Black Dog: from a train ticket to Led Zeppelin IV
On a train returning from rehearsal at Jimmy Page's house, John Paul Jones wrote a riff on the back of his ticket. Manuscript paper was unnecessary: his father had taught him a way to write music with numbers and note values. That portable skill let the Led Zeppelin bassist preserve Black Dog. Jones recalled the journey in a February 2008 interview with Bass Player. Black Dog became the opening track of Led Zeppelin IV, with its principal riff composed by the bassist rather than Page. Page often developed riffs while practicing at home. Little sections emerged as he played, and he chose which to keep developing. When a fragment reminded him too strongly of another piece of music, he set it aside and moved on to a different idea instead of continuing to develop that one. Whole Lotta Love, The Immigrant Song, Kashmir and Stairway to Heaven all feature riffs credited to him, and his love of blues informed much of his work.
Jones wanted a riff that kept rolling instead of arriving at an obvious ending. Jones initially named Muddy Waters' album Electric Mud as an influence. Jones revised that attribution in 2007, identifying Howlin' Wolf's repeating Smokestack Lightning riff as his inspiration. Rock and Roll began during work on another song. Bonham played the introduction to Little Richard's Keep A-Knockin', and Page responded with a chord and half a riff already in his head. He urged the musicians to follow it, later describing the song as arriving out of the ether.
Black Dog challenged the musicians from the start. Jones said its original form was in 3/16 time, a meter the band could not keep up with. He and Page moved it into 4/4 and slowed it down, but the adjustments did not immediately make the performance straightforward. Bonham had trouble locating the opening beat when the pattern shifted. Jones recalled the original meter in a Classic Rock interview in 2007, before discussing the train journey with Bass Player.
Jones gave Bonham a practical instruction: continue playing four beats to the bar throughout. Jones explained that enough repetitions of 5/8 would bring the figure back onto the beat. A second challenge involved Robert Plant's voice. Plant was unlikely to compose a vocal part that fitted the circular instrumental figure. Page followed Peter Green's example in Oh Well, Part 1, where repetitions of the riff are interspersed with a vocal break. That call-and-response pattern was reminiscent of early blues, R&B, folk and gospel. His riff-driven song appeared on Fleetwood Mac's Then Play On.
The resulting call and response made space part of Black Dog's arrangement. Page and Jones played the main figure together in unison. During the middle-eight breaks, Jones left space for Page to play. Jones described the choice as a decision to support the guitar: a bassist could play sparsely to highlight what the guitarist was doing, or use a repeated pattern to build intensity in the music.
Jones made a further adjustment in the way he played bass. Jones mainly played fingerstyle at this stage of his career, but chose a pick for this performance. He had often needed a pick during his session work and had become accustomed to using one. Although he could perform the song fingerstyle, Jones felt it sounded better with a pick, which changed the phrasing and added a metallic guitar sound. Page used his Number 1 Gibson Les Paul, the 1959 'Burst purchased from Joe Walsh in 1969.
Page connected his Les Paul to a direct box, then to a microphone channel. He obtained distortion from the mixing board's microphone amplifier before running the signal through two UREI 1176 compressors in series. Page triple-tracked the guitar part. While reviewing the tapes, Page felt the guitars almost sounded like an analog synthesizer. The Les Paul was Page's main guitar throughout his career and appeared on many Led Zeppelin recordings. The finished song was a group collaboration, despite Jones having written its principal riff.
A black Labrador Retriever at Headley Grange gave the song its title. The band had converted that former workhouse in Headley, Hampshire, England, into a home and studio. The Labrador left at night and came back exhausted in the morning. Plant believed the dog was having sex in the woods and used that premise for lyrics in a classic blues style. The song's name does not appear in the lyrics. The band used Headley Grange for Led Zeppelin III, IV, Houses of the Holy and Physical Graffiti. Page said the musicians encouraged Jones to bring in musical fragments, rather than complete songs.