.
The American Vintage II reissue goes back to 1966, a key year for the model: white binding on the fingerboard, mother-of-pearl markers, matching painted headstock, period hardware. The two Pure Vintage ’66 pickups deliver the Jazz Bass signature, firm lows and singing mids, and the mix is adjusted with the knobs, no selector switch, like the original. Alder, rosewood and nitrocellulose lacquer complete the recipe.
Pros
- Two Pure Vintage ’66 pickups and volume, volume, tone controls: the original “J” tone
- Alder, rosewood and nitro finish for dynamics
- 38.1 mm nut and 34-inch scale: a fast neck
- Period hard case included
Cons
- “1966 U” neck profile, thick for small hands
- No selector: everything is mixed with the two volumes
- A budget for the seasoned bassist
Black Dog, a riff Jimmy Page didn’t write
The staircase riff of Black Dog, the one that confuses everyone on first listen, comes from his bass. He wrote it at home, notebook on his knees, looking for a phrase twisted enough that no one could clap along. Goal achieved: the line runs on a meter impossible to count, guitar and bass in unison, and Bonham stays unflappable in the middle. On the same record, he also plays the electric piano on Misty Mountain Hop.
Hammond C3, clavinet and Mellotron: the other half of the band
A quartet with one holding the bass shouldn’t be able to bring an organ on stage. Jones solves the problem with his feet. On Since I’ve Been Loving You, he plays the Hammond C3 organ with both hands and the bass line on the pedals, at the same time, for seven minutes. The little squeak you hear on the take is Bonham’s bass drum pedal. No one ever fixed it.
Each album brings him a new toy. The Hohner clavinet on Trampled Under Foot, borrowed from Stevie Wonder's funk, turns Led Zeppelin into a dance band for the duration of one track. The Mellotron sketches the strings on The Rain Song. The electric piano on No Quarter, run through a phaser and slowed down on the recording, sets up that underwater atmosphere the band stretched out to twenty minutes in concert.
The MTW engine models the tonewheels one by one and offers four keyboard voicings: A-100, B-3, C-3 and Mellow. The C-3 is the organ on Since I’ve Been Loving You. The two sets of nine drawbars are physical, the percussion responds to velocity, and the Leslie section goes down to the transitions and the mic placement on the cabinet. The 73-note Waterfall keyboard handles glissandos, and a 25-note pedalboard plugs in to play bass with your feet, just like Jones.
Pros
- MTW engine and four keyboard voicings, including the C-3
- Two sets of nine physical drawbars, velocity-sensitive percussion
- 12AU7 and 12AX7 tube preamp, tube or transistor overdrive
- Detailed Leslie section down to mic placement
Cons
- No built-in speaker: amplification is planned separately
- The 25-note pedalboard is optional
Amplification is thought out from the start: the XK-5 outputs in mono, stereo and through a Leslie jack, but nothing sounds until there’s a speaker at the end. The organs and stage keyboards sections are worth a look before deciding.
Kashmir, mandolin and recorders
The most important word on his job description remains: arranger. The strings and brass on Kashmir are his scores, written and conducted by him. The stacked recorders in the intro of Stairway to Heaven are his, track by track. The mandolin on Going to California too, and it’s his instrument that Page grabs for The Battle of Evermore. Koto, lap steel, autoharp: he takes whatever’s lying around the studio and uses it. To join this family, the mandolins section remains the least intimidating door.
After 1980, a career no one expected
Bonham died in September 1980, the band stopped dead, and Jones did exactly the opposite of what was expected. No nostalgic supergroup. He arranged strings for R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People, produced Diamanda Galás and the Butthole Surfers, wrote for string quartet, released two solo albums. In 2009, he formed Them Crooked Vultures with Dave Grohl and Josh Homme and found himself, at sixty-three, in the loudest band of the year.
In 1995, at Led Zeppelin’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he took the stage and dropped a now-famous line: thanks to my friends for finally finding my phone number. That says it all. The band’s most complete musician spent twelve years holding together other people’s music without ever asking for the spotlight. If you’re learning bass today, he leaves you a rule that applies to a whole band’s life: play what’s missing, not what’s heard.
