Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

I’ve been writing this blog for years, but I haven’t written much about Led Zeppelin.  That’s about to change.  1975 was a good year for rock and roll.  Bob Dylan gave us Blood on the Tracks, Pink Floyd provided us with Wish You Were Here, and Queen broke out with A Night at the Opera and their calling card Bohemian Rhapsody.  Add to those albums Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti.  A double album, Physical Graffiti covered a lot of musical ground, Zeppelin’s sixth album and their first for their own label, Swan Song.  There’s hard rock, funk, blues, folk, country, pop and Middle Eastern music.  In my humble opinion, I think it’s their best album.  Given what came after, 20/20 hindsight shows Physical Graffiti to be Led Zeppelin’s peak.  In 1974, Led Zeppelin gathered at Headley Grange, an English country house where they recorded music for their untitled fourth album.  They finished eight songs at Headley Grange.  They had more music than a single album, but not enough for a double, so to fill out a double album they added outtakes from LZ III, the fourth album, and Houses of the Holy.  There are fifteen songs total, thirteen of which I like a lot. 

Custard Pie – This is a straight forward rocker with a crunchy riff. Jimmy Page’s riff sets the mood for the album and displays Led Zeppelin at their “tight but loose” best. Robert Plant later sampled [others would say “stolen”] for his song Tall Cool One.  And speaking of stealing, Robert Plant pinched the lyrics word for word from the Sleepy John Estes Drop Down Mama.  It wasn’t the first time [nor would it be the last] time that Zeppelin appropriated someone else’s work without giving them credit.  The music is all Zeppelin though.

The Rover – This one is an outtake from Houses of the Holy.  It’s another straight ahead rocker.  Unlike the rest of the songs on the album, the guitar sound here has quite a bit of distortion.  John Paul Jones’ bass plays along note for note with the guitar riff.  The Rover was a bit hard for Houses of the Holy, as was Walter’s Walk [later released on Coda], so saving it for another day was a good call.

In My Time of Dying – The longest studio recording by Led Zeppelin, the band travels south for some blues.  This is one of the few songs where Jimmy Page uses a slide.   He uses an open A tuning (EAEAC#E).  Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham are locked in tight.  This time Robert Plant took the lyrics from the tune of the same name from Bob Dylan’s debut album.  On that album the song was credited “Trad. Arr. Dylan.” Dylan’s arrangement was based on Blind Willie Jefferson’s Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed, but every word from the Dylan version appeared in the Zeppelin version.  At least the music is all Zeppelin.  It’s long, but because it’s so good it doesn’t seem like it.  Some long songs drag on forever – this isn’t one of them.

Houses of the Holy – By all rights this song should have appeared on the Houses of the Holy album.  By Led Zeppelin standards this would qualify as “pop.”  Perhaps it wasn’t strange enough, but it’s definitely a better song than The Crunge.

Trampled Under Foot – Thanks to John Paul Jones’ clavinet, this song is Zeppelin at their funkiest.  Page’s guitar weaves in and out and around the clavinet.  It’s a very good song.  At their last show in London in 2007, Robert Plant said this song was based on Robert Johnson’s Terraplane Blues.  Here’s an interesting footnote – when John Bonham’s son Jason was old enough, John let Jason play this in his place during a soundcheck.  I heard it on the radio a long time ago.  This was the one time Bonzo got to “see” Led Zeppelin.

Kashmir – For any people, Stairway to Heaven is their favorite Zeppelin song.  My favorite is Kashmir.  Inspired by a road trip through Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, this Middle Eastern tinged song is played in the DADGAD tuning.  I think this song more than any other captures Zeppelin’s essence.  The strings playing along with Page’s riff was a cool idea, and John Paul Jones’ Mellotron gives the song more of an eastern character.  There’s no guitar solo, but Kashmir doesn’t need one.  I don’t have any idea how the “Kashmir” reference got in there since it’s nowhere near Morocco, but that is just a minor quibble with a great song.

In the Light – This one gets a bit strange.  The song starts with what sounds like a hurdy gurdy drone, Jimmy Page drawing a violin bow across an acoustic guitar, and a synthesizer that sounds to me like whale calls.  IMHO, the song is about two minutes too long, but again that’s a minor quibble.  This is another cool Zeppelin song.

Bron-yr-aur – In My Time of Dying was Zeppelin’s longest studio recording.  This solo acoustic piece originally destined for Led Zeppelin III is their shortest song.  Page used a C6 tuning (CACGCE).  I will learn how to play it someday…

Down by the Seaside – This was recorded during the sessions for the untitled fourth LZ album.  I utterly loathe and despise this song, maybe because of the one line “Can the people hear, What the little fish are sayin'.”  I just don’t have any use for songs that sound like a country song recorded underwater.  It just doesn’t work for me. They made a good call in not putting it on the fourth album.  They made a bad call by letting it see the light of day.

Ten Years Gone – Robert Plant once said this song was about a girl who made him chose between her and his music career.  This one has a lot of overdubbed guitar parts, so many that I wonder how Page played it in concert. 

Night Flight – This one is an outtake from the fourth album.  JPJ’s Hammond organ didn’t fit the vibe of the rest of those songs, and they already had a “keyboard” song with Misty Mountain Hop.  This song was too good to let gather dust for too long, so I’m glad they unearthed it for Physical Graffiti.  Robert Plant once said this was about a draft dodger avoiding Vietnam by fleeing to Canada.  It’s one of the few Zeppelin songs to not have a guitar solo.

The Wanton Song - This song has a neat riff and backwards echo on the guitar.  During the guitar solo it sounds like it’s played through a Leslie speaker.  The Wanton Song is a powerful hard rocker.

Boogie With Stu – This is another fourth album outtake.  The “Stu” in question is Ian Stewart of Rolling Stones fame.  This is the first song I learned for mandolin.  The words are lifted from Richie Valens’ Ooh My Head, but at least the band gave credit to his mother.  This song is filler, but at least its fun.

Black Country Woman – Another filler, but unlike Boogie With Stu this one grates on my nerves.  The song begins with the words “Hey hey mama, what’s the matter here?”  The answer is very simple – this entire song.  If it was a newborn baby, it should have been shot at birth.  Why would I want to hear Robert Plant screeching about having beer on his face?  That’s right…I wouldn’t.

Sick Again – This is Robert Plant’s ode/lament to young groupies, whom he called the “L.A. Queens.”  John Bonham is relentless, as is Jimmy Page.  Like Ten Years Gone, Sick Again has many layered guitar parts.  Jimmy Page must have been one overworked guitarist in a live setting.

Led Zeppelin did two more studio albums after Physical Graffiti – Presence [1976] and In Through the Out Door [1979].  Each had their moments, but they didn’t scale as many heights, didn’t have the musical diversity, or didn’t swagger like Physical Graffiti.