(13) Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti (1975)

"Physical Graffiti" is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released on 24 February 1975 as a double album. Recording sessions for the album were initially disrupted when bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones considered leaving the band. After reuniting at Headley Grange, the band wrote and recorded eight songs, the combined length of which stretched the album beyond the typical length of an LP. This prompted the band to make "Physical Graffiti" a double album by including previously unreleased tracks from earlier recording sessions. Led Zeppelin returned from a nearly two-year hiatus in 1975 with "Physical Graffiti". Led Zeppelin treat many of the songs on "Physical Graffiti" as forays into individual styles, only occasionally synthesizing sounds, notably on the tense, Eastern-influenced "Kashmir." With John Paul Jones' galloping keyboard, "Trampled Underfoot" ranks as their funkiest metallic grind, while "Houses of the Holy" is as effervescent as pre-Beatles pop and "Down by the Seaside" is the closest they've come to country. Even the heavier blues the 11-minute "In My Time of Dying," the tightly wound "Custard Pie," and the monstrous epic "The Rover" are subtly shaded, even if they're thunderously loud. Most of these heavy rockers are isolated on the first album, with the second half of "Physical Graffiti" sounding a little like a scrap heap of experiments, jams, acoustic workouts, and neo-covers. This may not be as consistent as the first platter, but its quirks are entirely welcome, not just because they encompass the mean, decadent "Sick Again," but the heartbreaking "Ten Years Gone" and the utterly charming acoustic rock & roll of "Boogie With Stu" and "Black Country Woman." Yes, some of this could be labeled as filler, but like any great double album, its appeal lies in its great sprawl, since it captures elements of the band's personality rarely showcased elsewhere and even at its worst, "Physical Graffiti" towers above its hard rock peers of the mid-'70s.

Tracklist

Disc 1
1.  Custard Pie  (Page, Plant)  - 4:14
2.  The Rover  (Page, Plant)  - 5:37
3.  In My Time Of Dying  (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant)  - 11:06
4.  Houses Of The Holy  (Page, Plant)  - 4:02
5.  Trampled Under Foot  (Jones, Page, Plant)  - 5:36
6.  Kashmir  (Bonham, Page, Plant)  - 8:28

Disc 2
1.  In The Light  (Jones, Page, Plant)  - 8:47
2.  Bron-Yr-Aur  (Page)  - 2:06
3.  Down By The Seaside  (Page, Plant)  - 5:16
4.  Ten Years Gone  (Page, Plant)  - 6:33
5.  Night Flight  (Jones, Page, Plant)  - 3:37
6.  The Wanton Song  (Page, Plant)  - 4:09)
7.  Boogie With Stu  (Bonham, Jones,Page, Plant, Stewart)  - 3:53
8.  Black Country Woman  (Page, Plant)  - 4:32
9.  Sick Again  (Page, Plant)  - 4:43

Released:  24 February 1975
Recorded:  July and December 1970 – March 1971, May 1972, January–February 1974 at multiple locations
Genre:  Hard Rock, Blues Rock
Length:  82:15
Label:  Swan Song
Producer:  Jimmy Page

Personnel
Jimmy Page – electric, acoustic, lap steel, and slide guitar, mandolin, production
Robert Plant – lead vocals, harmonica, acoustic guitar
John Paul Jones – bass guitar, organ, acoustic, electric piano, Mellotron, guitar, mandolin, VCS3 synthesiser, clavinet, hammond organ
John Bonham – drums, percussion
Ian Stewart – piano