The album John Paul Jones resented being released: “I’ve never understood why”
It’s bound to be impossible to find four people in a band that agree on every single thing. Even The Beatles had their ups and downs throughout their career in terms of what should make it onto a record, and any group that has kept a stable lineup for more than a few years will tell you how hard it is to get everyone to agree on something as simple as an album sequence. While everyone in Led Zeppelin was more than welcome to do their own thing after they disbanded, John Paul Jones was pissed the minute that he heard Robert Plant and Jimmy Page working together again.
When you think about the dynamic in Zeppelin, though, Jones always fits in as the George Harrison of the group: just as important but always quiet and off to the side. Sure, he didn’t have the most engaging stage presence in the world or anything, but without his ear for arranging, we wouldn’t have had the massive riff that runs throughout ‘Black Dog’ or the stellar orchestrations behind ‘Kashmir’.
And given that every member of Zeppelin was irreplaceable throughout their career, Jones seemed to be the one who could get back on solid ground the easiest. After all, his gig before Zeppelin was in session work, and he’d even been offered to leave the group to be a choirmaster, so it’s not like options weren’t open.
However, whereas Jones wanted to pursue more musically inclined ventures, Page and Plant still had their eyes on the mainstream market. Even out of the gate, neither of them got off to a terrible start, with Plant eventually turning songs like ‘Big Log’ into hits and Page getting a new frontman in Paul Rodgers of Bad Company for the group The Firm.
Sooner or later, even they were itching to feel some of that magic again, and Walking into Clarksdale was the first time that they had collaborated on a full project since Zeppelin’s split. It would have been easy to just do a one-off record and leave it at that, but making a project like No Quarter: Unledded felt more like a slap in the face to Jones.
Since the entire live show was them updating old Zeppelin songs, having Jones kept absent definitely feels like something’s missing. Yes, the rhythm section wouldn’t have sounded the same without Bonham, but cutting out Jones from everything would be like if Metallica made an album without Lars Ulrich.
Even Jones didn’t understand why he was left out, saying, “I’ve never understood why they did what they did. I remember one time when a journalist asked me, ‘What do you think about No Quarter?’- meaning Page and Plant’s album title. And I said, ‘I always reckoned it was one of my best tunes.’”
The bassist was still holding a bit of a grudge when they were inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as well, limiting his speech to a few thank yous before thanking his bandmates for bothering to remember his phone number for the occasion. While it was water under the bridge by the time the group performed a few one-off shows in the 2000s, it doesn’t seem fair to leave one of the greatest instrumentalists in the band out to dry.
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