# Deep Tracks - Led Zeppelin - "Physical Graffiti"



## Guest (Aug 23, 2018)

View attachment 106997


Please *choose up to nine selections* for this particular poll.

On all polls created if you click on the number of votes following the song title the username of all voters and their chosen selections will appear.

The tunes themselves will be found below the poll itself as links rather than as embedded videos due to bandwidth issues for those who wish to reacquaint themselves with a tune that may have receded a bit too far into the past to be remembered with the clarity that came when they were first released...

Next up is - Led Zeppelin - "Physical Graffiti"

""Physical Graffiti" is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was released as a double album on 24 February 1975 by the group's new record label, Swan Song Records.

The band wrote and recorded eight new songs for the album in early 1974 at Headley Grange, a country house in Hampshire, which gave them ample time to improvise arrangements and experiment with recording. The total playing time covered three sides of an LP, so they decided to expand it into a double by including previously unreleased tracks from the sessions for the earlier albums Led Zeppelin III, Led Zeppelin IV and Houses of the Holy.

The album covered a range of styles including hard rock, progressive rock, rock 'n' roll and folk. The album was then mixed over summer 1974 and planned for an end-of year release. It was delayed because of the sleeve, which was designed by Peter Corriston and featured a theme around a tenement block in Manhattan, New York.

"Physical Graffiti" was commercially and critically successful upon its release and debuted at number one on album charts in both the US and the UK. It was promoted by a successful US tour and a five-night residency at Earl's Court, London, and has since been viewed as one of the group's strongest albums and the artistic peak of their career.

Several tracks from 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.

The album was originally released with a die-cut sleeve design depicting a New York City tenement block, through whose windows various cultural icons could be interchangeably viewed. 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 subsequently came up with the rest of the cover based on people moving in and out of the tenement, with various sleeves that could be placed under the main cover and filling the windows with various pieces of information.

Eschewing the usual gatefold design in favour of a special die-cut cover, the original album jacket included four covers made up of two inners (for each disc), a middle insert cover and an outer cover. 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".

Images in the windows touched upon a set of American icons and a range of Hollywood ephemera. Pictures of W.C. Fields and Buzz Aldrin alternated with the snapshots of Led Zeppelin. Photographs of Lee Harvey Oswald, Marcel Duchamp and Pope Leo XIII are also featured. Per the liner notes, package concept and design was by AGI/Mike Doud (London) and Peter Corriston (New York). Photography was by Elliot Erwitt, B.P. Fallen, and Roy Harper. "Tinting Extraordinaire:" Maurice Tate, and window illustration by Dave Heffernan.

In 1976 the album was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of best album package.

View attachment 106998


The album was a commercial and critical success, having built up a huge advance order following the delayed release date, and when eventually issued it reached No. 1 in the UK charts. In the US, it debuted at No. 3 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart, rising to No. 1 the following week and staying there for six weeks. "Physical Graffiti" has since proven to be one of the most popular releases by the group, shipping 8 million copies in the United States. It 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.

Robert Plant later felt that "Physical Graffiti" represented the band at its creative peak, and has since said that it is his favourite Led Zeppelin album. Jimmy Page has also said the album was a "high-water mark" for the group, and the creative energy from jamming and gradually working out song structures together led to some strong material.

Rolling Stone name "Physical Graffiti" as one of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" listing it in position # 70.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named "Physical Graffiti" as one of the "Definitive 200: Top 200 Albums of All-Time" listing it in position # 93."

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Graffiti

Your commentary on any and every aspect of the album and especially any memories reawakened as a result of the poll is welcomed.


----------



## Guest (Aug 23, 2018)

"Custard Pie" -






"The Rover" -






"In My Time Of Dying" -






"Houses of the Holy" -






"Trampled Under Foot" -






"Kashmir" -






"In The Light" -






"Bron-Yr-Aur" -






"Down by the Seaside" -






"Ten Years Gone" -






"Night Flight" -






"The Wanton Song" -






"Boogie with Stu" -






"Black Country Woman" -






"Sick Again" -


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Alas, my candidate for "most effort, least reward" Zep album. Yet it gives us _Kashmir_, the ultimate Zeppelin expression of their own discovery of Romanticism, and the song most widely regarded as their masterpiece. And _The Rover_ is excellent. The rest, not so much......


----------



## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)




----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

It was decent gesture of Zep to expand the album into a double rather than trim it down to a single - just think how long we'd have gone without hearing the other tracks otherwise (assuming they'd have been made available at all), and I didn't even know that some of the tracks _were_ outtakes until I got the CD about twenty years later - if it was mentioned anywhere on the vinyl packaging then I didn't spot it.

As a double album compiled from different sessions think _PG_ hangs together quite well overall, but back in the old vinyl days I thought sides one and two were definitely the strongest. _Boogie with Stu_ and _Down by the Seaside_ are the only tracks from it which I'm not particularly fond of.


----------



## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

The Rover....one of the great Zeppelin songs, the intro never ceases to amaze with its energy and feeling of raw excitement!...

I also personally think that Night Flight is worthy of far more recognition!


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Strange Magic said:


> _The Rover_ is excellent. The rest, not so much......


Ten Years Gone, In The Light, Down By The Seaside, Nightflight, The Wanton Song are all good, imo. I can't listen to Kashmir, or Trampled... They were beaten to death by radio overplay.


----------



## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

starthrower said:


> Ten Years Gone, In The Light, Down By The Seaside, Nightflight, The Wanton Song are all good, imo. I can't listen to Kashmir, or Trampled... They were beaten to death by radio overplay.


exactly....could not have put it better myself!


----------



## Guest (Aug 23, 2018)

starthrower said:


> I can't listen to Kashmir, or Trampled... They were beaten to death by radio overplay.


They actually weren't "beaten to death" - they're "just resting"... they're... ah... "stunned"...


----------



## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

_"I can't listen to Kashmir, or Trampled... They were beaten to death by radio overplay."_

I'm so glad I never listened to the radio that often. I still enjoy many of the great songs that were subjected by "radio overplay."

I understand it though. A guy at work plays a "classic rock" station in the work shop and it's almost as if they have the exact same play list day after day after day after day... I'm just glad I only spend about 1/2 hour in the shop most days.

V


----------



## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

listened in the car(along with Houses of the Holy)and was reminded of how good 'Wanton Song' also is!


----------

