Best song on Physical Graffiti

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Poll Results

OptionVotes
Trampled Under Foot 12
Ten Years Gone 11
The Rover 11
Kashmir 9
In the Light 7
In My Time of Dying 5
The Wanton Song 3
Boogie With Stu 2
Sick Again2
Black Country Woman 1
Night Flight 1
Bron-Yr-Aur 1
Down by the Seaside 0
Houses of the Holy 0
Custard Pie 0


kenan, Thursday, 14 June 2007 18:56 (eighteen years ago)

It can't be done.

Joe, Thursday, 14 June 2007 19:31 (eighteen years ago)

I think "Kashmir" will win it, but I'm going to go with "In My Time of Dying". The climax they hit is unbelievable, and I like how the song never actually ends, after all the time it eats up.

Joe, Thursday, 14 June 2007 19:33 (eighteen years ago)

It can't be done.

Pleasant Plains, Thursday, 14 June 2007 19:35 (eighteen years ago)

"Trampled," obv.

Davey D, Thursday, 14 June 2007 19:36 (eighteen years ago)

It really is hard, isn't it?

I voted "In the Light," but I can't defend it.

kenan, Thursday, 14 June 2007 19:38 (eighteen years ago)

THE ONE WITH THE CLAVINET

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 14 June 2007 19:40 (eighteen years ago)

I am going to annoy everyone with my vote but I can't help it due to my love of excessive use of delay effects on drumkits

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 14 June 2007 19:41 (eighteen years ago)

"In the Light" is a great choice--the shift to the major key after the minor drone, the electric piano break, Plant's woo-hoo-yay-yeah!
I didn't vote for it, though, because the extended synth lines come to drag on a bit after you've heard the song 100 times.

Joe, Thursday, 14 June 2007 19:41 (eighteen years ago)

I am going to annoy everyone with my vote but I can't help it due to my love of excessive use of delay effects on drumkits

What, "Boogie with Stu"? I was thinking of voting for that one, too! Really, this poll is impossible for me...love every song on this album.

Joe, Thursday, 14 June 2007 19:42 (eighteen years ago)

Ten Years Gone narrowly beats The Rover

kornrulez6969, Thursday, 14 June 2007 19:48 (eighteen years ago)

haha yes I love it but everyone else I know just thinks its boring blues piffle

x-post

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 14 June 2007 19:49 (eighteen years ago)

10 Years Gone

Steve Shasta, Thursday, 14 June 2007 20:01 (eighteen years ago)

Kashmir has stolen ITL's thunder as PG's epic jam, so the former gets my vote…

Veronica Moser, Thursday, 14 June 2007 20:09 (eighteen years ago)

"The Rover." That guitar riff under the chorus rules.

Brent, Thursday, 14 June 2007 20:11 (eighteen years ago)

'Sick Again' holds up well, and of all of the boots I've heard it's the one that they seem to get into and Jimmie wakes up from his stupor. Then again, it was usually early in the set.

BlackIronPrison, Thursday, 14 June 2007 20:15 (eighteen years ago)

yeah, and they would play the intro to "The Rover" but then go into "Sick Again"! man, 77 tour was so sick.

Stormy Davis, Thursday, 14 June 2007 20:35 (eighteen years ago)

Wanton over My Time of Dying.

Bill Magill, Thursday, 14 June 2007 20:37 (eighteen years ago)

Ten Years Gone. Oh wow that riff at the end repeated over and over. So awesome.

righteousmaelstrom, Thursday, 14 June 2007 20:57 (eighteen years ago)

Wanton Song obv what is wrong with you people

Hurting 2, Thursday, 14 June 2007 21:49 (eighteen years ago)

Ten Years Gone

iago g., Thursday, 14 June 2007 22:41 (eighteen years ago)

Dammit I wanted to be the first one to say "Wanton Song"!

Of course, I'll wanna retract my vote tomorrow and say "Kashmir" or something. But "Wanton"'s always in my top five, no question. Basically it always comes down to "Wanton Song" or anything off the first LP except "Custard Pie".

Myonga Vön Bontee, Friday, 15 June 2007 03:45 (eighteen years ago)

ok but you're forgetting one thing: "Custard Pie" kicks ass.

kenan, Friday, 15 June 2007 05:33 (eighteen years ago)

"Trampled," obv.

also, as much as I'd love to stomp on this as the dumb rock radio choice, it also kicks ass. Much ass.

kenan, Friday, 15 June 2007 05:38 (eighteen years ago)

interesting about "Trampled Under Foot" -- for all the big talk of the name of the song, the production is thin compared to the rest of the album (see: Kashmir). The drum sound could have been 10x bigger and there would have been a lot more trampling, but the groove would have been the same. "Trampled" is one of their best exercises in groove.

kenan, Friday, 15 June 2007 05:42 (eighteen years ago)

Its the obvious choice but I'm gonna go with Kashmir, that drum sound, Plants vocals. Its about as epic as it can get.

Diablo_Rising, Friday, 15 June 2007 09:32 (eighteen years ago)

I would say that "Kashmir" probably deserves the win...

Joe, Friday, 15 June 2007 12:34 (eighteen years ago)

"Ten Years Gone", in a close one over "Houses of the Holy". Probably my favorite Plant performance, esp. the multitracked wailing at the end.

Euler, Friday, 15 June 2007 12:44 (eighteen years ago)

The Rover!

Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 15 June 2007 12:44 (eighteen years ago)

I considered "Wanton Song" too, but I ultimately went with "Trampled" for the disco-metal element.

xhuxk, Friday, 15 June 2007 12:56 (eighteen years ago)

I more prepared to vote on which album sequence I prefer (the cassette version with "Bron-Yr-Aur" closing out Side One and "Down By the Seaside" immediately following "In the Light" on Side Two) than I am prepared to vote for "Best Song" on this record.

Pleasant Plains, Friday, 15 June 2007 13:07 (eighteen years ago)

IN MY TIME OF DYING: Excluding their live cuts, it is the longest Zeppelin song (11:08).

HOUSES OF THE HOLY:The squeak of John Bonham's drum pedal can be heard about 3 minutes in.

KASHMIR: The signature guitar riff began as a tuning cycle Jimmy Page had been using for years.

IN THE LIGHT: Never played live because Jones could not reproduce the synthesizer sound outside the studio.

Pleasant Plains, Friday, 15 June 2007 13:23 (eighteen years ago)

talkin' 'bout love!

fact checking cuz, Friday, 15 June 2007 14:17 (eighteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

ILX System, Saturday, 16 June 2007 23:01 (eighteen years ago)

I don't know if it is the best song, but I picked "In My Time of Dying" because it is my favorited Zep tune. The way Bonham's drumming continually builds in intensity over a gruelling 11 minutes is mind-blowing.

"Kashmir" and "Trampled" are pretty much perfect too.

Franz Ferdinand got their whole sound by playing up the disco elements on "Trampled Under Foot".

Moodles, Saturday, 16 June 2007 23:12 (eighteen years ago)

The way Bonham's drumming continually builds in intensity over a gruelling 11 minutes is mind-blowing.

Yes. That is one of John Bonham's finest moments.

kornrulez6969, Sunday, 17 June 2007 00:08 (eighteen years ago)

This is really hard. "The Rover", "Ten Years Gone," "Houses of the Holy," and "The Wanton Song" are all life-affirming (not to mention "Kashmir"). I'm leaning towards TYG but it hurts to choose.

Sundar, Sunday, 17 June 2007 00:58 (eighteen years ago)

Fuckit, I voted for "night flight". what the hell.

Pleasant Plains, Sunday, 17 June 2007 01:56 (eighteen years ago)

Ugh, it can't be done.

Rock Hardy, Sunday, 17 June 2007 02:21 (eighteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

ILX System, Sunday, 17 June 2007 23:01 (eighteen years ago)

If I only voted, I could have made it a tie!

Sundar, Sunday, 17 June 2007 23:05 (eighteen years ago)

Nice to see so many votes for the rover

Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Sunday, 17 June 2007 23:18 (eighteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

I think this was the first non-Beatles album of whose status as a "classic"/big statement I was aware

"In the Light" is quite remarkable - like a lot of great Zeppelin moments, it's hard to think of anybody else evoking a similar mood or even trying to: for all their blues roots 'n' trappings, the end result is very much a thing apart

I should have written that book about them that I was supposed to write, but life got in the way

J0hn D., Monday, 9 July 2007 20:43 (eighteen years ago)

I'm kind of surprised that there hasn't been a bigger throwdown thread on this album, too - it has such a distinctive signature, it's so all-by-itself: whose double album is quite this this one? what are they trying to do? has it got a big single-album unity to it or is it just that they had a lot of songs & were kind of in-the-pocket?

perfect summer music for me although probably still has to take a back seat to Houses of the Holy in the final analysis

J0hn D., Monday, 9 July 2007 20:47 (eighteen years ago)

I always feel like the first disc is super-unified, and if it stood alone would be LZ's greatest album, but the second disc is kinda thrown-together, "here's a whole bunch more songs we had kicking around." They're good songs, but they're not an album the way the first disc is an album.

unperson, Monday, 9 July 2007 20:50 (eighteen years ago)

If I remember the liner notes correctly, the 3rd and 4th sides were filled with stuff that had been recorded previously, the first two sides were new. I think the first disc has a pretty cohesive, almost "funk" feel, while the second is all over the map. In a good way.

xpost

Bill Magill, Monday, 9 July 2007 20:52 (eighteen years ago)

you know, I hear you kinda, unperson, insofar as if the second disc had been released as a single album it might have tanked, but on the other hand it's sort their "experimental" side - drums dropping in & out, some weird transitional stuff - it's like the more Album Rock album to me, allowing itself to be weird 'cause they've already proven themselves on the first disc. Also, "the Wanton Song" is massively underrated.

J0hn D., Monday, 9 July 2007 21:02 (eighteen years ago)

wow i must have missed this. but id have voted for "ten years gone"

ryan, Monday, 9 July 2007 21:34 (eighteen years ago)

I wonder what I voted for.

Rock Hardy, Monday, 9 July 2007 23:00 (eighteen years ago)

I didn't vote for "Sick Again", but I remember thinking after I clicked it that I should have.

Keith, Monday, 9 July 2007 23:06 (eighteen years ago)

Down By The Seaside is very long, but again I think that's because it's this weird mutant that's really two songs welded into one - that "You still do the twist till you find you remember things that well" bit is a totally different song to Plant's Neil pastiche. And I love that weird fusion of two discordant elements!

impostor syndrome to the (expletive) max (stevie), Friday, 26 January 2024 08:58 (one year ago)

Full disclosure though, there's very few double LPs I'd ever edit down. The fact is that the 45-minute format is perfect, every double feels overlong and unwieldy, and you just need to make peace with that and consume it in the way that feels right. White Album, Exile, this, even Zen Arcade, they're overlong and hard to swallow in one go, and I think that's sort of the point. They're their own belligerent things, not made to go down easy.

impostor syndrome to the (expletive) max (stevie), Friday, 26 January 2024 09:00 (one year ago)

i kind of love Night Flight’s goofy energy. feels a little bit like they’re doing an impression of The Who.

Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Friday, 26 January 2024 09:39 (one year ago)

Sort of the Faces too?

Bulky Pee Pants (Tom D.), Friday, 26 January 2024 09:41 (one year ago)

I've never looked at what was an outtake from a previous album and what was newly recorded - it's interesting:

1. Would you bump any tracks from the previous albums with a PG track recorded with those sessions? I hate Rock and Roll off IV, so I would add either Boogie with Stu or Down by the Seaside in a second. The Rover would have to bump something on HoTH, but that album is nearly perfect, so I don't know what.

2. What would PG be like if it was a single with only tracks from PG sessions? Pretty amazing (IMTOD might have to shave a minute or drop one of Wanton Song/Sick Again):

Custard Pie 4:13
Ten Years Gone 6:31
Trampled Under Foot 5:35
Kashmir 8:37

In the Light 8:44
The Wanton Song 4:06
Sick Again 4:43
In My Time of Dying 11:04

il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Friday, 26 January 2024 13:27 (one year ago)

Which is probably how they got to a double. The PG tracks wouldn't fit on a single, so they thought, we don't want to cut anything + have all these outtakes laying a around = let's do a double.

il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Friday, 26 January 2024 13:29 (one year ago)

That's exactly what happened.

Bulky Pee Pants (Tom D.), Friday, 26 January 2024 13:30 (one year ago)

I hate Rock and Roll

Ah yes, the "Love Will Tear Us Apart" answer to Joan Jett.

pplains, Friday, 26 January 2024 15:04 (one year ago)

I like it.

Bulky Pee Pants (Tom D.), Friday, 26 January 2024 15:05 (one year ago)

I do agree that the album is kind of overlong and jumbled. It's one of the only ones where the track order isn't really burned into my brain - I tend to skip around on it for the tracks I like.

longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Friday, 26 January 2024 16:26 (one year ago)

disc 2 feels like falling in a gully but in a good way

brimstead, Friday, 26 January 2024 16:35 (one year ago)

1. Would you bump any tracks from the previous albums with a PG track recorded with those sessions? I hate Rock and Roll off IV, so I would add either Boogie with Stu or Down by the Seaside in a second. The Rover would have to bump something on HoTH, but that album is nearly perfect, so I don't know what.

I honestly think if you replaced The Crunge and D'Yer Maker with The Rover and the title track, Houses would be my favourite Zep record (would need to maybe move some songs around).

Gavin, Leeds, Friday, 26 January 2024 18:23 (one year ago)

the rover yes, but keep dyer maker and put in the title track for “dancing days” because they sound kinda similar

brimstead, Friday, 26 January 2024 18:26 (one year ago)

“drop one of Wanton Song”

get thee behind me Satan

Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 27 January 2024 11:06 (one year ago)

sometimes Wanton Song sounds to me like the meanest, lithest, most directly Zeppelin song in the history of Zeppelin

Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 27 January 2024 11:07 (one year ago)

In the Light is the best zep song, i like all their albums and wouldn't call PG perfect but it is still my favorite
i do find it fascinating how some acts can have 1000 interesting outtakes (dylan, beach boys, monkees, neil young) and a behemoth like LZ has barely any truly good leftovers - 60s vs 70s maybe (but neil contradicts that).

buzza, Saturday, 27 January 2024 12:49 (one year ago)

Wonton Song rules

calstars, Saturday, 27 January 2024 13:50 (one year ago)

In the Light is the best zep song, i like all their albums and wouldn't call PG perfect but it is still my favorite
i do find it fascinating how some acts can have 1000 interesting outtakes (dylan, beach boys, monkees, neil young) and a behemoth like LZ has barely any truly good leftovers - 60s vs 70s maybe (but neil contradicts that).

I really like the b-sides that resurfaced on the OG box set, but maybe it’s more to the point that Zep were money-motivated enough to release most of what they cut and were touring so much that they wrote less? Or maybe Page has been better at keeping his off cuts from our ears.

impostor syndrome to the (expletive) max (stevie), Saturday, 27 January 2024 14:19 (one year ago)

^^Pretty much. JPJ has said that the lack of Zep outtakes was down he and Page still having a session player mentality pushing them to get the most out of recording sessions and waste as little time as possible on dead ends.

an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 27 January 2024 14:25 (one year ago)

just listened to this whole thing and man the sequencing is pretty messed up/weird, "Sick Again" is not a good note to end on, shoulda gone with "Into The Light"

dead precedents (sleeve), Saturday, 27 January 2024 15:57 (one year ago)

The first disc is a masterpiece, a totally cohesive statement; the second disc is a mess.

Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Saturday, 27 January 2024 16:42 (one year ago)

I love In the Light as the first track on side 2. Beautiful landing spot after the hammer of Trampled/Kashmir.

il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Saturday, 27 January 2024 17:16 (one year ago)

xpost A mess as far as cohesion goes, in an "Exile on Main Street" sort of way, but most of the stuff still rules. At least half of those tracks are up there with the best of Zep.

Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 27 January 2024 17:22 (one year ago)

Wait, I guess that’s track 1 side 3.

Xp

il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Saturday, 27 January 2024 17:29 (one year ago)

Never got used to the weird sequencing of the second disc because there's three songs I always skip

Vinnie, Saturday, 27 January 2024 18:20 (one year ago)

Weakest track in itself: "Night Flight"

No! No! NO!

It's one of the few recordings where they should have restarted the arrangement from scratch, Plant is forcing it and everyone else is half-hearted.

good job ILM recognizing "ten years gone"

The only quibble I can imagine to choosing this as my favourite Zeppelin song is that it isn't a particularly good showcase for Jones and Bonham; however, it took me 38 years of listening to manifest that potential objection, so I guess it doesn't bother me. And even touches like the bass countermelody to the verse riff, or the drum rolls in the guitar solo, show how much they bring to a song just by playing on it.

Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 30 January 2024 01:55 (one year ago)

six months pass...

Today I learned the stones waiting on a friend video was shot at the same location as the PG album cover

calstars, Friday, 9 August 2024 02:28 (one year ago)

People ragging on Night Flight, wow.
Been lurking here for over two decades and I can still be surprised.

Torei, Friday, 9 August 2024 05:35 (one year ago)

six months pass...

happy 50th

mookieproof, Monday, 24 February 2025 23:24 (ten months ago)

'the rover' ftw

calstars, Monday, 24 February 2025 23:51 (ten months ago)

Got this for 50 cents as a kid in high school, with all the sleeve inserts and everything
I like all these songs but 'Custard Pie' is a helluva an opener, with the clavinet and everything

Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, 25 February 2025 01:38 (ten months ago)

Probs my favourite Zeppelin album. Still have my dad's ex-gf's OG copy, which I stole off her as a teenager, though it's fairly beaten up now.

conspiracitorial theories (stevie), Tuesday, 25 February 2025 09:45 (ten months ago)

The various die-cut LPs from the 70's that I bought back then have not help up well, Graffiti, Some Girls, From The Inside, etc.

henry s, Tuesday, 25 February 2025 14:28 (ten months ago)

one month passes...

Trampled has such a weird structure. Just seems to go on forever. I counted 6 lines in the verse “factory air conditioned” etc, then the keyboard solo, then 3 more lines “I’m so glad I took a look inside your show room doors” until the outro jam.

calstars, Thursday, 17 April 2025 02:20 (eight months ago)

I'm guessing like many of y'all, seeing this thread revived makes me dive back into the record.

Have any of you noticed this unique feature about PG: Is this the most "classic" of classic rock albums where such a low % of the songs have a traditional chorus?
It's easy to miss, because the tracks with a chorus like "The Rover", "Trampled Under Foot", "Down By The Seaside", or "Night Flight" (and even those choruses are not as 'trad' in comparison to something like "Communication Breakdown", "Ramble On", or "Over The Hills and Far Away") are matched by those with an instrumental break substituting for one ("Houses of the Holy", "In The Light", "Ten Years Gone", "The Wanton Song"), or no chorus at all ("Custard Pie", "Boogie With Stu", "Black Country Woman")

Steely Danzig: Turn Up 'Where Eagles Dare', Neighbors Are Listening (Prefecture), Thursday, 17 April 2025 03:27 (eight months ago)

(in response to calstars' structure observation)

Steely Danzig: Turn Up 'Where Eagles Dare', Neighbors Are Listening (Prefecture), Thursday, 17 April 2025 03:28 (eight months ago)

Some of the songs have the vocal part of the chorus withheld until the coda, which is effective because it would be too much if Plant were singing "ten years gone, holdin' on", "sure like a piece of your custard pie", or "light, light, light, in the light" throughout the respective songs. They're memorable, though, as vocal tags to see the songs out.

Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 19 April 2025 17:54 (eight months ago)

That’s a great observation

siggi’s skyr stan (morrisp), Saturday, 19 April 2025 17:55 (eight months ago)

I thought it was “tellin’ the people you’re custard pie”

calstars, Saturday, 19 April 2025 18:00 (eight months ago)

Robert would never tell the people that

Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 19 April 2025 18:33 (eight months ago)

Lyrics sites say "I chew on a piece of your custard pie" which I find gross compared to my interpretation

Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 19 April 2025 18:36 (eight months ago)

“chewin’ a piece” maybe

calstars, Saturday, 19 April 2025 18:42 (eight months ago)

"Kashmir" is the most played song from this album, and yeah, it's another one with just an instrumental break for a chorus.

Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 19 April 2025 18:48 (eight months ago)

Down by Your Kashmir

calstars, Saturday, 19 April 2025 18:52 (eight months ago)

*Yr

calstars, Saturday, 19 April 2025 19:12 (eight months ago)

We are the Custard Pie Appreciation Consortium

imperial frfr (Steve Shasta), Sunday, 20 April 2025 03:09 (eight months ago)

If I was in CVS or had a radio station playing in the background while I was driving, I would most want to hear "Houses of the Holy" - this album's "D'yer Mak'er".

poxy fueled (FlopsyDuck), Sunday, 20 April 2025 16:21 (eight months ago)

But more rocking

poxy fueled (FlopsyDuck), Sunday, 20 April 2025 16:23 (eight months ago)

nah, this album's "D'yer Mak'er" is "Boogie With Stu".

imperial frfr (Steve Shasta), Sunday, 20 April 2025 16:26 (eight months ago)

I'd probably agree, and I'd call "Houses of the Holy" this album's "Dancing Days". Though an eight-song Physical Graffiti that included "Boogie with Stu" would be starting with a bad handicap.

Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 20 April 2025 16:42 (eight months ago)


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