The Blues Classic With No Known Authors That Jimmy Page Made His Own

You might not realize how many of the songs you know and love have no known author. From folk-rock hits that arose from folk standards to full-on pop songs of unknown origin, some of the best songs come from a person lost to time and memory. Such is the case with "Boll Weevil Song," which legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page made his own in 1968 — kind of. 

"Boll Weevil Song's" road to Jimmy Page was long and bizarrely convoluted. Unlike some other songs that change minimally over hundreds of years ("Whiskey in the Jar" comes to mind), "Boll Weevil Song" crops up with multiple names, lyrics, even basic chord structures. Singer Brook Benton sometimes gets credit for "The Boll Weevil Song" due to his 1961 release of the song, though there's a far earlier recorded version from Fiddlin' John Carson in 1924 called "Dixie Boll Weevil." Fats Domino also started his own lineage of weevil-based songs with 1956's "Bo Weevil," using a person's first name. The lyrics for each version are completely different, though each evokes portraits of the American South, where the boll weevil, an insect that came from Mexico to feed on U.S. cotton crops in the late 1800s, became a symbol of "resilience" to African-Americans who are believed to have created songs about the invasive bug, per the University of Pittsburgh.

Page's 1968 version is more musically similar to Domino's, but the lyrics are once again different, and it transforms the song from a tale about a literal weevil (but possible diaspora allegory) to an on-the-nose immigrant story about people from Mexico, "Just lookin′ for a home," as the lyrics say. But don't expect any Zeppelin-like riffs, epic guitar solos, or even many lead lines. Page recedes into the background for "Boll Weevil Song," but sees his name attached to the track name.

In all likelihood, Jimmy Page's version of "Boll Weevil Song" is only going to appeal to Zeppelin diehards or folks interested in music trivia. Nothing about the song's very simple two-minute length makes it clear that Page or anyone else on Earth is playing. There are a couple of faint licks that creep into the mix from about one minute, 25 seconds till the end, but otherwise it's just a simple country song cover from an album of covers; Page didn't even do any of the arranging. But more interestingly, this cover predates Led Zeppelin entirely.

A truly deep cut of an album, Page's version of "Boll Weevil Song" comes from "No Introductions Necessary," a forgotten work released in 1968, possibly when Page finished his tenure with the Yardbirds (1966 to 1968). The album also features — surprise, surprise — future Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones in a cavalcade of credited session artists. This "No Introductions Necessary" supergroup project went nowhere, which led Page and JPJ to splinter off, form the New Yardbirds, then recruit Robert Plant and John Bonham and rechristen their band "Led Zeppelin."

This whole history renders "Boll Weevil Song" a mere historical curiosity piece. Even so, "No Introductions Necessary" lived up to its name by getting a reissue in 2002 with Zeppelin-era Page on its cover (a misleading cover, to be sure). There's also another version of this album with a different cover, sans the reissue's bonus tracks, called "Playin' Up a Storm." 

Meanwhile, "Boll Weevil Song" has been covered on and off over the decades since then, but has largely fallen into obscurity. This is maybe a fitting, though somewhat sad, end to a song that arose from an unknown voice and grazed greatness for a moment.