I’m not a big one for rock pilgrimages but on our first day in New York for our 10th wedding anniversary Mrs 1537 and I braved a bitterly cold and snowy East Village morning to find 96 and 98 St Marks Place. I may have lost two toes on my left foot, a nipple and all feeling from the hair downwards but at least we found the cover location for Physical Graffiti*.
It’s a funny beast Physical Graffiti, it reigns over all, lauded as the biggest, best and the most excessive-y of Led Zeppelin’s albums, the very apex of their grand imperial phase. Everything before led to this, everything afterwards has a slight taint of disappointment by comparison**.
Physical Graffiti is a difficult LP to write about, unless you are a (non wi-fi enabled) pole-dwelling ascetic from one of the more obscure reaches of the Gobi Desert you will have read approximately 29 different magazine features on its genesis, its resuscitating impact on the US record industry, 9 different interviews with engineers Andy Johns and George Chkiantz and how ‘Kashmir’ is amongst the greatest rock songs ever written^.
Like many such obelisks strewn about our internal interminable teenage wastelands, Physical Graffiti is difficult to write about. It’s too big, too embedded in how we view and interpret other music to gain any perspective on, because of when we first encountered it. It sits there enigmatic and weathered, as the lone and level sands stretch far away.
So for one night only with a daring sleight of hand I will, ladies and gentlemen, present to you a series of vignettes on a theme.
My mate Julian lived in a big house and when his parents were out we climbed out of his bedroom window onto the flat roof of the extension, mostly so he could smoke without leaving a trace. One sunny summer holiday day he asked me if I knew Led Zeppelin; I did, I loved Led Zeppelin II and IV and told him so. Then he pressed play on his boombox and said he would play me their best LP. I recognized the first track as a Beastie Boys sample from ‘Time To Get Ill’.
Later there was a strangely Eastern sounding track, that went on for ages. I remember that too.
Hundreds of years ago Kerrang! ran a series over 4 issues where they named the Top 100 rock and metal LPs. I’m guessing this was about 1989. It’s how I first heard about Starz, Mother’s Finest, Montrose and Foghat; these were heady days for me. Physical Graffiti was #1 and this was the first time I saw its cover and realised the esteem it was held in. My fertile teenage brain grokked it all.
One night both parents were away at a friends over night, in my head it may even have been this blessed New Year’s Eve. The BBC were running an Old Grey Whistle Test retrospective (or was it the last episode?). Anyways this is where I first heard Television ‘Marquee Moon’ and definitely where I saw the video for ‘Trampled Under Foot’.
It was brilliant, scenes from old dance movies cut to the piston rhythms of Zeppelin. It made a massive impression and it is still my fave track on Physical Graffiti as a result.
Fast forward another year and my parents had some friends around on a Saturday night for curry, reggae and beers. I was playing the none-heavier blues lament ‘In My Time Of Dying’ in my room. My bedroom was heated via the flue pipe of the range downstairs in the kitchen and so sound carried both ways.
As Robert Plant was reaching his full wailing, Jesus invoking climax as all the music smashed and scorched around him, I heard my dad’s friend downstairs say ‘phew, bit different up there isn’t it?’ I felt simultaneously a bit embarrassed (about the God stuff in the song) and very righteous. That stuck somehow.
Several years later in Leeds a girlfriend was playing that Zeppelin cassette with the crop circles on the front and ‘Kashmir’ came on. ‘This is the sexiest song ever made’ she told me. I agreed, it would be rude and probably in all the circumstances rather self-defeating not to.
Reader, I married her.
Jon Bonham carries the rep of being a bit of a pugilist behind the kit, an unparalleled heavy hitter. He was but he was so much more too and I think some of his contributions on Physical Graffiti really give the lie to this. Think of the smart shuffling ‘Trampled Underfoot’, the gentle lilting rhythm of ‘Down By The Seaside’ and the lopsided heaviness of ‘The Wanton Song’. There’s a reason folks call boxing the sweet science.
Years later again on a holiday with our kids in Snowdonia, out walking near Machynlleth one day we saw a sign for a house called Bron-Yr-Aur, ‘just like the stomp’ I thought to myself, without fully engaging my brain, or even mentioning it to Mrs 1537.
It genuinely didn’t occur to me until I was home 2 days later, such is my speed of thought^*, that we were within gawking distance of the most famous cottage in Wales. The most famous cottage in Wales where no fewer than three tracks were written for Physical Graffiti; ‘The Rover’, ‘Bron-Yr-Aur’ and ‘Down By The Seaside’. The most famous cottage in Wales …
Again, no photographs, I am a bit pants at rock pilgrimages.
Over the years I have gradually been drawn away from the obvious big beefy cuts on Led Zeppelin VI and find myself drawn to the burnished melancholy of ‘Ten Years Gone’ and the innocent fun of ‘Boogie With Stu’. I am still turning new corners and discovering new vistas despite being Thirty Years Gone.
My daughter asked me the other day if the Led Zeppelin LP with the house on the cover was worth a listen.
It is.
1181 Down (by the seaside).
*and the developing company lost my negatives when I sent them in to be developed. Thus ensuring I’ll have to go back there again. It’s not a problem I still have one working nipple.
**although in primo Four Weddings And A Funeral style I would just like to say how nice it is to see them all here today on that shelf.
^I disagree, it is amongst the greatest songs ever written.
^*I suspect I am the prototype forerunner for the next stage in human evolution, hence my astonishing mental powers.
Really enjoyed this one, Joe. It’s not a band or album that I’m particularly fond of… one of those I’ve wanted to like more than I do. I do love IV and have a lot of time for a bunch of other songs (including Kashmir), though.
Thanks J.
Not one to blow smoke but that was one great take on a very good record. Nothing like the 1537 treatment, his personal touch not gleamed of some pretender. Come visit sometime and we’ll take care of a few more of those digits. We have nipple warmers here so dont worry about you last tit. Just ask Miss Candy Apple and her “Twin Fury’s”
But you can still feel you hair right?
By a strange twist of fate my hair has grown super sensitive to compensate for my lack of feeling elsewhere.
Great read Joe. I finally got a decent used copy of this one a few months back without selling my soul to Mr. Crowley! Wicked album and yeah I love Coda … Wearing and Tearing…I will leave it at that!
Cheers Deke, how many Zep are you missing on vinyl?
Basically got them all now Joe …a buddy gave me a bunch of em at a cheap price
I’ve never bothered with Coda or Song Remains, but I’ve collected the others over the years.
So what kind of numbers are you up to then Deke? I’m actually having half a room shelved next week, to house my appalling habit!
I was woken up at 2am by a texted picture of the house with the words Dylan thought you would like this. I went back to sleep believing his Bobness had been in New York thinking of me. I proceeded to have a vivid dream when me and Bobby found a frozen nipple and some toes. When I awoke I realized that it was my drone Leah texting and her boyfriend Dylan had been thinking of me. Funnily enough I still have a frozen nipple and some toes in a swan vesta box.
Hmm. Did you pre bed routine involve beatnik poetry and heavy unpasteurised cheese?
All the cheese is heavy man.
Zeppelin’s been my favorite band for about 44 years, since I was 13, so all I have to say about this post is…right on! So many all-time classics on this album, with personal favorites being “Ten Years Gone,” “In My Time Of Dying,” “In The Light” and “The Rover.” My favorite Zeppelin album is…all of them. Seriously, I love just about everything on every album, and none of them sound like any others, so there’s always something to enjoy. I’m glad you got to experience that building (well, buildings) in person. I was a lifelong New Yorker until I moved about 8 years ago, and spent a lot of time on St. Mark’s Place. Did you know that street, at least the section between 2nd Ave. and Bowery, was a mecca for second-hand record shopping? Throughout my 20s, I was there for hours every Friday night, finding all kinds of goodies that I listened to throughout the weekend. There were also some great restaurants and bars there. The place had changed drastically about 15-20 years ago, and all my old haunts were gone. But a good chunk of my music collection was purchased right near the Physical Graffiti buildings.
Hi Rich, thanks for your response. I have browsed a few of the record stores there, but given it was a trip for my anniversary I didn’t want to push my luck too badly …
Great write-up and I haven’t written a Zep review as it is plain daunting. What more can you say, right! But you did a great job and making it fresh and different with the personal stories. That worked well.
Thanks John, that’s kind.
I went way back into the crypt searching the 80smetalman archives to re-read what I wrote about this iconic album. I didn’t say much about the album but I did say it greatly expanded my mind. You’ve added so much more.
I don’t know why I can’t comment on these from my phone.
I don’t have a favourite Zeppelin, but this is probably my favourite Zeppelin this week.
That’ll do me fine Mike. LZ 2 may just get the nod from me, it was my first one of theirs and I think (without checking) the first non-Queen LP I ever bought.
Queen – funny enough was just thinking about them today. They made my list for Friday’s show.
Houses and this one are my two favourites, besides Out Door, III, II, and IV, and I. 🙂
Man, Coda and Presence are really pissed at you right now!
Caught that, did you.
Sorry Coda and Presence. Everyone has to choose their favourites. Now to go drink Soda and open Presents.
I had figured the toes, nipple and external feeling you lost was during your days as a Vixen groupie.
Good to know.
No, although I did see them support Bon Jovi once … I survived the bass solo with only minor internal haemorrhaging, which in my memory lasted about 4 days.
Weird. You mean the 4 models actually could not play? It was maybe someone else playing those instruments in a studio?
I say Milli Vanilli to you fine sir.
I’ll not have language like that used on my pod! I can’t believe you used the MV word(s)
I was really into this album for a while. But then I got bored of it.
Another good hype sticker for you there.
Right up there with ‘Boyband Pish’, if I recall your Leppard review.
I’ve been off Joe Elliott’s Xmas card list ever since.
I know it’s just me but I wore Zep out really fast. I listened to Houses Of The Holy for the first time in ages recently and it was… ok. Any bands you loved but then they stopped doing anything for you?
Good question that, none of my major musical crushes – although early Marillion just feel really clumsy if I listen to them now but the nostalgia kicks in. All About Eve, loved the first LP and then bought it again for the first time in 33 years recently and I barely made it all the way through.
All About Eve… that’s a blast from the past. I think I can only remember one song.
Marillion I still enjoy but I got into them a bit later than you did. Definitely a bit clumsy though.
You can have my copy of their debut, willingly. I’d like to listen to Real To Reel again.
I was getting h to sign my Marillion albums and in the mix was some Fish albums( for the original members to sign)
I thought he was going to lose it.
He came across as a real Milli Vanilli (speaking of someone about to lose it)
Wow! If I was him I’d have just scrawled obscenities across them.
He offered to give it a Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp and leave it Trampled Under Foot.
The HMO Stamp Of Disapproval