The Period Jimmy Page Called John Paul Jones’ Writing Renaissance

Throughout Led Zeppelin’s career, Jimmy Page wrote most of their music, and Robert Plant wrote most of the lyrics. This happens with most bands in the scene — one or two members (often the frontman and the guitarist) decide on the band’s career path and dominate the song-making process, while the others contribute mainly with their musical talent. However, sometimes the tables turn, and the members who remain in the background steal the spotlight.

For instance, KISS has come forward with Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons’ songwriting contributions. However, one of their hits, ‘Beth,’ was composed by drummer Peter Criss. The song was somewhat different from a usual KISS song but became KISS’ biggest hit in the US after its release. Other examples are Steve Gaines, who sang Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Ain’t No Good Life,’ and Randy Maisner, who took the lead vocal duties on the Eagles song ‘Take It to the Limit.’

As it turns out, John Paul Jones also contributed the most to a Led Zeppelin album. In 1997, Robert Plant was shaken by a tragedy — his five-year-old son, Karac Pendragon Plant, died due to a stomach virus while Led Zeppelin was still on tour. At that time, Jimmy Page was battling heroin addiction, and John Bonham struggled with alcoholism. So, Jones had to take on the responsibility of working closely on the band’s upcoming album, ‘In Through The Out Door.’

Robert Plant took a break to grieve after his son’s passing but returned to the studio to get busy working on ‘In Through The Out Door.’ Due to Bonham and Page’s absence, the two worked closely on the album. They then came up with a song titled ‘All My Love,’ which emphasized the tragedy Robert Plant suffered after Karac Pendragon’s passing. Jones contributed to the song with his synth solo and use of keyboards.

It was a time Led Zeppelin followed an experimental approach with John Paul Jones’ keyboard-based compositions and synthesizer use. Besides, ‘In Through The Out Door’ marked the first time the keyboardist had a chance to work closely with Robert Plant. Although Bonham and Jones weren’t pleased with the album’s relatively soft sound, as it was different from previous Zeppelin works, ‘In Through The Out Door’ topped the charts and brought the band huge commercial success.

Looking back on those times, Jimmy Page told the Guardian in 2015 the story of ‘In Through The Out Door.’ Page recalled that Robert Plant was going through hard times but later decided to work on the album. He then suggested that John Paul Jones was inspired by his Yamaha keyboard, which he named ‘the dream machine.’ According to Page, Jones had a writing renaissance with ‘In Through The Out Door’ because he suddenly came up with numerous songs that he wrote.

Asked about how Robert Plant’s son’s passing affected Led Zeppelin, Page said the following:

“Certainly, I can’t even get into discussing what everyone else thought. I don’t want to put words into Robert’s mouth, but obviously, he made the decision to go back on the road and do an album. In 1978, Robert made a decision that he wanted to reappear. We started doing some rehearsals and getting together, John Paul Jones got this keyboard made by Yamaha, and it was called the dream machine. So you can imagine what it was; if you’re going to call something a dream machine – it was a state-of-the-art keyboard.

John Paul Jones had been inspired by this keyboard, I guess — he had complete numbers that he’d written, you know, with verses, choruses, middles, and it was fantastic because ‘Presence’ had been an electric guitar album. John Paul Jones had this writing renaissance because he hadn’t written whole numbers before, and suddenly he had.

Abba’s recording studio, Polar, wanted to become an international recording studio. So they sat thinking: ‘What better band to come in here to address this than Led Zeppelin?’ So they got in touch with me and made a very generous offer about studio time. It was a state-of-the-art studio, and you know that the album ‘In Through the Out Door’ will sound different from anything we’ve done before, but that’s a good thing – with Led Zeppelin, every album did sound different, so this is just the logical step.”

So, Jimmy Page called John Paul Jones’ efforts in ‘In Through The Out Door’ a renaissance because he was surprised the keyboardist came up with many songs after being inspired by his new keyboard. Page also said that he knew ‘In Through the Out Door’ would sound different than their previous efforts but believed that was a good thing as every Led Zeppelin album sounded different than the previous one.