



When you’re strange
Faces come out of the rain
Led Zeppelin // The Rain Song
Eddie Kramer: “I love this track because of the typically esoteric Pagey guitar tuning, but also because of the role John Paul Jones plays on it. This was definitely the album where Jonesy finally stepped out of the shadows. I knew him from before Led Zeppelin, when he was a session musician. He was a superb arranger who could conduct an orchestra while playing bass with one hand. I once saw him do that. That Mellotron he plays on this is what lifts the track to another emotional level. And the piano, which he also plays, is like raindrops, or maybe teardrops. I don’t think they’d ever done a track so subtle before. That’s the test of a great arranger: to do something so subtle yet which has such power. Quite beautiful.”
People talk about Desert Island Albums, that handful of records that you’d take if you were marooned, and those were all you could listen to for the rest of your life – well, this is my Desert Island SONG. If there was only one song I could listen to, every day, for the rest of my life, this would be it.
Yes, “The Rain Song” features some of Robert’s tenderest lyrics (and his own all-time favorite vocal), a gorgeous melody from Jimmy (opening with a quote from “Something”, a riposte to George Harrison who said that Zeppelin’s problem was that they didn’t do ballads), one of Bonzo’s most subtly powerful performances, using brushes even as the song rises to its climax (and seriously, keep your ears open for when he enters the song – it will change how you hear it forever after), but the song’s engineer, Eddie Kramer is right: this is a John Paul Jones masterclass.
The Mellotron, a keyboard interface for manipulating tape loops, ideal for one person trying to control an orchestra, was right up John Paul Jones’ alley, and Eddie’s description of JPJ’s piano “like raindrops, or maybe teardrops” is perfect. It feels like fainter praise than it deserves, but this truly is my favorite piano performance in all of classic rock.
John Paul Jones is too often dismissed as “the other guy” in Led Zeppelin, or only remembered as a terrific bassist. That’s only the beginning of what he brought to this remarkable musical partnership.
The rolling stones // gimme shelter
The Rolling Stones - She’s A Rainbow (1967)
Have you seen her dressed in blue?
See the sky in front of you
And her face is like a sail
Speck of white so fair and pale
Have you seen a lady fairer?
She’s a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, guillotine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime
“Emily tries but misunderstands
She’s often inclined to borrow somebody’s dreams till tomorrow”
The Who - Baba O'Riley
“Don’t cry
Don’t raise your eye
It’s only teenage wasteland”
The Doors - Peace Frog
“There’s blood in the streets it’s up to my ankles,
Blood in the streets it’s up to my knee;
Blood in the streets, the town of Chicago.
Blood on the rise, it’s following me.”
sympathy for the devil // the rolling stones
I watched with glee
while your kings and queens
fought for ten decades
for the gods they made
The Who - Behind Blue Eyes (1971, Decca Records)