Black Mountain Side - Remaster

This is a 2 minute instrumental written by Jimmy Page, which was based on a traditional folk song called "Blackwater Side." The most popular version of "Blackwater Side" was recorded by Bert Jansch, but a British folk singer named Anne Briggs also did a version. She was a big influence on Led Zeppelin and on many British singers, but she stopped recording when she was 27 and never became famous. Briggs is sometimes incorrectly credited as the author of another song on the Led Zeppelin album, "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You," but that was written by an American folk singer named Anne Bredon.

Jimmy Page explained to Guitar Player magazine in 1977: "I wasn't totally original on that. It had been done in the 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. He's the one who crystallized all the acoustic playing, as far as I'm concerned. Those first few albums of his were absolutely brilliant."

Led Zeppelin often combined "Black Mountain Side" with a song called "White Summer" when they played it live - Page would sit on a stool and play it as a quiet interlude. The combined song was known as "White Summer-Black Mountainside" and ran about 11 minutes.