Led Zeppelin bassist/keyboard player John Paul Jones is known to most Zeppelin fans as the man who held the band together musically during its most psychedelic sonic trips. Someone's got to be the (relatively) sober one, right?
But Jones was more than Zep's de facto first mate. Unassuming both on and off the stage, Jones' bass playing was far more ambitious and memorable than you might realize if you tend to focus on other instruments when you get the Led out.
And while Led Zeppelin was a blues band at heart, it wouldn't have reached meteoric heights of success had the members stuck to simple 12 bar song structures. Each Zeppelin album features boundary-pushing songs that included various stringed instruments and, yes, keyboards. It's safe to say, as Zeppelin got weirder and weirder, Jones was more and more important to what the band was trying to achieve.
Whether he was bringing the thump on the bass guitar or taking the band to outer space on the keys, John Paul Jones was Zeppelin's framework, its compass and, sometimes, its engine.
Check out our list of JPJ songs below and let us know what you would add!
7. "In the Light," Physical Graffiti (1975)
6. "The Rain Song," Houses of the Holy (1973)
5. "Since I've Been Loving You," Led Zeppelin III (1970)
4. "Kashmir," Physical Graffiti, (1975)
3. "How Many More Times," Led Zeppelin (1969)
2. "No Quarter," Houses of the Holy (1973)
1. "Dazed and Confused," Led Zeppelin (1969)
There's a reason this song could often go on for 20 - 30 minutes. That bass line.
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