Sunday Star-Times November 9, 2003
Rock great John Paul Jones flies in to New Zealand to check out a hot local band. They remind him of the old days, he tells Iain Sharp.
WHEN The Datsuns played a hard-rocking gig at the Christchurch Student Union last month, John Paul Jones-bassist and keyboardist with legendary '70s band Led Zeppelin-was in the audience. Born in February 1946, he was old enough to be the grandpa of some of the kids, but nobody noticed. Slim, trim and youthful-looking, he fitted right in.
The years have not diminished his passion for rock'n'roll. "I like all kinds of music-bluegrass, jazz, folk, classical," he says. "But there's something about the combination of electric guitars, bass and drums that's especially thrilling."
He enthuses about how The Datsuns' frontman, Dolf, body-surfed across the crowd to the rear of the hall and back to the stage.
"It was great. It took me back to my own early days as a touring musician. Student unions seem to be pretty much the same wherever you go in the world. And the Christchurch audience didn't look all that different from English audiences in the '60s and early '70s either."
Jones has agreed to produce The Datsuns'
second album. That's what brought him to New Zealand. He wanted to meet the band, see it perform on its home turf, hear its new material and discuss musical ideas. The band will then fly to England to record the album in a private studio "about 40 miles north of London".
Jones is a richly experienced producer, with credits ranging from Ben E King to the Butthole Surfers. Asked how The Datsuns came to his attention, he replies: "The boys and I were set up by our record company. It was done in a nice way and I'm not complaining, but we were definitely set up.
"The story I heard was that The Datsuns were very keen to be recorded by me. Meanwhile they were told that I was desperate to record them. But it's all worked out for the best. I think they're a terrific band and I'm really happy to be working with them. They're good listeners and they don't bristle at any suggestions regarding the overall sound."
Jones seems so sane, articulate and healthy that you can't help wondering how much truth there is in the widely circulated rumours of Led Zeppelin's offstage excesses. There are tales of massive LSD ingestion, frenzied trashing of hotel suites, sexual congress involving live sharks and teenage girls.
In Stephen Davis' scandal-mongering book Hammer of the Gods, Led Zeppelin are described as "the hottest, hardest, horniest, most hedonistic group in rock history". But Davis says Jones was not around when the orgies took place. He'd just turn up in time for each gig, then disappear. Other rock journalists have dubbed Jones "more reclusive than Greta Garbo".
He's amused by this. "Yes, I liked to get away on my own a bit. I've never wanted to be cooped up in hotel rooms. That's awful. But of course I also hung out with the band when we were touring. I was wary of journalists, though, and Stephen Davis, in particular, seemed a right prat. So I made sure I was never there when he was around."
Vocalist Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page tended to hog the limelight in Led Zeppelin anyway. Photos of the band in action usually show Plant bare-chested, mike to his mouth, leaning back until his curly golden mane almost touches the raven tresses of the diminutive Page, who stares intensely at his fretboard as his little fingers produce another killer riff. Drummer John Bonham can be glimpsed at the rear, but you have to look hard to find Jones-a shadowy figure standing behind Page. "Bonzo and I couldn't get a spotlight put on us for love or money," he laughs. "But that's what you'd expect. Robert and Jimmy were the frontmen, not us."
Fond of his privacy and wanting the freedom to wander around town without being mobbed, Jones was happy not to be recognised by fans. He deliberately changed his appearance for each tour to make himself harder to spot. If he was long-haired and moustached for one trip to the US, he'd be short-haired and clean-shaven for the next.
Led Zeppelin broke up in 1980, after 11 years together, when Bonham choked to death on his own vomit after a drinking binge. When Plant and Page reunited for a tour in 1994, they didn't bother to call Jones. This is a sore point, but generally the three survivors get along pretty well, Jones says.
All three were involved this year in the compilation of a new DVD of live performances from Led Zeppelin's heyday and a new CD, How the West Was Won, of them in concert in California in 1972.
"Jimmy did most of the work," Jones readily concedes. "But he wanted to make sure Robert and I were happy with the choices. There wasn't as much concert footage available as you might think. We had to search for it."
Inevitably there has been speculation that Led Zeppelin might reform for a tour to promote the album and DVD, but Jones says this is unlikely. "It just wouldn't be the same without Bonzo. Watch the DVD and you'll see how much he was the engine driving the band. That old gag about the band members saying to each other `We'll meet at the drums in five minutes' held pretty true for us. And if we got in another drummer for the sake of a tour it would feel somehow like a tribute band."
Jones occasionally performs Led Zeppelin numbers, however, when touring with his own band. "We'll do Whole Lotta Love, for instance, but I'll play Robert's vocal part on steel guitar. It's just a bit of fun. I had a hand in writing the song, so I figure I have the right to play it."
Raised in Sidcup, Kent, Jones come from a musical family. His father was the pianist in Bert Ambrose's orchestra in the 1930s. Piano was Jones' first instrument. He took up bass as a teenager. He can play most other string instruments too-he's particularly adept on mandolin.
He also played the recorder part at the beginning of Led Zeppelin's most famous number, Stairway to Heaven. But modestly he says he's not very good on woodwinds.
John Paul Jones is not his real name. Born John Baldwin, he was given the moniker-after the great naval commander of the American Revolution-in the mid-'60s by his friend, former Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham.
Soon after leaving school in the '60s, he began working as a session musician. It was then he met Jimmy Page, who was also a busy session musician at the time. "We played on quite a few sessions together before we got to know each other."
He'd enjoy playing on The Datsuns' new album. "I might contribute something on keyboards if they want me to do it. I'm really just looking forward to recording with them. They're nice boys and seem to respect the fact that after 40 years in the business I might have something to offer."
By Iain SHARP.
1,258 words
9 November 2003
Sunday Star-Times
24
English
(c) 2003
Thanks to Kate for finding this article!
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