Physical graffiti Remastered

[Walter]

I've listened to the companion discs waaaaay more often than the remastered original discs. While they sound better than before, I've just listened to them so many times already. The Paris concert too. The bootleg has the full HMMT, which is just awesome!

Looking forward to all the remaining companion discs!

[Mook]

I'm not planning to pre-order the bonus disc for any of the rest, including Physical Graffiti. To me, the only worthwhile one so far has been the debut album with the entire concert as a bonus. Even for just two or three dollars extra, the rest of the bonus discs thus far aren't worth the money.

I know this wasn't what Jimmy was trying to do, but it really would be better if all of these bonus discs had been live recordings from the period of the album. As it is, I think this reissue series has hurt the band's credibility slightly...if he really wanted to show how the songs came together, he needed to give us examples of the songs at much earlier stages in their development. "I do have the original tape that was running at the time we ran down "Stairway To Heaven" completely with the band. I'd worked it all out already the night before with John Paul Jones, written down the changes and things. All this time we were all living in a house and keeping pretty regular hours together, so the next day we started running it down. There was only one place where there was a slight rerun. For some unknown reason Bonzo couldn't get the timing right on the twelve-string part before the solo. Other than that it flowed very quickly." THAT's the type of shit he should have put on the bonus discs!

I can understand what you're saying but he's hardly likely to include takes where a particular member of the band is struggling with the timing. Especially in the case of John Bonham.

[NealKenneth]

Knowing the perfectionist Jimmy is, I agree that it would be unlikely, but it would have meant a lot more to fans than the barely-distinguishable differences in mixing we got.

[appiantiqua]

Here's the CLASSIC ROCK review of Physical Graffiti companion disc:

Those Bonus Tracks In Full by Joe Daly

Brandy & Coke 
(Trampled Under Foot - Initial Rough Mix)

On this early version of Trampled Under Foot, the dizzying interplay between John Bonham and John Paul Jones on the clavinet underscores what far too many fail to grasp, which is that Led Zeppelin were the funkiest hard rock band of the 70s. Stripped of post-production effects and bristling with swagger, this fiendishly danceable blowout invites close comparisons to chart-topping disco acts such as K.C. & The Sunshine Band.

Sick Again (Early Version)

Before morphing into a caustic rebuke of LA’s teenage groupies, Sick Again began as this bare-knuckled pentatonic free-for-all, sizzling with Jimmy Page’s funk-infused slide and Bonham’s propulsive triplets. Clocking in at just over two minutes and without Robert Plant’s vocals, this version is the most fragmentary of the bonus tracks.

In My Time Of Dying (Initial Rough Mix)

The framework for the album version is almost entirely in place on this rough mix, although the breathtaking interplay between Jones, Page and Bonham building up to the climax enjoys a bracing new clarity. This version also highlights Bonzo’s signature style of locking in with Page’s riffing rather than cleaving to repeating metronomic time signatures.

Houses Of The Holy 
(Rough Mix with Overdubs)

While the debate raged on as to whether or not Stairway To Heaven concealed hidden Satanic messages, the song Houses Of The Holy contained not one but two overt references to the Prince Of Darkness. Here on the rough mix, the second of these lyrics — ‘Satan and man’ — is missing. Otherwise, apart from modest overdubs, this mix hews closely to the album version.

Everybody Makes It Through 
(In The Light Early Version/In Transit)

The most radical departure from its finished counterpart, this early take on In the Light begins with a baroque harpsichord passage rather than the two minutes of pseudo-futuristic synths that open the album version. Also featuring alternate lyrics and brighter dynamics from Page, this version is brooding, sparsely-rendered and utterly absorbing.

Boogie With Stu (Sunset Sound Mix)

In 1971, longtime Stones tour manager and keyboardist Ian “Stu” Stewart turned up at Headley Grange, where Zep were recording IV. A boozy, free-flowing jam ensued, featuring Stu on piano, Robert on guitar and Jimmy on mandolin. In this mix, Stu’s part is brought front and centre – a subtle, but appreciable tweak that amplifies the driving Dixieland blues vibe that Stu so dearly loved.

Driving Through Kashmir 
(Kashmir Rough Orchestra Mix)

The mesmerising groove that underpins Zeppelin’s crowning moment materialised during a jam session between Bonham and Page, but it would be the imperious orchestral backdrop that would cement the song’s iconic status. On this rough mix, the brass and strings are at the fore, revealing subtle accents and softer flourishes that are difficult to hear in the final version.

FINAL VERDICT: 10/10

[Sathington Willoughby]

^Nice post, thanks for sharing! Looks like Everybody Makes It Through is indeed the version I was hoping for! Sweet!

[luvlz2]

So is Jimmy Page attending any Physical Graffiti listening events?

[Sathington Willoughby]

So is Jimmy Page attending any Physical Graffiti listening events?

James Cook (LedZepNews) broke the story a few days ago that there will be a live-streamed listening event for PG on February 19th, broadcast from Olympic Studios, much like the one conducted for the first three albums. (Thanks to Melcore for sharing)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/b/ref=s9_acss_bw_hsb_MusicSli_s2_s?_encoding=UTF8&ie=UTF8&node=5752373031&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-2&pf_rd_r=0PJ9PNYVXAXGCFBT8HMB&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=580503887&pf_rd_i=229816&tag=smarturl-gb-21

[andrew r]

Is it me or does The superdeluxe edition of Graffiti show three separate side opening

covers for the vinyl? The description of the set from Amazon also says

" vinyl 1&2 come in separate single new covers replicating the original album cover"

The deluxe vinyl also shows the "graffiti" style inners whereas the superdeluxe does not?

Any thoughts?

[ksgemini]

All I can say is Can not wait to hear the remastered PG This, III, and Presence are my favorite LZ albums which I guess goes against the grain but I was 12 when this came out and it is when I discovered the band past the few radio staples at the time By 77 Had them all in my collection... it is blasphemy out in the world to say this but I prefer this 10X over the Beatles White... PG-best double lp ever! Maybe just plain best ever.

[sam_webmaster]

Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti remastered review – a monolithic reissue of the band’s late breakthrough

5 / 5 stars

Led Zeppelin’s most ambitious record might never have been released. When it was, it marked their zenith

In retrospect, that Physical Graffiti emerged at all – let alone that it now merits an all-bells-and-whistles 40th anniversary repackaging – is something of a miracle. The recording sessions began with bassist John Paul Jones wanting to quit. He told Zeppelin’s manager, Peter Grant, that he’d had enough of touring and intended to retire from rock’n’roll to work with the choir at Winchester Cathedral, before being persuaded back. After more than a year away, the band emerged in early 1975 to tour in support of the record, which they still hadn’t actually managed to release; by this time John Bonham’s drinking had taken such a toll that he looked more like a middle-aged office worker gone to seed than the 26-year-old drummer of the world’s biggest band. One account of the 1975 tour holds that Bonham’s roadie, Mick Hinton, had to ensure a ready supply of nappies for when the alcohol caused Bonham to lose control of his bladder. A tale from the recording has Bonham turning up with a bag containing his drugs – not a couple of pills to liven up the day, but 1,500 Mandrax, the sedative known in the US as quaaludes and beloved of Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street and to which Robert Plant attributed the hypnotic, soporific drum pattern of Kashmir. Jimmy Page, meanwhile, was moving on from cocaine to heroin, and deepening his interest in what he referred to as “my studies of mysticism and eastern and western traditions of magick and tantra” and what lots of other people referred to as his eyebrow-raising obsession with the occult.

As for the album itself, the first recording sessions were scrapped because of Jones’s desire to decamp to Winchester, and the finished double album saw the eight songs they had recorded for it supplemented by seven from the sessions for their third, fourth and fifth albums, bearing such unpromising titles as Down By the Seaside, Black Country Woman and, worst of all, Boogie With Stu. When it came out, though, Physical Graffiti marked Zeppelin’s zenith, their transition from an enormous group that their fans knew about to an enormous group that everyone knew about – it was the first album ever to go platinum on advance orders alone. One Atlantic Records executive observed that “the audience was ahead of the company … I never saw an album sell as much as Graffiti. You’d go to stores and there were lines and everybody was waiting to buy the same record”.

Not many of those copies went straight to secondhand stores, because Physical Graffiti turned out to be a masterpiece. It’s not without its oddities: the second side of its vinyl iteration (and its pacing really does work much better across four sides of vinyl) might be the most monumental 20 minutes or so in rock. The heavy, riffy southern R&B of Houses of the Holy moves into the extraordinary, Stevie Wonder-inspired Trampled Under Foot, which manages to invent funk rock and – by virtue of John Bonham’s no-city-left-unrazed approach to drumming – be deeply unfunky at the same time, before concluding with Kashmir, the cod-mystic epic that defies you to laugh at it, but offers not a single dull moment across its eight minutes. This is the Led Zeppelin that shouted from the top of mountaintops, the group you might reasonably expect to be announced as your new overlords were their private jet – the Starship – to land at your local airport. So why is it side two? It feels for all the world like a side four. It’s even odder on CD, where those three tracks are preceded by the equally towering In My Time of Dying, which rather overbalances the disc.

But some of Physical Graffiti’s best moments are the less dramatic ones. In the Light would be a standout on an album less frontloaded with the kind of songs that routinely crop up high on magazine polls. Down By the Seaside, originally recorded for the fourth album, on to which it would have fitted about as well as gatefold photo of Ken Dodd instead of that picture of the old hermit, is delicious. Though everyone who has ever listened to Led Zeppelin knows they were about far more than stürm und drang, they stürmed and dranged so persuasively that it’s easy to forget they could be nostalgic and wistful and utterly unpompous when the mood took them. Page’s mastery extended not just to studio techniques and soloing and making up riffs: he was fantastic at creating and changing atmospheres, and for all the musical themes that crop up again and again across the group’s catalogue, he rarely repeats himself.

Whether or not you need to buy this edition of Physical Graffiti is another question. The remastering sounds fine, but it’s not revelatory. Nor are the unreleased tracks on the companion disc essential – it’s the early version of In the Light, rather than the takes of In My Time of Dying, Trampled Under Foot or Kashmir, that offers something new (one presumes Page must be saving the best unused material for the reissue of Coda, because it’s hard to imagine many takers for that ragbag compilation otherwise). Nevertheless, it’s an album that actually deserves a monolith of a box, and one whose title was supremely well chosen. Physical Graffiti is the sound of a group writing their identity, in huge block capitals of sound, across popular culture.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/feb/19/led-zeppelin-physical-graffiti-remastered-review

[apantherfrommd]

Many songs start out with "Working Titles" and after the piece of music evolves and where the lyrics are going, the song doesn't remain the same, nor does the name.

So the song doesn't necessarily retain the name the same. I believe "Slush" was the working title for The Rain Song.

The Physical Graffiti Re-master/Companion was full of light & shade. I was proud to see Page live in London’s Olympic Studios. The album resonated so well to present so many different aspects of character. It was so much more vast than it appeared at first glance. It was heavenance and enthusiastic. It seemed an interpretation of the life of Led Zeppelin throughout the early years of the life of Led Zeppelin. The feedback of Physical Graffiti completes the sum of it's whole.

[andrew r]

Something miraculous happened with PG playback last night

All of a sudden everyone is getting excited about Monday

A lot of the ennui and stupor surrounding these re releases

has lifted.Thought the questions in the main got the best response from Jim

so far.... Apart from the German woman with the purple hair.

"what is the significance of the Dragon suit...do you like dragons ...

so it could have been a frog?" Classic

[appiantiqua]

I'm listening my DELUXE 3 cd's edition of PG : in France cd's shop don't wait until official release date...

After a few bars of CUSTARD PIE the magic works : the sound remains raw as we like for this record but more balanced

THE ROVER sound strange at first ... it looks like a little saturation comes on the guitar ... i have to listen the previous remaster and original vinyl again ...

In my time of dying is just awesome .... by far better and powerfull in comparison to that we know ...

more to come ....

[sam_webmaster]

For fans in Spain:

http://musica.fnac.es/a1098227/Led-Zeppelin-Physical-Graffitti-3-CD-Remasterizado-sin-especificar

Puedes llevarte 1 de los 10 cubos de Rubik de Led Zeppelin que sorteamos entre los compradores de cualquier edición de "Physical Grafitti"'. Ver las bases.

Promoción exclusiva en Fnac.es. Válida hasta el 28 de Febrero. El sorteo se realizará el 3 de marzo.
Sólo para productos vendidos por Fnac.es

http://musica.fnac.es/a1098227/Led-Zeppelin-Physical-Graffitti-3-CD-Remasterizado-sin-especificar

[Mook]

Just got an e-mail from Amazon to say mine has been dispatched, I reckon this is possibly the most I've ever looked forward to a Monday.

[Darlas y]

For fans in Spain:

http://musica.fnac.es/a1098227/Led-Zeppelin-Physical-Graffitti-3-CD-Remasterizado-sin-especificar

Puedes llevarte 1 de los 10 cubos de Rubik de Led Zeppelin que sorteamos entre los compradores de cualquier edición de "Physical Grafitti"'. Ver las bases.

Promoción exclusiva en Fnac.es. Válida hasta el 28 de Febrero. El sorteo se realizará el 3 de marzo. Sólo para productos vendidos por Fnac.es

http://musica.fnac.es/a1098227/Led-Zeppelin-Physical-Graffitti-3-CD-Remasterizado-sin-especificar

Gracias. I've never been good at assembling the cube though.

[The Old Hermit]

CD, vinyl, or full deluxe box set, Mook? I'm getting the standard two-disc CD edition, the companion discs so far have been somewhat underwhelming affairs to date (taking nothing away from those who do enjoy them!), and having already heard the PG companion material in the playback event on Thursday night, I've no compulsion to hear them again, plus I don't want the gorgeous reproduced sleeve design messed up which happens with the deluxe editions... but it's nice Jimmy gave people the choice, so kudos to him (although plastic inner sleeves for the CD's would have been nice).

I truly believe the digital versions of these remastered albums will be as close as anyone actually comes to hearing the original analogue master tapes in all their pre-generational glory, people always talk about vinyl being more representative of the original studio recordings, but that's a misconception; what people hear on records is the material (music) being filtered through the format (vinyl), resulting in the so-called warmth and low-end sound many people adore, but that's not how the original analogue tapes sound, the so-called 'warmth' people hear on LP's is actually a subtle distortion effect that just happens to sound really good, the sound of the original analogue master tapes can be more faithfully reproduced and captured with a properly mastered CD (according to some veteran engineers, like Bob Ludwig for example)... and to these ears, that's exactly what has happened with the current remastered CD's; they sound just stellar, so warm and dynamic, with such clarity, detail, and separation with a big wide sonic soundstage, and not a hint of any compression or clipping... OH BABY!!!

Still, different strokes for different folks and all that...

[Strider]

Review from the Consequence of Sound website: http://consequenceofsound.net/2015/02/album-review-led-zeppelin-physical-graffiti-reissue/

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti [Reissue]

By Jon Hadusek February 19, 2015

Led Zeppelin couldn’t be contained by the standard audio formats of the early ’70s. They had too many ideas, too many good songs, and no interest in leaving any of them behind. They ran the Swan Song label imprint; the standard 40-minute LP duration was of no consequence. Just make a double album.

Physical Graffiti compiles recordings from 1970 through 1974, eight new songs and seven of their strongest unreleased recordings, though you wouldn’t know it by listening. It’s constructed for continuity, and except for Robert Plant’s voice sounding deeper on the ’74 recordings, it sounds like it could’ve all come from the same sessions. It’s a sampling of Zeppelin at the peak of their powers, an embodiment of the band’s classic era, and the last classic album they’d release.

If The White Album revolutionized the double LP — the idea of an album as a sprawling, singular piece, not just a song dump — then Physical Graffiti proved that it could work as both an artistic statement and a commercial product. Typically, a band cuts material to improve a record and make it more concise. This one benefited from the excess. It can live on your turntable for days at a time because there’s just so much to listen to. Also, it increases the chances that one of those songs becomes a hit, or in this case, a staple of classic rock radio (“Kashmir”). It’s an airtight compilation brimming with remarkable performances, from John Bonham’s drumming (more experimental and jazzy, especially the fills) to John Paul Jones’ countless instrumental touches.

Bouncy opener “Custard Pie” kicks off side A with a raunchy innuendo, its closing blues harmonica solo trailing into “The Rover”, which touts some of Jimmy Page’s most underrated guitar lines. These steady rockers set the tempo and build momentum — integral when you’re trying to keep listeners entertained for 82 minutes. After two uppers, “In My Time of Dying” descends into a droning blues that sounds exactly like its title. It’s the first in a series of such tracks, all arguably among Physical Graffiti’s finest moments. The masterful run of “Houses of the Holy”, “Trampled Under Foot”, and “Kashmir” closes out the first half of the album.

Then Physical Graffiti gets weird and mysterious, but it’s this second part of the double album that cements its legendary status. There are less recognizable hits, and the mood is downbeat and meditative a la Led Zeppelin III. “In the Light” erratically builds from solo organs and doom riffs to a cheerful chorus of major scales (personally, this is one of my favorite Zeppelin songs because its arrangement shouldn’t work, but it does). “Ten Years Gone”, one of Page/Plant’s most sincere compositions, hits an emotional climax before side D falls into a loose, jammy groove, highlighted by the heavy riffs of “The Wanton Song” and the Ian Stewart-assisted “Boogie with Stu”. The album doesn’t peter out so much as it casually reaches its conclusion, the comedown after an intense journey.

Some notes on the reissue: Remastered by Page himself, this is the best digital version ofPhysical Graffiti available and the definitive way to hear the album if you don’t own a turntable. You can’t beat the original Atlantic/Swan Song pressings. Page produced every Zeppelin record specifically for vinyl, with warm, fat bass that emphasizes the band’s heaviness. Naturally, this is lost on digital formats. (I was sent mp3 audio for this review, so I can’t speak for the quality of the LP that was also released as part of this reissue campaign.) A third disc of bonus tracks is included, featuring an early take of “Trampled Under Foot” called “Brandy & Coke” and other alternate versions. An early version of “In the Light” called “Everybody Makes It Through” and “Driving Through Kashmir (Kashmir Rough Orchestra Mix)” provide a curious glimpse at these songs in a working stage, but overall, there’s nothing we haven’t already heard in some form or another. Zeppelin had no interest in leaving anything on the cutting room floor — the whole point of Physical Graffitibeing a double album — so there’s no worthy studio material left in the vaults outside alternate takes and rough mixes that serve no practical purpose for the common listener.

[Mook]

CD, vinyl, or full deluxe box set, Mook? I'm getting the standard two-disc CD edition, the companion discs so far have been somewhat underwhelming affairs to date (taking nothing away from those who do enjoy them!), and having already heard the PG companion material in the playback event on Thursday night, I've no compulsion to hear them again, plus I don't want the gorgeous reproduced sleeve design messed up which happens with the deluxe editions... but it's nice Jimmy gave people the choice, so kudos to him (although plastic inner sleeves for the CD's would have been nice).

I truly believe the digital versions of these remastered albums will be as close as anyone actually comes to hearing the original analogue master tapes in all their pre-generational glory, people always talk about vinyl being more representative of the original studio recordings, but that's a misconception; what people hear on records is the material (music) being filtered through the format (vinyl), resulting in the so-called warmth and low-end sound many people adore, but that's not how the original analogue tapes sound, the so-called 'warmth' people hear on LP's is actually a subtle distortion effect that just happens to sound really good, the sound of the original analogue master tapes can be more faithfully reproduced and captured with a properly mastered CD (according to some veteran engineers, like Bob Ludwig for example)... and to these ears, that's exactly what has happened with the current remastered CD's; they sound just stellar, so warm and dynamic, with such clarity, detail, and separation with a big wide sonic soundstage, and not a hint of any compression or clipping... OH BABY!!!

Still, different strokes for different folks and all that...

3 CD set for me. I'd love the vinyl but haven't gotten round to getting a record player.

[sam_webmaster]

German record store:

[sam_webmaster]

New Physical Graffiti official merch & Exclusive Physical Graffiti Bundles Now Available

[Mook]

Hey, Sam, is there a size guide for the t-shirts? I fancy one but couldn't see a guide (I have been drinking Toilet Duck very heavily so you'll have to excuse me if I've missed it)...

[Stairway is NOT stolen]

I had hoped to see 'In The Morning' or at least 'Swan Song' on the Album. Shame.

[Sathington Willoughby]

I had hoped to see 'In The Morning' or at least 'Swan Song' on the Album. Shame.

In the Morning is there, it's just called Everybody Makes it Through (Early Version/In Transit).

[JTM]

I had hoped to see 'In The Morning' or at least 'Swan Song' on the Album. Shame.

Swan Song ? nah, the version I have is just however many minutes it is of acoustic dullness.

In the Light early version, fuck yeah.