Led Zeppelin's Black Dog – hear a previously unreleased version
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Version 0 of 1. One might wonder long and hard exactly what Robert Plant meant when he sang “I don’t know, but I been told, a big-legged woman ain’t got no soul.” One might perhaps come to the conclusion that he meant only to fill up the space available for his vocal, because it doesn’t really matter what the words to Black Dog are: it’s simply one of the most exciting album openers ever. It doesn’t do any harm, either, that it opens one of the most momentous albums in rock – the fourth Led Zeppelin record, featuring everyone’s favourite incense anthem, Stairway to Heaven, the monstrous When the Levee Breaks, whose drum break became a staple of hip-hop, and Rock and Roll, the distillation of the records Led Zeppelin had loved when they were kids. Small wonder it’s gone on to sell 37m copies worldwide, and go platinum 23 times in the US alone. “We were getting flak from the press because basically they really couldn’t understand what we were all about,” Jimmy Page told me two years ago about the period leading up to the Led Zeppelin IV. “They couldn’t understand a band that were changing from the second album, the third album, because they were singles-orientated.” In response to accusations Zeppelin were simply overhyped, the band made a decision to present the fourth record as blankly as possible. “’OK, we’ll show you what it is,’” Page remembered. “’We’ll put out an album with nothing on it, and just because it’s what’s inside, that’s going to be the important thing.’ But the whole presentation of it, through the album cover, that whole thing tells a story – with the framed photograph on the wall of the building that’s being demolished, about how the old times are going and the new is going up, with the high-rise buildings going up.” That fourth album is rereleased in remastered form on 27 October (alongside Houses of the Holy), with a deluxe edition that features a disc of alternate versions of the album’s eight tracks. We’re delighted to be able to bring you the first track from that companion disc here – the basic track of Black Dog, with guitar overdubs. Have a listen and let us know what you think. |