Pageia Obscura: P.J. Proby's Backup Band

In one of the more peculiar and under-reported incidents in the history of Led Zeppelin, the band's foray as a backup group for American singer-songwriter P.J. Proby for his album "Three Week Hero" in 1968.

(Featuring Led Zeppelin)

The sessions for Three Week Hero took place in early September 1968 at Lansdowne Studios in London, just before the band recorded their first album. John Paul Jones had been hired by producer Steve Rowland to do arrangements and play bass, and Jones asked Rowland if he could bring in his new bandmates to play on the sessions and get in some practice before they went into the studio together for their own album, to which Rowland readily agreed.

John Paul Jones plays bass on the entire album, and also arranged 10 of the 12 tracks. There are two tracks that came out of these sessions that the members of Led Zeppelin are known to have played on. The first is the medley "Jim's Blues/George Wallace Is Rollin' In This Mornin'", which closes out the album. It's basically an improvised blues jam with Zep working the instrumentals (Robert Plant played harmonica) with Proby over the top on vocals. The first half of the medley is in the same blues vein of Zeppelin's eventual hits "You Shook Me" or "I Can't Quit You".

The other track was originally released only as a 1968 B-side. It had the strange title "Mery Hoppkins Never Had Days Like These", although in essence it was an extended instrumental jam with Proby (and Rowland) adding rap-style "vocals" over the top of it. Jimmy's guitar is buried in the mix but the riff is a lost Zep classic in the "Moby Dick" mold.

One Helluva Backup Band

The album didn't exactly set the world on fire and didn't reach very high on the charts, today it is most well known for the contributions of the members of Led Zeppelin. It did however give the group a chance to work together in a studio environment and develop some chemistry before they recorded their first album together, perhaps that is "Three Week Hero's" and P.J. Proby's greatest contribution to the world of music.