Led Zeppelin Celebrate 50 Years of ‘Physical Graffiti’ with New Live EP
50 years after issuing their triumphant sixth studio album, Led Zeppelin have unveiled their plans to celebrate a half-century of Physical Graffiti with a new Live EP. Arriving on Sept. 16 via Rhino alongside a deluxe repressing of the immortal 1975 record, the four-track collection features concert recordings of “In My Time of Dying,” “Trampled Under Foot,” “Sick Again” and “Kashmir,” capturing the on-stage energy of the creatively invigorated and pivotal era.
Physical Graffiti was Led Zeppelin’s first release on their Swan Song imprint, which granted the band a new creative freedom they fully embraced with their first-ever double album. The 15 tracks that compile the record were a mix of new compositions–like the pummeling riffs of “In My Time of Dying” and “The Wanton Song” and radio-ready rough psychedelia of “Kashmir” and “Ten Years Gone”–and fine-tuned holdovers from previous sessions, like the loose and languid blues of “Down by the Seaside” from the Led Zeppelin IV sessions and tuneful acoustic bramble of “Bron-Yr-Aur” from the Led Zeppelin III sessions. Taken together, the sharply divergent tracks cohere as an expression of the group’s complex and evolving perspective, now widely regarded as a high point in their expansive catalog.
“We had enough material for one-and-a-half LPs, so I figured, ‘Let’s put out a double and use some of the material we’d done previously but never released,’” Jimmy Page recalled. “I always thought the sequencing of an album was really important and that was part of my role as the producer.”
“It goes from one extreme to the other but at the same time, it’s very evident that it’s Zeppelin,” Robert Plant echoed. “I love the album and it does work as a double album. There are some real humdinger, roaring tracks.”
“I’m a big fan of Physical Graffiti. [It] was very wide ranging,” John Paul Jones shared. “It probably was a pinnacle.”
The four-track Live EP features exemplary recordings of some of the central songs from Physical Graffiti, culled from landmark live moments that followed the album’s release. Side A includes “In My Time of Dying” and “Trampled Under Foot,” taped during Led Zeppelin’s five-night May 1975 homecoming series at London’s Earl’s Court after their 10-week US tour. Side B includes “Sick Again” and “Kashmir” from the band’s headlining performances at Hertfordshire, England’s Knebworth Festival in August 1979, which were their first UK dates since the Earl’s Court shows. All four tracks will arrive on digital and CD/vinyl formats for the first time after an initial release as part of the 2003 Led Zeppelin DVD.
Led Zeppelin’s new Live EP and Physical Graffiti reissue are available to pre-order now. Listen to the advance single “Trampled Under Foot (Live from Earl’s Court, 1975)” below, and find more information on the project at ledzeppelin.com.
On February 7, Sony Pictures Classics released Becoming Led Zeppelin, a new documentary that chronicles the legendary heavy metal innovators’ early years and ascent through archival materials and first-hand accounts from the iconic quartet. Learn more about the band’s first official feature film here.
