Feb 25, 2015.. Forty years ago this week, Led Zeppelin released the band's monumental sixth album, the double LP Physical Graffiti. It was, as guitarist Jimmy ..
Physical Graffiti is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released as a double album on 24 February 1975. The band wrote and recorded eight new songs for the album at Headley Grange. These eight songs stretched the total time of the record beyond the typical length of a single LP, so the band decided to make Physical Graffiti a double album by including unreleased tracks from earlier recording sessions: one outtake from Led Zeppelin III, three from Led Zeppelin IV, and three from Houses of the Holy, including the unused title track. Physical Graffiti was commercially and critically successful; the album went 16x platinum in the US in 2006, signifying shipments of eight million copies. The first attempt to record songs for Physical Graffiti took place in November 1973 at Headley Grange in East Hampshire, England. The recording equipment consisted of Ronnie Lane's Mobile Studio. However, these sessions came to a halt quickly and the studio time was turned over to the band Bad Company, who used it to record songs for their eponymous debut album. In an interview he gave in 1975, guitarist and album producer Jimmy Page explained the reason for this abrupt cessation of recording: "It took a long time for this album mainly because when we originally went in to record it, John Paul Jones wasn't well and we had to cancel the time... everything got messed up. It took three months to sort the situation out." However, according to Led Zeppelin archivist Dave Lewis: "It later emerged that Jones had wanted to quit the band and take up a position as choirmaster at Winchester Cathedral. [Manager] Peter Grant urged caution, suggesting that Jones was overwrought from the incessant touring and should take a rest from Zeppelin for a few weeks. Jones changed his mind and sessions resumed at Headley Grange after the Christmas holidays." Once they had reconvened, the band recorded eight tracks at Headley Grange in January and February 1974, which were engineered by Ron Nevison. Lead singer Robert Plant later referred to these eight tracks as "the belters": "We got eight tracks off... and a lot of them were really raunchy. We did some real belters with live vocals, off-the-wall stuff that turned out really nice." Similar to the sessions for the previous two albums, the decision to record at the informal surroundings of Headley Grange provided a welcome opportunity for the band to improvise and develop material along the way. As Plant commented: "Some of the tracks we assembled in our own fashioned way of running through a track and realising before we knew it that we had stumbled on something completely different." Because the eight tracks extended beyond the length of a conventional album, it was decided to include several unreleased songs which had been recorded during the sessions for previous Led Zeppelin albums. "We had more material than the required 40-odd minutes for one album. We had enough material for one and a half LPs, so we figured let's put out a double and use some of the material we had done previously but never released. It seemed like a good time to do that sort of thing, release tracks like "Boogie With Stu" which we normally wouldn't be able to do... [T]his time we figured it was better to stretch out than to leave off." According to engineer Nevison, the decision to expand the album to include songs from previous sessions was not part of the original planning: "I never knew that Physical Graffiti was going to be a double album. When we started out we were just cutting tracks for a new record. I left the project before they started pulling in songs from Houses of the Holy and getting them up to scratch. So I didn't know it was a double [album] until it came out." Additional overdubs were laid down and the final mixing of the album was performed in October 1974 by Keith Harwood at Olympic Studios, London. The title "Physical Graffiti" was coined by Page to illustrate the whole physical and written energy that had gone into producing the set. In the opinion of Dave Lewis, Physical Graffiti: "was a massive outpouring of [Led] Zeppelin music that proved to be the definitive summary of their studio work... Given the luxury of a double format, Physical Graffiti mirrors every facet of the Zeppelin repertoire. The end result is a finely balanced embarrassment of riches." Spanning several years of recording, the album featured forays into a range of musical styles, including hard rock ("Custard Pie", "The Rover", "The Wanton Song", "Sick Again", "Houses of the Holy"), eastern-influenced orchestral rock ("Kashmir"), progressive rock ("In the Light"), driving funk ("Trampled Under Foot"), acoustic rock and roll ("Boogie with Stu", "Black Country Woman"), love ballad ("Ten Years Gone"), blues rock ("In My Time of Dying"), soft rock ("Down by the Seaside"), country rock romp ("Night Flight"), and acoustic guitar instrumental ("Bron-Yr-Aur"). The wide range of Physical Graffiti is also underlined by the fact that it contains both the longest and shortest studio recordings by Led Zeppelin. "In My Time of Dying" clocks in at eleven minutes and five seconds, and "Bron-Yr-Aur" is two minutes and six seconds. With the exception of "The Battle of Evermore" on their fourth album, it is the only other Led Zeppelin album to feature John Paul Jones playing additional guitar on some tracks. Several tracks off the album became live staples at Led Zeppelin concerts. In particular, "In My Time of Dying", "Trampled Under Foot", "Kashmir", "Ten Years Gone", "Black Country Woman", and "Sick Again" became regular components of the band's live concert set lists following the release of the album. According to Robert Plant, of all the albums Led Zeppelin released, Physical Graffiti represented the band at its most creative and most expressive. He has commented that it is his favourite Led Zeppelin album. Similarly, guitarist Jimmy Page considers this album to be a "high-water mark" for Led Zeppelin. “It’s always a case of getting together and feeling out the moods of each of us when we meet with instruments for the first time in six months. We began as always, playing around and fooling about for two days, playing anything we want, like standards, our own material or anything that comes to us, and slowly but surely we develop a feel that takes us on to the new material." The album's sleeve design features a photograph of a New York City tenement block, with interchanging window illustrations. The album designer, Peter Corriston, was looking for a building that was symmetrical with interesting details, that was not obstructed by other objects and would fit the square album cover. He said: "We walked around the city for a few weeks looking for the right building. I had come up [with] a concept for the band based on the tenement, people living there and moving in and out. The original album featured the building with the windows cut out on the cover and various sleeves that could be placed under the cover, filling the windows with the album title, track information or liner notes." The two five-story buildings photographed for the album cover are located at 96 and 98 St. Mark's Place in New York City. The original photograph underwent a number of tweaks to arrive at the final image. The fifth floor of the building had to be cropped out to fit the square album cover format. The buildings to the left and right were also changed to match the style of the double front. Tiles were added on the roof section along with more faces. Part of the top right railing balcony was left out for a whole window frame to be visible. The front cover is a daytime shot, while the back cover was taken at night. Mike Doud is listed as the cover artist on the inner sleeve, and either the concept or design or both were his. He passed away in the early 1990s, and this album design was one of his crowning achievements in a lifetime of design. In 1976 the album was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of best album package. (Doud would later win a Grammy for best album cover of the year in 1980, for Supertramp's Breakfast in America). The buildings on the album cover were the same ones that Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were filmed in front of in The Rolling Stones music video "Waiting on a Friend". There was a used clothing store in the basement of 96 St. Mark's Place called Physical Graffiti. There is currently a shop called Physical Graffitea. The building has been profiled on the television show, Rock Junket. The original album jacket for the LP album included four covers made up of two inners (for each disc), a middle insert cover and an outer cover. The inner covers depict various objects and people (including photos of Plant and Richard Cole in drag) on each window. The middle insert cover is white and details all the album track listings and recording information. The outer cover has die-cut windows on the building, so when the middle cover is wrapped around the inner covers and slid into the outer cover, the title of the album is shown on the front cover, spelling out the name "Physical Graffiti". The album was released on 24 February 1975, at a time when Led Zeppelin were undertaking their tenth concert tour of North America. Delays in the production of the album's sleeve design prevented its release prior to the commencement of the tour. Physical Graffiti was the band's first release on their own Swan Song Records label, which had been launched in May 1974. Until this point, all of Led Zeppelin's albums had been released on Atlantic Records. The album was a commercial and critical success, having built up a huge advance order, and when eventually released it reached No. 1 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart. It has since proven to be one of the most popular releases by the group, shipping 8 million copies in the United States alone (which has made it 16 times platinum as it is a double album). Physical Graffiti was the first album to go platinum on advance orders alone. Shortly after its release, all previous Led Zeppelin albums simultaneously re-entered the top-200 album chart. Billboard magazine's 5 star review of the album stated: "[Physical Graffiti] is a tour de force through a number of musical styles, from straight rock to blues to folky acoustic to orchestral sounds." Similarly, Jim Miller stated in Rolling Stone that the double album was "the band's Tommy, Beggar's Banquet and Sgt. Pepper rolled into one: Physical Graffiti is Led Zeppelin's bid for artistic respectability." In 1998 Q readers voted Physical Graffiti the 28th-greatest album of all time; in 2000 Q placed it at number 32 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever; and in 2001 the same magazine named it as one of the 50 Heaviest Albums of All Time. In 2003, the TV network VH1 named it the 71st-greatest album ever. In 2003, the album was ranked number 70 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". The album is also listed in Robert Dimery and Stevie Chick's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2005). Publication Country Accolade Year Rank Grammy Award USA "Grammy Award for Best Recording Package" 1976 Nominee Rolling Stone USA "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" 2003 70 Pitchfork Media USA "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s" 2004 95 AllMusic USA "Top Digital Albums" 2012 20 AllMusic USA "Top Pop Catalog" 2012 3 AllMusic USA "The Billboard 200" 2012 43 Classic Rock UK "100 Greatest Rock Album Ever" 2001 5 Mojo UK "The 100 Greatest Albums Ever Made" 1996 47 Q UK "100 Greatest Albums Ever" 2003 41 Record Collector UK "Classic Albums from 21 Genres for the 21st century" 2005 * Robert Dimery USA 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die 2005 * Q UK "100 Best Albums Ever" 2006 57 Classic Rock UK "100 Greatest British Rock Album Ever" 2006 7 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame USA "The Definitive 200: Top 200 Albums of All-Time" 2007 93 Guitar World USA "Reader's Poll: 100 Greatest Guitar Albums" 2006 9 (*) designates unordered lists. A remastered version of Physical Graffiti was reissued on 23 February 2015, almost exactly forty years after the original album was released. The reissue comes in six formats: a standard two-CD edition, a deluxe three-CD edition, a standard two-LP version, a deluxe three-LP version, a super deluxe three-CD plus three-LP version with a hardback book, and as high resolution 96k/24-bit digital downloads. The deluxe and super deluxe editions feature bonus material containing alternative takes and previously unreleased songs, "Brandy & Coke", "Everybody Makes It Through" and "Driving Through Kashmir". The reissue was released with a negative version of the original album's artwork as its bonus disc's cover. All songs written and composed by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, except where noted. Side one No. Title Date recorded Length 1. "Custard Pie" January–February 1974 4:15 2. "The Rover" May 1972 (Houses of the Holy outtake) 5:39 3. "In My Time of Dying" (John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Page, and Plant) January–February 1974 11:08 Side two No. Title Date recorded Length 1. "Houses of the Holy" May 1972 (Houses of the Holy outtake) 4:04 2. "Trampled Under Foot" (Jones, Page, and Plant) January–February 1974 5:36 3. "Kashmir" (Bonham, Page, and Plant) January–February 1974 8:37 Side three No. Title Date recorded Length 1. "In the Light" (Jones, Page, and Plant) January–February 1974 8:47 2. "Bron-Yr-Aur" (Page) July 1970 (Led Zeppelin III outtake) 2:06 3. "Down by the Seaside" February 1971 (Led Zeppelin IV outtake) 5:15 4. "Ten Years Gone" January–February 1974 6:34 Side four No. Title Date recorded Length 1. "Night Flight" (Jones, Page, and Plant) December 1970 – January 1971 (Led Zeppelin IV outtake) 3:38 2. "The Wanton Song" January–February 1974 4:08 3. "Boogie with Stu" (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant, Ian Stewart) December 1970 – January 1971 (Led Zeppelin IV outtake) 3:52 4. "Black Country Woman" May 1972 (Houses of the Holy outtake) 4:24 5. "Sick Again" January–February 1974 4:42 Some cassette and 8-track versions of the album place "Bron-Yr-Aur" immediately after "Kashmir" The running times listed for "Kashmir" and "Ten Years Gone" on original LP pressings, and some compact disc versions, of the album were significantly in error; "Kashmir" was listed at 9:41, "Ten Years Gone" at 6:55. "Boogie with Stu" is credited to "Mrs. Valens," a reference to the mother of Ritchie Valens. The credit came about after the band had heard Valens' mother never received any royalties from any of her son's hits. Reissued track listing No. Title Writer(s) Length 1. "Brandy & Coke" ("Trampled Under Foot") (Initial/Rough Mix) Jones, Page, Plant 5:38 2. "Sick Again" (Early Version) Page, Plant 2:20 3. "In My Time of Dying" (Initial/Rough Mix) Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant 10:45 4. "Houses of the Holy" (Rough Mix with Overdubs) Page, Plant 3:51 5. "Everybody Makes It Through" ("In the Light") (Early Version/In Transit) Jones, Page, Plant 6:27 6. "Boogie with Stu" (Sunset Sound Mix) Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant, Stewart 3:36 7. "Driving Through Kashmir" ("Kashmir") (Rough Orchestra Mix) Bonham, Page, Plant 8:33 Chart (1975) Peak position Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart 2 Austrian Albums Chart 2 Canadian RPM Albums Chart 1 French Albums Chart 2 Italian Albums Chart 17 Japanese Albums Chart 13 New Zealand Top 50 Albums Chart 3 Norwegian Albums Chart 4 Spanish Albums Chart 2 UK Albums Chart 1 US Billboard 200 Albums Chart 1 Chart (2015) Peak position Australian Albums Chart 13 Austrian Albums Chart 7 Danish Albums Chart 31 French Albums Chart 23 German Albums Chart 4 New Zealand Albums Chart 6 Norwegian Albums Chart 12 Swiss Albums Chart 8 US Billboard 200 Albums Chart 11 Singles Year Single Chart Position 1975 "Trampled Under Foot" Billboard Hot 100 38[ Region Certification Sales/shipments Argentina (CAPIF) Gold 30,000x France (SNEP) Gold 100,000* Germany (BVMI) Gold 250,000^ United Kingdom (BPI) 2× Platinum 600,000^ United States (RIAA) 16× Platinum 8,000,000^ *sales figures based on certification alone ^shipments figures based on certification alone xunspecified figures based on certification alone Led Zeppelin John Bonham – drums, percussion John Paul Jones – bass guitar, organ, acoustic and electric piano, mellotron, guitar, mandolin, VCS3 synthesiser, Hohner clavinet, Hammond organ, string arrangement Jimmy Page – electric, acoustic, lap steel and slide guitar, mandolin, production Robert Plant – lead vocals, harmonica, acoustic guitar on "Boogie with Stu" Additional personnel George Chkiantz – engineering Peter Corriston – artwork, design, cover design Barry Diament – mastering (original 1987 CD release) Mike Doud – artwork, design, cover design Elliot Erwitt – photography B. P. Fallon – photography Peter Grant – producer, executive producer Roy Harper – photography Keith Harwood – engineering, mixing Dave Heffernan – illustrations Andy Johns – engineering Eddie Kramer – engineering, mixing George Marino – remastered CD release Ron Nevison – engineering Ian Stewart – piano on "Boogie with Stu" List of best-selling albums in the United States Preceded by On the Level by Status Quo UK Albums Chart number-one album 15–22 March 1975 Succeeded by 20 Greatest Hits by Tom Jones Preceded by Have You Never Been Mellow by Olivia Newton-John Billboard 200 number-one album 22 March – 2 May 1975 Succeeded by Chicago VIII by Chicago
The Led Zeppelin reissue campaign continues in 2015, turning the spotlight on the double album Physical Graffiti. The deluxe edition of the group's sixth studio ..
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We invite you to learn more about Fulfillment by Amazon . {"currencyCode":"USD","itemData":[{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":16.81,"ASIN":"B000002JSN","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":13,"ASIN":"B00M30V1YO","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":13,"ASIN":"B00M30SPMU","isPreorder":0}],"shippingId":"B000002JSN::izMgRzgXqCxs03nWISxRc%2B3Htj5MaBiNAPIROzRMB28cMJR2wEKvbO08xtFWn5z%2BUaLUlu%2BbObTgKVMOmbMAiTUNxtSiTQQDQtJGfTKmse1hu7DMhC2Ris0mt0GwFa7xiW86TkwIRlES4fn%2BUYFhvQ==,B00M30V1YO::rpqKFlNJICopmsfE7FIMQGzjI8ydW6oBR172M%2FxX6kRyzyrJSy2XY0pMZOJJ4YQYagibUK%2FElJSsmjKS0sXa3SAyW1%2BoM18X%2FFbOSGsvyZJLB3u6T%2BJJ9A==,B00M30SPMU::1x%2FoE8MjxAE%2Bgno%2BCQNzbHTh7z02db83BEp8pXZLdPq0hYuS5Wz9h9jfN3DgBON8MD6jYDOIo7PT%2FrzVpOn2L9rkkJ5dinZT60nbLQP%2FwRBBf1TtdEsxyA==","sprites":{"addToWishlist":["wl_one","wl_two","wl_three"],"addToCart":["s_addToCart","s_addBothToCart","s_add3ToCart"],"preorder":["s_preorderThis","s_preorderBoth","s_preorderAll3"]},"shippingDetails":{"xz":"same","xy":"same","yz":"same","xyz":"same"},"tags":["x","y","z","w"],"strings":{"addToWishlist":["Add to Wish List","Add both to Wish List","Add all three to Wish List","Add all four to Wish List"],"addToCart":["Add to Cart","Add both to Cart","Add all three to Cart","Add all four to Cart"],"showDetailsDefault":"Show availability and shipping details","shippingError":"An error occurred, please try again","hideDetailsDefault":"Hide availability and shipping details","priceLabel":["Price:","Price for both:","Price for all three:","Price For All Four:"],"preorder":["Pre-order this item","Pre-order both items","Pre-order all three items","Pre-order all four items"]}} Led Zeppelin was the definitive heavy metal band. It wasn't just their crushingly loud interpretation of the blues -- it was how they incorporated mythology, mysticism, and a variety of other genres (most notably world music and British folk) -- into their sound. Led Zeppelin had mystique. They rarely gave interviews, since the music press detested the band. Consequently, the only ... Read more in Amazon's Led Zeppelin Store Containing some of Zeppelin's very best tracks, "Physical Graffiti" is definitely worth the price of two discs. Like most double albums, it can get a little excessive... but if you've purchased their first 4 albums and still can't get enough, this is a must have! "Kashmir" is essential by itself and possibly the best song the group ever recorded... a majestic epic that fuses rock, blues, and middle eastern influnces... all the things Zep is known to do best! Then there's the blistering "Trampled Under Foot" which has one of Page's best riffs of all time and a funky clavinet played by the multi-talented John Paul Jones. Plant is in top form on the spiritual catharsis of "In My Time of Dying" with John Bonham providing the raw energy all the way through. Disc one is more consistent, but disc two offers a wide variety of gems such as the building ballad "Ten Years Gone" which offers some of Robert's best lyrics to date, the fun old-timey feel of "Boogie With Stu", the countrified acoustic track "Black Country Woman", and the wild "Wanton Song". Many of these tracks have the feel of b-sides (which is essentially what they were) and makes them even more fun to listen to. One of the few double LPs to truly be worth purchasing (along with the Beatles White Album, Stevie Wonder's Songs In the Key of Life, George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, and Pink Floyd's The Wall), Physical Graffiti is the high water mark of Led Zeppelin's career. If you can understand sheet music and are attempting to master any instrument (from a cello to a tuba) you might want to take a look at the scripts for this album. You'll be devistated! Also, if you are interested in making an album and happen to own a studio, you might find a listen to Physical Graffiti to provide a very instructive statement the limits of how complex mixing and multi-tracking get. Sure, a few tracks on the ablum: Custard Pie and Trampled Under Foot, are probably the best embodiment of the blues-rock Zep-sound that most people are familiar with, but after those tracks, the album turns into a zen statment on overindulgence. Normally, I might agree that musical overkill is a bad thing, but there's a right time and place for everything; and within the framework of this album, overkill becomes baroque. I argue that only Zep could pull this off. Beginning with Kashmir, the album lays track upon track until many songs (ie: In the Light, Ten Years Gone) are orchestrated with somtimes 7 or 8 different guitar tracks and 3 or 4 different bass tracks. Bach himself might be proud of such hefty orchestration. Throw in JPJ's keyboards, along with several exotic instruments such as mellotrons and vibrophones, and you've got yourself a saturated hard-rock symphony. Many of the songs, such as Kashmir, In The Light, and Ten Years Gone, are very cerebral, creating a soothing Indian Raga-like effect, while others sustain a hectic Occidental pace (ie: Rover, Night Flight) but are never abrasive to the ear. I feel that the overall album gets a bum rap sometimes, because many people would prefer to hear the more concise and abbreviated sound associated with the pentatonic riffs of earlier Led-days (ie: Whole Lotta' Love, Heartbreaker).Read more › Wow. As Zeppelin's most ambitious statement, and their first and only double album, Physical Graffiti would hypothetically be a contender for greatest rock album of all time it it weren't for Zoso (Not that I'm complaining or anything! :-)) Custard Pie is blues on speed, while being squashed under the skillful wah-wah pedal of Jimmy Page. The Rover simply rocks. It combines headbanging with flair in a musical statement that is hard to overestimate. In My Time of Dying contains some of the best spitfire-blues slide guitar you'll ever hear. Houses of The Holy is a great, catchy pop-rock song that just makes you wanna get up and get your schwerve on. Trampled Under Foot is pure, 100%, unfiltered headbanging enjoyment. Jimmy Page & Robert Plant both agree that "Kashmir" was their greatest work. I say they're just being humble about "Stairway to Heaven", but Kashmir is a close second. (Man, Puffy really pissed me off when he did "Come With Me"! Ruined a great song! (Yeah I know Jimmy helped him, but I think Jimmy was just trying to expose a new generation of listeners to Zeppelin, which is honorable)) In The Light has two distinct moods: A peaceful, glorious side, and a dark, foreboding, heavy metal side. These two moods throw you back and forth until you're dizzy, which is a good thing. Bron-Y-Aur is an acoustic track kinda hidden amidst greatness, but it's actually Jimmy Page's best perfomance on this album! As a guitarist, trust me. This is NOT an easy song to play! Very pretty, too. Down By The Seaside is a really peaceful little song, with really cretive use of a tremolo effect on Page's guitar. Gets you in the mood for the next two songs.Read more ›
Feb 24, 2015.. Check out our review of Led Zeppelin's New Album Physical Graffiti: Deluxe Edition on Rolling Stone.com.
After a two-year hiatus, Led Zeppelin returned in 1975 with one of rock's greatest double albums, a sprawling work akin to Exile on Main Street in its loose, ..
Physical Graffiti is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released as a double album on 24 February 1975. The band wrote and ..
Feb 24, 2015.. The three most recent Led Zeppelin reissues, comprising Led Zeppelin IV, Houses of the Holy, and Physical Graffiti, find the band at the height ..
Feb 24, 2015.. Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil explains the impact Led Zeppelin's 'Physical Graffiti' for its 40th anniversary.
