AboutChris M. Zangara Expertise I`m not only a Zeppelin collector but I have been collecting Zeppelin - and Page/Plant music & information for over 20 years. I am truly a lover of Page/Plant music in & out of Zeppelin simply because of the honesty & integrity of it all. - I have been studying them for as long as I have been listening to Rock/Blues Music. I look forward to any question and will answer the very best I can - as above all - I am just a fan like you!
Question I'm doing an assignment which involves presenting an overview and analysis of the front cover of Physical Graffiti. Just wondering if you could help me out . Any information will be useful. Thanks Tom
Answer Hi Tom,
The two five-story buildings photographed for the album cover are located at 96 and 98 St. Marks Place in New York City. But to enable it to fit, the fourth floor had to be cropped out. So for the album cover it became a four-story building instead. The front cover is a daytime image, while the back cover is the same image but at nighttime. Mike Doud is listed as the Cover Artist on the inner sleeve & either the concept or design or both were his, he passed away in the early 1990's and this album design was one of his crowning achievements in a lifetime of design, he was later to win a Grammy for best album cover of the year 1978. The buildings used on the cover were the same that Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were filmed in front of in the Rolling Stones video "Waiting on a Friend". There is currently a used clothing store in the basement of 96 St. Mark's Place called Physical Graffiti.
The original album included four covers made up of two inners (for each disc), a middle insert cover and an outer cover. The inner covers depict various objects and people in each window. The middle insert cover is white and details all the album track listings and recording information. The outer cover has die-cut windows on the building, so when the middle cover is wrapped around the inner covers and slid into the outer cover, the title of the album is shown on the front cover, spelling out the name "Physical Graffiti".
The album was nominated for a Grammy for Cover Design in 1976.
A little known story, and a favorite rock n roll tale – is the one where Led Zeppelin, having borrowed clothing from their groupies and dressed as women as a joke one night in Los Angeles in 1974, having invited George Harrison to dinner.
What nobody expected was that Harrison had invited Stevie Wonder to join them for dinner. Zeppelin, thinking it would ONLY be Harrison, stayed in drag for a good laugh. When the former Beatle arrived with Stevie Wonder, Harrison jaw dropped as he immediately feared the group had dressed as women to mock Wonder’s blindness. The members of Led Zeppelin were understandably horrified when they saw Stevie Wonder on the arm of George Harrison.
Pictures of the event later appeared on the inner sleeve of Physical Graffiti. If you look closely you will see some very ugly women – those being Page, Plant and road manager Cole.
