[citation needed] Peter Kennedy suggests that the lyrics originated in England, later picking up the best known tune in Ireland.
[4] The song tells the story of a woman who has her heart broken "down by Blackwaterside" when a suitor breaks his promise of marriage, which he made to trick her into having sex with him.
The younger singer Anne Briggs has also been stated to have obtained the song via Lloyd,[9] although in the case of Briggs' own, 1971 recorded version (with notes by Lloyd) her version is merely stated to be "the one popularised from a BBC Archive recording of an Irish traveller, Mary Doran" and from opinions expressed elsewhere it seems most likely that she learned it from Cameron's recording or public performances[10] (in the same discussion it is suggested that the version from Winnie Ryan of Belfast, not Mary Doran, was the likely source of the variant as subsequently popularised in the revival, and that Lloyd made an error in his liner note).
[11] The story of Jansch learning the tune from Briggs is retold in Ralph McTell's "A Kiss in the Rain.
A well as the traditional singers, the two songs have been covered by numerous artists including Isla Cameron, Anne Briggs, Bert Jansch, Sandy Denny, Show of Hands, Oysterband, the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, particularly during the folk music boom in Britain in the 1960s.
Singer-songwriter Al Stewart claims to have taught the folk song to Zeppelin's guitarist Jimmy Page.
[18] In spite of this difference, Jansch's record company sought legal advice in consultation with two eminent musicologists and John Mummery QC, a copyright barrister in the United Kingdom, following the release of the Led Zeppelin album, on which "Black Mountain Side" appears.