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REVEALED: 2 - The Real Truth

Our 2026 listening resolutions: from Radiohead to Kendrick Lamar, critics try to get into music they’ve never liked

Streaming’s algorithms make it easy to avoid whole discographies – so in the interest of deeper listening, our writers dedicate time to the ones who might have got away

The Guardian - UK

Bob Dylan introduced him to The Beatles, he married the girlfriend of a Rolling Stone, and he played with Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page and meditated with David Lynch. Donovan looks back...

Folk-rock pioneer Donovan on jamming with Macca and Dylan, butting heads with John Paul Jones and meditating with David Lynch

Louder

“I was almost throwing down a challenge with some of those basslines: play me if you can!” John Paul Jones’ best Led Zeppelin basslines – including an eight-string classic

A choirmaster, organist and expert in many archaic music styles, John Paul Jones also happened to play bass guitar in the biggest heavy rock band there has ever been

Guitar World

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“I’m not sure why the tour ended so abruptly. I never got a bunch of my gear returned. People don’t get sacked from Sabbath – they just don’t get spoken to again!” Ask Jo Burt about Freddie Mercury, Brian Setzer and The Troggs – just not Black Sabbath

The veteran bassist on his Queen and Led Zeppelin links, love for fretless, fighting with a Music Man EQ, and Tony Iommi’s smile when Geezer Butler’s Ampeg rig made a bass feel like an animal

Guitar World

73 People Share Their Encounters With Celebrities

Do you think fans ever forget these experiences?

Bored Panda

“People talk to me on the street about it and say, ‘That song was really there for me when I needed it’”: the stirring 90s anthem inspired by Nazareth and featuring strings arranged by a member of Led Zeppelin that made this band absolutely massive

How a stirring 90s anthem made these alt-rock trailblazers huge, was inspired by Nazareth and featured strings arranged by a member of Led Zeppelin

Louder

“My producer Mickie Most said, ‘We can’t let a wild boy like Hendrix in there. We have to control the song, Don’”: ’60s icon Donovan tells the story of the “heavy metal folk” song that connects him to Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and The Beatles

But was Hurdy Gurdy Man really the template for Stairway To Heaven?

MusicRadar

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“John Bonham and I would push the tempo and play it ridiculously fast for minutes on end while Page wailed away on the guitar”: John Paul Jones wasn't married to a single bass technique, but for these Led Zeppelin classics, one finger was all he needed

Using just the index finger may not seem like the most “efficient” way to play, the low-end legend wrote in his GW column, but he loved the consistent attack and dynamic control that he got from using one finger

Guitar World

Zeppelin and Floyd hoped his magic would rub off on them. The Happy Mondays just wanted to kidnap him. Donovan just dropped the most epic, name-dropping answer to a question ever

After all, why reply with a short response when you can weave a long tale involving Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Pink Floyd and more instead?

Louder

“It's the first heavy metal riff ever written – and I wrote it!”: How Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page combined to create a groundbreaking song – and then argued over the writing credit

It also features Keith Moon drums – and screams

MusicRadar

“One night Zeppelin were all going down the boozer and I said, 'You guys bugger off but Bonzo, you stay behind because I've got an idea’”: The genius behind John Bonham’s towering When the Levee Breaks drum sound

It’s one of the best drum recordings in history, but the resulting sound was just as much a feat of engineering as it way playing

MusicRadar

“That’s one of the things that made us sound so heavy”: Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, Kashmir, and The Song Remains the Same are wildly different classic rock staples, but one key element ties them all together, says John Paul Jones

Zeppelin’s power lay in their timing, the low-end giant explains, but there was more in the method to the band's madness

Guitar World

“I remember when Led Zeppelin II came out and hearing The Lemon Song. That bass solo is one of my favorite bass parts ever”: Why The Lemon Song is John Paul Jones’ finest moment in Led Zeppelin

The third cut from 1969's Led Zeppelin IIis considered the peak of John Paul Jones’ melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic brilliance

Guitar World

“It was painful for me to listen to Ian Anderson’s voice. I felt for him a lot”: Dave Pegg on why he quit Jethro Tull, beating Metallica to a Grammy, gigging with John Bonham and working with Nick Drake in a smelly squat

The proud owner of a broken Grammy award is regarded as a revelation in folk rock with Fairport Convention – but he only played bass that way because he didn’t know what else to do

Guitar World

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Guitar World

“It came from a great deal of eye contact between the two of us”: When it came to Led Zeppelin's most powerful riffs, sometimes what didn't get played was more important than what did, says John Paul Jones

They may have played a huge role in bringing heaviness and triple-digit onstage decibel counts to rock, but as bassist John Paul Jones explains, Zeppelin were also masters of silence

MusicRadar

“Now I’m caught up in the ceaselessly toxic, dysfunctional web of Led Zeppelin interpersonal relationships”: How Phil Collins’ globe-spanning Live Aid journey led to one of the most disastrous reunions ever

The hectic day that Phil Collins Concorde-hopped between continents was mired by a shambolic reunion which he unwittingly became a part of

Bored Panda

24 People Who Left A Mark In History And Are Actually Still Around, Much To The Surprise Of Folks In This Online Group

Numerous commenters on Reddit pointed out 35 famous people, who made history and still are our contemporaries.

Guitar World

“It proved to be too tricky for everyone to hear and perform together without losing track of the beat”: Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones explains what people get wrong about his Black Dog riff – which originally tripped up even Jimmy Page and John Bonham

In his inaugural Guitar World lesson column, authored in 1996, the legendary bassist also revealed why he used pick to lay the song down in the studio – and why he later would use an eight-string bass to play it live

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MusicRadar

“I dragged George Harrison in to listen to it on the way back from a Beatles session. He didn’t get it at all”: When the first Led Zeppelin album confused a Beatle — and was ignored by Mick Jagger

The album was made for a bargain price of £1,782

MusicRadar

“When I'm listening to Dear Prudence or those other great Beatles songs, you’re aware of what the bass is doing. That doesn’t happen with the Stones”: Why Gene Simmons calls Paul McCartney the king of bassists

His other favourites include Motown legend James Jamerson and — surprise — Ronnie Wood

Louder

"I'm physically lifted from the seat and violently spun around by a pissed-off John Paul Jones": Led Zeppelin - Out of Control in the USA

Led Zeppelin’s final tour of the US in 1977 should have been their most glorious. But it wasn’t. There was tension, unpleasantness and negativity, and that was just the start

Louder

“If you’re a Zep fan and really want to go see Zeppelin, you might as well go and see one of the better tribute bands”: The epic life and career of John Paul Jones, the heartbeat of Led Zeppelin and so much more

Crack session musician, in-demand producer, one quarter of the world’s biggest rock band – ex-Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones has done it all

Guitar World

“I said, ‘Let’s get Hendrix to play on it.’ His manager said, ‘Jimi’s playing shows back-to-back.’ So we got Jimmy Page”: The hit ’60s single that was supposed to feature Jimi Hendrix… but ended up with Jimmy Page

Donovan tried to recruit Hendrix when he went in the studio in the late 1960s, but ended up working with the soon-to-be Led Zeppelin guitar great

Louder

From ecology to the occult: the dark secrets of Led Zeppelin IV

The mysterious sleeve artwork of Led Zeppelin's fourth album, dissected

Louder

“I tried to write songs with Paul McCartney, but it was impossible, because every idea I had sparked him off and every idea he had sparked me off”: Donovan’s transcendental tales of The Beatles, Dylan, Hendrix and David Lynch

Folkd rock pioneer Donovan on jamming with Macca and Dylan, butting heads with John Paul Jones and meditating with David Lynch

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