Black Mountain Side

Infobox Song
Name = Black Mountain Side


Artist = Led Zeppelin
Album = "Led Zeppelin"
Released = January 12 1969
track_no = 6
Recorded = October 1968
Genre = Folk rock
Length = 2:12
Writer = Page
Label = Atlantic
Producer = Jimmy Page
Chart position =
Background =
prev = "Your Time Is Gonna Come"
prev_no = 5
next = "Communication Breakdown"
next_no = 7"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, also recorded by Bert Jansch as "Blackwaterside".

ong structure

Recorded at Olympic Studios, London during October 1968. The beginning of the song is arranged over the end of the previous track, "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.Dave Lewis (1994), "The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin", Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9.] To enhance the Indian character of the song, drummer and sitarist Viram Jasani played tabla on the track.Dave Lewis (1994), "The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin", Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9.]

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:

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 January 10, 1969, and the Spokane show from December 30, 1968, features the arrangment 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.Dave Lewis (1994), "The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin", Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9.] "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 June 27, 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.

Led Zeppelin parody cover band Dread Zeppelin recorded a version of this song on their album "Un-Led-Ed".

Guitarist Steve Morse credits this song as having influenced him on the track "Led On" from the album "Major Impacts". [ [http://www.guitar9.com/majorimpactstrk.html Steve Morse's Major Impacts] ]

Influence of Blackwaterside

Credited on Led Zeppelin's first album as a Jimmy Page composition, it is similar to an instrumental version of a traditional English folk song called "Blackwaterside".Dave Lewis (1994), "The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin", Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9.] The song's guitar arrangement is influenced by the version previously recorded by singer-songwriter Bert Jansch (released in 1966 on "Jack Orion"), who was an early influence on Page. "Blackwaterside" predates Jansch however. Two important differences is that Page plays in DADGAD tuning (which Page called the "CIA" tuning, an acronym for Celtic, Indian and Arabic),Dave Lewis (1994), "The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin", Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9.] whereas Jansch used a simpler 'drop D' tuning. Page later revisited the DADGAD tuning for the song "Kashmir", which appeared on the band's sixth album "Physical Graffiti". In the actual studio recording of "Black Mountain Side", Page's guitar is tuned a half step down from DADGAD tuning, technically Db-Ab-Db-Gb-Ab-Db. Page also employs the use of a traditional Indian tabla into the recording, making the overall feel of the song as coming from the East.

In an interview he gave in 1977, Page commented:

References

ources

*"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