It's hard to think of another band that has had as monumental an impact on the heavier end of the rock spectrum as Led Zeppelin. Whether you think they were the greatest band ever, or simply overrated, their effect on rock music is without question.
One major component of their success was the solid, funky and bluesy rhythm section of John Paul Jones and the late drummer John ‘Bonzo’ Bonham.
“The whole point is to make the band sound good, and that realisation happened pretty damn quick with Bonzo and me,” said Jones in the September ’99 issue of Bass Player. “I was almost throwing down a challenge with some of those basslines – play me if you can! We would try anything, it just didn't matter.”
Good Times Bad Times (1968)
Though John Paul Jones had been a professional session player and arranger since the age of 16, Good Times Bad Times was Zeppelin's first introduction to the record-buying public. Like the later Black Dog, it's based around a riff from Jones himself, and is a great showcase of his deft fretwork, as well as John Bonham's assured and dextrous drumming.
The intro and main riff are played in unison with the guitar, apart from a few grace notes. This approach continues until the chorus at 00:44, where the bass departs into a chromatic-style line, which becomes almost like a walking bassline, continuing on into the second verse.
There are quite a few key changes in this early part of the song, but it's worth noting that while there is some uniformity to the different sections, Jones is never reduced to simply transposing the same patterns from key to key – a mark of his prowess on the instrument.
Ramble On (1969)
![Led Zeppelin - Ramble On (Live at the O2 Arena 2007) [Official Video] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/EYeG3QrvkEE/maxresdefault.jpg)
Jones reached a melodic peak with Ramble On, from 1969's Led Zeppelin II. The distinctive ‘lead bass’ part in the verse is a prime example of his delicate control of note duration and his super-tight interplay with drummer John Bonham.
First there are quarter-notes, then eighth-notes, then a 16th-note turnaround that returns the articulation to tenuto (the opposite of staccato).
By moving to smaller note values, the bassline makes the whole song feel like it quickens, adding tension and excitement with each four-bar cycle.
The Lemon Song (1969)
The Lemon Song unwinds repeated cycles of a standard 12-bar blues framework that includes one of the finest rock bass solos ever recorded. Some of the riffs are right from the James Jamerson mould, with even a little Carol Kaye thrown in.
Improvising one of the most mind-blowing two minutes in rock history, Jones' acute expression is clear throughout his solo, which begins at 02:58. His ideas modulate, outlining each chord change with its parallel blues scale – the E blues scale over E7#9, the A blues scale over A7, and the B blues scale over B7.
Livin' Lovin' Maid (1969)
Livin' Lovin' Maid shows just how far a simple two-chord change can be stretched. Jones leans heavily on off-beats to create forward drive, before tackling the main riff in unison with the guitar. This continues until the chorus, where Jones plays a cascade of roots and 5ths before going on to explore Jamerson-style the 3rd, 4th, #4th, and 5th.
This would no doubt have filled out the sound onstage too, something which Jones was to become very used to doing, playing Mellotron, acoustic guitar and mandolin on later material. He ends his chorus line with a terse tonic E.
Immigrant Song (1970)
From the band’s 1970 album, Led Zeppelin III, Immigrant Song features more solid, funky and bluesy rhythm section interplay. Hinging on Jimmy Page’s repetitive guitar riff, Jones uses octaves to match a low note and a high note with the kick and snare drum.
For the first two bars of the verse, Jones takes an F# octave figure and simply moves it down a whole-step to E, which keeps the punchy groove going with the drums while Page sustains an open E chord.
“In certain situations you need to play something that's harmonically ‘grounded’, and octaves are always a safe bet as far as that's concerned,” he told us.
Black Dog (1971)
Inspired by a blues riff from Howlin’ Wolf’s Smokestack Lightning, it was Jones, not Page, who wrote the iconic Black Dog riff. The circular pattern pushes the beat back, bit by bit, as the song progresses. The bridge riff is also built from a repeating pattern that’s displaced by half a beat each time.
As this point in his career, Jones was predominantly playing fingerstyle, but he was equally adept at using a pick. “During the chorus and solo sections of Black Dog, I would sometimes strum E5 and D5 power chords behind Page's G and D chords, especially when performing live. I really don't think the song would have sounded as punchy if I hadn't used a pick.”
When The Levee Breaks (1971)
When The Levee breaks is seven minutes and eight seconds of churning bass and drums. There’s very little showmanship here. Just four musicians at the top of their game.
That said, the bridge section is a great example of effective non-root playing. Over both chords of the first bar at 01:07 (Db/Ab and Eb/Ab) Jones emphasizes the 5th, before following Jimmy Page's guitar for accented hits on the b3rd.
This lick is also typical of Bonham's signature four-16ths snare fill – proof that the two musicians influenced each other, and another insight into the relationship between bass and drums that gave Zeppelin their groove.
D'yer Mak'er (1973)
The flatpicked bass groove from the reggae-flavored D'yer Mak’er sees Jones replace the hollow thud of his early Zeppelin work with a more rubbery tone as he makes liberal use of 16th-note rests.
Jones plays only one A over the Am chord, ending with a C – a clever choice, since it's both the 3rd of Am and the 5th of the next chord, F. This is typical of how Jones would often use notes to not only outline the chord of the moment, but to also foreshadow the next one.
The Crunge (1973)
The Crunge is a workout for anyone who thinks they've mastered odd-time signatures. The bassline also shows Led Zeppelin at its funkiest, with Jones and Bonham hooking up for a ripping 9/8 groove.
This tune is difficult to count; with several off-beat accents and the quick tempo, it takes a while to determine where the one is, but latch onto it and you won't want to let go.
Achilles Last Stand
Achilles Last Stand harnessed the amazing power of the Bonham/Jones rhythm section once more, as they plough their way through nearly 10 minutes of furious rock and cannoning 5/4 breaks.
“The timing was interesting in Achilles because of the 5/4 bits. When Page came out with the first riff he said, ‘What are we going to do with the rest of it?’ I said, ‘The 8-string bass!’ It fitted perfectly.”
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