Imagine Black Dog without those opening five seconds, or the whole Led Zeppelin IV album for that matter. Jimmy Page called it "waking up the army of guitars." It also prevents Robert Plant from sneaking up on us - we are ready when his voice bursts out of the speakers. The song is about a lustful old black Labrador Retriever that lived near Headley Grange during the recording sessions.
The precision of the music is indeed reminiscent of a military close-order drill. The main riff, written by John Paul Jones, represents the guitar army, layers of them, marching together, inspiring awe and respect. They even create a brass timbre somehow, at least to my ears. The call and response pattern lasts until 0:42, when the riff gets twisted up and discombobulated before righting itself at 0:52 as we head into the oh yeah break. Jimmy plays some nifty descending runs and we head into the second verse: I gotta roll can't stand still got a flamin heart can't get my fill.
At 1:27 we get a calming set of ah ah ah etc from Robert, but then at 1:38 John Bonham's drums explode with awesome power. This is a tremendously exciting moment, one of my favorites of any song. The levels are perfect: attack, loudness, reverb, emotional effect. Whoa. It takes us into another new part, the hey baby whoa baby I-don't-wear-pants-and-I'm-a-lecherous-black-dog part. This goes on until 2:04.
The song cycles back through the basic layout once more, adding a sweet guitar double helix at 3:07. Finally, at 3:37, the general of the guitar army proudly shows off the skills of improvised battle strategy, as the troops continue their parade with no signs of tiring.
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