John Paul Jones, Library Musician?

[tim gueguen]

Many you will know that before Led Zeppelin formed in 1968 John Paul Jones was a session bassist and arranger for British pop and rock music, his work appearing on tracks like Donovan's "Mellow Yellow."  Which brings up the obvious question of whether he did any work for the library labels.  Discogs doesn't have any references, but library recordings usually only list the composer's name.  Jimmy Page was of course also a session musician, but I think it's less likely he was involved in library music recordings because he didn't read music.

[Lord Thames]

Syd Dale used him on a Nina and Frederik session under his real name of John Baldwin, it's not impossible he may have played on some of Syd's UK library or background music sessions.

We know Jimmy Page played on at least one session for de Wolfe as one of the tracks is named after him, and Big Jim Sullivan who also appears:

[stackjackson]

We know Jimmy Page played on at least one session for de Wolfe as one of the tracks is named after him, and Big Jim Sullivan who also appears:

Cool bit of info, LT. Thanks!

[tim gueguen]

Syd Dale used him on a Nina and Frederik session under his real name of John Baldwin, it's not impossible he may have played on some of Syd's UK library or background music sessions.

We know Jimmy Page played on at least one session for de Wolfe as one of the tracks is named after him, and Big Jim Sullivan who also appears:

Interesting track.  I'm hearing hints of "Norwegian Wood" in the chorus guitar melodies.

At some point in the process there would have been log books noting who played what on library albums, so the musicians involved could be paid.  But I'm guessing most of those logs are long gone, and they wouldn't always be a a clear guide even if they were still around.

[Lord Thames]

I know when James Clarke's Wild Elephants was released commercially, he had to refer to his 1973 BBC diary to get the names of the musicians who played on it for exactly that reason!

[nidostar]

I'm still in awe of the background knowledge Lord Thames has and is prepared to share with us. Thank you sir. Or is it Your Lordship?!!

If only those at KPM, De Wolfe etc could have predicted the following there would be in the 21st century for library music they probably would have kept better records. I've found Oliver Lomax's book The Mood Modern to be quite helpful as it includes names of a number of musicians (though not all) who were regularly employed at various recording sessions.