Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti Should Have Been a Single-LP (Part I)
Audacious, yes—but this thought experiment presents two Led Zeppelin albums as they should have been.
In 1975, Led Zeppelin released Physical Graffiti — a 1 hour and 22 minute monster. Generally beloved by critics, Rolling Stone ranked it #70 on its infamous list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It was also a massive commercial success, especially in the United States — in 2006, it was certified 16x platinum by the RIAA, surpassed by only 16 other albums (including LZ’s fourth album).
In spite of all of that, it should have been a single record, two sides, around 40 or 45 minutes in total length.
Why do I say this?
It’s not that the finished product had a lot of “filler,” in the sense that the band added subpar songs to compensate for a lack of quality material and to fill out an otherwise incomplete album — but it’s rather the case that they had plenty of material with which to create a fantastic LP (maybe even too much)… but then they still decided to stretch it into two.
Why? Starting around 1968 with The Beatles’ White Album and Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland, it became clear that Big Bands needed to put out a Big Album, and that usually meant a…
