'But that's alright, I know your sister too'
Home from Australia, the final leg of their first true 'World Tour', Led Zeppelin reflected on their achievements and used the experiences for inspiration for their next recordings.
No Quarter (original tentative arrangements had been run through during the solstical sessions for 'Untitled' at Headley Grange in late 1970) was the one new track laid down the previous December, the day after their astonishing Starkers Ballroom Bournemouth show to be exact.
Come April, several tracks were recorded at Olympic Studios No.1 (No Quarter also stands out as being the only 'Houses Of The Holy' track laid down at Island Studios). Apart from the 8 songs to be released on 'Houses Of The Holy', the incredibly fruitful sessions yielded at least 4 more songs.
In May, after these formal recordings the band esconsed themselves at Stargroves, a manor house situated in East Woodhay, Hampshire, owned by one Mick Jagger at the time. There they continued to work using the Rolling Stones Mobile recording truck.
In this relaxed atmosphere, the supremely confident Led Zeppelin sat in the garden and recorded 'Black Country Woman'. A laidback country blues, Robert dusted down his harmonica and weaved his tale of the never ending, doubting, nagging Black Country woman while the rest of the band swung simply and convincingly behind. Bonzo in particular laid down an irresistible groove, most likely from inside Stargroves with the mics fed in from the mobile truck.
The start is notable for the aircraft flying overhead and Eddie Kramer's 'Shall we roll in Jimmy?' question to which Robert interjected 'Nah, leave it on'. At the coda Robert adds the (sadly edited) refrain 'never ending, nagging, doubting woman blues'. Simple yet fantastic blues. From the deep south via West Bromwich and Stargroves.
Never a set staple, it did make a shock, unique appearance at the chaotically brilliant Seattle Coliseum second night on June 19th. After that, although it's possible to have been played another night on the 8th US Tour, it was not seen again until the resurrected acoustic set in 1977 on the Magick trek.
This time it was a short edited version, used as a prelude to acoustic set closer Bron-y-Aur Stomp. It did give Robert the chance to wheelout his best Ral Donner impersonation, often teasing the crowd with hints of Dancing Days, Surrender, Cincinnati Fireball, Rawhide, That's Alright Mama, Goin' Down South and Mystery Train. Amazing how relaxed they were amid 20,000+ and some firecrackers!
Performed at every complete show on the tour, 33 versions (at least) survive on bootleg. Plus we have the pro-shot Seattle Kingdome footage from July 17th, giving us the chance to see Jonesy and his upright bass.
It was never performed live again. Post-Zeppelin, Robert dusted it down during his Now & Zen renaissance, and it stayed a part of his live set until the Unledded reunion with Jimmy. Robert also continued to perform it with Alison Krauss and his various other projects too.
Not a single it was however the b-side to the lead single from Physical Graffiti, 'Trampled Underfoot' and as such there are affair few 7" variations, including the (at least) 5 differing pressings of the limited UK single from the DC1 'standard' single - there are 3 variations of that to the very rare (discovered in the 90's) SSK 19403 pressing where (so far) there are at least 2 variations.
