The Evolution of 'Black Dog' by Led Zeppelin
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- 5 days ago
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‘200 Greatest 70s Rock Songs Vol. 2’ Book Excerpt
Frank Mastropolo
“Black Dog” opens 1971’s untitled fourth Led Zeppelin album and reached №15. Its title comes from a nameless Labrador retriever who wandered around the studio during recording.
Robert Plant’s falsetto is featured during a call and response with the band. Guitarist Jimmy Page credits bassist John Paul Jones with the song’s inspiration.
“John Paul Jones had a riff. And that’s the sort of riff that you know as ‘Black Dog.’” Page explained on SiriusXM.
“So he had that but that’s what it was. It’s the riff and he was sort of playing it over and over. It was tricky, tricky to play, certainly where it goes into triplets at a certain part. It overlaps.
“But during the point of putting it together, or being able to play with him, once I could play with him, I said, ‘Let’s try this with a call and response, with Robert singing and then the riff.
“All the other bits outside of the riff, those are all the bits I put into it. My part of it is, it was taking the riff and making it into a piece of music.”
“I wanted to try an electric blues with a rolling bass part,” Jones told the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “But it couldn’t be too simple. I wanted it to turn back on itself.
“I showed it to the guys, and we fell into it. We struggled with the turn-around until John Bonham figured out that you just four-time as if there’s no turn-around. That was the secret.”
The song’s lyrics have nothing to do with canines. “Not all my stuff is meant to be scrutinized,” Plant remarked in Led Zeppelin: The Complete Guide to Their Music.
“Things like ‘Black Dog’ are blatant, let’s-do-it-in-the-bath-type things, but they make their point just the same.”
Frank Mastropolo is the author of 200 Greatest 70s Rock Songs Vol. 2, part of the Greatest Performances series. For more on our latest projects, visit Edgar Street Books.
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