"Out on the Tiles"

The fifth song off of "Led Zeppelin III" is titled "Out on the Tiles" and it is the last song on the first side of the album, bringing the heavy songs to a close in favor of more lighter fare. The title is derived from a popular British term for going to the pub. The song had it's genesis when Jimmy heard drummer John Bonham singing a tune that highlighted the phrase, and wrote an accompanying guitar riff for it; "I've had a pint of bitter and now I'm feeling better and I'm out on the tiles. We're going down the rubbers and we're going to pull some scrubbers because we're out on the tiles."

The song itself has a sort of far-away sound, a sort of echo throughout. Jimmy explained how this was achieved in an interview with Steven Rosen in 1977: "Now that is exactly what I was talking about: close-miking and distance-miking, that's ambient sound. Getting the distance of the time lag from one end of the room to the other and putting that in as well. The whole idea, the way I see recording, is to try and capture the sound of the room live and the emotion of the whole moment and try to convey that across. That's the very essence of it. And so, consequently you've got to capture as much of the room sound as possible."

One oddity in the song occurs around the 1:23 minute mark when someone audibly says the word "stop". This appears to be an error that made it's way on tape. It is unknown who's voice that is, one could presume it may be Jimmy guiding the band and helping to keep time, but it just as may well be John Paul Jones or one of the engineers who worked on the track.

The song was seldom played live, however, the main riff was used many times as a sort of introduction "Black Dog". A performance of "Out on the Tiles" was captured on tape and was released in bootleg form from a show the band did in Los Angeles in 1970. The subsequent album was titled "Live on Blueberry Hill"

"I've had a pint of bitter and now I'm feeling better and I'm out on the tiles"

As always, here is the subsequent tablature for you to be able to play 

the song. 

Intro 

e:---------------------------------------------------------
B:---------------------------------------------------------
G:---------------------------------------------------------
D:-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-2-2----2-2----2-2-------
A:-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-0------0------0---------
E:-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2---3b5----3b5----3b5-----

Verse (Repeat x2)
e:-----------------------------------------------
B:-----------------------------------------------
G:-----------------------------------------------
D:-------4-----1-2-1-2-1-2-1---------------------
A:---1-4---------------------4-0-2-0-2-0-2-3-2-0-
E:-2---------------------------------------------

e:-----------------------------------------------
B:-----------------------------------------------
G:-----------------------------------------------
D:-------4-----1-2-1-2-1-2-1---------------------
A:---1-4---------------------4-0-2-0-2-0-2-3-2-0-
E:-2---------------------------------------------

e:--------------------------------------------------------------------------
B:--------------------------------------------------------------------------
G:--------------------------------------------------------------------------
D:-------4--1-2-1-2-1-2-1-------------------------------------4--2--4---2-4-
A:---1-4------------------4-2-4-2-4-2-4-2---------------------4--2--4---2-4-
E:-2--------------------------------------5-4-5-4-5-4-5-4-5---2--0--2---0-2-

Chorus (Repeat x2)
e:---------0---------------0---------------0---------------0-------
B:---------0---------------2---------------2---------------0-------
G:---------1---------------2---------------2---------------1-------
D:---------2-------2-2-2-2-2---2-2-2-2-2-2-2---2-2---------2-------
A:-2-2-2-2-2---2-2-0-0-0-0-0---0-0-0-0-0-0-0---0-0-2-2-2-2-2---2-2-
E:-0-0-0-0-0---0-0---------------------------------0-0-0-0-0---0-0-

e:---------0---------------0---------------0---------------0-------
B:---------0---------------2---------------2---------------0-------
G:---------1---------------2---------------2---------------1-------
D:---------2-------2-2-2-2-2---2-2-2-2-2-2-2---2-2---------2-------
A:-2-2-2-2-2---2-2-0-0-0-0-0---0-0-0-0-0-0-0---0-0-2-2-2-2-2---2-2-
E:-0-0-0-0-0---0-0---------------------------------0-0-0-0-0---0-0-

e:-----------------------------
B:-----------------------------
G:-----------------------------
D:-2-2----2-2----2-2----2-2----
A:-0------0------0------0------
E:---3b5----3b5----3b5----3b5--

After chorus
e:-------------------------------------------------------------
B:-------------------------------------------------------------
G:-------------------------------------------------------------
D:-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-2-2----2-2----2-2----2-2----
A:-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-0------0------0------0------
E:-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2---3b5----3b5----3b5----3b5--

e:---------------------------------------------------------
B:---------------------------------------------------------
G:---------------------------------------------------------
D:-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-2-2----2-2----2-2-------
A:-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-0------0------0---------
E:-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2---3b5----3b5----3b5-----

Outro
e:---------------------------------------------------------
B:-9-9-9-9-12----9--9--9-12----9-9-9-9-12---9--14--14-12---
G:-9-9-9-9-12----9--9--9-12----9-9-9-9-12---9--14--14-12---
D:-9-9-9-9-12----9--9--9-12----9-9-9-9-12---9--14--14-12---
A:-7-7-7-7-10----7--7--7-10----7-7-7-7-10---7--12--12-10---
E:-0-0-0-0-0-----0--0--0-0-----0-0-0-0-0----0--0---0--0----