‘Physical Graffiti’ At 50: A Track-By-Track Guide To Led Zeppelin’s Landmark Double Album

The Rover

The Rover was composed at Bron-Yr-Aur, the remote cottage in Snowdonia, North Wales, where Plant and Jimmy Page decamped to write much of the material for Led Zeppelin III. Though first approached in a similar acoustic style while the band worked on Led Zeppelin III, the track later received a full electric makeover and was recorded for a second time during the Houses Of The Holy sessions at Mick Jagger’s Stargroves estate, in Berkshire, during 1972. With the exception of some fresh Page guitar overdubs taped at Headley Grange in 1974, the Physical Graffiti version of The Rover is the Stargroves cut. A lean, smouldering rocker, it’s highly impactful on its own terms.

In My Time Of Dying

An ancient blues with a labyrinthine history, the gospel-infused In My Time Of Dying (also known as Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed) was first recorded by Blind Willie Johnson for Columbia in 1928. The song was directly influenced by a passage in the Bible, taken from Psalms 41:3 (“The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing, thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness”), and it has since been recorded by other pioneering blues and folk singers such as Charley Patton and Josh White. Led Zeppelin were inspired to cover In My Time Of Dying after hearing Bob Dylan’s 1962 recording, though their mammoth 11-minute take, starring Page’s stinging, fork-tongued slide guitar, recast the song entirely in their own image.

Houses Of The Holy

Robert Plant reputedly came up with the phrase “houses of the holy” in reference to Led Zeppelin’s audience and the ever-increasing auditoriums the band were filling in the US in the early 70s. Around that same time, Zeppelin worked up this storming, A-grade rocker and duly laid down an imperious version of it at Olympic Studios in May 1972, with engineer Eddie Kramer at the controls. Despite deciding to call their fifth album Houses Of The Holy, they left its namesake track off that record, believing it was too similar in design to the song Dancing Days. Brought back into commission for the group’s next album, the adrenalized Houses Of The Holy sounds right at home on Physical Graffiti.

Trampled Under Foot

As the likes of The Lemon Song, How Many More Times, Bring It On Home and In My Time Of Dying all prove, Led Zeppelin were no slouches when it came to reinterpreting and/or reimagining old blues songs. Trampled Underfoot could also be added to this list, in that it broadly reimagines Delta blues legend Robert Johnson’s car song Terraplane Blues, with Plant’s innuendo-laden lyrics (full of car-related metaphors such as “pump your gas” and “rev all night”) straying far from Johnson’s cautions against the dangers of infidelity.

It is, however, the song’s musical backdrop which is especially revelatory. Led Zeppelin were known primarily as purveyors of thunderous hard rock, yet thanks to Page’s angular riffing, Jones’ Stevie Wonder-esque Clavinet and even drummer John Bonham’ best Clyde Stubblefield impression, the group sound like the funkiest white boys on the block on this brilliant track which became a staple of Led Zeppelin’s live set for the remainder of their career.

Kashmir

Along with Stairway To Heaven and Whole Lotta Love, Kashmir stands as one of the best Led Zeppelin songs, and its ubiquity is well deserved. Originally emerging from a demo that Page and Bonham recorded together in 1973, the song went through numerous changes, with Jones later adding Mellotron (and scoring the brass and string orchestration) and Plant writing mystical, Eastern-flavoured lyrics inspired by a drive through a desolate desert area of southern Morocco during his downtime following the band’s 1973 US tour.

Fans and critics alike have cited this rich, elusive epic as a classic ever since (Led Zeppelin biographer Dave Lewis has referred to it as “arguably the most progressive and original track” the group ever recorded), and while it would be wrong to say that it encapsulates all that’s great about Physical Graffiti, it is undeniably something very special, indeed.

In The Light

Fading in on an Eastern-tinged drone, In The Light initially seems to pick up from where Kashmir left off. Liberally garnished by Jones’ synths, it’s a contemplative, slow-moving piece that plays out across almost nine minutes, during which the song shifts through cyclical, bluesy grooves and passages of almost Brian Eno-esque ambience. Something of a grower, In The Light’s innate strength hits home after a few listens, and it still ranks among Led Zeppelin’s most sonically ambitious set pieces.

Bron-Yr-Aur

Offering a radical shift in mood following the expansive In The Light, Bron-Yr-Aur is almost lo-fi in design. Named after the cottage in rural Snowdonia where Page and Plant holed up to write the bulk of Led Zeppelin III, and recorded at sessions held at London’s Island Studios in 1970, the track is one of Page’s solo acoustic guitar instrumentals in the vein of Black Mountain Side, from Led Zeppelin’s self-titled debut album. Freely doffing its cap to Page’s folk guitar heroes Bert Jansch and Davey Graham, this brief, two-minute workout is dextrously performed.

Down By The Seaside

Another Physical Graffiti track deriving from Page and Plant’s Bron-Yr-Aur songwriting retreat in 1970, Down By The Seaside again started out in an acoustic guise. It was later revisited, rearranged and given an electric makeover during the sessions for Led Zeppelin’s untitled fourth album, but although it was completed, it remained unreleased until appearing on Physical Graffiti. The song is long rumoured to have been influenced by Neil Young, and its initial, After The Gold Rush-esque section (featuring prominent electric piano from Jones) seemingly bears this out. The song become notably more aggressive after Bonham enters and gives it a mighty percussive kick.

Ten Years Gone

Originally intended as a Page instrumental, Ten Years Gone changed shape when Plant added lyrics about an old yet clearly fondly-remembered relationship he’d been involved in prior to Led Zeppelin getting off the ground. In a 2011 Rolling Stone feature, Rick Rubin described the song as “a deep, reflective piece with hypnotic, interweaving riffs”, and it is exactly that, with the whole band playing with admirable restraint while Plant ruminates on his former lover with dignity and grace (“Changes fill my time, baby, that’s alright with me/In the midst, I think of you/And how it used to be”). Despite its intricacy, Ten Years Gone made it into Zeppelin’s live set in 1977, though Jones had to strap on a custom triple-necked instrument featuring six-string and 12-string guitars, a mandolin and bass pedals to help wring out all its nuances on stage.

Night Flight

Such is Night Flight’s good-time vibe that it’s easy to forget that the song was inspired by a newspaper headline about the possible threat of nuclear war. However, while Plant’s lyrics touch on this potential Armageddon (“He sat laughing as he wrote ‘the end’s in sight’/So I said goodbye to all my friends”), the music is so relentlessly upbeat that it’s difficult not to get lost in the thrill of this Who-esque rocker. Night Flight dates from the “Led Zeppelin IV” sessions but sounds right at home among the Physical Graffiti songs.

The Wanton Song

Night Flight has barely receded before Led Zeppelin again turn up the heat with The Wanton Song. Another highlight from the Headley Grange sessions from early 1974, this one is all about the riff, with Page throwing out one of his best repetitive sawn-off motifs to power this heads-down, full-tilt rocker. Not to be outdone, Bonham responds with an especially muscular display, punctuating an already exhilarating aural assault with some ferocious snare- and bass-drum combinations.

Boogie With Stu

When Led Zeppelin hired The Rolling Stones’ mobile studio to record most of the songs for their fourth album at Headley Grange, the Stones’ original pianist, Ian Stewart, turned up to assist engineer Andy Johns at the controls. Stewart shared Led Zeppelin’s predilection for classic 50s rock’n’roll, and a spontaneous collaborative session famously ended up birthing the “Led Zeppelin IV” classic Rock And Roll. This same 1971 session also resulted in Boogie With Stu: a vibey old-time boogie-woogie number starring Stewart’s barrelhouse piano which, while relatively loose, had enough spontaneous charm to merit unearthing for Physical Graffiti.

Black Country Woman

During their time recording Houses Of The Holy at Stargroves, in Berkshire, Led Zeppelin and engineer Eddie Kramer were keen to try recording in locations outside of a typical studio environment. This quest resulted in them decamping to the estate’s extensive garden, where they laid down the folk-flavoured Black Country Woman: a fun workout featuring Page on acoustic guitar, Jones on mandolin and Bonham attempting to rock things up by adding an incongruous yet somehow just-right drum part. In feel, the end result is similar to Small Faces’ similarly rural The Universal, albeit with the spontaneous capture of an aeroplane flying overhead – as opposed to Steve Marriott’s dog – providing audio verité.

Sick Again

Having announced itself with the explosive Custard Pie, Physical Graffiti comes full circle and concludes with the similarly no-nonsense Sick Again. Recorded during the fecund Headley Grange sessions early in 1974, this swaggering rocker is vintage Led Zeppelin, with Plant howling his lyrics, the band throwing all manner of shapes and Bonham’s drums sounding like an avalanche as he pushes Page ever onwards during the latter’s showboating solo. It’s a more-than-fitting closing song for such a confident and authoritative album from a band at the very peak of their powers.

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