10 Mistakes That Made It Onto Famous Rock Songs

4. Plane And Simple - Led Zeppelin's Black Country Woman

You know what's great about recording studios? They are specifically designed to keep out external noise, making them the perfect place to record a song.

You know where isn't designed for that purpose? Outside.

Wings recorded the bagpipes for Mull of Kintyre outside, but only because there simply wasn't a studio big enough to accommodate so many pipers. Led Zeppelin had no such excuse when it came time to lay down Black Country Woman from the album Physical Graffiti.

It was recorded during a period of time where the band were looking to explore unconventional spaces, so most of the track was captured in the gardens of the Stargroves country estate in Hampshire, England.

The session was going well and everyone was on fine form until the recording was disrupted by the sound of an aeroplane flying overhead. A plane flying over a field? Who saw that one coming?

Because they were completely insane, Led Zep kept playing in spite of the racket going on above them, and the version with the plane sounds in it was the one chosen for the album.

Only Led Zeppelin could have gotten away with something as monumentally mad as this.

Contributor
Contributor

Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.