LED ZEPPELIN - CODA @ 40

 

Released 40 years ago today, Led Zeppelin’s final collection of studio recordings was issued on November 19th, 1982. Created partly to satisfy record company obligations and party to thwart bootleggers, the album was a clearing house for the unreleased remnants of the group’s studio activity throughout their career.

Following the tragic death of drummer John Bonham, Led Zeppelin terminated their career, leaving their last LP, In Through the Out Door, as their inadvertent swan song. Yet there were lingering commitments with Atlantic Records, to whom the band still owed one more studio album. While the group were exceptionally economical with their studio time, creating very little that did not get used for their finished albums, there were still a few stray odds and ends which managed to slip the net over the course of their career. It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough to generate a healthy trade in the bootleg business as poor quality unofficial copies of these tracks circulated among the bands more ardent fans. It was enough to convince Jimmy Page that there would be some interest in curating a proper, sanctioned compilation of these recordings, which would also help him tie up loose ends regarding record label obligations.

The material on the album spans pretty much the entirety of the group’s career, though it can be broken down into two primary sets by LP side. The first side features four recordings spanning 1969 to 1972. We’re Gonna Groove, the LP opener, is actually a live recording, but the audience sounds were removed and guitar overdubs were added in order to be able to call it a “studio recording”. Poor Tom was an outtake from Led Zeppelin III, and I Can’t Quit You Baby was from a pre performance soundcheck rehearsal. Walter’s Walk was a 1972 Houses of the Holy outtake with vocal overdubs added. For the second side, most of the material comes from 1978 In Through the Out Door outtakes with the exception of the 1976 Bonzo’s Montreux drum solo. In 1993, a CD reissue included four additional tracks from various sources including the B-Side from the Immigrant Song single, a couple of live tracks and an outtake from their debut LP.

Critically, given it’s a “leftovers” package, it’s obviously not going to stand up as a cohesive collection in the same way as the groups formal albums. However, it still showcases many of the group's virtues which made them the legends they became. For any serious fan of the band, its a welcome capstone to their illustrious career. The cover graphics were again provided by the Hipgnosis design house, whom had been responsible for several other covers for the band over the years, but this would actually be the prestigious firm’s final design commission before the the company was dissolved and its partners would go their separate ways.

INFLUENTIAL ALBUM - LED ZEPPELIN, PRESENCE

While we're on the subject of influential albums and their covers, I wanted to talk about one of my favorites from one of the most important design houses of the 1970s, Hipgnosis. Hipgnosis was stared in 1968 by friends Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell. The duo was later joined in the mid 1970s by a young Peter Christopherson, who would go on to gain acclaim and recognition making his own music as a member of Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, Coil and Soisong, as well as releasing solo work as Threshold Houseboys Choir.

Hipgnosis was responsible for many of the most iconic covers of the decade, working with the likes of Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel and Led Zeppelin, just to name a few. It's their 1976 cover for Led Zeppelin's Presence which I want to bring to your attention today. 

 

One of the common traits of Hipgnosis covers, which always drew me to them, was that they usually had some sort of subversive "twist" to them. They were generally photo-real artworks that often relied on in-camera effects to create their surreal auras, though they would also use collage cut-&-paste techniques, something common with Photoshop these days, but much more demanding back then when it was done with physical photographs, blades and glue.

The "hook" with the Presence LP cover was the "object". Designed by Christopherson, it was an enigmatic looking black twisting obelisk type form that appeared to defy normal geometry. Its shape and proportions looked to be at odds with physical space and the cover depicted it in a variety of seemingly benign, mundane contexts of superficial, idyllic mid-century, middle class life. Yet its presence in these scenes lends each of them a nebulously sinister edge. It's obtuse, but it sinks in, almost subliminally, suggesting some kind of conspiratorial plot is taking place. Like some sort of "invasion of the body snatchers" scenario, normality is being subverted here. 

 

I recall seeing this in the shops and being constantly drawn to it. I'd stare at the photos and try to imagine what could be going on. Why was this thing in all these pictures? What was it? What did it do? Its blackness and confounding shape only implied something nefarious. A truly ingenious concoction for an album cover. The record itself wasn't Zeppelin's best, though I find it often unfairly criticized as I quite like most of it, but it's a cover that stays with me after all these years contemplating that "object" and its mysterious purpose...