Travelling Riverside Blues is a blues song written and recorded in Dallas, Texas by legendary bluesman Robert Johnson. Johnson's June 20, 1937 recording has a typical 12 bar blues structure, played on a single guitar tuned to open G, with a slide. It was first released on the 1961 compilation LP King of the Delta Blues Singers. The song has proved popular with more recent blues musicians.(God bless Wikipedia).
Robert Johnson - Travelling Riverside Blues (2.43 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)Led Zeppelin recorded a version of the song at the BBC studios in 1969, but it was quite different from the original, and it's more a tribute to Robert Johnson than a cover. The song showcases a riff by Jimmy Page (also in open G tuning), and in the lyrics Robert Plant quotes many Robert Johnson songs, such as "She studies evil all the time", from Kind Hearted Woman Blues, and "Why don't you come on in my kitchen", from Come on in My Kitchen (which is heard during the song's solo).
Led Zeppelin - Travelling Riverside Blues (2.24 MB mp3)Despite being broadcast on the BBC several days after it was recorded, it never appeared on any of the band's official albums; the recording remained virtually unknown until appearing on disc 1 of the Led Zeppelin Box Set about 1990 or so (it has subsequently turned up on the Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions album, and on the expanded Coda album from the Complete Studio Recordings box set).
...which is a crying shame, because it's a brilliant track. I remember hearing it for the first time on Pirate FM about 1990 and being absolutely floored by it.
1 comment:
The Led Zep version is so joyful and uplifting. It's like skipping, not trudging, down a dusty country road.
Also, the lemon bit is so hot. Yeah, I know what he's talking about.
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