ALBUM RELEASE NEWS

Sounds caress my ear and the story is quite clear, as Led Zeppelin have just announced plans for how they’re going to celebrate the 50th anniversary of 1975’s seminal double-album extravaganza Physical Graffiti. To that end, the mighty Zep will be releasing a) an all-new Live E.P. on 180g vinyl, in addition to b) an updated 50th Anniversary edition of 2015’s Physical Graffiti Deluxe Edition 180g 3LP set, both of which are coming out via Swan Song on September 12, 2025.

The new Live E.P. features four live recordings in total, two per each 12in side. (The studio versions of each live track appear on Physical Graffiti proper.) On Side One, “In My Time of Dying” and “Trampled Under Foot” come from Earl’s Court in London in May 1975, while Side Two features “Sick Again” and “Kashmir” from Knebworth, England, in August 1979. Eagle ears (and eyes!) will recall these four live performances were originally released on DVD2 in 2003’s still-cherished Led Zeppelin DVD set via Atlantic, but now they’re finally appearing officially on vinyl for the first time. (Yes, my fellow Zep completists, companion CD and digital options for the Live E.P. will also be made available on the same release date.)

Naturally, many of us hardcore Zep fans have, er, various unauthorized vinyl editions of the balance of the multiple Earl’s Court and Knebworth gigs, but it will certainly be a beautiful thing to get a quartet of approved live tracks between them on wax. To whet your Live E.P. whistle, here’s the official YouTube clip for “Trampled Under Foot,” as Zep performed it at Earl’s Court in London, in May 1975. Hands up — how many of you always thought “Under Foot” in that song title was actually one word, and not two? Well, some of you might get a pass on that since it appears as one word on both the back cover and interior credits on the DVD package, but I digress. . . anyway, enjoy the clip!

Here’s hoping full-show releases from both Earl’s Court and Knebworth are in the offing for future multi-LP Zep sets. At the very least, six performances from Earl’s Court (albeit sans the apostrophe, on the packaging) and seven from Knebworth appear on DVD2 in that aforementioned Led Zeppelin DVD release, so individual 1LP options are certainly doable for each locale (if not more, please!).

Also, if memory serves, when I bought my first two unauthorized Zep LP forays back in my college days, I had to outlay close to a C-note in total for both of ’em, collectively speaking. (Thankfully, I had banked some extra cash from my summer job at a local technical book publisher for just these kinds of “unforeseen expenditures.”) My initial Knebworth vinyl offering came in a sleeve with a cover logo style mirroring that of the angled, purple rubber-stamp-bleed band name/album title rectangular block seen on the brown-bag cover wrap that housed Zep’s August 1979 LP In Through the Out Door, while my first Earl’s Court outing on wax sported a B&W photo of a semi-shirted Robert Plant onstage in front of a microphone and looking at something off-camera at stage right, along with the band name split in two above and below him, all of it done in handbill style in light lime-green as a partial wraparound on its otherwise white cardboard outer sleeve.

Back to the official stuff now! The Live E.P. sports an SRP of $19.95, and it can be pre-ordered directly from Zep’s official site here, in addition to Rhino’s official site here.

As for the companion Physical Graffiti Deluxe Edition 3LP vinyl set, it has an SRP of $64.95, and it can be pre-ordered from Zep here and Rhino here, as well as Music Direct here. It’s being called the “updated 50th Anniversary edition” of 2015’s Jimmy Page-approved reissue that features the officially dubbed Companion Audio third LP that serves up a combo platter of seven then-unreleased rough mixes and early versions. (All of those tracks are named in the tracklisting section near the end of this story.) All new-to-2025 3LP sets now include the new bonus replica Physical Graffiti promo poster (which measures 443 x 610mm), while the 3LP version available in both the Zep and Rhino stores also include a replica of the Earl’s Court concert program (sorry, I meant “programme”).

My own copy of the February 2015 release came as part of the mondo-expensive PG Super Deluxe Edition box set, and I’m happy to get another set of those 3LPs in hand to see if there have been any aural upgrades involved. Speaking of that ten-years-gone prior edition of PG, the Music is a clear 10.5 and the Sound was a solid 8.5, as I didn’t experience any of the “Holy”-related skipping issues others have oft-groused about out there on the interwebs. And I still have my well-preserved original 1975 2LP Swan Song set for further comparison — well-preserved both inside and outside, I might add, as I made for damn sure all those smallish, die-cut tenement windows on both the front and back cover never got bent or ripped. Needless to say, we will be reviewing both the Live E.P. and 2025 3LP Physical Graffiti set here on AP once we have them in hand. (And, if we get further details about where all this new vinyl was pressed and what the source material was, we’ll include that info as well.)

More background on PG and E.P. (periods in the latter title officially theirs, and not necessarily our abbreviation choice) now, some of which comes via the official press release, along with my own added commentary. Released via Swan Song on February 24, 1975, in the U.S. (and four days later in the UK), Led Zeppelin’s sixth studio LP Physical Graffiti boasted 15 tracks spread across four sides, and it immediately achieved platinum (i.e., million-selling) status. More recently, PG has been certified as 17x platinum.

In that press statement, vocalist Robert Plant observed that Physical Graffiti “goes from one extreme to the other, but at the same time, it’s very evident that it’s Zeppelin. [. . .] I love the album, and it does work as a double album. There are some real humdinger, roaring tracks.” Added bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, “I’m a big fan of Physical Graffiti. [It] was very wide-ranging. It probably was a pinnacle.” (I most wholeheartedly agree with both Zep-men’s PG assessments!)

Guitarist/producer Jimmy Page began the initial work on what ultimately became PG at his home studio in Plumpton, Sussex, England, in the summer and autumn of 1973, with the first recording sessions taking place that October at Headley Grange, using Ronnie Lane’s Mobile Studio. Further sessions at Headley continued in January 1974. Additional overdubs were recorded at Olympic Studios, where Page completed mixing of the album in July 1974.

As Page observed, “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.’ I always thought the sequencing of an album was really important, and that was part of my role as the producer.” (Brief sidenote: I asked Page directly about the importance of vinyl and sequencing at Zep’s press conference in NYC for Celebration Day on October 9, 2012 — but that’s an analog-lovin’ story for another post, another time. Don’t let me forget, though!)

Physical Graffiti was not only Zep’s first double LP, it was also the first release on their new label, Swan Song, which launched in May 1974. The album’s release was announced on November 13, 1974, and it came out four months later. The 2LP set was comprised of new compositions including “Kashmir,” “Sick Again,” “Ten Years Gone,” “The Wanton Song,” “Custard Pie,” “Trampled Under Foot,” and “In My Time of Dying.” Also included were unreleased songs from earlier album sessions, including “Houses of the Holy,” “The Rover,” and “Black Country Woman” from the Houses of the Holy sessions; “Down by the Seaside,” “Boogie With Stu,” and “Night Flight” from the Untitled — a.k.a. Led Zeppelin IV — sessions; and “Bron-Yr-Aur” from the Led Zeppelin III sessions. (Those three Zep albums were released in 1973, 1971, and 1970, respectively.)

And what of the E.P.’s respective live settings? Following Zep’s 10-week North American tour that ran from January through March 1975, the band played five sold-out nights at London’s Earl’s Court in May 1975. Initially, three shows were announced, with another two added after an overwhelming demand for tickets. Of his own EC experience, drummer John Bonham observed, “On the last night at Earl’s Court, we played ‘Heartbreaker’ [from 1969’s Zep II] ‘Black Dog’ [from 1971’s Zep IV], and a bit from ‘Out on the Tiles’ [from 1970’s Zep III]. With the songs from Physical Graffiti, we’ve got such a wide range of material.”

Fast-forward about four years to when Zep headlined both nights of the Knebworth Festival, which took place at Knebworth House, Hertfordshire, England, on August 4 and 11, 1979. These were Led Zeppelin’s first live dates since their 1977 North American tour and their first U.K. dates since the above-noted Earl’s Court 1975 shows. Sadly, they would also be among the band’s last shows ever, prior to Bonham’s passing a year later in September 1980. Me, I had a ticket to see Zep play in Pittsburgh in 1980, but alas, that tour just wasn’t meant to be. Thankfully, we have audio and video from many (if not all!) of those latter-era Zep gigs to enjoy in various formats — and, hopefully, many more of them will appear officially on vinyl in the months and years to come. Let’s make it sooner than later, eh lads. . .

LED ZEPPELIN
LIVE E.P.
180g 1EP (Swan Song)

Side One: Earl’s Court – 1975
1. In My Time Of Dying
2. Trampled Under Foot

Side Two: Knebworth – 1979
1. Sick Again
2. Kashmir

LED ZEPPELIN
PHYSICAL GRAFFITI – 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
180g 3LP (Swan Song)

LP1, Side One
1. Custard Pie
2. The Rover
3. In My Time Of Dying

LP1, Side Two
1. Houses Of The Holy
2. Trampled Under Foot
3. Kashmir

LP2, Side Three
1. In The Light
2. Bron-Yr-Aur
3. Down By The Seaside
4. Ten Years Gone

LP2, Side Four
1. Night Flight
2. The Wanton Song
3. Boogie With Stu
4. Black Country Woman
5. Sick Again

LP3, Side Five – Companion Audio
1. Brandy & Coke (Trampled Under Foot) (Initial Rough Mix)
2. Sick Again (Early Version)
3. In My Time Of Dying (Initial Rough Mix)

LP3, Side Six – Companion Audio ctd.
1. Houses Of The Holy (Rough Mix With Overdubs)
2. Everybody Makes It Through (In The Light) (Early Version / In Transit)
3. Boogie With Stu (Sunset Sound Mix)
4. Driving Through Kashmir (Kashmir) (Rough Orchestra Mix)