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What if Physical Graffiti was 2 single albums?


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There are many polls here asking us to rank the Zeppelin albums in order. Physical Graffiti is often listed as the best, but being a double album that kind of weighs the process doesn't it? I mean, 15 songs on one album set! Heck yes its one of the best! But, what if the albums were released singly? I understand that if that was done they probably would have been arranged differently, but there is no way to know how, so lets go with what we have. Lets say PG1 was released as is:

Side 1:                                                                      

1. Custard Pie

2. The Rover

3. In My Time of Dying

Side 2:

4. Houses of the Holy

5. Trampled Underfoot

6. Kashmir

 

Then maybe 8 or 9  months later PG2 was released:

Side 1:

1. In The Light

2. Bron-Yr-Aur

3. Down By The Seaside

4. Ten Years Gone

Side 2:

5. Night Flight

6. The Wanton Song

7. Boogie With Stu

8. Black Country Woman

9. Sick Again

I wonder how that would affect the rankings? To me, PG1 would suffer because of Trampled Underfoot (used to love it, bought the 45 when it was released, maybe I loved it to death because I cant stand it now), otherwise it would be a dynamite album. Side 1 of PG2 would be the ultimate side as to me every one of those songs would make my 'top 20' list of Zep songs. Side 2 suffers from The Wanton Song. Never really warmed to it. Its okay, and I never skipped over it while I was air guitaring to it on my 8 track in the mid 70s, just a weak song for me. And yes I love Boogie With Stu. I personally rank Presence as number 1 in my book (Achilles! Nobodys fault! Tea for One (maybe my #1 Zep song)! Hots on! For Your Life!), even with 2 weak songs (Royal Orleans and Candy Store Rock) the album still rises above Physical. But for those of you who put PG as your favorite Zep album, would either of the individual albums retain the number one spot or would your second place ranking then rise to number one?

As an aside, if they did this, releasing PG1 in Feb of 1975 and PG2 in say December of 75 or Jan of 76, perhaps Presence would not have been rushed, perhaps "10 Ribs and All" would have been finished for a release on the album with a release date sometime in Jan of 1977. Just a thought.

 

 

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8 or 9 months later?

This would be totally out of character for Led Zeppelin with respect to studio releases.  As desperate as us fans were, it would completely go against their protocol of making the fans wait.  We have to also appreciate that the mid 70s were notorious for the big acts of the time to release doubles.

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1 hour ago, corduroyg said:

just rank it based on the new songs they recorded

 

custard pie

in my time of dying

trampled underfoot

kashmir

in the light

ten years gone

the wanton song

sick again

 

still a monster

 

 

Absolutely... a monster.                  

 8 powerhouse songs, all classic. 

The 7 older tracks help make PG such a varied album though.  The 8 tracks from 74 are a heavier Zeppelin.

Presence makes a little more sense when you look at just the 8 tracks from 74.. 

 I wouldn't change a thing. 

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That album, the song sequences, the mood changes from song to song, are in my mind at least written in stone. And

don't forget PG is regarded as likely one of the top five double studio albums of the 70's.

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On 1/17/2009 at 0:53 PM, Virginia said:

How about "That's the Way"?

My favorite, too. Only because I don't consider Ten Years Gone a ballad. 

Actually I can't consider anything they've done strictly a ballad because the genre limits them. To me the slower numbers were just Zeppelin songs just like the rest of them.

Still, I like your choice.

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Why mess with perfection? "Physical Graffiti" was intended as a statement. Its sheer physical heft was a part of that statement. Split them up and you negate the intended effect the band wanted to have on the listener.

1 hour ago, The Good Doctor said:

My favorite, too. Only because I don't consider Ten Years Gone a ballad. 

Actually I can't consider anything they've done strictly a ballad because the genre limits them. To me the slower numbers were just Zeppelin songs just like the rest of them.

Still, I like your choice.

I think you are in the wrong thread, given that the post you responded to was written before this thread even existed.

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You can all ask Heart about that. Originally, the album Magazine was supposed to be a double album. The record company refused to release a double album as their sophomore release so they broke it up and released two mediocre albums, Magazine & then Bebe La Strange two albums later. So instead of a great and likely massive hit the original concept for Magazine would have been, we have two ok albums which under-performed instead.

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On ‎7‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 6:22 PM, corduroyg said:

just rank it based on the new songs they recorded

 

custard pie

in my time of dying

trampled underfoot

kashmir

in the light

ten years gone

the wanton song

sick again

 

still a monster

 

 

This.

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On 7/7/2017 at 3:22 PM, corduroyg said:

just rank it based on the new songs they recorded

 

custard pie

in my time of dying

trampled underfoot

kashmir

in the light

ten years gone

the wanton song

sick again

 

still a monster

 

 

The only problem is that you could not fit those songs on one slab of vinyl. Hence the impetus to expand the album into a double.

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On 7/11/2017 at 1:55 PM, SymphonyX said:

Considering lot of Physical songs are from Houses, what if Houses Of The Holy was a double album. 

I think a lot of people agree the title track should've been on it. No idea why it was left off. Replace The Grunge with it. Black Country Woman would've fit the atmosphere of the album nicely. I think Boogie With Stu was better off on PG.

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1 hour ago, gibsonfan159 said:

I think a lot of people agree the title track should've been on it. No idea why it was left off. Replace The Grunge with it. Black Country Woman would've fit the atmosphere of the album nicely. I think Boogie With Stu was better off on PG.

Apparently the band left the title track off of Houses of the Holy because they felt it was too similar to Dancing Days. I like Black Country Woman, but I can't see where or how it would've fit in with the rest of Houses of the Holy.

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5 hours ago, tmtomh said:

Apparently the band left the title track off of Houses of the Holy because they felt it was too similar to Dancing Days. I like Black Country Woman, but I can't see where or how it would've fit in with the rest of Houses of the Holy.

Yes. I believe Dancing Days was far too similar and they choose Dancing Days over Houses because they were much happier with the outcome of it at the time. They struggled with the recording of it (complexity???) as I recall and were ecstatic when they had it down. Souerce: stuffed if I remember, but I did read it somewhere....

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2 hours ago, middlezep said:

I understand the thought...but it would fucking suck. 

How so, how is that possible. There is nothing about PG that ''sucks''now (I hate the term sucks) so little bit of  song shuffle is not going to change anything.

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I was just feeling old and grumpy and misunderstood the thread. I usually enjoy rearranging the song orders, on one of these threads combining physical graffiti and presence, i put all the epics on the double album and all the rock stuff on the single album.

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