You ommitted “Night Flight?” It’s a tight, little boogie that is the second shortest song on the album. It’s a Zeppelin rarity. A song that kicks butt and is SHORT.
Even Jeff Buckley covered it. It’s one of my favorite Zeppelin songs.

Brian

Wheres Ten Years Gone? Bron-Y-Aur?!! Night Flight and the Rover are needed too! You just can’t tamper with this album!

Brian…dude. I’m not disagreeing with this point of yours. But I do sincerely hope that you post these comments from work. For, if this incessant spewing constitues free time, I truly pity you. Though any Jeff Buckley reference earns you points. So….after yesterday’s Beatles rant your standing on the comment leaderboard looks like this:

Reasonable/Discerning Music Populous: We’ll say 500 pts.

Brain Wallace: Including Jeff Buckley reference… -2024 pts.
Suck it, Trebek!

your a dumb ass

You took off “In My Time of Dying”, but left “Down By the Seaside” and “Black Country Woman”? “In My Time…” IS Zeppelin. Bluesy-stomp at it’s best. You know what?…don’t take any songs off Physical Graffiti. Just leave it alone, and talk about some other album by some other artist. Zeppelin is off limits.

yeah..im not going to completely disagree with you but there are definitely some others u missed. it doesnt have to be -that- short. zeppelin is arguably one of the greatest bands of all time!

I why the hell would you even tamper w/ this album, the whole thing is great and In My Time of Dying and In The Light are amazing songs. The fact RS has now criticized both those continues to fullfill my prediction they’ve flown south (two other prime examples would be the greatest guitar players list and 500 greatest albums list)

Ten Years Gone and In My Time of Dying NEED to be on this album, as well as Down By the Seaside taken off. Then it would be great.

Boogie With Stu over The Rover?

Down By The Seaside over Ten Years Gone?

Did you guys just draw songs out of a hat?

Bron-Y-Aur to me represents Zeppelin´s spirit. you can be epic, simple, complex and transmit so many feelings in a 2´minutes instrumental…

Good idea for a project, terrible album to use an example. If you’re gonna omit anything off graffiti, it’s boogie with stu and over the river.

It blows my mind that Ten Years Gone didn’t make the cut. That is my favorite song on the entire album.
And it’s all about me.

I’m sorry, but you can’t have ommit one of the great songs of the later Zeppelin days “Ten Years Gone”.

I like the majority of choices, but it woudn’t kill anyone if this LP was 10 tracks long instead of 9.

“Ten Years Gone” belongs Physical Graffiti.

Ok, so you’re doing The River by Bruce Springsteen? Here’s my early take on condensing it:

1. The Ties That Bind
2. Sherry Darling
3. Hungry Heart
4. Out In The Street
5. Fade Away
6. The River

1. Cadillac Ranch
2. Point Blank
3. Stolen Car
4. I’m A Rocker
5. Ramrod
6. Drive All Night

You simply can’t make this into one album. Ten Years Gone missing? Shame!

Yeah and In My Time of Dying deleted? Good God pick another album to do surgery on, this one is fine as it is.

I agree about “Ten Years Gone.” Put it after “Kashmir” for an excellent cap to the whole album.

Or wherever you please.

Great record however you like it. “Trampled Underfoot” leaves me wishing Zep did a whole funk record, just like “Black Country Woman” leaves me craving a whole countryfied album (a la Beggar’s Banquet)

this is a dumb one. It can’t be condensed into 45 minutes. Too many good songs would be omitted.

the rover and night flight cannot be omitted. also, this shortened physical graffiti just looks like a greatest hits album.

Physical Graffiti represents all aspects of Zep…only a moron would try to dissect it..

Not only is Ten Years Gone one of Zeppelin’s most underrated songs. It’s one of Rock & Roll’s most underrated song.
And what about In The Light?

I can’t believe 10 years gone didn’t make the cut. That is by far one of their best songs and it deserves to stay on one of the best albums of all time. Don’t mess with a good thing…

“Physical Graffiti represents all aspects of Zep…only a moron would try to dissect it…”

My feelings exactly. Leave Physical Graffiti and all other classic two-record sets alone.

why do you (RS.com) guys try to draw people offsides with these things?

guys chill out, its just for fun.

I’m so thankful that Rolling Stone is not Led Zeppelin.

You just don’t me putting down Springsteen!

Could you post your White Album single album song list for those who missed it?

Those crazy Rolling Stone people wouldn’t put up two posts I wrote about what a crummy record “The River” is, but then they put up “You just don’t like me putting down Springsteen!” And they think they got some business editing Led Zeppelin! I bet they’re working on some dumb ass combination of the UK version of “The Clash” and the US version of “The Clash”.

Hey whiners: This whole concept is just for fun you know — no one is trying to change your universe without your permission. If you don’t like the concept of having some fun and thinking up some “what if’s” about these albums, then just go be a hater somewhere else and leave this forum alone.

Now that I have that outa my system…

I can’t imagine PG without “In the Light,” even though it is long. When I was about 15, my friend Rico and I decided it was the best song in the world to get stoned to. I’d swap it for Seaside in a Headley Grange minute! Other than that…as a Led Zeppelin fan who would shudder to think of a world with any fewer LZ songs than there already are, I think your list is pretty good.

what?
taking out”TEN YEARS GONE” is not cool!

The idea here is wrong. The art is presented by the artist as a “whole”, and needs to be respected in that context. If you
don’t like a particular song, then don’t download it. Art is personal; I’ll decide what I like and what I don’t.
I have the same problem with radio edits. After weeks of hearing the radio edit of “Light My Fire” as a kid, I was floored by the “real” song upon buying the album. The same can be said about “Whole Lotta Love”. It’s just wrong. Period

Nope, definitely need in my time of dying there no matter how long it is!!!

Don’t you dare mess with one of the best albums of all time.

In fact, leave all Zeppelin albums alone.

OK, you take “Hot Dog” off of In Through The Outdoor.

And you can trash CODA. But that’s it!

Nobody seems to mention that, in the CD age, a Double LP’s actually not very long (or, at least, is standard length).

Are you guys gonna comb over single CD releases & edit the filler as well?

Wasn’t there a song called “Back In The Saddle” on there somewhere?

The second disk of Physical Graffiti alone is Led Zeppelin’s best album.

Good point Ryan, CDs are eighty minutes long. Therefore, modern day double CDs are waaay longer than double LPs. Example:
Physical Graffiti: 83 minutes
Mellon Collie: 118 minutes

That’s 35 minutes longer! Obviously newer double albums have far more filler than older ones. In fact, many single albums today are typically around 45-65 minutes long. In the age of vinyl, most single albums were no longer than 42 minutes. Obviously I’m generalizing here, but that seems to be pretty accurate.

I guess a better topic of discussion would be: are modern day albums too long?

If you are true fan of music, and the artists making it, then you would not edit out any of the material. An album is only true in its entirity, to take away from that is disrespectful….

But in the let me download the ONE song I like era that we are in, its not surprising most don’t have the attention span to enjoy an album.

Keep the music alive!

messing with an album this great!
may as well cut off my man hood!

“Man Hood”? Is that a new kind of pull over sweater?

I believe that “The True Bastard” contradicted him or herself by initially expressing thoughts regarding the importance of an album as whole but then saying that one should not download songs that he or she doesn’t like. How do we reconcile these two ideas? Not meant as an attack. Simply seeking intelligent debate.

Also “orsyn,” the thing we must realize is that popular music started with an era of singles. Robert Johnson and Duke Ellington did not focus on creating entire albums. Perhaps we are in a cycle that is putting us back in an era of individual songs. Besides, if an artist was that concerned about preserving the album, would there be such a thing as singles?

‘Stadium Arcadium’ should’ve been an EP…..

Sheer Blasphemy, couldn’t have that album w/out Ten Yrs Gone, In the Light, or The Rover … Thank God U weren’t their label executive

Exactly! CD’s today are longer than old-school double albums anyway…so why would any songs need to be taken off? If you want to pare down some indulgent double cds, then start with Use Your Illusion I & II. Talk about some bullsh*t filler.

This is the greatest Led Zeppelin album of all. I can’t find a wasted second on it anywhere. In the Light, Ten Years Gone, and In My Time of Dying are all favorites of mine.

A fun topic but a bad call on the album to feature. Physical Graffiti is the rare double album where every track is vital; perfect as is. London Calling and Exile On Main Street also come to mind.

How can you cut out Bron-Y-Aur and Ten Years Gone? and In My Time Of Dying is one of Zep’s best. Sorry it doesn’t fit the three minute radio ready pop song format for the ADHD generation.

Hey Rolling Stone – I guess it should have been obvious that a lot of your readership isn’t smart or mature enough to handle a fun little game of “what if” without freaking out about the blasphemy they perceive in these pages.

Perhaps you need to put a disclaimer on this page for the masses that says, “Rolling Stone promises we will not go back in history and remove songs from your favorite double album. Also, you may feel free to listen to or like any music you want. All we ask is that perhaps you respect the opinions of others, and offer your own opinion. But for gosh sakes, if you just don’t like our game, go read the latest movie reviews or something.”

It’s one thing to respond to others’ ideas (”WHAT?! No In My Time of Dying?!”) — in fact, that’s the point of this page, isn’t it?! But it’s just assinine to complain that RS doesn’t have a right to open up a forum for this sort of thing.

Free speech anyone?

TheChoobs hit the nail on the head at assessing this hilarity filled discussion string.
Some of the responses indicate that many people just don’t get it.

Do “The Wall”, oh please do “the Wall”

Get the rover back on. please.

omg i can’t believe they’re going to ruin The River tomorrow.

No “The Rover or Ten Years Gone” Are you guys crazy?

Omitting “Ten Years Gone” is like leaving “Dear Prudence” off the White Album. One of Zep’s most sublime songs ever. Shows that even (especially?) the critics don’t know what the hell they’re doing.

for those putting down fans thoughts,
smoke my big fat……

we the fans make the stars!!

If you were to take the best songs from Guns N Roses Use Your Illusion 1 and 2 and make it a single disc, that cd would have been the greatest rock and roll cd of all time period. but its also impossible to decide which to leave out seeing as how there isnt a single bad song on either disc.

“…swamped by eleven full minutes of ‘In My Time of Dying.’” That is one of Zeppelin’s masterpieces. A blistering 11 minute live take with Page slide guitar overdubs. The Rover is filler? The actual filler is “Down By The Seaside,” “Houses Of The Holy,” “Bron Yr Aur,” “Boogie With Stu,” and “Black Country Woman.” Those were all outtakes from other recording sessions.

ADD IN MY TIME OF DYING AND TEN YEARS GONE BACK IN THE LIST!!!

don’t you guys, sort of classically hate bands like Zep and Cream, just like Downbeat missed by a mile on reviews of Coltrane and Munk – and had to go back and re-review them decades later? It’s sort of a back handed compliment isn’t it? Ah, to say that an album you might have trashed in the year of it’s birth, could have been genius a generation later – now that your staff is a little more with it, albeit now behind these times of ours.

But besides all that, alot of albums even today should be right around the 42 minute mark. There’d be more focus and you can go back to dropping influential product every six months. Those damn CD’s give you more room, but ironically every full length CD release today is virtually a ‘double album’ isn’t it?

and finally, go ahead and ‘Take Years Gone off – I know it’s great and all, but I guess it isn’t as great as any of the songs on Oasis’ Be Here Now. You guys must have been doing some great blow with Noel during that interview I read, because you gave that bloated disaster 5 stars and I bought it. Thank god for the internet – you owe me $15.

Editing this album is such a ridiculous idea that it’s actually funny. I laughed out loud at work when I read this.

If you want to edit a bloated double-disc, try Stadium Arcadium or the Use Your Illusion albums.

Use Your Illusions into one…

1. You Could Be Mine
2. Dead Horse
3. Live And Let Die
4. Don’t Cry (Original)
5. Bad Obsession
6. November Rain

1. Breakdown
2. 14 Years
3. Yesterdays
4. Locomotive (Complicity)
5. Pretty Tied Up
6. Estranged
7. Coma

Next do Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John which would be a great cd if you cut half of the songs.

no ten years gone is crazy to omit bron would have been better, ten years is an amazing song

dumb idea, keep it how it is

very dumb, great as is

Rolling Stone sucks. How do you omit Ten Years Gone, The Rover, In My Time of Dying, and In the Light. Rolling Stone doesn’t know.

Bring back “The Rover”, buddy. While you’re at it, why don’t you do a list of crappy single albums that could have been EP’s, and address the current trend of bloated, overlong 70 minute CDs.

I’m beginning to think quite a few of you have tourettes…

Moses smell the roses. Leave it to RS to completly butcher perfection. Thank the good Lord that these ass bags didnt have the final editing cut on this album.

you guys are dumbtarded, why mess with perfection?

Just think how much better rollingstone.com would be if you cut out half of your advertising banners.

I couldn’t agree more about slimming down Springsteen’s The River and this is coming from a big Bruce fan!

Jeeezus!! its just a “wot if” guys.I like Zep as much as the next man but rolling stone is not going to remaster, edit or re-release the cd. get over it!

I’m Glad I stopped paying for this ridiculious magazine 10 years ago

I submit a cease and desist to this series of lists. To many people are becoming irate with these “ideas” and “decisions”.

P.S. Graham, you cannot touch “The Wall”. It’s like pissing on the Alamo, you’re disrespecting history.

P.P.S. Brian Wallace is and always will be a complete and utter TOOL!

Physical Graffiti with out Ten years gone are you crazy?? Am I the only one that loves that song?? I agree with the RS comments on In my time of dying it does drag on but Ten years gone not being there…RS you disapoint me.

What happened to rolling stone? This looks like it was put together by a group of 15 year olds making some off the top of the head list on myspace- with no thought, regard for what are so widely revered as great songs, or effort.

I want a Rolling Stone that doesn’t subject itself to instant gratification craving idiots with top 10 lists followed by “How would you butcher landmark album x?” collumns. I know this is a worthless effort, but I’m hoping just to let someone with some sense out there know that there’s at least someone out there who recognizes Rolling Stone for what it is now- a sellout.

put the pipe down and leave this album alone….like Exile on Main Street, and Quadrophenia, this is a band at it’s creative peak…If you want to slice up an album, think Use Your Illusion, Speakerboxx/The Love Below, and even Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness….those are some epics that could use some trimming

please do “Tusk” by Fleetwood Mac.

Physical Graffiti: perfect as is. All of us should be begging Page to release a mixed and mastered 4-disc set of Earls Court 1975. We want the whole goddamn roaring amazing bloated spectacle. Give it to us!

In My Time Of Dying is great exactly where it is. Keep your silly mitts off this album.

The Clash’s triple-disc “Sandinista” would probably be great single album. So would Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life.” I think you should do those next.

Why not just trim the album down to one single song, “kashmir?” I own the album, and I think its the only good song. another suggestion: as a b-side, you could add “come with me” by puff daddy.

This RS list relfects exactly the “commercial” ideaology that emcompasses the “Business” of Music being played on Corporate Conglomerate Radio Stations….
This is what the “suits” waould have picked…. RS showing your “soul” once again!!

Most of the albums mentioned so far are rather great as they are, and the editting is a matter of taste. However, mort3965 is right. Cutting down Sandinista will do everyone a favor.

Why in the name of god would you leave “boogie with stu” but cut out a much, much better (lyrically, musically, and in every aspect) song: “the rover”?

Free speech does not equal smart speech. Also, if you’re preaching free speech, isn’t that what this message board promotes? Sorry if we were all supposed to sit by silently. By the way, no one expects these albums to be changed, that’s freakin’ idiotic. I’m sorry if we’re too loud for you, but our novice opinions are still that, opinions.

how could you take off ten years gone!?!?!?

I think that with double albums there has to be some logic with them. For instance Foo Fighters ‘In Your Honour’ works because its rock and acoustic, Smashing Pumpkins ‘Mellon Collie…….’ works because of the diversity of it all and it there does seem to be some logic in the oganising of the songs, same with NINs ‘The Frahile’.

RHCP ‘Stadium Arcadium’ doesnt work becuase theres no logic. The songs are jumbled and make no sense where they were put.

Anyone agree???

It is unconceivable to leave out Ten Years Gone out of the selection. That series of article is a good idea, because it makes peopl e avoid a communication breakdown, but to leave out Ten Years Gone, just not possible. Cheers !

Greatest Rock N Roll CD ever (had it been 1 CD and Not 2)

Guns N Roses – Use Your Illusion:

1)Right Next Door To Hell
2)You Could Be Mine
3)November Rain
4)Yesterdays
5)Estrange d

6)Dont Cry
7)Knocking on Heavens Door
8)Live and Let Die
9)Back off Bitch
10)Coma

Shaun, good try at the Illusions edit, but I would remove the cover songs (they aren’t necessary unless as b-sides), and would replace with Civil War and Garden of Eden. You can’t have Illusions without Civil War.

RS didn’t get Zep when the records were released; they don’t get them now. Just continue to do what you do best – cover this month’s flavor.

i don’t know how 10 years gone can be left off the list and i’m actually not sure why RS even started this whole list crap. Just do what you do best RS and fill you magazine with ads and fluff articles that keep your circulation from falling to zero.

Don’t forget, this is a magazine that once had Britney Spears as its Artist of the Year and gave the last new Mick Jagger record 5 stars. Now this…

I think the Use Your Illusions edit below should also include ‘My World’ Such a great song.

Where’s “In My Time of Dying”?

Still wasting time I see… Well Rolling Stone amazes me once again. Physical Graffiti may not have been the 10th best album of all time but it was in the top 100, I think 70 something. Regardless, making it into a single disc that only runs 45 minutes is stupid. In my time of dying is one of the best songs on there. As basement jaxx says: “where’s your head at?” This is the stupidest argument since the white album one. DOUBLE ALBUMS ARE MADE FOR A REASON!!! THE BAND WANTED TO PUT THAT MUCH MATERIAL OUT! If they didn’t they’d put out a single album, why? BECAUSE THEY SELL MORE COPIES!!! If you don’t like the albums then don’t buy them. It could be argued that most single albums should’ve been made into singles. This is so pointless and stupid I’m going to stop now. Screw you guys… I’m going home.

The Zep edit is a travesty. The whole second disc is great, especially 10 Years Gone.

leave off the rover? whatever. you guys definitely have no clue about zep.

I said to a friend of mine to play his favorite LZ song before I listened to anything. HE put on “In the Light” I just sat there and couldn’t believe it. Nothing like I ever heard before. 15 years later its still blows me away with all the different sounds and parts. take off boogie with stu and sick again. In the light needs to be on there.

Mellon Collie and Use Your Illusion definitely should have been single discs, though your tracklist sucks. (Same with your tracklist for the abbreviated Physical Graffiti. No “Ten Years Gone” or “In My Time of Dying”? Wrong.) Here’s my tracklist for Use Your Illusion:

Right Next Door to Hell
Dust N’ Bones
Live and Let Die
Don’t Cry (original)
Perfect Crime
Double Talkin’ Jive
November Rain
The Garden
Civil War
14 Years
Pretty Tied Up
You Could Be Mine
Estranged

Now i know why I read Blender….find something constructive to do with your magazine instead of pointlessly taking classic songs off of classic albums.

Remember when you cut “Ten Years Gone” from a fine piece of art that wasn’t your own? Oh yeah, I do.

I agree with all the people that mentioned “Ten Years Gone” and “In The Light”, these amazing songs HAVE TO BE on the ‘final cut’, “In my time of dying” should be edited to 4 minutes thou.
And don’t dare cutting off Mellon Collie, there’s no filler there. Th Pumpkins themselves left several great tracks off the album (Check The Aeroplene flies high).
By the way, The G’N R illusion albums are really ought to be edited to an EP. I would keep “So fine” and leave out boring tracks such as “knocking..” or “November rain”. Yawn…..

I think Physical Graffiti is better off as a double album. RS, I can see why for time reasons you dropped In My Time of Dying & In The Light. But, the problem is without them the album goes from being a great overblown double album to an album that could be seen as a bit average.

It’s clear the Use Your Illusion debate has already started so here’s my edit:

Side One
Civil War
Bad Obsession
Live and Let Die
Knocking On Heaven’s Door
Estranged

Side Two
Pretty Tied Up
Double Talkin’ Jive
Don’t Cry (Original)
You Could Be Mine
November Rain

Gotta step up to the challenge…here are 3 double albums given my snip-snip:

III, Chicago
Of the first 3 double albums by Chicago, this one always felt a little bloated…particularly, the “travel” suite, which has a lot of cool ingredients, but does gel well.

Side One:
FLIGHT 602 (2:44)
LONELINESS IS JUST A WORD (2:38)
I DON’T WANT YOUR MONEY (4:47)
FREE (2:15)
A HOUR IN THE SHOWER
–…BREAKFAST… (1:52)
–…WORK… (0:45)
–…FALLIN’… (0:53)
–…DREAMIN’… (0:49)
–…BLUES… (1:11)
AT THE SUNRISE (2:48)

Side Two:
HAPPY ‘CAUSE I’M GOING HOME (7:28)
ELEGY
–…LAUGHTER… (1:03)
–CANON (1:05)
–ONCE UPON A TIME (2:34)
–PROGRESS (2:34)
–…STORM (6:26)
–…THE END (1:33)

Total Running Time = 43:25

DON JUAN’S RECKLESS DAUGHTER,
Joni Mitchell
Not one of her popular albums, probably due to the abstract lyrics and long songs (personally I liked it a lot)…this one was easy to trim…just drop “Paprika Plains”:

Side One:
OVERTURE-COTTON AVENUE (6:35)
TALK TO ME (3:40)
JERICHO (3:25)
OFF NIGHT BACK STREET (3:20)
THE SILKY VEILS OF ARDOR (4:04)

Side Two:
OTIS AND MARLENA (4:05)
THE TENTH WORLD (6:45)
DREAMLAND (4:37)
DON JUAN’S RECKLESS DAUGHTER (6:40)

Total Running Time = 43:11

SIGN O’ THE TIMES, Prince
This one took a while…Like “Physical Graffiti”, there’s just too many great songs…am looking forward to any opinions on this one:

Side One:
SIGN O’ THE TIMES (4:56)
STARFISH AND COFFEE (2:50)
IF I WAS YOUR GIRLFRIEND (5:01)
I COULD NEVER TAKE THE
PLACE OF YOUR MAN (6:29)
U GOT THE LOOK (3:47)

Side Two:
PLAY IN THE SUNSHINE (5:05)
HOUSEQUAKE (4:48)
GONNA BE A BEUATIFUL NIGHT (9:01)
THE CROSS (4:48)

Total Running Time = 46:39

Need to work on my proofreading skills…on the notes to Chicago’s “III”, I meant to say “doesn’t gel well”, not “does gel well”…D’OH!

Anybody who wants to edit this record needs help. Not too many rock records better than this, and it was a double!

You want to leave off “Ten Years Gone”, “In The Light”, “The Rover”, “BronYaur”?????

Those are all incredible rock songs, purely timeless. Why does RS hate Zep so much?? Weren’t they the ones who originally gave bad reviews to most of their albums??? Moronic.

Proofread pt. 2…BEUATIFUL??!! D’OOOH!!!

Sorry, but editing any Zep album is just sacrilege in my eyes. Some songs are better than others, but none should be tossed away.

Ten Years Gone is the best song on this album after Kashmir. Why did that get snipped?

All I have to say about this stupid article is that Rolling Stone is smoking a ton of crack!!!!

How can they even think about cutting down the album? I understand it’s just hypthetical, but it’s not even fun to think about that. The album is great. Cutting down In My Time of Dying? Are they nuts? The best part of that song is the fact that it is a jam song and gives us some of Bonzo’s best drum beats.

But the real kicker for me is that fact that they could even consider removing Ten Years Gone. In my opinion, and I’m sure the “true” Zep Heads are with me, that is Zeppelins best song along with the Rain Song. Page layered over 10 guitar tracks, with three seperate solo’s in the song. How could you consider depriving listeners to a song with such great magnitude? It doesn’t make any sence.

Plus, no In The Light or BronYAur? WTF!!!!

If we pile up all the music magazines as a ‘tracklist’ Rolling Stone should be left out with editting it.

This kills me, but Rolling Stone is pretty much on the mark with this one. The following songs should have been left off the otherwise mighty Physical Graffiti:

Boogie With Stu- Good jam, but not up to their standard

In the Light- Edited to four minutes, it works, otherwise, no.

Night Flight- Great opening verse sung by Plant, then he starts screamingly hysterically, and it gets ruined.

The Rover- An intriguing idea that just didn’t take off.

In My Time of Dying: Brevity is the soul of both wit and blues. At 5 minutes, this could have ended.

I just kicked out 33 minutes or so off the album and what I left off would make nearly any other band proud.

That said, how on earth do you leave off Ten Years Gone? Easily the most painfully beautiful ballad they’ve ever done.

Boogie with Stu, Black Country Woman, Houses of the Holy, Trampled Under Foot, Down By the Seaside all don’t rate as high in my book as Ten Year’s Gone, In the Light, In My Time of Dying, Bronyaur and even Nightflight. Now if the former list of songs had surfaced on CODA, think what a treasure it would be considered today?

Ten Years Gone? WTF? It is possibly the best song they ever made…moody, brooding, rocking and full of anguish.

The Rover should not have been omitted… In the Light is better than Down by the Seaside any day.

Ten Years Gone? The Rover? In the Light? Night Flight?
Simply put this is the only double album that can NEVER be edited down.

“in the light” is missing

down by the seaside ?

where is the rover ?
Night Flight ?

Zep’s 3rd-best LP, I’m not a huge fan of theirs but I like it. Still, some good tracks, including…
1. Custard Pie
2. Houses of the Holy
3. Trampled Underfoot
4. Kashmir
5. Bron-Yr-Aur
6. Ten Years Gone
7. Night Flight
8. Boogie With Stu
Ten Years Gone is the best song they were missing, probably my favorite Zeppelin tune ever, plus Bron-Yr-Aur, Boogie With Stu and Night Flight are three of Zepp’s most underrated songs. If it were these eight songs, it would’ve been better than Houses of the Holy (their best LP IMO)

One more thing, RS got away with murder by including Wanton Song, Down By the Seaside, Black Country Woman and Sick Again in the places of Ten Years Gone, Night Flight and Bron-Yr-Aur. A lot of fans clearly want In the Light, but I think that song sucks and is Zeppelin’s worst tune ever.

What a great idea and list!!! You guys are right on the ball with Physical Graffitti. Zep is ok but Ten Years Gone and the Rover suck.

Re “Physical Graffiti”:

Cutting “The Rover” would be absolutely criminal. With the exception of “When the Levee Breaks,” it kicks off with Bonham’s most thunderous and atmospheric drum riff ever; and for my money it also contains Page’s most subtle and sinuous guitar solo on record. Then there’s those lovely post-hippie lyrics: “I’ve been to London, seen seven wonders / I know to trip is just to fall …”

My own one-disc “Physical,” if anyone were ever so sacrilegious as to try, would look like this:

SIDE ONE

1) Custard Pie
2) The Rover
3) Trampled Underfoot
4) Kashmir

SIDE TWO

1) Night Flight
2) Bron-yr-Aur
3) Ten Years Gone
4) Down By the Seaside
5) Sick Again

Could you get all those cuts on Side Two? Hey, they squeezed 26 minutes of “Dazed and Confused” onto one side of “The Song Remains the Same,” so I’m sure it could be done.

I’d really miss “In My Time of Dying” and “Houses of the Holy” and “In the Light” and … but hey, they could have put them on “Presence” instead, and it would have been a better record!

I’m amused by the people who are so uptight about this hypothetical ‘Physical Graffiti’ single-disc. Relax, the double-album isn’t going away…it’s just a fun little exercise to re-edit the album and see if it could be cut down to 45 minutes. Is it a crime to merely discuss these ideas?

I like the idea… but.

DISC 2. Plain and simple. Disc 2 holds its own as an album. Disc 1 should have been CD 1 of CODA.

I’m down with cutting filler out.
Go shred The Pumpkins “Mellon Collie” or GnR’s “Use Your Illusion” but even hypothetically cutting up Physical Graffiti is just a plain waste of time. Gee… Let’s edit some of the Mona Lisa or let’s white out some of the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling. Why can’t Rolling Stone (which was once important) write about something relevant? RS cheapens the establishment for a little bit of extra money. Why? It just makes RS look like the “Ashlee Simpson” of the music literary world. And we know that Ashlee will thankfully soon fade away and she’ll be summed up on a music Trivia game 15 years from now.
I remember when Rolling Stone and MTV were good and useful.

ALL of Physical Graffiti was released for a reason in its entirety.
It’s good to bring up ideas that make people think and talk about it. But this idea reeks of your mediocrity as a cultural leader & documentarian.

What a lame idea. All killer, No filler.

Please-
leave the masterpiece alone…
and just listen…
it is perfect.

This whole thing is such a waste of time and just goes to show how irrelevant RS has become. Next they’ll be telling everyone to forego buying an artist’s albums and discovering all the great music that exists out there and simply buy their greatest hits.

“in my time of dying,” is hands down the greatest song ever to be recorded.