The album that was a major insult to John Paul Jones
It was bound to be impossible for anyone to recapture the same magic that Led Zeppelin had with a different drummer. The whole point of their chemistry came from everyone performing in lockstep with each other, and when that signature animal behind the kit fell silent, there was no real point in them trying to get someone else to recapture that same feeling all over again. That didn’t stop Robert Plant and Jimmy Page from trying every now and again, and when they made this album, it became one of the most disrespectful moves anyone could have played on John Paul Jones.
In the story of Led Zeppelin, though, Jonesy tends to get put on the side far too often. Despite Page being considered the mad scientist behind every piece of the band’s story and Plant being known as the ‘Golden God’ towering over the stage, Jones was the one responsible for the raw sound of the group half the time, usually throwing in whatever he could on any instrument to make the songs better.
And while Page is known as the true riffmaster behind most of the band’s best singles, Jones’s material always brought a certain eclecticism to everything. Zeppelin was never considered progressive in the true sense of the word, but listening back to a track like ‘Black Dog’, it’s easy to see how they could hang with bands like Yes or Genesis, especially when they switch up the time signature and end up falling in and out of sync with each other during the breakdown of the tune.
Most of those Zeppelin classics might seem untouchable, but Plant and Page never liked the idea of their albums becoming a museum piece. Music was always a living, breathing entity, and by the time they reached the 1990s, they released a reimagining of their old material titled No Quarter, usually taking the basis of their songs and giving them new life.
Then again, this was never meant to replace anyone’s old copy of Physical Graffiti. The band were looking to do what they could with the material they had, and since Plant was a decade shy of working with Allison Krauss on rootsy music, hearing him make something toned down suited his voice much better. But for any keen-eyed viewers of their TV special, there’s a certain member conspicuously absent from the whole thing.
Instead of making it a pseudo-Zeppelin reunion, Jones was never asked to contribute to the album. While any other member would have been pissed and might have even tried to drag his old mates’ names through the mud, Jones tended to take the passive-aggressive approach, saying, “I’ve never really understood why they did what they did. I remember one time when a journalist asked me, ‘What do you think of No Quarter?’ I said, ‘I always reckoned it was one of my best tunes.’”
The joke hadn’t quite worn out its welcome by the time the band got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, either. Despite the band going onstage and playing a handful of songs from their early days, Jones did get a subtle jab in during his acceptance, giving his thanks to various people before thanking Page and Plant for remembering his number this time around.
It might have been water under the bridge by the time the band reunited again in 2007, but it’s still a cold-blooded move for Page and Plant to carry on without their old mate. Just imagine The Beatles making their Anthology project and, on a whim, deciding to leave Ringo Starr out of the whole thing, and you’re somewhere in the ballpark of how this project was handled.
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