Today marks the 40th anniversary of Led Zeppelin's pivotal album, "Houses of the Holy." Led Heads, this is your permission to crank it up to 11 today.
The eight-song LP was released in 1973 and was the legendary rock band's fifth studio project, but it represented the first compilation of entirely original Zeppelin music. Including tunes like "The Song Remains the Same" and "Dancing Days," the album was recorded at the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio on Mick Jagger's country estate, featuring more complicated guitar contributions from Page and less of the blues twang heard on other tunes. The result was released to mixed reviews; since then, however, the record has gone down in history as one of Rolling Stone's 500 greatest albums of all time (along with "Led Zeppelin," "Led Zeppelin II," "Led Zeppelin IV," and "Physical Graffiti").
The cover art of "Houses of the Holy" (featured below) was inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's novel, "Childhood's End," featuring a population of hundreds of naked child-like figures. The sci-fi image is comprised of a collage of several photographs taken by Aubrey Powell in Northern Ireland, and continues to creep us out when we're thumbing through our record collection.
In celebration of this Led Zeppelin anniversary, we've put together a slideshow of some of the best Led Zeppelin album art. Scroll through the slides below and let us know how you are celebrating "Houses of the Holy" in the comments.
