Everything about Black Mountain Side totally explained
Black Mountain Side is an instrumental song by
English rock band
Led Zeppelin, featured on their
1969 debut album
Led Zeppelin. It is inspired by the music of an old traditional English folk song, recorded by
Bert Jansch as "Blackwaterside".
Blackwaterside
Although originally credited on Led Zeppelin's first album as a
Jimmy Page composition, it's similar to an
instrumental version of a traditional
folk song called "Blackwaterside". The song's guitar arrangement is nearly identical to the version previously recorded by
singer-songwriter Bert Jansch, who was an early influence on Page. One important difference, however, is that Page plays in
DADGAD tuning (which Page called the "CIA" tuning, an acronym for
Celtic,
Indian and
Arabic), whereas Jansch used a simpler '
drop D' tuning. In the actual recording Page's guitar is tuned a half step down from
DADGAD tuning.
Folk singer
Anne Briggs, a friend of Jansch, taught him the song. She, in turn, learnt it from the folk music historian
A. L. Lloyd. She also recorded her own version, though this wasn't until the early 1970s — a few years after the Jansch and Page interpretations.
Page's interpretation
The beginning of the song starts over the end of the previous track, "
Your Time Is Gonna Come". An overdubbed rapid
guitar lick can be heard on the album version. Page did this to simulate the sound of a
sitar. Page played a borrowed Gibson J200
acoustic guitar for this recording. To enhance the
Indian character of the song, drummer and sitarist
Viram Jasani played
tabla on the track.
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 Mountainside" typically running at 11 minutes. Like "Black Mountain Side," "White Summer" is inspired by an old
Irish folk song, "She Moves Through the Fair". Page would sit on a stool for the duration of the two songs and usually played them on a
Danelectro 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.
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.
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 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.
Led Zeppelin parody cover band
Dread Zeppelin recorded a version of this song on their album
Un-Led-Ed.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Black Mountain Side'.
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