Often called Led Zeppelin’s “unsung hero,” John Paul Jones served as the band’s bassist and keyboardist, but over the years he became its most underrated member, as John Bonham, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant received greater attention from both the press and fans. He was a fundamental part of the band’s sound and like Page, was first among the most sought-after session players in England. Over the decades, Jones has shared his opinions on his peers, including The Beatles’ bassist Paul McCartney. What is John Paul Jones' opinion on Paul McCartney as a bassist John Paul Jones is a fan of Paul McCartney as a bass player and already said he believe he was perfect and all bass parts he did with The Beatles were right. "Well, I think he’s perfect. 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," he told NME in 1970. A couple of years later, Jones praised him again saying McCartney knew exactly what to play and when to play. "I'm not too keen on the lead bass style of some players. Paul McCartney, I've always respected; he puts the notes in the right place at the right time. He knows what he's about," John Paul Jones told Steven Rosen in 1977. The story of when Paul McCartney "saved" John Paul Jones' musical idea Curiously, he first had the chance to meet the Beatle in the 1960s, before Led Zeppelin, when he was still a session musician. Jones was working with Donovan on the song “Mellow Yellow” and created the arrangement for the track, which included a horn section. At first, no one involved liked the idea. But when McCartney showed up and said, “The brass is fantastic,” his arrangement was saved. “They hated it. They hated all the brass. All his people were going ‘oh no, it’s not Donovan, man.’ The session was descending into doom and gloom when the Lord sent Paul McCartney walking through the door. He heard it and goes ‘the brass is fantastic'. The whole mood changed, and I was a hero again,” John Paul Jones told The Telegraph in 2022. In the following decade, Jones and McCartney recorded together for the first time. In 1979, alongside drummer John Bonham, he was part of the “Back to the Egg” album. He played bass and piano on “Rockestra Theme” and “So Glad to See You Here.” That same year he joined Wings on stage at the Hammersmith Odeon in London while the band was promoting the record. Two years later, he was part of McCartney’s supergroup for the charity event “Concerts for the People of Kampuchea,” organized by Paul and Kurt Waldheim to raise money for the victims of war-torn Cambodia. They collaborated again in 1984 on McCartney’s “Give My Regards to Broad Street” album and the soundtrack of his movie of the same name, with Jones playing bass on the song “Ballroom Dancing.” Jones said that the Page/Plant partnership couldn't be compared with the Lennon/McCartney Most Led Zeppelin songs are credited to Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, who wrote the majority of the lyrics, even when they were clearly not adapted from older Blues songs. However, in John Paul Jones’ opinion, that partnership couldn’t be compared to the one between John Lennon and Paul McCartney, because the songwriting process in Zeppelin was different. "Zeppelin was really a partnership between four people. Sometimes when you see songs with 'Page-Plant' on everything, it makes it seem like it was a 'Lennon-McCartney' situation where they wrote everything and John and I just kind of learned the songs that Jimmy and Robert taught to us (laughs). That’s so far from the truth, it’s ridiculous." Jones continued: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE77rWn7Hhk&list=RDoE77rWn7Hhk&start_radio=1 "For one thing, Robert usually used to write the lyrics last, after the track was recorded. Of course, he’s credited on every one because there’s lyrics in every song. But sometimes we’d send him back to rewrite them (laughs). But I’ve done fine out of the whole thing. It’s bought me endless studios and the freedom to do what I want. So I really have no complaints," John Paul Jones said in an interview with Happening in 1999. John also believes that although Zeppelin became one of the biggest bands of all time, they didn't reach The Beatles' status. "Maybe they saw the band as a bit of a phenomenon. We were beginning to get quite a big following. The only other band we were comparable to, for them, was something like the Beatles, which wasn't true. Because they were a household name and had television and films." "We didn't do any of that. The question, 'Will you be making a film?' took me by surprise because we were just a band that made music, it wasn't that type of operation. We had a big following but it wasn't a 'popular' band like the Rolling Stones. We didn't appear in the tabloid press," John Paul Jones said in Zeppelin's DVD in 2003. Since Led Zeppelin came to an end, Jones worked with a huge number of bands, not only recording but also producing them. Some of them were Ben E. King, The Mission, Cinderella, R.E.M., Peter Gabriel, Heart and Foo Fighters. He is also a member of Dave Grohl's supergroup Them Crooked Vultures alongside Josh Homme.The post John Paul Jones’ opinion on Paul McCartney as a bassist appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.