Black Mountain Side: Difference between revisions
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"'''Black Mountain Side'''" is an instrumental by [[England|English]] [[rock music|rock]] band [[Led Zeppelin]], featured on the band's 1969 début album ''[[Led Zeppelin (album)|Led Zeppelin]]''. It was recorded at [[Olympic Studios]], [[London]] during October 1968. |
"'''Black Mountain Side'''" is an instrumental by [[England|English]] [[rock music|rock]] band [[Led Zeppelin]], featured on the band's 1969 début album ''[[Led Zeppelin (album)|Led Zeppelin]]''. It was recorded at [[Olympic Studios]], [[London]] during October 1968. |
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"Black Mountain Side" was based on a traditional Irish folk song called "Down by Blackwaterside"<ref>Peter Kennedy's ''Folksongs of Britain and Ireland'', No. 151, p. 351</ref>. |
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==Song structure== |
==Song structure== |
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The beginning of the song is arranged over the end of the previous track on ''Led Zeppelin'', namely "[[Your Time Is Gonna Come]]". An overdubbed rapid [[guitar]] lick can be heard on the album version with the tempo then steadying to 114 beats per minute throughout the song. Page did this to simulate the sound of a [[sitar]], for which the song's dropped-down [[DADGAD]] tuning leads into. Page played a borrowed [[Gibson J-200]] [[acoustic guitar]] for this recording.<ref name=Complete>Dave Lewis (1994), ''The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin'', Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9.</ref> To enhance the [[Music of India|Indian]] character of the song, drummer and sitarist [[Viram Jasani]] played [[tabla]] on the track.<ref name="Complete" /> |
"Black Mountain Side" was inspired by a traditional Irish folk song called "[[Down by Blackwaterside]]". The beginning of the song is arranged over the end of the previous track on ''Led Zeppelin'', namely "[[Your Time Is Gonna Come]]". An overdubbed rapid [[guitar]] lick can be heard on the album version with the tempo then steadying to 114 beats per minute throughout the song. Page did this to simulate the sound of a [[sitar]], for which the song's dropped-down [[DADGAD]] tuning leads into. Page played a borrowed [[Gibson J-200]] [[acoustic guitar]] for this recording.<ref name=Complete>Dave Lewis (1994), ''The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin'', Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9.</ref> To enhance the [[Music of India|Indian]] character of the song, drummer and sitarist [[Viram Jasani]] played [[tabla]] on the track.<ref name="Complete" /> |
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The overall Eastern-flavour of the structure was to lead writer [[William S. Burroughs]] into a suggestion to Jimmy Page about Led Zeppelin's music: |
The overall Eastern-flavour of the structure was to lead writer [[William S. Burroughs]] into a suggestion to Jimmy Page about Led Zeppelin's music: |
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Page later played versions of this song when he was with [[The Firm (British band)|The Firm]], the group he founded with [[Paul Rodgers]]. |
Page later played versions of this song when he was with [[The Firm (British band)|The Firm]], the group he founded with [[Paul Rodgers]]. |
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==Comparisons with "Blackwaterside"== |
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"Down by Blackwaterside" is a traditional song, with a well-known version being taken from a 1952 BBC Archive recording of an Irish traveller, Mary Doran.<ref>Sleeve notes (by A.L. Loyd) to Anne Briggs' 1971 album Ann Briggs.</ref> This version was taught to the singer Anne Briggs by A.L. Lloyd.<ref>{{cite book| last =Harper | first =Colin | title =Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues Revival (2006 edition) | publisher =Bloomsbury | year =2006 | isbn =0-7475-8725-6}} p.4</ref>, who in turn taught it to singer/guitarist [[Bert Jansch]]. It appears on his 1966 album ''[[Jack Orion]]'' as "Blackwaterside".<ref name="Wall">[[Mick Wall]] (2008), ''When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography Of Led Zeppelin'', London: Orion, p. 56</ref> Other performers, including[[Sandy Denny]], [[The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem]] also performed versions. The Led Zeppelin composition largely follows Jansch's guitar arrangement for the song. |
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Early in 1965, Briggs and Jansch were regularly performing together in folk clubs<ref name="Harper p.162">Harper p.162</ref> and spent most of the daytime at a friend's flat, collaborating on new songs and the development of complex guitar accompaniments for traditional songs.<ref>Harper p.161</ref> Anne Briggs has noted that "Everybody up to that point was accompanying traditional songs in a very [...] three-chord way. [...] It was why I always sang unaccompanied. [...] but seeing Bert's freedom from chords, I suddenly realised — this chord stuff, you don't need it."<ref>Harper p.161. Part of an interview with Anne Briggs.</ref> "Blackwaterside" was one of the first songs that they worked on.<ref>Harper p.161</ref> Briggs later recorded the song on her eponymous 1971 album (by which time she was playing a guitar accompaniment) and Jansch recorded it 5 years earlier on his 1966 Jack Orion album. It is not known when Jansch started singing the song in the folk clubs, but certainly before the recording of Jack Orion.<ref name="Harper p.162" /> |
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[[Al Stewart]], who had arrived in London in early 1965, followed Jansch's gigs closely<ref>Harper p.199</ref> and learnt what he thought was Jansch's version of "Blackwaterside". However, he mistakenly believed that Jansch was using [[DADGAD]] tuning whereas he was actually using '[[Drop D tuning|drop D]]' tuning. At the time, Stewart was recording his own début record and had engaged Jimmy Page as a session musician. According to Stewart's account, it was he (Stewart) who taught Page "Blackwaterside" (the DADGAD version) during a tea-break.<ref name="Harper p.200">Harper p.200</ref> This may even have been Page's first acquaintance with DADGAD.<ref name="Harper p.200" /> |
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In spite of this difference, Jansch's record company sought legal advice in consultation with two eminent musicologists and John Mummery QC, who was one of the best-known copyright barristers in the United Kingdom, following the release of ''Led Zeppelin''.<ref name = "Wall" /> Ultimately, however, no legal action was ever taken against Led Zeppelin, because although it was likely that Page had borrowed from Jansch's piece, it could not be proved that the recording in itself constituted Jansch's own copyright, because the basic melody was traditional.<ref name = "Wall" /> |
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==Personnel== |
==Personnel== |
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Revision as of 23:47, 28 December 2010
| "Black Mountain Side" | |
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| Song |
"Black Mountain Side" is an instrumental by English rock band Led Zeppelin, featured on the band's 1969 début album Led Zeppelin. It was recorded at Olympic Studios, London during October 1968.
Song structure
"Black Mountain Side" was inspired by a traditional Irish folk song called "Down by Blackwaterside". The beginning of the song is arranged over the end of the previous track on Led Zeppelin, namely "Your Time Is Gonna Come". An overdubbed rapid guitar lick can be heard on the album version with the tempo then steadying to 114 beats per minute throughout the song. Page did this to simulate the sound of a sitar, for which the song's dropped-down DADGAD tuning leads into. Page played a borrowed Gibson J-200 acoustic guitar for this recording.[1] To enhance the Indian character of the song, drummer and sitarist Viram Jasani played tabla on the track.[1]
The overall Eastern-flavour of the structure was to lead writer William S. Burroughs into a suggestion to Jimmy Page about Led Zeppelin's music:
[I] did a joint interview with William Burroughs for Crawdaddy magazine in the early Seventies, and we had a lengthy discussion on the hypnotic power of rock and how it paralleled the music of Arabic cultures. This was an observation Burroughs had after hearing "Black Mountain Side", from our first album. He then encouraged me to go to Morocco and investigate the music first hand, something Robert [Plant] and I eventually did.[2]
When the song was played at Led Zeppelin concerts, it was usually featured as part of Jimmy Page's instrumental "White Summer", with the combined arrangement "White Summer-Black Mountain Side" typically running at 11 minutes. Page would sit on a stool for the duration of the two songs and usually played them on a 1959 Danelectro DC "Double Cutaway" guitar, tuned differently than his favored Gibson Les Paul. These songs were used by the band to showcase Page's skills as a guitarist, as he plays almost entirely by himself, with drummer John Bonham adding some fills later in the song. The "White Summer"/"Black Mountain Side" combination was first performed as part of their first-ever concert at the Fillmore West in San Francisco, on 10 January 1969, and the Spokane show from 30 December 1968, features the arrangement without "Black Mountain Side".
This song was a component of Led Zeppelin's live set list until their fifth US Tour in 1970. Years later it was restored to their set for the 1977 US Tour, the 1979 concerts and 1980 European tour.[1] "Black Mountain Side" was also used to lead into "Kashmir" on this latter tour.
A live version of this song can be seen on the Led Zeppelin DVD, during Led Zeppelin's 1970 Royal Albert Hall appearance. A similar version can be heard, most likely from the Playhouse Theatre sessions from 27 June 1969, on the expanded version of Coda, an album of outtakes released in 1982. This arrangement has the "White Summer" segment being played for around eight minutes, and "Black Mountain Side" is heard somewhere in the middle.
Page later played versions of this song when he was with The Firm, the group he founded with Paul Rodgers.
Personnel
References
- ^ a b c Dave Lewis (1994), The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin, Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9.
- ^ Interview with Jimmy Page, Guitar World magazine, 1993
Sources
- Led Zeppelin: Dazed and Confused: The Stories Behind Every Song, by Chris Welch, ISBN 1-56025-818-7
- The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin, by Dave Lewis, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9
Template:Led Zeppelin album Template:Coda
