Not every rock band in history managed to knock it out of the park with the very first song on their very first album, but that’s exactly what Led Zeppelin did…thanks, in large part, to John Paul Jones.
As Zeppelin fans are well aware, while Jimmy Page and Robert Plant might be the first names casual listeners associate with the band, Jones played an incredibly important role in creating Led Zeppelin’s sound. One of the most innovative musicians of the era, he was equally brilliant on bass, keyboards, mandolin, recorder and Mellotron.
When it came to “Good Times Bad Times,” the iconic opening track on Led Zeppelin’s 1969 self-titled debut album, Jones wrote the song’s defining riff on a Hammond organ, according to Led Zeppelin All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track.
Considering the fact that “Good Times Bad Times” is still one of Led Zeppelin’s most beloved songs of all time, Jones clearly struck songwriting gold…but he didn’t make things easy for himself in the process.
“That’s the hardest riff I ever wrote, the hardest to play,” Jones told Rolling Stone in 2008.
In Martin Popoff’s book Led Zeppelin: All The Albums, All The Songs, Jones explained his approach to writing riffs, noting how his compositions differed from the ones that Page wrote.
“In terms of actual riffs, anything with notes [laughs], lots of notes, like ‘Black Dog,’ ‘Good Times Bad Times’…those were my riffs,” he said. “And anything that was kind of lurchy and chordy were Page’s riffs. That’s how you tell them apart.”
In a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Page acknowledged his bandmate’s contribution to the song.
“John Paul Jones came up with the riff. I had the chorus. John Bonham applied the bass-drum pattern. That one really shaped our writing process. It was like, ‘Wow, everybody’s erupting at once,'” he said.
Page reflected on how people reacted to the song in the BBC Book Guitar Greats.
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“‘Good Times, Bad Times,’ as usual, came out of a riff with a great deal of John Paul Jones on bass, and it really knocked everybody sideways when they heard the bass drum pattern, because I think everyone was laying bets that Bonzo was using two bass drums, but he only had one,” Page explained.
The guitarist was right about everybody being knocked sideways when Led Zeppelin came out.
“Talk about telegraphing your punch: The cover of Led Zeppelin, the British quartet’s seismic 1969 debut, shows the Hindenburg airship, in all its phallic glory, going down in flames. The image did a pretty good job of encapsulating the music inside: sex, catastrophe and things blowing up,” wrote Greg Kot in a 2001 retrospective review of Led Zeppelin for Rolling Stone.
“The swagger is there from the get-go, on ‘Good Times Bad Times’: Jimmy Page’s guitar pounces from the speakers, fat with menace; John Bonham’s kick drum swings with anvil force; Robert Plant rambles on about the perils of manhood. Hard rock would never be the same,” Kot continued, adding, “There may be better, more refined Zep albums than Led Zeppelin…but none sounds quite as gratifyingly raw or is as comprehensive in defining the band’s intentions.”
Related: 1969 Classic, Written by Led Zeppelin’s Only Guest Vocalist Ever, Became a Timeless Anthem of Love and Loss