Artist: Led Zeppelin
Album: Led Zeppelin III
Year: 1970
Genre: Hard Rock
Label: Atlantic
Condition: Near Mint
Pressing: Original US
Songlist: Immigrant Song, Friends, Celebration Day, Since I've Been Loving You, Out On The Tiles, Gallows Pole, Tangerine, That's The Way, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, Hats Off To (Roy) Harper
This is the album with the cover which Jimmy Page dismissed as 'teeny bopper'-ish. At Wikipedia you can read: "Led Zeppelin III's original vinyl edition was packaged in a gatefold sleeve with an innovative cover, designed by Zacron, a multi-media artist whom Jimmy Page had met in 1963 whilst Zacron was a student at Kingston College of Art. Zacron had recently resigned a lectureship at Leeds Polytechnic to found Zacron Studios, and in 1970 Page contacted him and asked him to design the third album's cover.
The cover and interior gatefold art consisted of a surreal collection of seemingly random images on a white background, many of them connected thematically with flight or aviation (as in "Zeppelin"). Behind the front cover was a rotatable laminated card disc, or volvelle, covered with more images, including photos of the band members, which showed through holes in the cover. Moving an image into place behind one hole would usually bring one or two others into place behind other holes."
My copy has the volvelle still attached, which is not completely usual as the volvelles often were ripped out of the sleeves, by the curious record owners in the 70s.
The cover is in very good shape overall. It still has much of the original shine and luster and has few wears. The record itself has a few superficial scratches, none of which impair the listening experience in my opinion.
I am a huge Zeppelin-lover, and this record is one of my faves. Because it is very beautiful, and very well preserved, and it has a nice heavy feeling to it. The music is great too, hard rock mixed with folk and accoustic (and some viking mytholog - 'Immigrant Song'). My absolute favourite Zeppelin song is found here too: the brilliant, beautiful, blue 'Since I've Been Loving You'. 'That's The Way' is down-tempo and melancholic which was a pretty new thing for Led Zeppelin at the time (1970).
Another nice detail is the small Aleister Crowley inscriptions that are found on the vinyl next to the label. Wikipedia says: "The first pressings of the album included the phrases "Do what thou wilt" and "So mote it be", inscribed on the lacquer itself by engineer Terry Manning during the final mastering process. This phrase is from the core tenet of Aleister Crowley's philosophy of Thelema: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Love is the law, love under will. There is no law beyond do what thou wilt." Page was a scholar of Crowley's work, once owning a private collection of Crowley manuscripts, artwork and other ephemera, and in the 1970s even bought one of his residences, Boleskine House on the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland."
I really love the way Jimmy Page treats the music. He is one of my favorite producers. His love for the music is perceptible; I can feel it when I listen to Zeppelin. I can feel it on this record. There is a kind of intimate feeling to it, I think, that kind of isn't there on the rest of the Zep albums. There is more to this than just rock. There is more to this than just guitar slinging. There is peacefulness in this records, there is the feeling on the hills and cliffs of Wales in here.
The record was mostly composed in wales in a remote cottage called Bron-Yr-Aur - "golden hill", "breast of the gold" or "hill of the gold" in Welsh. The same place where Page's first child (with Charlotte Martin) was conceived.
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