10 Band Members That Are Way More Important Than You Think

So how are you supposed to call someone underrated in an iconic rock band? Every single person in Led Zeppelin has earned the reputation as a virtuoso, whether it’s the ramshackle genius of Jimmy Page’s guitar licks or John Bonham’s Caveman intense drum beats. While Robert Plant might hold the title of the Golden God, John Paul Jones is the one member of Zeppelin that gets put on the side.

In the time when everyone else is in the spotlight, Jonesy was responsible for some of the most essential parts of Zeppelin tracks, like the singable melody at the start of Ramble On ro his fantastic keyboard work across every one of their albums. Since Jones came from a session musician background, some of the best work that he did for Zeppelin came from arrangements, making a song like Stairway to Heaven sound epic with the use of woodwind instruments or being able to translate what needed to be done to get the orchestral sounds of Kashmir.

His talents didn't stop when Zeppelin ended either, bringing thunder to songs by Them Crooked Vultures with Dave Grohl and Joshua Homme and keeping up his arrangement chops by composing beautiful string sections for everyone from the Rolling Stones to R.E.M. While Bonzo was known to play behind the beat and Page was ahead of the beat, Jonesy was always straight up the middle, looking at the big picture behind the sonic chaos.