Black Dog - Remaster

The title does not appear in the lyrics, and has nothing to do with the song itself. The band worked up the song at Headley Grange, a mansion in Hampshire, England that is out in the country, surrounded by woods. A nameless black Labrador retriever would wander the grounds, and the band would feed it. When they needed a name for this track, which didn't have an obvious title, they thought of the canine and went with "Black Dog."

Zeppelin bass player John Paul Jones got the idea for this song after hearing Muddy Waters' 1968 album Electric Mud. He wanted to try "electric blues with a rolling bass part," and "a riff that would be like a linear journey." Jones rarely had completed songs together, but the bits and pieces he brought to Led Zeppelin's writing sessions proved worthy. When they started putting the album together, Jones introduced this riff, the song started to form. The first version Jones played was comically complex. "It was originally all in 3/16 time, but no one could keep up with that," he said. When the mobile recording studio (owned by The Rolling Stones) showed up at the mansion, this song was ready to go and recorded there.

This is the first track on Led Zeppelin 4, which became the band's best-selling album. A wide range of musical styles show up on the set, with "Black Dog" exemplifying the blues-rock that was the bedrock of the band's sound. The album itself is technically untitled, with symbols on the cover instead of words., but since it was their fourth album, it became known as Led Zeppelin 4. Some fans also referred to it as "ZoSo," which is a rough translation Jimmy Page's symbol.