on the turntable

May 20, 2008 21:34

Physical Gaffiti, Led Zeppelin, 1975



front cover

This album jacket has such a wonderful, clever design. The windows of the apartment building are cut out and there are three interchangeable sheets that you can slip into the jacket to reveal different images. The first inner sheet has the song listings on it, but through the windows it spells Physical Grafiti.




inner disc cover 1



Looking at this album reminds me of advent calendars, opening the little paper doors to reveal a picture inside. The images are strange and disparate though- a nun under an umbrella, a 'strong man' posing on a rocky beach, a missle dropping, a man on a phone, a couple in an embrace, Cleopatra...

As well as advent calendars, it reminds me of catching glimpses of brightly lit apartment windows in the city- a warm yellow light, or the flash of a blue TV light in an otherwise dark room that catches your eye from the night street.

inner disc cover 2






close-up (includes a strange old man lathered in shaving cream, apparently from an ad for Pear's Shaving Stick, an image of the Madonna and child, and Dorothy waking up in Kansas surrounded by her family and neighbors)

And then there is the music on the vinyl disc inside. Here is Kashmir, the band's own favorite of all their songs.

image Click to view

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