Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Stephen Davis wrote in Hammer of the Gods: "Recording for Led Zeppelin's sixth album had begun back in November 1973, at Headley Grange with the mobile studio owned by Ronnie Lane, the former bass player of the Faces. But John Paul Jones had become ill, and the sessions were postponed until early the next year. … The sessions resumed in February 1974, again with Ronnie Lane's mobile. … Led Zeppelin was hot, and the new songs came quickly, drawing on the usual, traditional sources. 'Custard Pie' was Led Zeppelin's second raid on Bukka White's 'Shake 'Em on Down,' with chainsaw guitar, wailing harp and an ambience of unrepentant raunch that was as fresh as new dung. 'In My Time of Dying' was an old spiritual that had been revived by Bob Dylan years before. Jimmy [Page] covered it with his weird, ectoplasmic slide guitar before blasting in hard, up-tempo Zeppelin rock. The track ended with Robert calling on Jesus (an anomaly in a Zeppelin recording) and dissolving into a comic coughing fit. … [I]t would be another year before Led Zeppelin's double album would actually be released" (pp. 233-235).