Discover Jimmy Page's Masterful Picking With This Babe I'm Gonna Leave You Guitar Lesson

Today’s song has an unusually long and winding history.

It’s a magical performance from a legendary band.

Now, for years I just assumed it was written by Led Zeppelin…

But I didn’t find out until much later that my assumptions were wrong.

Nonetheless… Jimmy Page’s guitar parts on it are brilliant, and I’m going to break down their cover of it step-by-step.

So tune up, and let’s dive into this “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” guitar lesson!

Who wrote Babe I'm Gonna Leave You?

"Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" was actually written by Anne Bredon, a folk singer-songwriter, in the late 1950s. 

But, it was popularized by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. They recorded a well-known version of the song for their debut album (Aka Led Zeppelin 1) released in 1969.

The song is about the emotional turmoil of someone contemplating leaving a romantic relationship. The lyrics convey the internal struggle of someone who is torn between staying in a troubled relationship or finding the strength to leave.

The story behind Led Zeppelin's recording of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" involves them first hearing about it through Joan Baez's rendition. Jimmy Page, the guitarist of Led Zeppelin, heard Baez's version and was impressed by it. 

The band decided to do their own interpretation of the song on their debut album. They combined rock, blues, and folk elements together and what happened next became rock and roll history. 

Led Zeppelin recorded their version of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" at Olympic Studios in London in 1968. The recording demonstrates the band's serious musical chops, with Robert Plant's powerful vocals, Jimmy Page's intricate guitar work, John Paul Jones's bass, and John Bonham's drums. Together they created a dynamic and compelling rendition of the song.

“Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” received critical acclaim upon the release of Led Zeppelin's debut album and has since become one of the band's most beloved tracks. 

It has been praised for its emotional intensity, musical arrangement, and the performance of the band members. While Anne Bredon originally wrote the song, Led Zeppelin's version has become the most famous rendition and is often credited as such.

Babe I'm Gonna Leave You Chords

The chords used in Led Zeppelin’s version of “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” take many twists, and turns. But the core progression is based on a descending pattern in the key of Am. The chords you will need to start with are Am, C/G, D/F#, F, and E. Let’s take a look at some common ways to play these chords.

For Am, I’ll play from the 5th string down like this:

To get to C/G from Am just change one finger. The ring finger comes off the 3rd string and goes to the 6th string like this:

From there I play D/F# with my fretting hand thumb on the 6th string like this:

I continue the use of the fretting hand thumb for the F chord like this:

Then for E, I play it in open position and use all 6 strings like this:

When we put these chords into the progression. The first 3 chords last one bar each.

Am (1 bar)

C/G (1 bar)

D/F# (1 bar)

Then both the F chord and the E chord are played in bar 4.

F, E (1 bar) 

Altogether the progression goes:

Am (1 bar)

C/G (1 bar)

D/F# (1 bar)

F, E (1 bar) 

I want to make a point here about the bass motion. If you look at the lowest note played on each chord as you move through this progression. You’ll see a descending pattern.

A – G – F# – F – E

This is a beautiful sound. And it’s a progression used in millions of songs. For example, check out the Verse chord progression in this “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” guitar lesson.

From there, I do a simple fingerpicking pattern…

Babe I'm Gonna Leave You Fingerpicking Guitar Made Easy

Next, let’s add some fingerpicking to the chord progression. With regards to the fingerpicking hand, and which fingers you should use. There are many ways to play it. Here is what I typically do with patterns like this. I follow a simple: Thumb, thumb, index, middle pattern.

This allows me to create a system and then just apply it through the chord changes.

Babe I'm Gonna Leave You Ending Guitar Lesson

In my opinion, one of the most magical chord progressions in the song comes at the very end. It’s the final send-off. Again we’ll see another descending pattern in the bass. 

Just like the main chord progression above. Except here we’ll play some tricker chords. To play the final part you’ll need to know the chords A/C#, F7/C, Bm7, Bbmaj7, and Am9. Here’s how I would play them.

A/C# is an A chord with the note C# in the bass. I play it like this:

F7/C just shifts two notes down from the A/C# like this:

Bm7 is played in 7th position like this:

Bbmaj7 gets a bit stretchy. Here I bar strings 3 and 4 with my middle finger like this:

Then finally the last chord is Am9 played from the 5th string down like this:

Look at the bass motion in this progression.

C# – C – B – Bb – A

That’s how it ends. Just walking down every fret.

Conclusion:

There you have it! Led Zeppelin's "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" is a classic with a surprising origin story. In this post, we explored the original writer, Anne Bredon, and dove deep into the chords and fingerpicking techniques used in Led Zeppelin's iconic version.  

Are you ready to add this gem to your repertoire? Grab your guitar and give "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" a try.

Remember to be patient. This is a tough song to play on guitar. And for more fun lessons check out this Hey Hey What Can I Do Led Zeppelin guitar lesson or this “Good Times Bad Times” guitar lesson next!