The new issue of Record Collector magazine features a cover story marking the fiftieth anniversary of the release of Physical Graffiti.

The magazine’s February 2025 issue’s cover story is a 4,000 word essay by Led Zeppelin author and Tight But Loose editor Dave Lewis about the making of the album.

Record Collector’s new issue goes on sale on January 23.

Here’s Lewis’ recent Facebook post sharing details of the new issue:

New issue of Record Collector with 50th Anniversary Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti cover feature out this week…
Back in early September last year, Paul Lester the editor of Record Collector got in touch to ask me if there was much scope on a feature marking 50th anniversary of the release of Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti.
My reply was yes there was a lot of scope and we began formulating ideas for a major front cover feature.
The were a fair few twists and turns along the way and I’ve lived with all this quite intensively since October. In early December I visited the Record Collector offices to meet with Paul plus designer Val Cutts and we worked out how we would fill the planned 14 pages we had at our disposal.
It all began to take shape in the last month when the designed pages were sent over to check.
The end result of this work can be seen from this Thursday Janaury 23 when this new issue goes on sale.
This is the first major Led Zeppelin feature in Record Collector since the August 2018 issue when Mike Tremaglio and I compiled the 50 Greatest Zep Concerts feature around the time of the publishing of our Evenings With Led Zeppelin book. As usual I asked Mike to act as a consultant on this latest Zep feature and his advice was invaluable
So here’s what’s in store:
The centrepiece is a 4,000 word essay by yours truly on the complex making of Physical Graffiti and how they mined their studio archive to extend the project to 15 songs.
There’s an additional side story about the day I bought Physical Graffiti back in February 1975
Plus a playlist of the albums that Led Zep took influence from when constructing the songs that made Physical Graffiti such a landmark release.
Add to that a superb overview by noted journalist David Stubbs of how the epic double album stands up in today’s modern market and why it still induces shock and awe some 50 years on.
There’s also a two page spread of Physical Graffiti related memorabilia collated by myself, the renowned Zep vinyl collector Nick Anderson and Zep memorabilia expert Mark Mcfall of the website https://zepfan.com/
To round it off, Nick Anderson has compiled an extensive two and a half page selected Physical Graffiti discography.
The great cover shot of Jimmy Page on stage during their American tour in early 1975 was taken by Larry Ratner who produced the Live Dreams photo book back in 1994. More of Larry’s rarely seen photos are included in the feature.
All in all, this is a comprehensive summary of what many consider to be Led Zeppelin’s definitive work.
The varied content will shine an enlightening spotlight on what it was that made Physical Graffiti such a monumental release – and why 50 years on it’s held in such high esteem….
The new issue is available in the shops in the UK and online via Record Collector from this Thursday.
Here’s a link to order for overseas readers:
https://www.yourcelebritymagazines.com/collections/bob-dylan/products/record-collector-magazine-feb-2025-367-led-zeppelin-jimmy-page-bob-dylan-1?
Dave Lewis – January 21 2025

And here’s the cover of the issue:

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