Having five years before begun a mission aimed at climbing to the top of the music tree, where in truth they arrived in just two, since the turn of the decade Led Zeppelin had reigned as the most successful rock band on the planet – only for their previously unstoppable momentum to now reach an impasse in 1974.
Since coming together in 1968 this quartet comprising of Jimmy Page (guitar), Robert Plant (vocals), John Paul Jones (bass/keyboards) and John Bonham (drums) had totally redefined the concept of heavy rock, their dazzling individual virtuosity conjuring a form of musical thunder and lightning never before seen on such a dizzying scale – its sheer tumult prompting worldwide album sales that were without precedent.
While they were feted by a vast and devoted following, within the rock media some were unconvinced by claims Zeppelin were the authentic article. Certain critics pointed to a ransacking of old blues standards that provided the framework for a number of tracks, particularly on their first two albums, (Page and Plant reluctant to acknowledge these sources), the same dissenting voices not enamored either by the band’s lyricism (predominantly the work of Plant), that on more than one occasion was described as ‘inane.’
Indeed, while the music press in their U.K. homeland was onside to the point of fawning, it was often a different story across the Atlantic, Led Zeppelin once described in Rolling Stone as:
‘A band that when not busy demolishing classic blues songs was making a kind of music designed to be enjoyable only when the listener is drugged to the point of senselessness.’
So there.
None of which mattered one jot to a legion of devotees who had taken Zeppelin to their hard-rocking, head-banging hearts, such fanaticism not affected in the slightest by a downbeat critical reaction to the band’s fifth album ‘Houses of the Holy‘ in March 1973.
With its eclectic mix of material, including continuation of the folk overtones evident since ‘Led Zeppelin III‘ (1970), some non-converts found it their most interesting set and mixed reviews notwithstanding, the record immediately returned platinum sales figures. By now Led Zeppelin were also such a colossal live attraction, the subsequent U.S. tour smashed box office demands and concert attendance records long since held by The Beatles.
But in the wake of such mammoth triumphs came a sudden reduction of the pace, Zeppelin retreating from the recording scene and concert stage to the extent Page later remarked, ‘1974 didn’t really happen did it?’
On remerging in the early spring of 1975 they came forth with ‘PHYSICAL GRAFFITI’ (February 1975) – four sides of music that pretty much affirmed the expectations everybody had of Led Zeppelin.
Fans adored it, only expressing disappointment that a double rather than triple album was the result of their near two year wait for another Zeppelin release. But claims of plagiarism were again to the fore, while Rolling Stone complained there was ‘too much filler for the album to be essential.’
Once more some thin lyrics, comprising a predictable mix of machoism and mysticism, are masked by the potency of Plant, Page, Bonham and Jones in full cry, Led Zeppelin yet again ruling supreme as the best recorded rock band on the planet – testament to the remarkable skills of Page as a producer.
Evident across the entire spectrum of ‘Physical Graffiti’ is the undeniable aura Led Zeppelin had begun to generate. On the striking cover is pictured a New York tenement, where movement of the inner sleeve brings a different image to each window. While undoubtedly fascinating it gives nothing away about the group themselves, who enjoyed wealth comparable to that of say Elton John or Rod Stewart, but remained somewhat inscrutable figures, the Stones and The Who an open book by comparison.
The 82 minutes of music also contained an element of mystery. Of the fifteen tracks constituting the album, eight were pieces recorded through spring of the previous year at Headley Grange, a favoured Zeppelin studio in the Hampshire countryside of Southern England, the remaining seven being unused material left over from previous projects.
As an entity ‘Physical Graffiti‘ was the first Led Zeppelin release on their own, recently-launched Swansong label. The band, now in total control of its own destiny, displayed not a second of hesitancy in almost halving the material between old and new – Zeppelin never an outfit short on self-confidence.
Opening cut ‘Custard Pie‘ immediately evokes their customary hard-hitting bravado, which has not diminished one iota during time out of the spotlight. From the opening salvos this can only be them, the track decorated by Jones on clavinet and Plant rasping to fine effect on harmonica. The lyrics do not bear much scrutiny, made up largely of sexual innuendos, with some pointing similarity between couplets here (‘Put on your night shirt and your morning gown/You know by night I’m gonna shake ’em on down‘), and those contained in the ‘Shake ‘Em On Down‘ blues composition of Mississippi Fred McDowell.
While Zeppelin were always unlikely to win awards for lyrical insight, or cause wordsmiths such as Jackson or Joni to loose any sleep, the first-up track showed they could out-bluster anyone in a style none of their countless imitators could match.
One of eight songs credited to the songwriting axis of Plant and Page, the same two composers cover similar territory on ‘The Wanton Song‘ another Headley Grange number that welds a sexually-charged lyric, ‘Silent woman in the night, you came/Took my seed from my shaking frame‘, to a fiery electric guitar riff and pulsing clavinet.
From the same batch of fresh material also came side three opener ‘In the Light‘ an ambitious piece (for which Jones is also credited), that progresses through complex keyboard patterns, powerhouse blues, prog-rock inflections and piano balladry. Zeppelin in this instance cast an influence as Queen and Freddie Mercury in particular must have noted the structure when it came to arranging ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’
The words find Plant imploring resolve in order for a relationship to continue, ‘And if you feel that you can’t go on/And your will’s sinking low/Just believe, and you can’t go wrong/In the light you will find the road’, while offering reassurance for the future, ‘when love is pain it can devour you/If you are never alone/
I would share your load.’
‘Ten Years Gone‘ sees Plant ruminating on a love affair from the distant past, ‘Changes fill my time, baby/That’s alright with me/In the midst I think of you, and how it used to be’, to the accompaniment of overlapping electric and acoustic guitars, while closing track ‘Sick Again‘ espouses the carnal delights on offer in Los Angeles, (‘Lips like cherries, and the brow of a queen/Come on, flash across your eyes/Said you dug me since you were thirteen‘).
As a whole the lyrical inferences of ‘Sick Again‘ make for uncomfortable reading when judged by 21st Century sensibilities, the coursing melody that surges back and forth between the dynamics of Page and Bonham having souped up glam-rock inflections that date it to the mid-’70s.
Side one closer, the eleven minute epic ‘In My Time of Dying‘ offers, as much as any Zeppelin track, explanation why the fans were so fervent and their sharpest critics so complaining.
It serves as a superb example of their intuitive ensemble playing, Page to the fore with slide guitar riffing of the highest order. This blues rock workout is stunning in its execution, the label crediting the piece unashamedly to Plane/Page/Jones/Bonham when in fact it is a reworking of ‘Jesus Make up My Dying Bed‘ by bluesman Blind Willie Johnson.
True, Zeppelin make their indelible mark, but not crediting the origin of the piece does seem mean-spirted – not even a brash twenty year-old named Bob Dylan had the temerity to claim the song as his own (arranged by, yes), when covered on his 1962 debut album.
It is proceeded on side one by ‘The Rover‘ a track retrieved from past sessions, first cut in acoustic form for ‘Led Zeppelin III‘ and then recut but passed on for ‘Houses of the Holy.’
At times the lyrics have the mystical pretext Plant had a tendency to compose, first alluding to a ship traversing the oceans a couple of centuries before, infusing it with imagery based upon plunder, plagues, the earth being flat and a lover ‘Lying on the dark side of the globe.’
The hard-rocking nature of the piece, if at times incongruous with the old world sentiments of the words, provides platform for Bonham to produce a suitably cataclysmic performance, the ‘I used to rock it/Sometimes I’d roll it/I always knew what it was for’ a 1970s assertion transplanted into a tale from the 1770s.
The most curious discovery among the 15 tracks is found opening side two, this being the song ‘Houses of the Holy’ that was originally intended as the title-track of their previous album.
Omitted from the L.P. bearing its name due to the band detecting similarities to ‘Dancing Days‘ which did make the final cut, Page fires out plenty of electric guitar flak in a mid-tempo rocker that operates in a relaxed atmosphere – despite Plant name-checking the devil (‘From the door comes Satan’s daughter‘) in a lyric encompassing drug connotations alongside the oft-used sex depictions.
Page takes sole credit as writer and performer for ‘Bron-Yr-Aur‘ an enchanting two minute instrumental (the shortest song ever included on an LZ album) featuring layered acoustic guitars on a piece first aired in 1970. Two years later he combined with Plant for ‘Black Country Woman‘ (recorded but not used for ‘Houses of the Holy‘) which stomps along in undistinguished fashion, the singer reminiscing about an ill-fated romance through a lead vocal recorded in the garden of Stargroves, the country home of Mick Jagger, in May 1972.
Side four opener ‘Night Flight’ – left over from ‘Led Zeppelin IV‘ in 1971 – is more substantial, Jones receiving a co-write credit for a track whose imagery suggests it has sympathy for those keen to avoid being drafted for the army, the Vietnam war still raging when the track was written. Back in 1971 it may well have been compared to how the James Gang were currently sounding, whose (then) front man Joe Walsh had begun blending melodic keyboard motifs with hard-nosed rock. Zeppelin, with their greater instrumental presence, having the discipline to not allow the track to outstay its welcome.
Also recorded for ‘Led Zeppelin IV‘, the Plant/Page composition ‘Down by the Seaside‘ is a languid country-rock number that extols the virtue of modest aspirations, (‘Sing loud for the sunshine/Pray hard for the rain/And show your love for lady nature/And she will come back again’), the conservationist ideals and charming lilt of the melody reflecting a discernable Neil Young influence from a time when ‘After the Gold Rush‘ had been his most recent album.
When it came to the ‘filler‘ Rolling Stone were at pains to lament, ‘Boogie with Stu‘ would have been one inclusion in their sights, being a pleasant if inconsequential jam session dating from 1971 with long-serving Rolling Stones keyboard player Ian Stewart, a musician often referred to as ‘the sixth Stone.’
Built upon the rollicking bar-room piano playing of Stewart, the track revisits ‘Ooh My Head‘ a song by ’50s rock and roller Richie Valens who perished in the same 1959 plane crash as Buddy Holly.
Despite the abundant similarities Zeppelin credit the effort to themselves, Stewart and ‘Mrs Valens‘ apparently to ensure the widow received royalties on a variation of her late husband’s work. This acknowledgement, however, proved unsatisfactory to the estate of Richie Valens who three years later sued for copyright infringement, (the matter concluded with an out of court settlement), which all told remains the most interesting facet attached to the track.
But if ‘Boogie with Stu‘ was easily dismissed, then the remaining pair of Headley Grange recordings show Zeppelin at their most innovative and inspirational.
Side two closer ‘Kashmir‘ is a marvel of controlled tension, Plant summoning up the words seemingly from a time-travelling dream (‘I am a traveler of both time and space to be where I have been/To sit with elders of a gentle race this world has seldom seen‘), but also a drive through a Moroccan desert. Meanwhile Bonham, who also receives co-write accreditation, gives a performance of stunning fluidity while allowing the Middle-Eastern nuances to permeate.
If anything preceding track ‘Trampled Underfoot‘ is even more extraordinary, Zeppelin performing in the guise of a tightly-wound funk revue – taking their lead from the resonant sound Stevie Wonder had created on ‘Superstition‘ a couple of years before.
Arriving at such juncture at the mid-point of the decade could not have been envisaged amidst the bruising bombast of their first two albums back in 1969 and although the lyric is no great shakes with its female body form/car component analogies (even then it owes more than a nod to the 1936 Robert Johnson song ‘Terraplane Blues‘), the rhythmic clavinet of co-writer Jones keeps things exhilarating and hypnotic.
Given the next Zeppelin album ‘Presence‘ (1976) was deemed a disjointed affair and their final L.P. ‘In Through the Out Door‘ (released a year before Bonham’s alcohol-related death at the age of 32 in September 1980), also met with a mixed response, ‘Kashmir‘ and ‘Trampled Underfoot‘ serve as the last two truly great Led Zeppelin songs.
With the Rolling Stones searching for a new guitarist to fill a vacancy created by the recent departure of Mick Taylor, while also beset with the drug issues surrounding Keith Richards and The Who unsure of how to move on from the 1974 film version of ‘Tommy‘, there was no denying Zeppelin their place as the preeminent rock band of the day – massive sales of ‘Physical Graffiti‘, a run of London dates sold out in a flash and huge, insatiably attended U.S. tour all underlining the fact.
While some critics went into raptures about the new album, Billboard calling it ‘a tour-de-force‘ others were more ambivalent, noted rock scribe Robert Christgau maintaining his indifference toward the band by bestowing a B+ mark from his renowned A-D rating system.
But such was their all-dominating status, Led Zeppelin hardly needed approval, or not, from the critics to enhance an impregnable position at the summit of rock music mountain. Putting out a single from the L.P. to garner attention for its existence was totally unnecessary (the band had rarely issued 45’s anyway) and not for them putting the older material on a separate release as The Who had done the previous year in clearing their vault with ‘Odds and Sods.’
The first album in history to turn platinum on advanced orders alone, ‘Physical Graffiti‘ debuted at number one in the U.K. charts and number three on the Billboard listings, the global sales figures thereafter reaching breathtaking proportion.
Elsewhere others could only look on with envy. While Ray Davies and Pete Townshend persevered with concept albums and thematic projects with The Kinks and The Who in order to serve the medium of rock, due to the gargantuan spectre of ‘Physical Graffiti‘ it was difficult to view rock in February 1975 as anything other than a medium to serve Led Zeppelin.
LED ZEPPELIN – PHYSICAL GRAFFITI (Released February 24 1975):
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;
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