The acoustic riff Jimmy Page “wasn’t totally original on”
Whilst Led Zeppelin is counted as one of the most distinctive acts of their era, even the band members would admit that they were the sum of their influences. Starting life as an explicitly blues-rock outfit, Led Zep looked to the work of their heroes for ideas, and it wasn’t until they were three albums in that they started to really pull away and carve out a space for themselves that was more like their own.
As is well-known, Zeppelin were so indebted to their idols that every now and again, they would stray so close to the music of others that claims of artistic thievery would abound. This was so prominent that frontman Robert Plant even admitted that his lyrics from ‘Whole Lotta Love’, a track from 1969’s Led Zeppelin II, was, in his own words, “a nick” from Willie Dixon’s ‘You Need Love’.
Plant once explained: “I just thought, ‘Well, what am I going to sing?’ That was it, a nick. Now happily paid for. At the time, there was a lot of conversation about what to do. It was decided that it was so far away in time and influence that … Well, you only get caught when you’re successful. That’s the game.”
As Plant alluded, Zeppelin were usually more subtle in paying homage to their influences. Whether this be his mythical lyrics that repackaged a variety of national mythologies and the works of authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien or drummer John Bonham’s tendency to utilise jazz-esque ghost notes à la Gene Krupa, one of the band’s greatest triumphs was taking from the best to do it, and then redoing it in their own image.
This was also true for guitarist Jimmy Page. Whilst he might have conceived his artistic vision of a much darker, pulsating form of rock ‘n’ roll while playing in The Yardbirds, he was helped on his way by cherry-picking from some of those who informed his craft. One of the earliest examples of this is the acoustic-led ‘Black Mountain Side’ from the group’s self-titled 1969 debut.
Speaking to Guitar Player in 1977, Page admitted to not being “totally original” with the riff and that Annie Briggs and Bert Jansch inspired it with their respective versions of the traditional Irish song ‘Down by Blackwaterside’. Page told the publication: “I wasn’t totally original on that. It had been done in the folk clubs a lot; Annie Briggs was the first one that I heard do that riff.”
Adding: “I was playing it as well, and then there was Bert Jansch’s version. He’s the one who crystallised all the acoustic playing, as far as I’m concerned. Those first few albums of his were absolutely brilliant.”
Listen to ‘Black Mountain Side’ below.
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