Andy Aledort Lesson: Zeppelin, "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You"



In this video (from the vast Guitar World archives of song TAB's), long time Guitar World staffer and veteran transcriber "Andy Aledort" shows us how to properly play "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You," a track from Led Zeppelin's debut 1969 album.

 



Video Lesson:




An acoustic masterpiece, this song features a bittersweet circular chord progression presented as ringing, fingerpicked arpeggios. Particularly noteworthy is the way Jimmy Page spins numerous subtle melodic variations on the theme throughout the song (check out the one at 3:40 in the original recording), sweetening the aural pot with dramatic dynamic contrasts. 



This might be one of the most perfectly recorded and mixed acoustic guitar tracks ever. Notice how, in the song’s intro, the “dry” (up-front and un-effected) acoustic guitar is in the left channel while the right channel is mostly “wet,” saturated in cavernous reverb.