In 1975, the question is whether Led Zeppelin is really the best rock group in the world, or if Physical Graffitiwhich sits in the charts remains one of the best rock albums of all time. Making of.
Physical Graffiti Only confirms the pre -eminence of Led Zeppelin among the Hard Rockers and gives an impressive preview of the group's skills. The winning recipe? The perfect adequacy between Plant's words with the rich, dense, amazing game and page virtuoso. However, there is no chance that this album can convince skeptics, reluctant and allergic to the enormous sound of the group.
Robert Plant's postures are very present and the lead rhythms of John Bonham Continue to hammer the eardrums to the delight of the millions of unconditional English: yes Led Zeppelin has his sound signature and no, that will not change, because it is in this way that they design their work. Better yet, this album is emblematic because by performing a quick flashback in the history of the group, Physical Graffiti presents itself as a summary of the already five years of a career led by swinging drums, and this is really the case to say. There is Blues (“in my time of dying”) a cosmic ballad (“in the light”), an acoustic interlude (“bron-y-aur”) and hard rock, real, hairy, huge guitars And a lead rhythm, a trademark of the group (“Houses of the Holy”, “The Wanton Song”); But there are also wins less supported than in the past to the heroes of the twelve measures, notably in Bo Diddley (“Custard Pie”) a real tour de force.
What explains that? Nothing particular apart from the fact that the recording of this album has spread over four years and even presents covers of songs excluded from the previous opus. Hence his variety, his wealth and a songwriting much above everything that was done at the time in rock: does not sign “Kashmir”, the most powerful rock song in history, which wants.
On paper as in fact, Led Zeppelin is undoubtedly the most popular rock group in the world.
Excessive ambitions
However, Houses of the Holy almost was the latest album by Led Zeppelin. At the end of 1973, after a long and enriching American tour year, Jones was tired of traveling. He wants to spend more time with his family and announces to the group that he leaves them to become a choir leader, which is more or less the exact opposite of “member of Led Zeppelin”. Everything stops, it is announced that Jones is sick (what other reasonable reason to want to leave such a group?). And then Jones changes his mind, and “We never talked about it”, tells their manager Peter Grant.
The past is already starting to weigh, the group has triggered riots at almost each concert, especially in Milan and Boston, gave closed counters in Hong Kong as in Hamburg. Each of their five previous albums has sold millions of copies. Better still, they have established new frequentation records in concerts, in particular by attracting nearly 60,000 people for their only concert of Tampa, Florida, in 1973 and 120,000 people for six concerts in New York in 1975. On paper on paper As in fact, Led Zeppelin is undoubtedly the most popular rock group in the world. And bootlegs to multiply like hotcakes, we want them everywhere and the pirates exchange hundreds of thousands.
“We are talking about creating something as eminent as Beethoven's fifth. »»
And, with the release of this new opus, their sixth, the question is essential. This set of two discs will be their Tommytheir Beggar's Banquet even their SGT Pepper. In early 1974, the quartet returned to Headley Grange. They are the most popular rock group in the world, and they need an act definitively establishing their weight: they choose a double album, which has since become the splendor of rock. “We are talking about creating something as eminent as Beethoven's fifth”, explained daringly plant at the time, imagining an album “So colossal that it would last forever. »»
The big favorite
They took them eighteen months to finalize what is a bit of a Rock Mount Saint-Michel, a meticulous and immortal monument to the glory of grandeur and myth. The cover of the album, photo of a building in the East Village district in New York, is just as elaborate: when the album insert is removed, the windows reveal images of the group and their cohort . For rock fans, it is a huge corpus that can be read and re -read endlessly. Physical Graffiti is the first album that the singer possessed Jeff Buckley. Jim James de My Morning Jacket quotes him as his favorite album. THE Foo Fighters aspired to make In your Honor their own Physical Graffiti. (But the appeal of this music surpasses the circle of male and macho rockers dreaming of imitating the roaring glory of Plant: even Christina Aguilera quotes it as one of his favorite records.)
An often idealistic album, like its central song, the one that goes the furthest and the group will later quote as the peak of their career: “Kashmir”
Led Zeppelin had enough songs for an album and a half, it was therefore an opportunity to add a few tracks never released before: “Bron-Yr-Aur”, a brief piece of Fingerpicking on the acoustic guitar which finds its roots without sessions of Led Zeppelin III In 1970, as well as the green “Down by the Seaside” (one of the first “green” rocks). “Night Flight” and “Boogie With Stu” are two songs left side for the fourth album. Despite their various origins, the fifteen songs of Physical Graffiti have a unit. The album is sprawling, gruff, rowdy, confident, dense, quiet.
Stylistically, the range is wide. “TRAMPLED Under Foot” begins on a funky intro of Clavinet by Jones, similar to what Stevie Wonder had recently done on “superstition”. “Boogie with Stu”, well anchored in the 1950s and recorded with the pianist of the Rolling Stones Ian Stewart (who played on “Rock and Roll”), mixs a rural mandolin with a heavy rock piece and full of echo that evokes The group's hero, Elvis Presley. And page spits riffs like a volcano. We understand better how the album has sold 16 million copies: “Ten Years Gone”, “Houses of the Holy”, “Wanton Song” and “Custard Pie”, among others, are recognizable after two guitar measures.
Plant was still largely caricatured as a god of sex, partly because of his penchant for Moule-Bite jeans and vaporous female blouses, but the double album demonstrates some of its less widely recognized features, such as its hippie idealism , especially in the refrain “If we cream Just Join Hands” (“If you could simply give your hand”) of “The Rover”. Physical Graffiti is an often idealistic album, as is its central song, the one that goes the furthest and the group will later quote as the peak of their career: “Kashmir”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_zhrxsa0kq
“I would have liked to remember us for” Kashmir “more than for” Stairway to Heaven “”
