Babe I'm Gonna Leave You
"Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" is a traditional folk song written by Anne Bredon in the late 1950s. It was recorded by Joan Baez (credited as "traditional") and released on her 1962 album Joan Baez in Concert, Part 1, and also by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, who included it on their 1969 debut album Led Zeppelin. Other interpretations of the Bredon song include versions by The Plebs (1964 Decca Records UK/MGM Records USA), The Association in 1965 (also doing a live version in 1970) and British pop singer Mark Wynter in 1965. Quicksilver Messenger Service recorded a variation on the song in 1967. Welsh band Man would later cover the QMS song on their 1976 album Maximum Darkness (recorded live at Roundhouse, Chalk Farm on 26 May 1975).
Joan Baez version
Whilst a student at UC-Berkeley in around 1960, Anne Bredon appeared on a live folk-music radio show The Midnight Special on radio station KPFA, on which she sang "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You".[1] A fellow folk singer who guested on The Midnight Special, Janet Smith, took up the song and developed it further, playing it live at hootenany folk-song events at Oberlin College, one performance of which was attended by Joan Baez.[1] Baez requested Smith to send her a recording of her songs, including "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You", which Baez subsequently began performing herself. It became the opening track on Joan Baez in Concert, Part 1.[1]
Led Zeppelin version
| "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" | |
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The band was inspired to cover the song after hearing Baez's version. Both guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Robert Plant were big fans of Baez. Baez's original album had indicated that the song was a traditional number, and Led Zeppelin followed suit by crediting the song as "Trad., arr. Page". In the 1980s, Bredon was made aware of Led Zeppelin's version of the song. Since 1990 the Led Zeppelin version has been credited to Anne Bredon/Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, and Bredon received a substantial back-payment in royalties.[2]
This was the number Page played to Plant at their first meeting together, which took place at Page's riverside home at Pangbourne in late July 1968.[2] It is sometimes stated that the song evolved when Plant played to Page the guitar arrangement which eventually found its way onto the album. In an interview he gave with Guitar World magazine in 1998, Page refuted this story, noting that he had worked out the arrangement long before he met Plant, told him he would like it on the album, and that Plant at that time did not even play the guitar.[3]
It is rumoured that Page recorded another version of the song, with Steve Winwood, in 1968, which was never released.[4]
At the 1:43 mark of Led Zeppelin's version of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", it is possible to hear a very faint trace of Plant singing, "I can hear it calling me" just before he sings the same line in full volume. This "ghost" is the vocal bleed from Plant's scratch vocal, and it appears on the drum tracks, which were recorded live with the full band.
The band only played this song live at Led Zeppelin concerts on its 1969 concert tours, but Page and Plant brought it back for their 1998 reunion in a 9-minute version.
A live, filmed performance of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", from Led Zeppelin's gig on Danmarks Radio at Gladsaxe, Denmark, on March 17, 1969, is featured on the Led Zeppelin DVD (2003).
The song is featured on the 2006 One Tree Hill episode entitled "The Show Must Go On"[5]
As a result of touring in the United States and watching various "Led Zeppelin" cover bands and other artists perform this song, in recent months Robert Plant has taken to performing this song again, both with his "current" band "Strange Sensations" as well as in his concert tours as a solo artist.
One year after the album Led Zeppelin was released in 1969, Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4" came out as a single, and sounds similar to the progression used in the Led Zeppelin version.[6]
Formats and tracklistings
1969 7" promo 45 edition (US: Atlantic EP 1019)
- A. "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" (Bredon, Page, Plant) 6:41
- B. "Dazed and Confused" (Page) 6:26
1969 7" single edition (Greece: Atlantic 2019 003)
- A. "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" (Bredon, Page, Plant) 6:41
- B. "How Many More Times" (Page) 8:28
Personnel
Cover versions
With credits Page/Plant/Bredon
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Samples
- 1997: Abstract Tribe Unique ("Act One: Pre-Meditation")
References
- ^ a b c Janet Smith, "The 'Babe I'm Gonna Leave You' Story," in The Gate at the End of the World: A Collection of Songs by Anne Bredon (Bella Roma Music, 1991), pp. vii-x.
- ^ a b Dave Lewis (1994), The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin, Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9
- ^ Brad Tolinski and Greg Di Bendetto, "Light and Shade", Guitar World, January 1998.
- ^ Steve Winwood Fans' Site: Collaborations & Sessions: Unreleased Material
- ^ One Tree Hill's "The Show Must Go On"
- ^ "25 or 6 to 4" on Songfacts
Sources
- Lewis, Dave (2004) The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9
- Welch, Chris (1998) Led Zeppelin: Dazed and Confused: The Stories Behind Every Song, ISBN 1-56025-818-7
