John Paul Jones

One guy’s music of whom I’ve been listening a lot lately is that of John Paul Jones. Of the three survivors of Led Zeppelin, John Paul Jones is the one who has been more inclined to lend his talents to others rather than put out his own work. The list of acts he has worked with since Led Zeppelin’s demise is pretty eclectic, to wit: R.E.M.[Automatic for the People], Peter Gabriel [Us], Heart [The Road Home], The Mission [Children], Foo Fighters [In Your Honor], Butthole Surfers [Independent Worm Saloon] , Uncle Earl [Waterloo, Tennessee], and Brian Eno [Music for Films III] just to name a few. He’s even played live with the likes of Gov’t Mule and Ben Harper. In 1994 he collaborated with avant-garde performer Diamanda Galás on The Sporting Life, for which he received equal billing. Other than the Scream for Help movie soundtrack in 1985, Jonesy didn’t put out an album under his own name until 1999 with Zooma. He followed Zooma in 2001 with The Thunderthief. Both albums show off Jonesy’s talents as a composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist. As one peruses over the credits on these two albums one will find he plays the following: bass [4-, 8-, 10- and 12-string], guitar, mandolin, mandola, koto, lap steel guitars, autoharp, ukulele, sitar, cello, Hammond organ, piano, and other keyboard instruments. Zooma is all-instrumental, where The Thunderthief has some vocals, but both show off the skills he brought to Led Zeppelin. It isn’t for nothing that he was often referred to as “Led Zeppelin’s secret weapon.” He is, after all, the guy who came up with Black Dog, Misty Mountain Hop, No Quarter, Trampled Under Foot, and most of Zep’s In Through the Out Door album.

Many of the compositions on the Zooma and Thunderthief albums can be described in one word – thunderous. JPJ often uses the 10- and 12-string basses as lead instruments, often playing the main riff while using lap steels to solo over the top. Leafy Meadows [with guest Robert Fripp soloing over JPJ’s thunder], Grind, Nosumi Blues, B. Fingers and Shibuya Bop are just such numbers. There are some pretty mind-bending listening experiences contained in the two albums. For example, there is Hoediddle from The Thunderthief. It starts off as a sort-of classic rock jam but then switches gears and turns into an Irish jig played at Warp Factor Eight [?!?]. Snake Eyes from Zooma is the showcase for JPJ the composer, multi-instrumentalist, and arranger. It starts off with JPJ playing a slow, swampy blues thing on the lap steel, which then yields to a spaced-out Hammond organ solo that would make Jon Lord of Deep Purple proud. Behind the soloing is the London Symphony Orchestra playing counterpoint. The Hammond then yields to the LSO, leaving them to finish the song in grand fashion. Snake Eyes is quite an epic piece of work. Another fine piece of work is The Smile of Your Shadow from Zooma. Taken at a slow pace, The Smile of Your Shadow starts with a single mandola playing a riff with a lap steel adding some color behind it. Then the drums kick in, accompanied an eight-string bass with the lap steel taking the lead while the mandola bobs and weaves all around what is being played. All comes to a crescendo, and then we’re left with just the mandola with a mandolin playing underneath. Just when you think you’ve heard it all from JPJ, then comes Ice Fishing at Night, a quiet piano piece from The Thunderthief on which JPJ sings. Taken all together, the work from both Zooma and The Thunderthief are astonishingly inventive and original.

What is JPJ up to now? He has a new band with Dave Grohl [Foo Fighters] and Josh Homme [Queens of the Stone Age]. Their name? Them Crooked Vultures. They have an album titled, oddly enough, Them Crooked Vultures. Josh Homme is the front man and guitar player. Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones hold down the rhythm section. They make a very solid rhythm section. Since Josh Homme is the front man and plays the lead instrument, TCV sounds a lot like Queens of the Stone Age. However, John Paul Jones plays the same “secret weapon” role in TCV that he did in Led Zeppelin. On the song Scumbag Blues, while Josh Homme does his best Jack Bruce impersonation, one can hear the clavinet like what JPJ played on Zep’s Trampled Under Foot from Physical Graffiti. Caligulove has JPJ playing some kind of wigged-out Arabic-sounding keyboard between the verses. You can also hear him play mandolin during the psychedelic drum break. He plays classical piano on Spinning on Daffodils, and slide guitar for Reptiles. The time changes in Elephants have John Paul Jones written all over it. The whole album sounds like it was a helluva lot of fun to make. It’s definitely fun to listen to. One of the things I like about these guys is that they’re fearless. Before they recorded their first album, they toured and played nothing but songs from their album – no Zep, no Foo Fighters, no Nirvana, no Queens of the Stone Age. Not many people have the balls to play to a paying audience 80 minutes of music that nobody has ever heard before. Zeppelin used to do that… I really like these guys. The good news – they’re going to do another one this year. It will be mine.