JPJ on JP or RP

[renounce]

Was thinking recently I've read and heard quite a lot on Jimmy's view of Robert and Jonesy as musicians and also quite a lot on Robert's view of Jimmy and Jonesy as musicians, and plenty from all three on Bonzo, but nothing I can recall on Jonesy's view of Robert and Jimmy as musicians. I would be particularly interested in quotes from the Zeppelin period on this, or afterwards, but not interested in any quotes regarding any personal squabbles they may have had.

Thanks for anything any of you may be able to dig up and apologies if this topic has been covered in another thread.

[Janvier]

Can you remember meeting Jimmy for the first time?

JPJ: “It was… I can’t remember what the session was, but it was probably about 1964 and we were booked on the same session. Decca or somewhere like that, up in Broadhurst Gardens [in West Hampstead] where it used to be. I was just really happy to see another young face.”

Oh, right, was it all old hands?

“It was all old hands. I think he was the youngest session musician until I came along. We were always really glad to see each other on the sessions, because it meant that you had a young, hip rhythm section. The drummer would be older, I suppose, and [guitarist] Big Jim Sullivan was older, but we were relatively young compared with all the other session musicians.”

Did he have any kind of reputation, the way that Eric Clapton or Jeff Beck did?

JPJ: “Oh yeah. I mean, I remember him having a reputation almost before I turned professional [in early 1963], when he was with Neil Christian & The Crusaders. It was always, ‘You’ve got to hear this guy.’ In fact, I never actually heard him before we worked together, but yes, I knew of his reputation.”

So why was he doing this session work, rather than being in a band himself and travelling up and down the M1 doing gigs?

JPJ: “Well, he did that first. I’m not quite sure how he got into sessions – I got into them via Tony Meehan – although I think one of [Jimmy’s] early sessions was on ‘Diamonds’ [by Jet Harris & Tony Meehan, recorded late ’62]. He’s on rhythm guitar on ‘Diamonds’. I wasn’t on that, but I was in Jet and Tony’s road band in 1963. In those days, to be a session musician was considered the pinnacle of your professional music career. If you got a foot in, at that early age, you kind of held on to it.”

here: http://www.uncut.co.uk/led-zeppelin/john-paul-jones-on-jimmy-page-interview