"Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" is a folk song written by Anne Bredon (then known as Anne Johannsen) in the late 1950s. It was recorded by Joan Baez (credited as "traditional") and released on her 1962 album Joan Baez in Concert, Part 1, and also by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, who included it on their 1969 debut album Led Zeppelin. Other interpretations of the Bredon song include versions by The Plebs (1964 Decca Records UK/MGM Records USA), The Association in 1965 (also doing a live version in 1970) and British pop singer Mark Wynter in 1965. Quicksilver Messenger Service recorded a variation on the song in 1967. Welsh band Man would later cover the QMS song on their 1976 album Maximum Darkness (recorded live at Roundhouse, Chalk Farm on 26 May 1975).
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Whilst a student at UC-Berkeley in around 1960, Anne Bredon appeared on a live folk-music radio show The Midnight Special on radio station KPFA, on which she sang "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You".[1] A fellow folk singer who guested on The Midnight Special, Janet Smith, took up the song and developed it further, playing it live at hootenanny folk-song events at Oberlin College, one performance of which was attended by Joan Baez.[1] Baez requested Smith to send her a recording of her songs, including "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You", which Baez subsequently began performing herself. It became the opening track on Joan Baez in Concert, Part 1.[1] Initially, the song had no writers' credit, but after Smith contacted Bredon, who confirmed her authorship, later pressings of ...In Concert gave the writing credit to Bredon.[2]
| "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" | |||||||||
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| Song by Led Zeppelin from the album Led Zeppelin | |||||||||
| Released | January 12, 1969 | ||||||||
| Recorded | October 1968 | ||||||||
| Genre | Blues rock, folk rock | ||||||||
| Length | 6:41 | ||||||||
| Label | Atlantic | ||||||||
| Writer | Page, Plant and Bredon | ||||||||
| Producer | Jimmy Page | ||||||||
| Led Zeppelin track listing | |||||||||
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The band was inspired to cover the song after hearing Baez's version. Both guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Robert Plant were fans of Baez. Baez's original album had indicated no writing credit, and Led Zeppelin credited the song as "Trad. arr. Page". In the 1980s, Bredon was made aware of Led Zeppelin's version of the song. Since 1990 the Led Zeppelin version has been credited to Anne Bredon/Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, and Bredon received a substantial back-payment in royalties. [2][3]
This was the number Page played to Plant at their first meeting together, which took place at Page's riverside home at Pangbourne in late July 1968.[3] It is sometimes stated that the song evolved when Plant played to Page the guitar arrangement which eventually found its way onto the album. In an interview he gave with Guitar World magazine in 1998, Page refuted this story, noting that he had worked out the arrangement long before he met Plant, told him he would like it on the album, and that Plant at that time did not even play the guitar.[4]
It is rumored that Page recorded another version of the song, with Steve Winwood, in 1968, which was never released.[5]
At the 1:41 mark of Led Zeppelin's version of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", it is possible to hear a very faint trace of Plant singing, "I can hear it calling me" just before he sings the same line in full volume. This "ghost" is the vocal bleed from Plant's scratch vocal, and it appears on the drum tracks, which were recorded live with the full band.
The band played this song live only at Led Zeppelin concerts on its 1969 concert tours, but Page and Plant brought it back for their 1998 reunion in a 9-minute version.
A live, filmed performance of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", from Led Zeppelin's gig on Danmarks Radio at Gladsaxe, Denmark, on March 17, 1969, is featured on the Led Zeppelin DVD (2003).
Record producer Rick Rubin has remarked, "It ["Babe I'm Gonna Leave You"] is a song with a classical nature that also really rocks. It really takes you on a trip."[6] The song is featured on the 2006 One Tree Hill episode entitled "The Show Must Go On"[7]
As a result of touring in the United States and watching various "Led Zeppelin" cover bands and other artists perform this song, in recent months Robert Plant has taken to performing this song again, both with his band "Strange Sensations" as well as in his concert tours as a solo artist.
1969 7" promo 45 edition (US: Atlantic EP 1019)
1969 7" single edition (Greece: Atlantic 2019 003)
With credits Page/Plant/Bredon
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