Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones Said Paul McCartney Saved a ‘Doom and Gloom’ Recording Session With 1 Sentence

Before John Paul Jones joined Led Zeppelin, he crossed paths with The Beatles’ Paul McCartney. Jones was working as a session musician at the time, and his work with the musician Donovan was not going well. He’d written a horn arrangement, and nobody in the room liked it. A surprise appearance by McCartney completely changed the tide of the session. 

Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones was very complimentary of Paul McCartney

Both Jones and McCartney played bass in their respective bands. When asked for his opinion on The Beatles’ bassist’s skills, Jones said he’d always been impressed by McCartney’s skill.

“I think he’s perfect,” Jones said, per the book Led Zeppelin on Led Zeppelin: Interviews and Encounters. “He’s always been good. Everything he’s done has always been right. Even if he didn’t do too much, it was still just right. He’s improved so much since the early Beatles days, and everything is still right.”

McCartney felt similarly about Jones. When forming the supergroup Rockestra in 1978, he invited Jones to be a part of it.

The future Led Zeppelin bassist said Paul McCartney saved a recording session

Before his Led Zeppelin days, Jones worked as a session musician. He was working with the musician Donovan on the song “Mellow Yellow” and had written a horn arrangement that was not going over well with everyone else in the room.

“They hated it,” Jones told The Telegraph. “They hated all the brass.”

Luckily for Jones, McCartney suddenly walked in and praised the brass in the song.

“All his people were going ‘oh no, it’s not Donovan, man,’ and the session was descending into doom and gloom when the Lord sent Paul McCartney walking through the door, and he heard it and goes ‘the brass is fantastic,'” Jones said. “The whole mood changed, and I was a hero again.”

McCartney’s opinion was valuable. The song became Donovan’s first to reach more than a million in sales.

The former Beatle liked to be playful with music

McCartney’s opinion is valued in the music industry, but he has learned to be relaxed and playful in his approach to his work. Ahead of a performance in 2007, McCartney’s flight was delayed, leaving him only three minutes to rehearse.

“It’s sounding extraordinary, but Paul’s not there, we’ve only got the players ’til 5, and everyone’s getting a bit on edge,” composer David Arnold said. “So Paul turns up about three minutes to five, completely unflustered. He turned to me confidently and just said, ‘it’ll be fine. I’ll give you a nod and we’ll go for it.’ We had one run through, and it was all he needed. He decided on the spot, ‘I want to have fun with it, and I want everyone else to have fun with it.'”

Arnold said he left the rehearsal feeling like a changed person.

“I skipped home from that session,” he said. “I felt like I’d touched the hem of God.”