Black Mountain Side

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Black Mountain Side
Led Zeppelin
publication January 12, 1969
length 2:12
Genre (s) Folk rock , raga rock , instrumental rock
Author (s) Jimmy Page
Label Atlantic
album Led Zeppelin

" Black Mountain Side " is an instrumental by the British rock band Led Zeppelin , released in 1969 on their debut album Led Zeppelin . The song was recorded at Olympic Studios in London in October 1968.

Structure of the song

"Black Mountain Side" is inspired by a traditional Irish folk song called "Down by Blackwaterside". The guitar arrangement closely follows Bert Jansch's version of this song, which was released on his 1966 album Jack Orion . Al Stewart learned this arrangement after a performance by Jansch and taught it in turn to Jimmy Page when this session musician was for Stewart's debut album.

At the beginning of the song, the previous song on Led Zeppelin , " Your Time Is Gonna Come ", is faded out. There is a quick guitar lick that sustains the entire song at 114 beats per minute. Page did this to mimic the sound of a sitar , which also supports the lower tuning with DbAbDbGbAbDb . Page played a borrowed Gibson J-200 acoustic guitar for this recording. In order to promote the Indian character of the song, drummer and sitarist Viram Jasani played on this track.

The general Eastern feel of the song led author William S. Burroughs to recommend 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. "

“[I] did a joint interview with William Burroughs for Crawdaddy magazine in the early seventies, and we had a long discussion about the hypnotic power of rock and the parallels with the music of Arab cultures. That was an observation Burroughs made after hearing "Black Mountain Side" from our first album. He then encouraged me to go to Morocco and explore the music first hand, which Robert [Plant] and I ended up doing. "

- Jimmy Page

Live performances

When the song was played at Led Zeppelin concerts, it was usually as part of Jimmy Page's instrumental "White Summer", in the form of a combined arrangement "White Summer-Black Mountain Side", approximately 11 minutes in length. Page wanted to sit on a stool during the two songs and usually played it on a 1959 Danelectro DC "Double Cutaway" guitar that was tuned differently than his preferred Gibson Les Paul . These songs were used by the band to showcase Page's skills as a guitarist, as he mostly played completely alone, save for a few drums from John Bonham at the end of the song. The combination of "White Summer" / "Black Mountain Side" was first performed at a concert in Fillmore West , San Francisco on January 10, 1969.

The song was on Led Zeppelin's setlist until their fifth US tour in 1970. Years later, it was brought back for their 1977 US tour, 1979 concerts, and 1980 European tour. "Black Mountain Side" was also used as the intro to " Kashmir " on this last tour .

A live version of the performance at the Royal Albert Hall in 1970 can be seen on the Led Zeppelin DVD . A similar version, most likely from the Playhouse Theater Sessions on June 27, 1969, is on the longer version of Coda , a 1982 album with outtakes. In this arrangement, the "White Summer" part is played for about eight minutes and "Black Mountain Side" is heard in the middle.

Page later played a version of this song with The Firm , a band he formed with Paul Rodgers .

occupation

literature

  • Dave Lewis: The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin . Omnibus Press, 2004, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9
  • Chris Welch: Led Zeppelin: Dazed and Confused: The Stories Behind Every Song . Carlton, 1998, ISBN 1-56025-818-7

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Doug Kennedy: The Songs and Guitar Solos of Bert Jansch. New Punchbowl Music, 1983, p. 21.
  2. ^ Colin Harper: Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues Revival (2006 edition). Bloomsbury, 2006, ISBN 0-7475-8725-6 , pp. 99-100.
  3. a b c Dave Lewis: The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin , Omnibus Press, London 1994, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9
  4. Interview with Jimmy Page . Retrieved February 2, 2014.