Do all guitarists think Black Dog by LZ is random magical timing?

danondrums

Well-known Member
I've yet to meet a guitarist that doesn't believe that there is actually a count going on in Black Dog by Led Zeppelin...
Thoughts?
 
While a random treatment of the pauses in "Black Dog" might lead to a glaring lack of coordination, the timing is receptive to adaptation. There's no compelling reason to perform the song with Zeppelin's exact meter. Devising a count and ensuring that the entire band adheres to it should secure a palatable outcome. Make the score your own. Listeners who disapprove are free to quit the room.
 
It's not planet X difficult. There have been so many times where I've gotten it right simply by feeling it WITHOUT a count. I've always counted Plants last word as 1. Hey hey mama said the way you move gonna make you sweat gonna make you 1. No?. Each last word may have its own count but I can't imagine Bonzo saying Jimmy..watch my hihat. To be continued.
 
We recorded a short bit of that to insert in one of our songs, and I remember the countoff to start took a couple of tries to agree on how to come in together on the snare pickup. And when we played it live, it always worked. I guess the "one" is up for debate, but as long as everyone's on the same page, it's not hard.
 
We recorded a short bit of that to insert in one of our songs, and I remember the countoff to start took a couple of tries to agree on how to come in together on the snare pickup. And when we played it live, it always worked. I guess the "one" is up for debate, but as long as everyone's on the same page, it's not hard.
I see what you did there...
 
You're talking about coming out of the solo vocal sections, yes? In which case, there's absolutely a count, albeit (mainly) hidden by judicious editing—you can often hear the final Bonzo stick click just before the band comes bashing in.
 
We recorded a short bit of that to insert in one of our songs, and I remember the countoff to start took a couple of tries to agree on how to come in together on the snare pickup. And when we played it live, it always worked. I guess the "one" is up for debate, but as long as everyone's on the same page, it's not hard.
As long as everyone is on the same Page
 
No lie. I hate it when a hasty tempo kills the pocket.

To be fair. There are some guitarists with great tempo. Always fun when you get to play with one of them. Always not fun when they want you to play faster intentionally and you don’t want to (provided they aren’t paying you, then it’s fun to play any tempo they want.)
 
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I believe even Led Zeppelin had fun trying to replicate the recording. If you listen to the tune from IV and then listen to the live versions they've done you will hear that they don't do the pauses the way they did them on the record. At least this is what I've found when I learned to play the tune for my band. I learned most of it from the record. Then I figured out the breaks from the live versions. They are not the same. When they play it live they don't pause but play the next line in time. Unless I'm cuckoo for cocoa puffs. Which is highly probable.
 
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I believe even Led Zeppelin had fun trying to replicate the recording. If you listen to the tune from IV and then listen to the live versions they've done you will hear that they don't do the pauses the way they did them on the record. At least this is what I've found when I learned to play the tune for my band. I learned most of it from the record. Then I figured out the breaks from the live versions. They are not the same. When they play it live they don't pause but play the next line in time. Unless I'm cuckoo for cocoa puffs. Which is highly probable.
Don't know if it's true or not, but according to Theodore Gracyk's book, Listening to Popular Music, Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Led Zeppelin, in the studio the acapella bits have a measure of 5/4, but live, they changed that to 4/4 so the band were more assured of all coming back in together.
 
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