Lyrically, the song pays homage to a few traditional blues songs – “Drop Down Mama” by Sleepy John Estes and “Shake ‘Em On Down” by Bukka White – with vocalist Robert Plant adding further authenticity with some fine harmonica playing over the otherwise straight-up rock music. The album opens unabashedly with “Custard Pie”, which takes the simplest crisp guitar riffs and builds such an infectious groove around it by combining with Jones’ cool clavichord, John Bonham‘s steady but incredible drumming. John Paul Jones – Bass, Piano, Keyboards, Mandolin Robert Plant – Lead Vocals, Harmonica, Guitar Recorded: Various Locations in the UK and US, July 1970-February 1974 The title also sparked the idea for its unique, Grammy nominated album packaging, with a die-cut sleeve through which various images can be alternated into the windows of a New York City brownstone tenement. The album’s title was coined by guitarist and producer Jimmy Page, who wanted to convey how much “physical energy” had gone into producing this album. This extended the project quite a bit as additional overdubs were required to establish sonic consistency, so final mixing did not take place until October 1974. The running time of these tracks extended beyond the length of a conventional album (at the time, vinyl albums were typically around 45 minutes), so the group decided to extend it out to a double length LP by including several unreleased songs from previous Led Zeppelin albums. The group reconvened at Headley Grange in January 1974 and were much more fruitful, recording eight new tracks over the next several weeks. Instead, the sessions were turned over to the new group Bad Company, who had recently signed to Led Zeppelin’s new label Swan Song and used the location to record their 1974 eponymous debut album. They had previously recorded, Led Zeppelin IV ,with Ronnie Lane’s Mobile Studio at this location but these later sessions were soon abandoned as the new material was underdeveloped and bassist John Paul Jones had fallen ill. To follow-up, the group went to Headley Grange in East Hampshire, England in late 1973. Released in 1973, Houses of the Holy ,was built more in the studio than any of its predecessors, taking advantage of technological advances and use of overdubs to forge the sound. Over the course of these albums, the material branched out from heavy blues to acoustic folk and many subtle sub-genres in between. In their first three years as a band, Led Zeppelin recorded and released four albums with sequential numerical titles. All of this, plus the simple fact that the individual performances are brimming with innovative and outstanding musicianship, helped to make Physical Graffiti an easy choice as Classic Rock Review’s Album of the Year for 1975. More importantly is the sheer diversity of this album, which combines newly composed material with outtakes from the group’s three previous studio albums and in the process captures an incredible array of styles, production and compositional methods. First is simple math, as it is their sole double studio album, hence twice the normal rock n roll bliss. But Physical Graffiti is the best for two reasons. Through their dozen years as a band, Led Zeppelin released eight studio albums, all of which were excellent to differing degrees. The album has been reissued on CD several times, including an expansive 40th anniversary edition in 2015.Today we cover an album that epitomizes everything that is great about classic rock. 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. 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 delayed because of the sleeve, which was designed by Peter Corriston and featured a theme around a tenement block in Manhattan, New York. The album was then mixed over summer 1974 and planned for an end-of year release. The album covered a range of styles including hard rock, progressive rock, rock 'n' roll and folk. 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 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. It was released as a double album on 24 February 1975 by the group's new record label, Swan Song Records. Physical Graffiti is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin.
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