If someone says ‘Black Dog’ to me, I immediately think ‘Rock and Roll’. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV – Track 1: “Black Dog”, Track 2: “Rock and Roll”. It’s just the way my brain’s wired.
It’s one of the all time great albums. The cover is iconic. The picture of the man, on the wall of the derelict building, wrapping around to the block of flats in the background. It doesn’t need the name of the band on it, you just know who it is. Like all the great albums.
So, to me, black dog means rock and roll and Led Zeppelin and IV.
There’s More Than One Black Dog
However, very recently, I found out there’s more than one black dog.. My old friend from school days, posted the video of Babe Ruth’s Black Dog on Facebook.
I had heard of Babe Ruth but had never listened to them. It is one band that had passed me by – until yesterday.
The band were a Rock band formed in 1970. There is no active website but all the history is at Wikipedia here
Suffice to say, the band, with Janita Haan singing this song is just sublime.
Another fact I found out about this band is that they had a single in 1975 that was popular with Northern Soul! I am currently tracking this down as I’m a big Northern Soul fan
Thanks for this Paul. The life of musicfan6160 is now enriched further due to this discovery.
Daido Moriyama
One other, non-music-related black dog is Daido Moriyama’s.
Daido Moriyama is a Japanese street photographer famous for gritty, urban photographs. His photograph of a black dog has become synonymous with him
https://www.moriyamadaido.com/en/photogallery/#1588-4
The above video gives an excellent introduction to the artist’s work, by the artist himself.
A lot of his photography is black and white but he also photographs in colour. He’s a prolific photographer, just take a look at his bibliography!
So, I now know there’s more than one black dog. It’s not just rock and roll.
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