Black Dog – Led Zeppelin – Harmony

Black Dog – Led Zeppelin – Harmony

Listen to the song HERE.

Harmony?

Hmmm? Harmony? I’m not quite sure how to talk about harmony with this song. It doesn’t use chord changes in the traditional sense. All the  harmony is implied by the lead guitar and bass melodic lines. As stated  yesterday, they pretty much playing A blues scales, which pretty alternates between A and E chords. In the final guitar solo, the guitar finally kicks in actual chord changes and plays these power chords...

A5...G5...C5...A5

D5...C5...A5

...sort of, that is.

Counterpoint!

The power of the song’s harmony lies within the counterpoint and mirrored lines of the bass and guitar. The lack of an actual rhythm guitar track adds to its rawness. The song, distortion and all, is really rather bare. It would be an interesting exercise to map out what they are playing with no distortion, but then again, that would defeat the whole purpose of this song. :)

Go write something with counterpoint.

~Shane

PS. Remember, I could evaluate one of your songs this Friday if you submit it HERE.

PPS. Also, please vote in the new poll. (Email me if there is a song you want me to include in the poll!)

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Black Dog – Led Zeppelin

(verse)

Hey, hey, mama said the way you move, gon’ make you sweat, gon’ make you groove

A-ha child, way you shake that thing, gon’ make you burn, gon’ make you sting

Hey, hey, baby when you walk that way, watch your heartache drip, can’t keep away

Oh yeah...ah, ah...

I gotta roll, can’t stand still, got a flaming heart, can’t get my fill

Eyes that shine, burning red, dreams of you all through my head

Ah, ah...

(bridge)

Hey baby, whoa baby, pretty baby

Darling give it to me now

Hey baby, whoa baby, pretty baby

Move the way you’re doing now

(verse)

Didn’t take too long ‘fore I found out what people mean by down and out

Spent my money, took my car, started telling her friends she gon’ be a star

I don’t know, but I’ve been told a big-legged woman ain’t go no soul

Oh yeah, ah, ah...

All I ask for, all I pray, steady rolling woman gonna come my way

Need a woman gonna hold my hand, won’t tell me no lies, make me a happy man

Ah, ah...

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Black Dog – Led Zeppelin – Melody

Black Dog – Led Zeppelin – Melody

Listen to the song HERE.

Minor Blues Melody

This is the perfect example of a rock song using the minor blues melody, which is a minor pentatonic melody with a sharp 4 added, as in:

Minor pentatonic: 1 b3 4 5 b7

Minor blues: 1 b3 4 #4 5 b7

In the key of A...

A minor pentatonic: A C D E G

A minor blues: A C D D# E G

It’s worth noting that the highest note of the melody (which he sings frequently) is the “blues note”...the #4...the D#. This is one of the reasons the melody has so much bite.

I hate to do such a short blog post today, but that kind of sums up the melody. :) Rock on big-legged, soul stealing women!

Go write something with bite.

~Shane

PS. Remember, I could evaluate one of your songs this Friday if you submit it HERE.

PPS. Also, please vote in the new poll. (Email me if there is a song you want me to include in the poll!)

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Black Dog – Led Zeppelin

(verse)

Hey, hey, mama said the way you move, gon’ make you sweat, gon’ make you groove

A-ha child, way you shake that thing, gon’ make you burn, gon’ make you sting

Hey, hey, baby when you walk that way, watch your heartache drip, can’t keep away

Oh yeah...ah, ah...

I gotta roll, can’t stand still, got a flaming heart, can’t get my fill

Eyes that shine, burning red, dreams of you all through my head

Ah, ah...

(bridge)

Hey baby, whoa baby, pretty baby

Darling give it to me now

Hey baby, whoa baby, pretty baby

Move the way you’re doing now

(verse)

Didn’t take too long ‘fore I found out what people mean by down and out

Spent my money, took my car, started telling her friends she gon’ be a star

I don’t know, but I’ve been told a big-legged woman ain’t go no soul

Oh yeah, ah, ah...

All I ask for, all I pray, steady rolling woman gonna come my way

Need a woman gonna hold my hand, won’t tell me no lies, make me a happy man

Ah, ah...

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Black Dog – Led Zeppelin – Lyrics and Song Form

Black Dog – Led Zeppelin – Lyrics and Song Form

Listen to the song HERE.

Yes, But Can I Dance to It?

Okay, okay, I realize this isn’t a staple of amazing lyric writing, but it is still worth going over. For those wondering, the “Black Dog” of the title is basically a black Labrador that was wandering around the studio when they recorded the song.  I want to point out that John Paul Jones, who wrote the main riff was not just a “rock bass player”, he was an accomplished studio musician and arranger before he joined Led Zeppelin. He played on hundreds of sessions and arranged hundreds more. The idea of this song was to create a groove that would be difficult to groove to...with crazy time signature changes and winding riffs. Which, arguably, they accomplished!

Call and Response

With that in mind, look at the lyrics again. You’ve got this woman playing havoc with they guy...driving him crazy. The lyrics are basically call and response with the band. The singer calls out acapella, and the band replies. The man’s intentions are pretty clear, but does he get a straightforward answer from the woman? No, he gets a complex, non-grooveable, windy riff that folds back in on itself. So musically, the woman is giving him mixed messages. :) (...to say the least.)

Unbalanced Sections

I will use the term loosely here. Depending on what we count as a verse...the ah’s? the oh yeah’s?, or just the actual lyrics...the “actual” verse lyrics are are divided like this: 3 lines + 2 lines. A 3 line, unbalanced section, an interlude, then a balanced 2 line section.

Rhyme Scheme

The overall rhyme scheme of the verses are xxx xx, but the lines are driven by internal rhymes, not ending rhymes. All the rhymes are perfect rhymes except for the two subtractive rhymes in the second verse...

told/soul – subtractive rhyme, the D consonant is subtracted from the second word

hand/man – subtractive rhyme, same thing,  the D consonant is subtracted from the second word

Song Form?

On a primal level it is ABA. Verse, Bridge, Verse, with guitar soloing. :)

Prosody?

I love the prosody of the call and response, stereotypical battle of the sexes. The man (the singer) wants one thing, and the girl (the band) is the embodiments of complexity and complication.  :)  Mostly, it just rocks.

Now go and write something that rocks.

~Shane

PS. Remember, I could evaluate one of your songs this Friday if you submit it HERE.

PPS. Also, please vote in the new poll. (Email me if there is a song you want me to include in the poll!)

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Black Dog – Led Zeppelin

(verse)

Hey, hey, mama said the way you move, gon’ make you sweat, gon’ make you groove

A-ha child, way you shake that thing, gon’ make you burn, gon’ make you sting

Hey, hey, baby when you walk that way, watch your heartache drip, can’t keep away

Oh yeah...ah, ah...

I gotta roll, can’t stand still, got a flaming heart, can’t get my fill

Eyes that shine, burning red, dreams of you all through my head

Ah, ah...

(bridge)

Hey baby, whoa baby, pretty baby

Darling give it to me now

Hey baby, whoa baby, pretty baby

Move the way you’re doing now

(verse)

Didn’t take too long ‘fore I found out what people mean by down and out

Spent my money, took my car, started telling her friends she gon’ be a star

I don’t know, but I’ve been told a big-legged woman ain’t go no soul

Oh yeah, ah, ah...

All I ask for, all I pray, steady rolling woman gonna come my way

Need a woman gonna hold my hand, won’t tell me no lies, make me a happy man

Ah, ah...

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Black Dog – Led Zeppelin

Black Dog – Led Zeppelin

I am so excited to do this song for a couple of reasons. First, it’s a great hard rock song, second my story behind it is really great. I’ll start with the story.

Juke Box

My story about Pizza Inn last week reminded me of this song, and the following tidbit. Pizza Inn had two music sources, by super hi-fi Denon boom box above  the pizza making station (endless hours of Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits, and an assortment of mix tapes – TDK chrome tape anyone? One time the whole staff recreated the Doobie Brother “By the hand, pretty mama” refrain at the end of Blackwater...customer’s loved us) and the dining room juke box that we cranked when we cleaned the store after hours. The juke box company gave us a stack of pink fingernail polish covered quarters that we could use as song freebies. During a lull in the night we could drop some pink quarters to liven up the joint. Eric Price and I (he, the assistant manager and the district manager’s son, me, the wily and mostly incompetent night manager) both 19 years old mind you (side note: I should point that Eric was an awesome assistant manager...he was really doing the manager’s job...when we HAD a manager...we went through an odd assortment until uber-manager Duane Lefler was hired. The rest of the staff were all Juniors and Seniors from my high school. In hindsight, we were pretty responsible kids. More stories in future blogs...)…anyway, Eric and I figured out how to break into the juke box and replace the 45’s with our own stash. There were some great replacements. The best was putting Led Zepplin’s Black Dog in the Barry Manilow “Mandy” slot. Every time one of our middle-aged customers would punch D-6 mid pizza buffet, instead of getting the expected lulling piano intro of Mandy, the restaurant would be blasted with “Hey, hey, mama, said the way you move, gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove!”. The whole pizza line would burst into laughing applause much to the wonder of the thick crust stuffing patrons (Pizza Inn really does have the best pizza, by the way!). Ms. Blueberry, the only adult waitress, would just roll her eyes. So here’s to you Eric, Danny, Tony, Ronnboy, Sluggo & Nick (RIP), Johnny, Kathy,and all the rest ..., stand up and take your bow! Click HERE.

   

Go write a song that a pizza crew would stand up and applaud to.

[Last minute insert: I found a picture of me in my Pizza Inn uniform! Click HERE! Also here’s a pic of Fluffy, my car, mentioned in the last Pizza Inn post. Click HERE.]

~Shane

PS. Remember, I could evaluate one of your songs this Friday if you submit it HERE.

PPS. Also, please vote in the new poll. (Email me if there is a song you want me to include in the poll!)

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Black Dog – Led Zeppelin

(verse)
Hey, hey, mama said the way you move, gon’ make you sweat, gon’ make you groove

A-ha child, way you shake that thing, gon’ make you burn, gon’ make you sting

Hey, hey, baby when you walk that way, watch your heartache drip, can’t keep away

Oh yeah...ah, ah...

I gotta roll, can’t stand still, got a flaming heart, can’t get my fill

Eyes that shine, burning red, dreams of you all through my head

Ah, ah...

(bridge)

Hey baby, whoa baby, pretty baby

Darling give it to me now

Hey baby, whoa baby, pretty baby

Move the way you’re doing now

(verse)

Didn’t take too long ‘fore I found out what people mean by down and out

Spent my money, took my car, started telling her friends she gon’ be a star

I don’t know, but I’ve been told a big-legged woman ain’t go no soul

Oh yeah...ah, ah...

All I ask for, all I pray, steady rolling woman gonna come my way

Need a woman gonna hold my hand, won’t tell me no lies, make me a happy man

Ah, ah...

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