Treinta leyendas de la guitarra eligen su canción – John Paul Jones elige dos para Guitar World

Hace unas horas se ha publicado la primera parte de uno de los divertimentos actuales de Guitar World que lleva el título de «Thirty Guitar Legends — Including Eddie Van Halen, Dimebag Darrell and Jeff Beck — Choose the Song They’d Most Want to Be Remembered By» y si bien todas son interesantes, aquí nos quedamos con las palabras de John Paul Jones a la hora de defender los motivos de su elección.

Y si bien lo de D’yer Mak’er es una de sus habituales coñas, a destacar sus palabras sobre Stairway To Heaven, para él, y para muchos, la mayoría, la mejor canción que define a Led Zeppelin, aunque un servidor se queda con Kashmir a la hora de elegir la canción más representativa del grupo, que no quiere decir la mejor, ya que esa solo puede ser esa escalera que, a día de hoy, nadie es capaz de afirmar con rotundidad si conduce al cielo o al infierno.

John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin)

«D’yer Mak’er,» Houses of the Holy (1973)
«Stairway To Heaven,» Led Zeppelin IV (1971)

«I’d put ‘D’yer Mak’er’ in a time capsule so I would never have to hear it again or have to explain how to pronounce the title. There were only two types of rhythms that Bonzo [John Bonham, drums] hated playing — shuffles and reggae.

«We were jamming in the latter style at Stargroves, the house we rented from Mick Jagger, and John was going along with it out of politeness, I think. Unfortunately, the jam turning in to a proper song. He did play some marvelous fills, but for me, the whole thing was buttock-clenchingly embarrassing.

«I would also include ‘Stairway To Heaven,’ but for more positive reasons. It contains all the classic Zep elements, from folk/Celtic through jazz and r&b to hard rock. It also encapsulates the soft-to-heavy dynamics that the band was famous for.

«As for my own performance, it made me smile when a journalist once told me that he considered the bass line at the end of the song one of the finest ever recorded. Unfortunately, it happens to be underneath one of the finest guitar solos ever recorded!»