His real name was John Baldwin, and he was born January 3, 1946, at Sidcup, Kent. His parents were "in the business" with a variety-style double act.... By the time he was 2, he was already on the road... His father had played piano at the silent movies, and John himself was playing piano by the age of 6... Later John and his father had a piano/bass duo, working at hunt balls, bar mitzvahs, and cocktail parties... In the summer they had a residency at the Isle of Wight Yacht Club.

John had gotten his first bass at the age of 13, bought reluctantly by his dad and only because he had joined a band and couldn't get his piano in the van.... His father had said, according to John, "'Don't bother with it. Take up the tenor saxophone. In 2 years the bass guitar will never be heard of again.' I said, 'No Dad, I really want one; there's work for me.' He said, 'Ah, there's work?' And I got a bass right away."

John began to turn up at recording sessions to play base. In 1964, at the age of 18, he changed his name to John Paul Jones and put out his first record, an instrumental called "Baja." The B side was an original composition called, presciently, "A Foggy Day in Vietnam." By 1965 John Paul Jones was one of the top session bassists in London, working regularly with singers like Tom Jones and Dusty Springfield, and session players like Jimmy Page. But by 1968 he was burned out.... He remembers: "I had started running and arranging about 40 to 50 things a month... I ended up just putting a blank piece of score paper in front of me and just sitting there and staring at it.... Then I joined Led Zeppelin...

From the book by Stephen Davis
Hammer Of The Gods

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