"Black Dog" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It is the first track on the band's untitled fourth album (1971), which has become one of the best-selling albums of all time.[6] The song was released as a single and reached the charts in many countries. It is "one of the most instantly recognisable Zeppelin tracks", and was included in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list (US), and ranked No. 1 in Q magazine's (UK) "20 Greatest Guitar Tracks". The lyrics contain typical bluesman themes of lust, eroticism and betrayal.[1]
The title is a reference to a nameless black Labrador Retriever the band used to see wandering the Headley Grange studio grounds.[7] The dog would disappear in the evening and return exhausted in the early morning, before resting all day and repeating his evening sojourns.[1] Robert Plant believed the lab was spending nights with his "old lady" (dog). Likewise the lyrics are narrated by a man obsessed with a woman, "got a flaming heart can't get my fill", he "can't keep away" from her "honey drip";[nb 1][nb 2] she reveals her true intention, spending his money, taking his car, "telling her friends she's gonna be a star", at which point the deception becomes clear and he turns cold, saying "a big-legged woman ain't got no soul".[1] The story of lust, eroticism, and ultimately betrayal echoes the traditional reputation of the blues as being the music of the devil, alluded to in the lyric "eyes that shine a burning red".[1][nb 3]
Music
The song opens with muted sounds of guitars warming up in the background, an idea by Jimmy Page, who also made curious opening sounds in "Immigrant Song" and "Friends", he was fond of starting songs in an unexpected way. The sounds are actually recordings of various guitar track openings played simultaneously, creating a "sonic collage" in which the tape can be heard spinning up to speed. Robert Plant then begins singing in a high strong voice, "hey, hey, mama" unaccompanied by music (a cappella). This sets the structure of the song, around a call and response dynamic, between the vocalist and the band, back and forth. It was Jimmy Page's idea to start and stop the music, and he was inspired by Fleetwood Mac's 1969 song "Oh Well".[10]
Jones added complex rhythm changes,[7] that biographer Keith Shadwick describes as a "clever pattern that turns back on itself more than once, crossing between time signatures as it does."[12] The group had a difficult time with the turnaround, but drummer John Bonham's solution was to play it straight through as if there was no turnaround.[7] As Jean-Michel Guesdon notes, the recording contains rhythmic coordination errors, such as between 0:41 and 0:47, when the guitars are not in sync with the drums. He says it was part of the band's "genius" to discount these "errors" as "curiosities" ie. characteristic signatures of the song.[13] In live performances, Bonham eliminated the 5 4 variation so that Robert Plant could perform his a cappella vocal interludes and then have the instruments return at the proper time.[14]
For his guitar parts, Jimmy Page used a Gibson Les Paul and made a complicated series of overdubs through various compressors and other equipment. There was so much distortion, Page later said it sounded like an analog synthesizer.[15]
Although played at live concerts since March 1971, its first commercial release was on 8 November 1971, as track #1 side one of the album Led Zeppelin IV, which went on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time.[6]
The single followed about a month later, on 2 December 1971 in continental Europe, the United States (via Europe), and Australia. As was their practice, the United Kingdom did not receive the single.[11] "Misty Mountain Hop" is on the B-side.[11]
In 2004, the song appeared on the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list at number 294.[19] In 2010, it was demoted to number 300.[20] Music sociologist Deena Weinstein calls "Black Dog" "one of the most instantly recognisable Zeppelin tracks".[21] In 2007, Q magazine polled an "all-star panel", who ranked Black Dog as number one in a list of the "20 Greatest Guitar Tracks".[22]
↑ The term "honeydripper" is black slang for the vagina or a female lover; it can also mean a male lover who says ("drips") sweet things to his female lover.[8]
↑ The lyric, "Watch your honey drip, can't keep away", may have influenced Plant in naming his 1980s band, The Honeydrippers; there are other theories, see that article for details.
↑ The close association of the blues with the devil was well known between the 1920s and 1960s, but has largely faded from popular memory since then. See Gussow 2017, p. 2[9]
↑ Schuman 2009, p.49: "The fourth album also has its share of hard rock tracks. Three that received a lot of radio airplay are 'Black Dog,' 'Misty Mountain Hop,' and the appropriately named 'Rock and Roll.'"
↑ Bream 2010, p.110: "[Led Zeppelin IV] balances the blues-rock grind of 'Black Dog' against the sun-dappled utopianism of 'Going to California'".
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