50 Years Later, LED ZEPPELIN’s “Physical Graffiti” Still Rules — Upcoming “Live EP” Is Adding 4 Gem Tracks

As Led Zeppelin approaches the 50th anniversary of its groundbreaking album Physical Graffiti, fans and collectors are about to receive a feast of archival material and fresh remasters. On September 12, the band’s catalogue will expand with a crisp, 180‑gram 12″ vinyl pressing of Live EP, plus CD and digital editions. At the same time, the 2015 Physical Graffiti Deluxe Edition 3LP vinyl set — complete with its Companion Audio disc — returns, now boasting a replica Physical Graffiti promotional poster (443 mm × 610 mm).

In celebration of that landmark February 24, 1975, release (arriving in the U.K. four days later), the newly minted Live EP assembles four electrifying performances. Two tracks — “In My Time Of Dying” and “Trampled Under Foot” — are lifted from Led Zeppelin’s sold‑out nights at Earl’s Court in 1975. The other half — “Sick Again” and “Kashmir” — hail from their triumphant return at Knebworth in 1979. Though these recordings first appeared on the 2003 Led Zeppelin DVD, this marks their debut on vinyl, CD, and streaming platforms.

Pre-order it here.

From its arrival, Physical Graffiti was both a commercial juggernaut and a critical triumph. It went platinum almost immediately in the United States and has since been certified seventeen times platinum. Critics and fans rank it among the greatest double albums ever assembled, its 15 tracks stretching the band’s sonic palette from the driving swagger of “Custard Pie” to the exotic sweep of “Kashmir” and the deep‑funk pulse of “Trampled Under Foot.”

Robert Plant captured the album’s breadth neatly when saying: “It goes from one extreme to the other, but at the same time, it’s very evident that it’s Led Zeppelin… I love the album, and it does work as a double album. There are some real humdinger, roaring tracks.”

The making of Physical Graffiti was itself an epic journey. Jimmy Page began piecing together new compositions in the summer and fall of 1973 at his home studio in Plumpton, Sussex. By October, the band had decamped to Headley Grange with Ronnie Lane’s Mobile Studio, returning again in January 1974. Final overdubs and mixing wrapped up at Olympic Studios by July of that year.

As Page recalls: “We had enough material for one and a half LPs, so I figured, ‘Let’s put out a double and use some of the material we’d done previously but never released’. I always thought the sequencing of an album was really important and that was part of my role as the producer.”

Physical Graffiti, besides being Led Zeppelin’s first double LP, was the inaugural release on their own Swan Song label, launched in May 1974 and announced later that November.

Behind the scenes, John Paul Jones reflects on the album’s peak: “I’m a big fan of Physical Graffiti. [It] was very wide-ranging. It probably was a pinnacle.”

Fresh off a 10‑week North American tour in early 1975, Led Zeppelin returned to London’s Earl’s Court in May for five sold‑out nights — three initially announced, two more added due to unprecedented demand.

On that final evening, the late John Bonham remembered: “On the last night at Earl’s Court we played “Heartbreaker”, “Black Dog”, and a bit from “Out On The Tiles”. With the songs from Physical Graffiti we’ve got such a wide range of material.”

Their resurgence continued four years later at Knebworth House, Hertfordshire, on August 4 and 11, 1979—the band’s first U.K. shows since 1975 and their first live dates since the 1977 North American trek.

As the calendar turns toward September, this 50th‑anniversary slate offers both a chance to revisit a masterpiece and to rediscover live performances in pristine new editions. Whether you’re a vinyl purist or a digital collector, Led Zeppelin has ensured that Physical Graffiti’s half‑century legacy remains as vivid as ever.