Craig Priddle
I purchased a double CD this week, Dazzling Stranger (2000) by Bert Jansch. It is one that I can hold in my hand, with a booklet and everything, not just a digital download. I still like the tangible. Contemplating a particular track on this album has allowed me to complete a journey that began decades ago. That track is Blackwaterside a traditional folk song of unknown provenance.
Bert Jansch was a Scottish folk musician who became popular in the 1960s as a solo artist and then in the band Pentangle. He influenced artists including Nick Drake and Elton John and died in 2011. Thankfully there are albums, compilations, anthologies, and dvds with his performances which show his skill as an arranger and guitarist.
This is how I was introduced to his music.
I used to busk in the pedestrian tunnel near Central Station in Sydney. It has great acoustics and a lot of people pass by so the chances of someone throwing a few coins into my hat were increased. I wasn’t very good, but I looked on it as paid practice. If I could get a few dollars it meant I could go to one of the nearby second hand stores and buy a book or another album. Joy of joys!
One evening as I played my slightly dodgy version of Led Zeppelin’s Black Mountain Side, a guy stopped and listened. Stopped. And. Listened. To Me….
When I finished the song, we chatted for about 15 minutes. He asked me if it was Bert Jansch? Jimmy Page I said. He told me all about Jansch and John Renbourn and the band Pentangle. I told him all about Led Zeppelin. We had a great discussion and shared our love of music. One day soon after that I bought my first Bert Jansch album, A Rare Conundrum (1977). It’s a beautiful album that I often return to. I was on the lookout for John Renbourn and Pentangle albums too.
Jump ahead to 2014. I was surfing YouTube and led myself to Bert Jansch and Blackwaterside. I HAD to have the track and so, this week, found myself with the album Dazzling Stranger.
Black Mountain Side is credited on Led Zeppelin (1968) to Jimmy Page. Therein lies the rub. The similarities between Blackwaterside and Black Mountain Side are far more than coincidental according to many. The short version of the story is that Jimmy Page learnt it off Bert Jansch. And while Jansch acknowledges it is a traditional tune on the album Jack Orion (1966), Jimmy Page felt differently.
Regardless of how it all happened, they are both beautiful recordings. Have a listen below and see what you think. Thankfully there are no recordings of anything I played.
A great pleasure for me in all of this is that I can now completely understand why the guy I chatted to in the tunnel all those years ago thought I was playing Bert Jansch. I probably was.
Notes on the original traditional tune and the dispute between Jansch and Jimmy Page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_by_Blackwaterside
Bert Jansch – Black Waterside from Jack Orion (1966)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY-xpa9GWuo
Bert Jansch – Black Waterside live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkX7Q2J7k48
Led Zeppelin – Black Mountain Side (1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGww9FPvyFA
Get Social