10 Greatest Bass Players In Rock Music History

If anyone had been in a band like Led Zeppelin in the early '60s, chances are you were going to get overshadowed pretty quickly.

Since you had Jimmy Page pumping out one classic riff after another and John Bonham sounding the gods of thunder behind the drum kit, who the hell had time to care about you and your nice bass tricks?

Here's a hint for you, folks: Without John Paul Jones, you wouldn't be hearing about Led Zeppelin today.

That's not to discount the amount of stuff that Plant, Page, and Bonham brought to the table though. When looked at as a unit, John Paul Jones really is the secret weapon of the group, knowing exactly when to go full on in songs like Immigrant Song and when to add just the right melodic lines on something like Ramble On.

Although this might not necessarily count, Jones' knowledge of music theory and how to arrange songs also came in handy when putting together tracks in the studio. When you take into account that this man played every keyboard on Zeppelin's records and went on to do amazing work outside of Zeppelin, you start to put the pieces together of why he's such a big deal.

From a raw musicians' perspective, most of Zeppelin weren't trying to compete with Jones. They were just trying to keep up.