AAJ Review: Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti (Deluxe Edition)

[3LockBox]

I love this album, every bit of it. But yeah, every bonus disc in this series has been of little interest to me.

Has there ever been an explanation as to why the track Houses of the Holy wasn't on the album of the same name?

[Halmyre]

I love this album, every bit of it. But yeah, every bonus disc in this series has been of little interest to me.

Has there ever been an explanation as to why the track Houses of the Holy wasn't on the album of the same name?

Because they needed space for the vastly superior D'Yer Mak'er, obviously.

[JJ88]

I quite like 'D'Yer Maker'. 'The Crunge' on the other hand, screams 'throwaway'.

With the exception of 'Stu' the rest of the leftovers on here never struck me as being inferior tracks.

'In Through The Out Door' was the one album notably compromised by leaving off material. 'Wearing and Tearing' in particular should have been on there.

[Scrotum Scissor]

I quite like 'D'Yer Maker'. 'The Crunge' on the other hand, screams 'throwaway'.

I must say that HotH remains my very fave Lez record - except for "D'Yer". But the track was far from the first truly silly one they did, IMO.

[polmico]

I'm with you. Physical Graffiti never did it for me! My least favorite Zeppelin album and I don't really know why.

For me, it's the lack of balance. You've got rockers. You've got blues numbers. But there's no English folksy pastoral hippy bullshit. I want English folksy pastoral hippy bullshit on my Zep albums.

[trurl]

I must say that HotH remains my very fave Lez record - except for "D'Yer". But the track was far from the first truly silly one they did, IMO.

Ugggh, I really hate D'yer Maker. But I love Crunge.

[grego]

For me, it's the lack of balance. You've got rockers. You've got blues numbers. But there's no English folksy pastoral hippy bullshit. I want English folksy pastoral hippy bullshit on my Zep albums.

Side 3 isn't satisfying your demand? I call it 'the ballad side'..Ten Years Gone, Bron -Y-Aur, Down By The Seaside..that's surely pastoral.. Black Country Woman could be easily considered as significant hippy bullshit..C'mon, PG is various enough.

[grego]

'In Through The Out Door' was the one album notably compromised by leaving off material. 'Wearing and Tearing' in particular should have been on there.

Absolutely. Instead of dropping this one off, they should've put it on the album, and save for Coda South Bound Suarez... hell of a throwaway track , if you ask me..

[at least 100 dead]

For me, it's the lack of balance. You've got rockers. You've got blues numbers. But there's no English folksy pastoral hippy bullshit. I want English folksy pastoral hippy bullshit on my Zep albums.

Imagine Peter Grant in the control room, stomping and braying: “Where the fook is me English folksy pastoral hippy bullshit, Jimmy? How am I supposed to sell this bleedin' record?"

[at least 100 dead]

Ugggh, I really hate D'yer Maker. But I love Crunge.

+1

[Halmyre]

I quite like 'D'Yer Maker'. 'The Crunge' on the other hand, screams 'throwaway'.

With the exception of 'Stu' the rest of the leftovers on here never struck me as being inferior tracks.

'In Through The Out Door' was the one album notably compromised by leaving off material. 'Wearing and Tearing' in particular should have been on there.

Good shout, but 'Wearing and Tearing' drags on for too long; it should have been shorter and snappier.

[grego]

Imagine Peter Grant in the control room, stomping and braying: “Where the fook is me English folksy pastoral hippy bullshit, Jimmy? How am I supposed to sell this bleedin' record?"

Seeing the film, and reading books about LZ, where the guy is repeatedly mentioned, I can easily imagine him saying something like that.

[rael74]

As much as a love Zeppelin, I find that they very much stuck to one particular type of music. Like the Stones in many ways.
I mean that, you could take a track off Zep 3 and stick it on Presence without it affecting the tone of the album.
I know Zep only really had a 6-7 year life span, but in the 70's this is like light years in terms of musical progression,
and I don't think Zep kept up with other bands around them (prog bands anyway)

They were an amazing band, and I would have to toss a coin between them and The Who as to who would come next after The Beatles as the greatest band ever.
I just would have liked more diversity and ambition in what they did. 'Friends', 'Crunge', 'Evermore' etc...are all unusual and dynamic tracks, but they're still distinctly "Zep".

I could never see Zep making The Wall, which is a shame.

[at least 100 dead]

As much as a love Zeppelin, I find that they very much stuck to one particular type of music.

Not really. Just look at their last studio effort - a lot of musical diversity to found there (many will say with mixed results, but that’s often the risk of trying new things).

[grego]

I could never see Zep making The Wall, which is a shame.

The Wall, as is The Final Cut, never really worked for me..comparing Floyd to Zep doesn't seem very reasonable..they're polar opposites in musical aspects. One thing that's common about them, both bands were megasellers..

[Jerjo]

I find that they very much stuck to one particular type of music.

I think in the later Zep albums there was an exploration of funk (The Crunge, Trampled Under Foot, Royal Orleans. South Bound Saurez), an infamous reggae misstep, pop (Houses of the Holy, Night Flight, Candy Store Rock, All of My Love. Fool in the Rain), and country/rockabilly (Down by the Seaside, Hot Dog). Add to that the usual amounts of blues, hard rock, Fifties rock n roll, bits of psychedelic, and folk it was a pretty diverse run for only eight studio albums. Not to mention the number of times they melded a few styles in one song. It's no wonder that most of their imitators stuck to just cranking out stop-time hard rock riffs and ignoring the rest. Not many bands have that much of a reach.

[grego]

They did prog as well, by the mood...the intro to HotH, sounds like guitar symphony...Rain song, with it's fancy harmonies..Carouselambra, three-parted mini-epic..
And Stairway as well..not yer common folksy ballad, isn't it..Many consider Achilles as prog..Yeah, well, being a hard rock act predominently, they had something to offer to the prog crowd.