This is the second part of the transcript of my interview with John Paul Jones, conducted Dec. 10, 2001.
SPS: When you were – I was gonna say "with the Yardbirds." Did you consider yourself to be with the Yardbirds?
JPJ: No, I was never with the Yardbirds. I did some arrangements for the Little Games album. That's the only thing I had to do with anything.
SPS: What about playing bass on like all their later A-sides?
JPJ: I never played the bass on their A-sides. Where'd you hear that from?
SPS: A couple books. One a book on the Yardbirds by Greg Russo, a guy from New Jersey.
JPJ: No, I never played the bass for the Yardbirds on record.
SPS: So it was all Chris Dreja then?
JPJ: Yeah.
SPS: Wow. That answers some of my other questions.
JPJ: Page played bass for the Yardbirds.
SPS: When he first started out with them.
JPJ: Yes.
SPS: One of the things I couldn't understand is, he'd always been playing the guitar and stuff like that, doing his session work. And then he gets out of the session work, immediately switches to bass.
JPJ: I think he joined the Yardbirds and -- I don't know what the story was, but he played bass because there was a bass player at the time leaving.
SPS: That's something you can just pick up having played guitar?
JPJ: No, it's sort of similar, but [inaudible].
SPS: I know Chris Dreja had played the rhythm guitar for like three or four years with them, and it took him a while to switch to bass.
JPJ: On a certain level, they're interchangeable, but… [trails off]
On to part three: John Paul Jones on the formation of Led Zeppelin.
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