The 1^st album I ever bought was Led Zeppelin III.  Okay, I did not in fact purchase it.  I was still too young to handle cash.  I pilfered it off my older brother.  He was too involved in Houses Of The Holy to notice anyways.  Alas, LZIII was indeed the first album I chose to acquire for myself.  Every other piece of music up until that point had been passed into my ready and waiting hands and ears by my dad.  This time, it was a concerted choice, and here I will tell you why it was worth being so determined to obtain the record by covert means.  Picture dark rooms and headphones when everyone else was asleep.

1^st off.  They called it Led Zeppelin III, NOT Led Zeppelin 3.  I believe that this was a true sign of intelligence.  A sign that these boys were educated, because they cared about the distinction.  There’s just a cool, ancient sophistication that’s conveyed with symbols.  Then there’s the artwork, which feels more like an installation piece, designed by a college buddy of Sir Page who goes by the name of Zacron.  Before I so much as dropped the needle, I studied the artwork extensively, with as much diligence and wonder as I did the album itself.  I mean come on, a wheel behind the front panel that you manually spin to reveal each band member’s face juxtaposed brilliantly with psychedelic flight and aviation imagery?  Tying in “Zeppelin.”  Who does that?  Who thinks of that?  It’s a toy.

Spin the LZIII wheel here: http://discography.ledzeppelin.com/disc_lz3.html 

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