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From: GtrWorkShp
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  • every guitar player viewing this ,or any Jansch video should send his estate a couple a bucks...esp. Paul Simon and Jimmy Page.

  • Bert Jansch's sound is like a cool drink of water to a thirsty man. God bless Bert Jansch's soul, may he rest in perfect peace.

  • Does anyone know this tuning?

  • @2hamboigahs

    DADGAD

  • @2hamboigahs @newman015 Dropped D tuning. You can clearly see him form C and D open chords (Eflat and F with the capo).

  • Thank you Bert. See you soon :)

  • only just heard the sad news ! .

    Your music has enriched my life for more than 40 years . Rest in Peace Bert.

  • Just found out about Bert's passing. My heart aches...rest peacefully Bert.

  • Any of you Zep apologists ever hear Coltrane's version of "My Favorite Things"? Sounds nothing like the original, still clearly states Hammerstein/Rodgers on the record sleeve.

  • @subg88 rogers and hammerstein probably had way better lawyers than bert here at the time.

  • Last I checked on Zep's album it says "written by Jimmy Page". Clearly not the case, I can't believe fools on here trying to say it was merely influenced by or an homage to Jansch.

  • I had not known his untimely passing.....R.I.P.

  • I don't think many of those parts sound like Black Mountainside cause Jimmy just took one riff and added his own stuff. He wrote a new song, even though it does sound like this, but I believe there is a big enough difference that it don't count as stealing , but counts as homage

  • @RichWrightFloyd19 try to learn both songs and then come again to say there is a big difference.

  • @RichWrightFloyd19 it's folk, nothing counts as stealing, the song wasn't written by jansch, it came from northern ireland a long time ago, or so we think

  • His voice is as much an original one like his guitar style is. This wonderful man has accompanied my life since I was 16, and everything he did still sounds so familiar to me, as if he would be a brother of mine. That's what his music has done. And now he's away forever. I still can't believe that this voice will remain silent from now on. Hey Bert, this awfully hurts me.

  • Molto suadente

  • Irish born doesn't make you British !!!!!!!!!! RIP and Page you need to face up you stole it and used it for your gain. No love nor respect there at all.

  • Jimmy Page loved this man and his playing .  I think homage is more appropriate than "ripped off"

    settle down

  • @modcraft13 He blatantly copied the song chord by chord and lyric by lyric without any credits. If that's not stealing, then what the fuck is?

  • @quinnweller How did he copy the song lyric by lyric if Zeppelin's version has no lyrics in it? You clearly have no clue what you are talking about.

  • @modcraft13 Absolutely! I tried to stay away from this stupid dispute raised by mean ignorants, but I couldn't. Jimmy Page in his interview for ZIG ZAG magazine after the fourth album is praising Jansch as much as he could, with such warmth and sincere love, that one ought to search and look for Bert Jansch immediately... After all, Jimmy Page still is one of really great people of the 20th Century, and great people pay full respect to their teachers and influences.

  • Instantly recognizable and unique voice. It's a shame the man's gone.

  • Pretty late to the news, but just found out Bert died. Rest in peace, Bert.

  • jimmy page... fuck you!

  • We're awfully lucky to have had someone such as Bert. Cherish this.

  • Let's hope that the music and memory of this outstanding musician and fine man will live on for generations to come.

  • Indeed Jimmy Page ripped this note per note!

  • j'apprends ce jour la disparition de notre ami bert. je suis bien triste, il a apporté à mon adolescence une ouverture sur un monde nouveau et il m'a donné envie de jouer de la guitare.

    merci à lui et bon repos éternel

  • I'm a huge Led Zep fan and I gotta say.....Jimmy Page ripped this note-for-note and I do know Bert's name wasn't added to the credits. I think Jimmy may have made one minor change, but it's still the same exact song otherwise.

  • @uofm97 Not only that, Bert taught a session musician named Al Stewart the song.

    He in turn worked with Jimmy Page on a Yardbirds demo and taught Jimmy the song with a couple of note changes which in turn where recorded as "original" material.

    So the variation isn't even his.

    Love Jimmy Page but no one with a brain can say he didn't steal this song.

  • @rrtodd95 Yeah I say he did. Jimmy played a bit faster and basically chopped it in half since his was just past 2 minutes, but you're right.

  • @rrtodd95

    Reminds me of the story of Paul Simon with "Scarborough Fair". Somebody taught him the tune in England, he came to America saying he wrote it, ignorant of the fact it had been around for centuries.

  • @subg88 Jimmy Page is far worse. The band Spirit recorded a song called Taurus in 1968 and Page was with the Yardbirds at the time opening for them.

    He then claimed to have never heard of the band or the song, in spite of the fact that he opened for them, played the song with them onstage once and they opened their set with it .

  • Hi, my name is Page and i steal this song.

  • berts now playing his music for the god

  • Farewell Bert,what a great artist. I found Rosemary lLane in a second hand store in port Lincoln years ago and it changed the way I thought about guitar. Thanks for the music.

  • Page was highly influenced by Bert

  • Comment removed

  • RIP Bert. you will forever be the most underrated guitarist ever.

  • R.I.P.

    

  • Let's be honest, Jansch's people were concerned about potentially mounting legal fees primarily because their case had a giant hole in the bottom of it, one that opened the door for countless others to use the same arguments against him into the foreseeable future.

  • From "Dazzling Stranger": "'What Mr. Mummery (legal counsel for Transatlantic) advised', says Nat (head of Jansch's publishing company), 'was that whereas there was a distinct possibility that Bert might win an action against Page, there was also the possibility that others might then say, "Ah, but Bert heard it from me.""

  • As for my supposed misreading of Harper's book, what better way to respond then to quote from the book directly: "'It had been reasonably established that there was every chance that Jimmy Page had heard Bert play at a club or a concert or on a personal basis, or that he heard Bert's recording. However, what could not be proved was that Bert's recording in itself constituted Bert's own copyright, because the basic melody of course was traditional."

  • @BlackWidowBlues Crikey I come back and you've written four replies! ;) Yes that was part of the problem, as well as what I mentioned in my last comment (you're more than welcome to quote the rest of the chapter). The problem is that Jimmy Page wasn't playing a basic traditional vocal melody. He was playing a guitar arrangement created by Bert Jansch. You know that, I know that and anyone who listens to the tunes knows it. Case closed indeed ;)

  • @themachinist1000 Sorry, not following you. Bert's own people admit that it was difficult to prove who made the arrangement original but somehow, magically, you know (and everyone else for that matter) that it was him. Congratulations on your ability to divine facts.

  • @BlackWidowBlues Yep, thanks. Take it easy.

  • and "'If you think about it, almost any "traditional" song that somebody does an arrangement of, somebody will have done something vaguely similar before. The difficulty appears to be one of really establishing, amongst hundreds of arrangers, who it was that made the arrangement "original."'" Case closed.

  • @BlackWidowBlues Let's get something straight here - 'Blackwaterside', the traditional, has NOTHING to do with a GUITAR. Another thing - Jimmy Page DOESN'T SING. Figure it out, for god's sake. You're more than welcome to list the 'hundreds of arrangers' who wrote complex guitar parts to 'Blackwaterside', before Bert. It is also important to note that Bert and Davey Graham were two of the key innovaters in creating complex guitar arrangements to British folk.

  • I'm sorry, is there an argument in there? Page doesn't sing. Gee, thanks for filling me in. And why would I need to list the "hundreds of arrangers" that Nat Joseph was talking about or quote parts of a book that have nothing to do with what we're talking about?

  • omg i didn't know he just died, that sucks. he was so talented, i never got to see him live

  • The idea that there were no lawyers brave enough to take on big bad Led Zeppelin at the time doesn't even pass the laugh test and is thoroughly discredited in Colin Haper's book "Dazzling Stranger".

  • @BlackWidowBlues Reread what I said - It wouldn't be viable (financially). No lawyer's cheap enough more like. I've read that book and I think you might need to read that chapter again.

  • No, what they were really afraid of, and this comes straight from their lawyer's mouth, is that they couldn't establish the originality of the arrangement with Jansch and that he would be opening himself up to endless litigation. Sure, Page may or may not have heard it from Stewart, who heard from Jansch. But then, as they feared, anyone of a hundred other arrangers could say "Ah, but Bert heard it from me."

  • @BlackWidowBlues Yes that's more or less correct. Different story nowadays.

  • truly beautiful

  • @MrHair48

    No he died last Thursday

  • Legally speaking, it's not stealing. You're welcome to that belief if you want it but it doesn't stand up to a moments scrutiny. While, Jansch may have been the first to arrange Black Water Side the way it's arranged on Jack Orion, he credits the song as a "traditional" (ie, he took no writing credit for it) That means he wasn't entitled to any royalties and as such nothing was "stolen".

  • @BlackWidowBlues On another note, why don't we all stop arguing about it for a while - Bert passed away earlier this week, so let's all of us give the man some respect.

  • PS- Jansch had top copyright lawyers explore his options at the time and they decided not to pursue legal action. If one of the best copyright lawyers in the UK didn't think there was a solid case against Page for "stealing" it's because it wasn't "stealing".

  • @BlackWidowBlues Jansch didn't have anybody do anything. His label, on the other hand, decided it wouldn't be viable to try and sue the biggest band in the world at the time, particularly over a song that was originally an Irish traditional and credited thus on Jack Orion. If you pinch someone's arrangement nowadays, particularly one that is so unique that it is a creation in itself, you are breaching copyright law - unfortunately it was more of a grey area back then so people got away with it.

  • @BlackWidowBlues hard case to prove as it is folk music, and the whole thing there is to keep playing it, music of the british people and all. also US folk music similar songs as "red coats" after revolutionary war in 1700's some retreated to kentucky, virginia hills, etc. same songs exactly. later morphed into bluegrass, country, gospel, soul and rock n roll. Bert was so nice and great inpiration and entertainer to us all. god bless his gypsy soul he lived it.

  • rip it up Bert..

  • very cool

  • I can do that.

  • i've been soooo fucking sad the last 2 days....

  • how very sad, my inspirational guitarist, thank goodness he recorded as much as he did, so that many in future can discover Bert, and can also share and enjoy his guitar style and music, i was impressed from when he started, and have always enjoyed his work ever since, through his recordings and concerts he was my distant tutor, i will always be grateful for his influence, and, although unknowingly ..what he taught me. RIP Bert.. and thank you for your music.

  • To all of you who are saying this is a traditional tune that is to be interpreted by the player. In most cases you are correct -- however lifting the arrangement note-for-note (including the intro which was developed by Bert Jansch and is not part of the original tune) without giving credit is theft -- it has nothing to do with interpretation. Listen to how Richard Thompson interprets some of the same tunes without ripping off someone else's arrangement -- THAT is the folk process.

  • R.I.P Descansa en paz GENIO

  • Basking in some some Donovan in 1967-8, I was puzzled at a couple of his song titles: "Bert's Blues" and "House of Jansch"

    After flipping through the bins at the record store, I found the answer, and bought a couple of Pentangle albums... the rest is a blur, culminating in my 40 years of trying to teach myself finger style guitar. I think I can fake a few by now.

    Good night, sweet Bert, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

  • RIP Bert. Gonna bust out some Pentangle tonight. Was touched that one of my students yesterday was almost in tears at his passing

  • Uh, Bert Jansch DID NOT write this song. It's a traditional, most likely an Irish traditional, author unknown. And, as such, Page had as much right to cover or put his spin on it as Jansh did.

  • Brilliant and unique singer - brilliant arranger and guitarist - Bert was simply awesome. The news truly saddened me. Rest in peace Bert.

  • Thank you and rest in peace Bert.

  • A great musician lost to the world. Thank you Burt

  • Does anybody know what guitar Bert is playing here?

  • he reminds me of nick drake..

  • RIP Bert, you live forever in our hearts.

  • @Jupitersgoose I did not know he died :(.

  • May you rest in peace, Bert. So many will miss you.

  • he was good no mistake........

  • Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Berts pioneering style showed the way for a lot of folk/rock exponents.

    His sounds will echo back down the years.

  • Comment removed

  • RIp Burt a Folk Hero is the trueist sense.

  • My heart is heavy with loss but lifted with inspiration RIP great man. xx

  • Goodbye, Bert. I'll miss you deeply.

  • Rest In Peace Bert, thanks for all the music.

  • great discover ¡¡ Bye

  • zep were always overblown shite!! good songs murdered on demand!! r.i.p. bert and may your gods look after you!!

  • One thing about the arrangements - Page's were in a different tuning - different feel and all instrumental.

  • @MrUduwudu By all accounts I've seen, Page learned it in DADGAD because he thought that's what Bert played it in.

  • Very sad that he passed away, yesterday I was in a musicstore, seriously considering buying one of his albums, without knowing that he past away.

  • Thanks Bert, peacock feathers and incense for every one........was so nice meeting you. those sort of club concerts will never come again. God rest your gypsy soul. peace out.

  • Just THANK YOU

  • Beautiful.

  • He'll be sadly missed!

  • Brilliant and Beautiful - gone, but never forgotten!!!!

  • r i p musician

  • Bert, you live on in the music of everyone you influenced. You were our era's O'Carolan.

  • RIP Bert.. you changed the world for better forever!

  • @mspookie.Some advice -- do your research get your facts straight before revealing your ignorance by calling people names. Bert and Davy claimed that their arrangements were lifted note for note -- the original albums are there as proof. I guess that makes both of them to be idiots .Led Zep had to pay Willie Dixon alot of money for stealing lyrics and had to shell out more to Anne Bredon for not crediting her as the composer on Babe I'm Gonna Leave You.

  • R.I.P Bert.

  • adiós compadre...

  • You will be missed, Rest in Peace Bert.

  • Goodbye Bert.

  • RIP Bert. Truly a great loss to the world of guitar and singer-songwriters. Such an unorthodox playing style. You and John created one of the greatest guitar partnerships of the previous millennium and influenced generations to come.

  • It's a shame this is going to be overshadowed by the death of Steve Jobs.

  • It was a pleasure getting a chance to see you open up for Neil Young in Texas. You still sounded great. RIP Mr Jansch

  • What a painful loss. A true flower of the forrest, gone.......

    Thanks so much for all your beautiful, insightful songs Bert...

    ....Jane.

  • a hero since i was 14. Jack orion is pure magic. thank you and rest in peace.

  • Sad to lose such an amazing musician. He will be missed.

  • RIP BJ, a sad sad loss, but we have your music and your influence is all over the world on, LP CD and MP3

  • Rest in peace, Bert.

  • Ohh Jeez what a loss to music :(

  • Well I did concede that I know what you mean, what I am saying is where does this end?Jimmy learnt from Bert,Bert learnt from Anne Briggs.Yes JP did lift the whole arrangement, but how different are all the versions of 'She Moved Through The Fair' to each other? JP made the serious bucks, but there are a lot of other contributing factors to that. Without guitarists (like myself) reading interviews and appraisals of Zep and others, I may have never discovered Bert or Davey Graham.

  • RIP Bert. This song has never left me. 5th October 2011

  • My 1 true hero is gone.

  • British is very vague Bert Jansch is (was) Scottish.

  • RIP Bert -- sending up the message that you live on the music

  • RIP

    Thank you for the music

  • RIP Bert

  • I learned about Bert from Jimmy Page. From Bert, I learned about Anne Briggs. The Song does indeed Remain the Same.

    Thank you, Bert, for sharing with the world your talent and vision. Its a damn shame I never saw you live.

  • @Legacy76 I too followed the same path....

  • Rip

  • RIP Bert. Oddly enough, I had just inquired about flights to Scotland when I heard the news. So sad.  I wish I could have seen you play one last time.

  • Never to be forgotten - RIP Bert and thank you for the music

  • RIP

  • RIP.

  • Wonderful tune by a truly great and original artist, people like this don't come along too often....

  • RIP Bert.

  • R. I P. Your greatness steeped Jimmy Page. Shame on you Page. You're a great player but come clean about Black Mountain Side!

  • RIP Bert Jansch - and those never to be forgotten all nighters of my youth at Les Cousins in Greek Street

  • I just learned of Bert's death....he's the one that Jimmy Page stole from.

  • Forever and ever in my Charts. Rest in Peace Bert

  • So sad that he has gone but happy we still have his music to console us.

  • RIP :(

    

  • Was just walking home, getting a major kick out of 'Black Swan'; absolutely wounded to hear of his death. We were lucky to have him.

  • much love, remembered and allways and inspiration.

  • RIP Bert.

  • Rest in peace.

  • So long Bert, cheers for everything.

  • rip

    

  • RIP

  • RIP BRO

  • RIP. He was among the first artists I enjoyed as very young under my blanket with headphones, at night...

  • I like the way he takes the rhythm 'sideways' as if it is just about to fall over, then after slightly stumbling, it picks itself back up, perfectly in balance. Really indicative of his style. Exceptional talent - technical ability - raw power - grace and originality! I feel sorry for people that work in guitar shops listening to idiots 'shredding' all day.

  • R.I.P. Bert you will be missed dearly

  • Comment removed

  • R.I.P bert

    a true great

  • Its not a matter of hating Zep -- Jimmy Page stole Bert Jansch's arrangement of this tune and partially renamed it. Much like he stole Davy Grahams arrangement of She Moved Through the Fair and renamed it White Summer. It was the stealing of the arrangements of the tunes without giving credit that was the problem (like Paul Simon ripping off Marin Carthy's arrangement of Scarborough Fair).

  • @Aviv52 except in the case of Jake Holmes, or arguably Spirit, when the theft was a bit more outright, but yes very true.

    At any rate, Jansch was an amazing musician whose influence on Page has to be acknowledged whether one refers to it as theft or inspiration. RIP.

  • @Aviv52 And people making new versions of songs,changing words,arrangements,harmony,tit­les etc carries on the tradition of folk song. I understand what you're saying about not giving credit,but say you did that on the first Led Zeppelin album, the liner notes would end up like a huge list of Page's influences. Then where would you stop?Every metal band crediting Iommi and Blackmore,every blues rock album citing Chuck Berry + Rosetta Tharpe. Did Queen or 10cc ever mention Todd Rundgren? RIP Bert.

  • @Aviv52 And people making new versions of songs,changing words,arrangements,harmony,tit­les etc carries on the tradition of folk song. I understand what you're saying about not giving credit,but say you did that on the first Led Zeppelin album, the liner notes would end up like a huge list of Page's influences. Then where would you stop?Every metal band crediting Iommi and Blackmore,every rock album citing Chuck Berry. Did Queen or 10cc ever mention Todd Rundgren? RIP Bert.

  • @adamg709 It's all very well talking about making new versions of songs - but Jimmy Page very clearly lifted almost this entire guitar arrangement on Black Mountainside. His creative input was minimal, and of course he made a lot of money from it.

    I suggest that you don't quite understand "the tradition of folk song". It's the difference between Paul Simon claiming that Scarborough Fair was his own song, and Bob Dylan writing Girl From The North Country - based on Scarborough Fair, but new.

  • @Aviv52 Honest feedback: you are an idiot.

  • @Aviv52 Well, if you're going to steal, steal from the best.

  • @Aviv52 Oh well done. What other lists have you learned?

  • @Aviv52 Of all the people who reinterpreted this song, it's Jimmy Page that gets accused of stealing, once again. If it weren't for Jimmy Page, most people would not know many of these great traditional songs exist! All music is an interpretation of what came before. Jimmy Page is a God send to traditional music.

  • @Aviv52 Jimmy Page was a huge fan of Bert Jansch. I don't think he wanted to 'steal' the song...

  • @Aviv52 these are traditional tunes for all to share and make our own... stealing doesnt come into it...

  • Sad news. A lovely humble and brilliant talent.

  • Rest in Peace, Bert. Thank you for the music

    

  • Respect to one of Scotlands sons.Rest in peace Bert.

  • RIP.

  • awsome , thanks to Burnie Torme for showing this man,,,,,,,,,and his talent

  • Respect from my bed in Falkirk. RIP.

  • Thanks for your music, RIP.

  • the song - remains the same

  • RIP