John Paul Jones blames the Beatles for killing instrumental music (interview part 6 of 22)

This is the sixth part of the transcript of my interview with John Paul Jones, conducted Dec. 10, 2001.

SPS: You mentioned the Beatles when you were talking about the Tea Party shows in Boston. How much credit do you give the Beatles for today’s music, and I guess I’m saying strictly the Beatles as opposed to any other British groups.

JPJ: The Beatles really opened up with Revolver, I think, they opened up a whole idea of using the studio as an instrument and everybody playing it. My personal beef with the Beatles is that they also killed instrumental music [laughing] forever, from the first song. 'Cause there was lots of instrumental music in England, like … Lots of instrumental bands. Beatles came along. [Claps once] No more instrumental music. It’s all vocals from then on. And so, but yeah, I mean, they just. I suppose at first, we just thought, "Oh, all right, you know, it's a good, tight band, as any band would be." … And we thought, "OK, tight band. They write good songs, but…" And then they started doing that stuff in the studio, and I thought, "Now this is changing the face of music of pop music, it really is." And everybody followed them: the Beach Boys ... Just opening up the potential of the studio and doing stuff that wasn’t considered rock 'n' roll … It was just great, great stuff.

On to part seven: John Paul Jones on the rumor that Phil Carson filled in for him on bass when he was ill.