1975 was when Led Zeppelin reached their peak. Sure, their second and fourth albums receive more praise, but Zeppelin truly ruled the world in 1975. Their new label Swan Song released Bad Company’s debut platinum record the year before. All five of their albums had gone platinum and they were selling out stadiums. Earls Court, the largest venue in the UK, sold out five nights of shows, each of which would last over three hours.
Behind Led Zeppelin’s wonderful year of 1975 was Physical Graffiti. The double album was the most expansive musically with their standard blues rock along with folk, boogie piano, new technology, and even a few Middle Eastern influenced songs. It was some of their most polished work but also one of their loosest albums with sounds from the studio between tracks, including the plane flying overhead before recording “Black Country Woman”.
To celebrate the album’s 40th anniversary, Atlantic Records released a remastered deluxe version of the record. Jimmy Page beautifully remastered the record much like he did for the first five Led Zeppelin albums. The companion disc holds early versions of songs like “Houses Of The Holy” and “Trampled Underfoot”, which was originally labeled “Brandy And Coke”.
More information on the remasters is available at http://www.ledzeppelin.com.
