Black Mountain Side is an instrumental song by English rock band Led Zeppelin, featured on their 1969 debut album Led Zeppelin. It is inspired by the music of an old traditional English folk song, recorded by Bert Jansch as "Blackwaterside".

Blackwaterside

Although originally credited on Led Zeppelin's first album as a Jimmy Page composition, it is similar to an instrumental version of a traditional folk song called "Blackwaterside".^[1] The song's guitar arrangement is nearly identical to the version previously recorded by singer-songwriter Bert Jansch. One important difference, however, is that Page plays in DADGAD tuning (which Page called the "CIA" tuning, an acronym for Celtic, Indian and Arabic),^[1] whereas Jansch used a simpler 'drop D' tuning. In the actual recording Page's guitar is tuned a half step down from DADGAD tuning.

Folk singer Anne Briggs, a friend of Jansch, taught him the song. She, in turn, learnt it from the folk music historian A. L. Lloyd. She also recorded her own version, though this was not until the early 1970s — a few years after the Jansch and Page interpretations.

Black Mountain Side

An overdubbed rapid guitar lick can be heard on the album version. Page did this to simulate the sound of a sitar. Page played a borrowed Gibson J200 acoustic guitar for this recording.^[1]

To enhance the Indian character of the song, drummer and sitarist Viram Jasani played tabla on the track.^[1] The beginning of the song starts over the end of the previous track, "Your Time Is Gonna Come"

When the song was played at Led Zeppelin concerts, it was usually featured as part of Jimmy Page's instrumental "White Summer", with the combined arrangement "White Summer-Black Mountainside" typically running at 11 minutes. Like "Black Mountain Side," "White Summer" is imspired by an old Irish folk song, "She Moves Through the Fair." Page would sit on a stool for the duration of the two songs and usually played them on a Danelectro guitar, tuned differently than his favored Gibson Les Paul. These songs were used by the band to showcase Page's skills as a guitarist, as he plays almost entirely by himself, with drummer John Bonham adding some fills later in the song.

A live version of this song can be seen on the Led Zeppelin DVD, during Led Zeppelin's 1970 Royal Albert Hall appearance. A similar version can be heard on the expanded version of Coda, an album of outtakes released in 1982. This arrangement has the "White Summer" segment being played for around eight minutes, and "Black Mountain Side" is heard somewhere in the middle.

Page later played versions of this song when he was with The Firm, the group he founded with Paul Rodgers.

Led Zeppelin parody cover band Dread Zeppelin recorded a version of this song on their album Un-Led-Ed.