"Travelling Riverside Blues" is a blues song written by the bluesman Robert Johnson. He recorded it on June 20, 1937, in Dallas, Texas, during his last recording session. The song was unreleased until its inclusion on the 1961 Johnson compilation album King of the Delta Blues Singers.

Robert Johnson original version

Johnson's song has a typical twelve-bar blues structure (though as is common in downhome blues of this era, the length of each verse is in fact thirteen and a half bars of 4/4), played on a single guitar tuned to open G, with a slide. An alternate version was recorded the same day (and was considered lost) but was finally released officially on the 1998 reissue of King of the Delta Blues Singers.

Lyrics

The song is well known for the lyric "Now you can squeeze my lemon 'til the juice run down my leg". It is likely that Johnson had taken this himself from a song recorded earlier that same year (1937) called "She Squeezed My Lemon", by Roosevelt Sykes.

Led Zeppelin version

English rock band Led Zeppelin's version of this song was produced by John Walters at the BBC studios in Aeolian Hall on June 23, 1969 during the band's UK Tour of Summer 1969. Jimmy Page dubbed extra guitar parts onto the track (the main track being played on a 12-string electric guitar) and it was broadcast four days later on John Peel's Top Gear show under the title "Travelling Riverside Blues '69", and repeated on January 11, 1970. Page used an acoustic slide guitar for the entire song, while Bonham played triplets on the bass drum.

See also

  • List of Led Zeppelin songs written or inspired by others

References

  • "Travelling Riverside Blues" promo video at ledzeppelin.com