John Jones Music

What a great experience it was to make this track! It is one of the best I have been privileged to work on!

The original phone call came from Nick Rhodes, who suggested that we get the 2″ master tapes from EMI, for all of Duran Duran’s hit songs, and then sample/record the vocal and instrumental hooks, and then use those hooks to make a catchy promo-song for their upcoming Decade CD (greatest hits)

At the time, we were recording the Liberty album with Chris Kimsey and Chris Potter at Olympic Studio in Barnes. I was sorely missed over at AIR Studios in Oxford Circus where Dee Long was holding fort. But we couldn’t have asked for a better project or client than Duran Duran, so we got the list from EMI and ordered the two inch tapes of all the hits, and Dee got to work over in Studio 5, sampling and setting up the sounds across the keyboard for us to jam with!

It’s fair to say that Dee did this in a most musical way, which helped me come up with the basic track, which then grew with the input of Nick, Simon, and then the awesome bass playing of John Taylor, who knew instantly what he had to do to bring the whole picture together and make the song and the track gel!
All we had to do after that was steal Chris Potter away from the Liberty sessions long enough to get it mixed! Voila!

Sterling Campbell and Warren Cuccurullo in last frames.
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Lou Reed left a deep mark on all who heard his music. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends. He had many sides to his great talent. I missed the Velvet Underground the first time, but Lou’s Transformer album was a huge hit at my junior high school in 1972!

I never met Lou, but I did help John Cale with his sample-sounds for their Songs For Drella album in 1989.

Lou singing to Drella:

With Duran Duran we did covers of Femme Fatale and Perfect Day for the Wedding and Thank You album’s.

Nick Rhodes posted this message about Lou Reed

I forgot about this demo of Face to Face from 1992, lurking in iTunes land!

Here is a 2002 video from Can’t Take it With You

There is Peace was Emily Richard’s call for peace after September 11, 2001.

What a treat it was to walk to the theater, across the street, and into Beverly Hills, and see one of my all time idols of music; Leon Russell! Thanks Kevin!

Here he is some years ago, on stage

There is no way that I can choose the best of this or the best of that with anyone that I have ever worked with. The personal relationship has always been more important than the reward! With Emily Richards, the best came easily!

I love this version of Meet Me, from the Can’t Take it With You album!

We just jammed it, and here it is!

Emily recording at Grape Place

Here is a page that will play almost every song that I have worked on with Emily Richards over the past 15 years! There is also a link to some of the details of each track.

Emily Richards & John Jones Recording history playlist (spotify)

Ken Scott and John Jones at NAMM 2012

Sit back and relax and listen to this great interview with one of my music heroes; Ken Scott. He talks about Trident Studios and the Beatles, David Bowie, Jeff Beck, Pink Floyd, Elton John, John Lennon, George Harrison, Lou Reed, Rolling Stones, Missing Person, and Duran Duran. We co-produced Duran’s Thank You album in 1995!

If I had to admit it, there is no one who has been involved with more fantastic and historical music recordings than Ken Scott!

This link to a great interview with Ken in studio 2 at Abbey Road, is insightful, and inspirational!