Released on February 24, 1975, Physical Graffiti is the most diverse of
Led Zeppelin's eight studio albums. Released almost two years after
Houses Of The Holy, the first album of the double set contains (finally) the title track to the previous album. Also included are the hard rockers
Custard Pie and
The Rover, along with the 11+ minute blues adaptation
In My Time Of Dying, the funky
Trampled Under Foot (containing thinly-veiled automobile metaphors for sex), and the epic
Kashmir, which the band feels is its landmark work.
The second LP in the set is much lighter, with a number of short songs, including Boogie With Stu (with Ian Stewart of The Rolling Stones), Black Country Woman, the instrumental Bron-Yr-Aur (finally spelled right),
country-tinged Down By The Seaside, and the psychedelic In The Light, the longest track on the album.
The album jacket itself continues the tradition of wacky Led Zeppelin albums covers. The building on the cover is 97 St. Mark's Place in New York City (which now houses, among other things, a clothing store called Physical Graffiti). A man (John Bonham?) sits on the steps outside of one entrance. The rear of the album is the building at night, reversed, and without anyone on the stairs. The feature of the album, however, are the windows.
Each of the 30 or so windows of the building is cut out of the album, allowing various photographs from the inner sleeves to 'look out' through the windows. The two inner sleeves feature a number of different pictures, including Neil Armstrong, Jerry Lee Lewis, Liz Taylor (as Cleopatra), Marlene Dietrich, King Kong, Charles Atlas and Lee Harvey Oswald.
Track Listing
Side 1
Custard Pie
The Rover
In My Time Of Dying
Side 2
Houses Of The Holy
Trampled Under Foot
Kashmir
Side 3
In The Light
Bron-Yr-Aur
Down By The Seaside
Ten Years Gone
Side 4
Night Flight
The Wanton Song
Boogie With Stu
Black Country Woman
Sick Again
Produced by Jimmy Page
Executive Producer: Peter Grant
All songs published by Joaneline Music, Inc., ASCAP.
Package Concept & Design: AGI
Mike Loud, London
Peter Corriston, New York
Photography: Elliot Erwitt, B. P. Fallen, Roy Harper
Tinting Extraordinare: Maurice Tate
Window Illustration: Dave Heffernan