"Physical Graffiti" was the first album that Led Zeppelin released under their own label Swan Song. It achieved platinum status through the pre-orders and landed at number 1 in the album charts immediately after release. The double album is characterized by its wide musical range: "Bron-Yr-Aur" is Led Zep's gentle acoustic classic, the funky number is "Trampled Under Foot", the most rocking track is " Custard Pie" and "Kashmir" is the exotic solitaire among the jewels of this album.

Led Zeppelin gave the album the title "Physical Graffiti" to indicate the physical effort this double album had meant for them. The recordings dragged on because they were exhausted from the many tours of the previous years. They first recorded eight long numbers, which was too much for a normal LP and too little material for a double album. So the idea came up to add unreleased tracks from the sessions for the previous albums. "Physical Graffiti" therefore contains songs that were written between July 1970 and February 1974.

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