It is "one of the most instantly recognisable Zeppelin tracks", and was included in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list (US), and ranked No.

[1] The title is a reference to a nameless black Labrador Retriever the band used to see wandering the Headley Grange studio grounds.

[1] The story of lust, eroticism, and ultimately betrayal echoes the traditional reputation of the blues as being the music of the devil, alluded to in the lyric "eyes that shine a burning red".

The sounds are actually recordings of various guitar track openings played simultaneously, creating a "sonic collage" in which the tape can be heard spinning up to speed.

[10] Bassist John Paul Jones, who is credited with writing the main riff, said he was inspired by Muddy Waters' 1968 album Electric Mud.

[11] Jones added complex rhythm changes,[7] that biographer Keith Shadwick describes as a "clever pattern that turns back on itself more than once, crossing between time signatures as it does.

[14] For his guitar parts, Jimmy Page used a Gibson Les Paul and made a complicated series of overdubs through various compressors and other equipment.

[18] "Black Dog" was performed for the final time at the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert in 2007, during Led Zeppelin's headline set.

[21] In 2007, Q magazine polled an "all-star panel", who ranked Black Dog as number one in a list of the "20 Greatest Guitar Tracks".