The classic Led Zeppelin song John Paul Jones thought was doomed to fail

Music has the ability to break down boundaries, both physical and metaphorical. Sound can tap into deep and profound emotions and is also capable of drawing from various cultures to make a cohesive and exciting sound. The Beatles managed to do this when they went to India, as they brought the previously unheard sounds of the country overseas and to new listeners.

“George Harrison, on his own, opened up India to England,” said Andy Partridge, the XTC guitarist, when talking about their influence, “The man brings back a sitar and flirts with sitar lessons and all of a sudden, India means things to people […] Single-handily, George Harrison brought India to English consciousness. In a non-colonial and non-judgemental kind of way.”

It wasn’t just The Beatles who drew influence from different countries, though. Led Zeppelin was never a band interested in assigning themselves to one specific style of music. From the very first album, they were merging acoustic music with the blues, R&B, and hard rock. It’s no surprise that they started drawing inspiration from various cultures as they progressed in their careers.

Where The Beatles were influenced by India, Led Zeppelin did the same in Africa. When Robert Plant travelled around Morocco, he found the country the perfect place to influence the lyrics for what would become a Led Zeppelin classic, ‘Achilles Last Stand’. Page thought the same, as he drew from Moroccan flamenco music when composing the instrumentation for the track.

With such a rich inspiration behind the music for the song, it’s no surprise that it wound up being one of Led Zeppelin’s most dynamic offerings. However, while it was all very exciting for the band, for John Paul Jones, it felt like a step too far, as Page’s guitar work was incredibly ambitious. Jones was especially put off by the fact that the song was set to open their album Presence, as he felt it was a lot to ask an audience to sit through an eight-minute mythical ballad from the start.

One of Jones’s main concerns was the different scales Page delivered in the second minute of the song. “What I planned was to try and get that epic quality into it so it wouldn’t just sound like two sections repeated,” said Page when discussing the section, “It was to give the piece a totally new identity by orchestrating the guitars, which is something I’ve been into for quite some time.”

Page was well aware of Jones’s hesitation, but Led Zeppelin had grown to trust each other’s instincts at different times, so Jones let him run with the idea. “John Paul Jones didn’t think I could succeed in what I was attempting to do,” said Page, “He said I couldn’t do a scale over a certain section, that it just wouldn’t work. But it did.”

As was always the case with Led Zeppelin, the band excelled at pushing the boundaries of rock music. When something felt like it was going too far or was too ambitious, that was when the band thrived the most, and ‘Achilles Last Stand’ is a great representation of that.