Nobody's Fault But Mine - Led Zeppelin Version

Led Zeppelin Version

"Nobody's Fault but Mine" was recorded by Led Zeppelin for their 1976 album Presence. They used some of Johnson's lyrics, but excluded the overtly religious passages and added several verses of their own. Although the song's roots are in the blues, it has been called "one of the most relentless pieces of pure rock this group ever mined."

According to Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, it was vocalist Robert Plant's idea to record "Nobody's Fault but Mine". Plant new lyrics included lines such as "brother he showed me the gong", "I got a monkey on my back" and "Devil he told me to roll". The song follows a "call-and-response method of dramatic construction". Musically there are changes to the tempo, and the track features a phase-treated, delta blues-based riff in E minor (and later E major) from Page which is doubled by Plant. The solo in E Minor Pentatonic, switches to E Major Pentatonic, back to E Minor Pentatonic, and concludes in E Major Pentatonic. Page triple-tracked his guitar intro; playing one guitar an octave higher than the others and using a phaser.

Drummer John Bonham and bassist John Paul Jones maintain the rhythm of the song, adding some syncopated accents during repetitions of the introductory phrase. Plant adds a blues-style harmonica solo mid-song. Page's slide guitar intro has been described as "a supersonic 1970s interpretation of Johnson's beautiful slide guitar technique". Record producer Rick Rubin has remarked on the song's structure, "A traditional blues, twisted through a trippy, psychedelic filter. They played with such precision, doing these odd arrangements that sound like loose jams but are really choreographed."