8. Led ZeppelinPhysical Graffiti
It’s hard with Zeppelin to pick one album. It’s easy to go for IV or Houses Of The Holy – but Physical Graffiti stands out because it’s very difficult to make a double album. Even [Genesis’] The Lamb… has got one side too many for me and [Yes’] … Topographic Oceans has two. To put together four sides of music in those days, it was a major undertaking, a hugely complicated process. And once you decide to make it a double you get to a point where you hit the peak and you go, “oh no, we’re going to be picking the fluff up off the floor and trying to make things out of it”.
But Zeppelin with Physical Graffiti managed to put together a pure double album. It all hangs together. There are songs that maybe aren’t quite as good, but there are no bad songs on it. And I think that’s the marvel of Physical Graffiti. Never mind the cover! The first time I saw that I thought what an amazing piece of artwork. But just take the songs – ‘Custard Pie’, ‘The Rover’, etc., etc…. ‘Kashmir’… there are so many brilliant songs on it. And it’s an album that I find myself going to at night. You just throw the CD on and it just runs like a beautiful jukebox.
