A band doesn’t achieve the impact of Led Zeppelin without possessing something that resonates deeply with the public. Their ability to take the world by storm and leave a lasting legacy, making them one of the most highly praised and discussed rock bands of all time, raises the question: what made them so special?
The truth is, every member of Led Zeppelin was an expert in their field, and they were able to play together in a way that complemented one another rather than sounding like an incomprehensible blend of noise. At the heart of all of that was John Paul Jones. While each band member was given room to flex their artistic muscles, Jones was able to act as a glue that held everything together.
Geddy Lee once spoke about the importance of John Paul Jones in the band and how he was the secret behind their success. “The thing that held the whole thing down was John Paul Jones bass playing,” he said, “So if you listen to ‘How Many More Times’, I mean, no matter how wild that song gets at times, there’s John Paul Jones just holding it all down in such a fluid way.”
With that in mind, it’s somewhat ironic that John Paul Jones was responsible for making one of the band’s most complicated tracks. ‘Black Dog’ is widely praised as one of Led Zeppelin’s most memorable numbers, but it is also considered one of the most complicated rock songs ever written. It’s so hard to play that there was a conspiracy floating around that the only reason the band wrote the song was because they wanted to prove their superiority by releasing a track that no one else could cover.
The rumours grew so intense that John Paul Jones had to come out and address them, stating the song was written on a train journey and just happened to come out complicated. “I actually wrote it in rehearsal from Jimmy’s house on the train,” he said, “My dad was a musician and he showed me a way of writing down notation on anything. And so I wrote the riff to ‘Black Dog’ on the back of a train ticket, which I unfortunately don’t have.”
So, what is it about the song that makes it so complicated? It all comes down to time signatures. The band completely contradicts Geddy Lee, as rather than have a section of the song that holds the whole thing down, each band member can veer off and do their own thing, creating a hard rock equivalent to free jazz that sounds off-kilter and yet still works.
The beat signature of the guitar and drums don’t match up in the main riff, as Jimmy Page is playing five beats in his riff, while John Bonham is only doing four. On top of that, later in the riff, there are nine quavers in one bar, which is a tough rhythm section to keep up with, and that sounds like beautiful chaos.
What’s funny to learn is that this complicated version was once even more complex, to the point that it proved too much even for the great Led Zeppelin. Jones explained, “It was originally all in 3/16 time, but no one could keep up with that.”