Pageia Obscura: John Paul Joins Jimmy

Jimmy Page & John Paul Jones

Once Jimmy had found his lead vocalist and drummer, the search now turned to the last remaining piece, the bass player. When Jimmy began to form his new group, it was assumed that ex-Yardbird, Chris Dreja would fill in on bass, however, Dreja had recently taken up photography and it had become his new passion at the expense of music, and gave Jimmy permission to find someone to take his place; Jimmy didn't need to look very hard. Sidenote, Jimmy did involve Dreja to get involved with his newest group by taking the first publicity shots of the band, with one appearing on the rear cover of the band's first album.

The back cover of Led Zeppelin I

Like Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones (born John Baldwin, the name change was suggested to him by Andrew Loog Oldham) made his mark as a professional musician in the recording studios of London. Indeed before becoming band mates in Led Zeppelin, Page and Jones had worked together on numerous sessions. Jones was one of the most prolific session musicians in England at the time, and was a veritable swiss army knife, capable of play a huge array of instruments.

John Paul Jones was from Kent, and was born into a musical family; his father, Joe Baldwin, was a pianist and a musical arranger for big bands in the 1940s and '50s. In the early 1960s, Jones got himself involved with the hot British pop group, The Shadows. By 1964, on the recommendation of Shadows drummer Tony Meehan, Jones began to work on recording sessions. Jones worked on hundreds of sessions from 1964 to 1968, becoming one of the most prolific, and at the same time, unknown musicians in England.

By 1968, the workload was catching up to John Paul Jones, he was performing on roughly three sessions a day for as many as six or seven days a week; "I was arranging 50 or 60 things a month and it was starting to kill me," Jones later reflected. It was at this point that Jones wife convinced him to contact Jimmy Page about joining his new group and getting out of the studio. Jimmy later related how Jones expressed interest in his group, "I was working at the sessions for Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man, and John Paul Jones was looking after the musical arrangements. During a break, he asked me if I could use a bass player in the new group I was forming. He had a proper music training, and he had quite brilliant ideas. I jumped at the chance of getting him."

With the bass position now filled by a jack of all trades hot shot bassist who could play pretty much anything, and had many of his own great ideas brought along with him, The New Yardbirds were now formed, and ready to take the world on by storm.