10 Greatest Keyboardists In Hard Rock
2. John Paul Jones - Led Zeppelin
As far as Led Zeppelin was concerned, the riff was the draw of nearly every single track. No matter what other bells and whistles you put into the mix, most of Zeppelin's greatest tunes can be distilled into an amazing riff from Jimmy Page, with John Bonham playing off his every move on tracks like Whole Lotta Love and Rock and Roll. Then again, a lot of people tend to forget that Zeppelin had a secret weapon in John Paul Jones.
Along with his signature bass playing, Jones was pivotal in expanding Zeppelin's sonic palette beyond just your standard blues rock affair. Being the most classically trained musician out of all of them, Jones' keyboard work across songs like Thank You were some of the most underrated parts of Zeppelin's albums, oftentimes completely tying the song up in a neat package. It didn't stop there though, with Jones being the prolific arranger for Zeppelin, giving them free reign to incorporate orchestral sounds on songs like Kashmir later down the line.
Even up until their last album In Through the Out Door, Jones' work on what was dubbed "The Dream Machine" made for some of the richest textures in Zeppelin's catalog like on the piano solo of All My Love. While each respective member of Led Zeppelin were amazing at what they did, John Paul Jones is the real musical Swiss Army knife in the world of rock and roll.