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'I wasn't totally original on ["Black Mountain Side"]. It had been done in folk clubs a lot. Annie Briggs was the first one that I heard do that riff. I was playing it as well, and then there was Bert Jansch's version.' At least Jimmy Page is honest, but as a tune oft passed around the folk clubs from performer to performer, it does command some history.
The tune itself is a traditional number. Anybody professing to have written it is probably staking a false claim. The riff began as an early Irish folk song. According to Briggs the song was assembled from fragments by Bert Lloyd, a folk music collector, before finding its way to her. However, Briggs has also stated that the riff comes from Stan Ellison, who composed the accompaninment on the version she recorded. Page claims to have heard it first from her, but his version is unmistakably akin to Bert Jansch's similarly titled 'Black Water Side', which appeared on his 1966 album 'JACK ORION'. Unlike Zeppelin's version, Jansch's 'Black Water Side' actually has lyrics, sung in a heavy droll - and the Irish roots are unmistakable.
Page was a huge Jansch fan: 'He was the innovator of the time... He tied up the acoustic guitar in the same way Hendrix did the electric. His first two LPs had some instrumental work that was totally unbelievable.' In fact, Jansch may have been the influence Page borrowed from the most - using 'Casbah' (from Jansch's self-titled debut) as an onstage link piece connecting 'Black Mountain Side' and 'White Summer' (a melody influenced by another folk guitar maestro, Davy Graham), to 'Black Mountain Side' itself and the intro of 'Bron-Y-Aur Stomp'. When Page played acoustically, he was undoubtedly often aspiring to Jansch.
As the story goes, Jimmy was sessioning on Al Stewart's cover of The Yardbirds 'Turn Into Earth' (the B-side of his first single, 'The Elf' in 1966) when Stewart, between takes, taught Page how to play the riff. Page then took the DADGAD tuning to 'White Summer' with The Yardbirds, 'Kashmir' with Zeppelin and 'Midnight Moonlight' ('Swan Song') with The Firm.
Even though 'Black Water Side' began as an Irish folk riff, Page recognized the Indian quality in the piece and, as he did with 'White Summer', added some atmospheric tabla drums (performed by Indian musician Viram Jasani).
Although it initially comes off looking like two minute filler, it represents one of Page's major musical stepping stones. The light production of the repetitive acoustic guitar (a Gibson J200 that Page had borrowed) adds a nice palate cleansing to 'LED ZEPPELIN' before the album concludes with the frantic energy of 'Communication Breakdown', and the blues power of 'I Can't Quit You Baby' and 'How Many More Times'.
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