Presence

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This article is about an album by Led Zeppelin. For the computing sense, see Presence information. For presence in philosophy, see Metaphysics of presence. For the comic book characters see Presence (comics) and Presence (Marvel Comics)

Professional reviews
Presence

Studio album by Led Zeppelin
Released	March 31, 1976
Recorded	November-December, 1975 at Musicland Studios, Munich, Germany
Genre	Hard rock Heavy metal
Length	44:25
Label	Swan Song Records
Producer(s)	Jimmy Page, Peter Grant
All Music Guide link Q magazine link Robert Christgau (B) link
Led Zeppelin chronology
Physical Graffiti (1975)	Presence (1976)	The Song Remains the Same (1976)

Presence is the seventh studio album by English rock band Led Zeppelin, released by Swan Song Records on March 31, 1976.

1 Overview
2 Track listing
3 Charts
4 Personnel
5 External links
6 References

[edit] Overview

This album was conceived after Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant sustained serious injuries from a car accident on the Greek island of Rhodes on August 5, 1975, which postponed a planned 1975/1976 world tour by the band. At this point in the 1970s, Led Zeppelin was arguably the most popular band on earth. Plant recalls, in an amusing anecdote,

“

I was lying there in some pain trying to get cockroaches off the bed and the guy next to me, this drunken soldier, started singing "The Ocean" from Houses of the Holy.^[1]

”

During a convalescent period on both the Channel Island of Jersey and in Malibu, California, Plant, with Jimmy Page, had written enough material for rehearsals to begin at Hollywood's SIR Studio. The album was recorded within three weeks at Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany, with Plant in a wheelchair. The rushed recording sessions were in part a result of Led Zeppelin having booked the studio immediately prior to The Rolling Stones, who were amazed upon their arrival that the album had indeed been completed (both recorded and mixed) in a mere seventeen days. Jimmy Page had simply stayed awake for two days straight to perform all of the guitar overdubs. In an interview he gave to Guitar World magazine in 1998, Page stated that he worked an average of 18 to 20 hours a day during the mixing period at Musicland Studios:

“

[A]fter the band finished recording all its parts, me and the engineer, Keith Harwood, just started mixing until we would fall asleep. Then whoever would wake up first would call the other and we'd go back in and continue to work until we passed out again.^[2]

”

Both Page and Plant had planned this album's recording session as a return to hard rock, much like their debut album, except at a new level of complexity. It marked a change in the Led Zeppelin sound towards more straightforward, guitar-based jams. Whereas their previous albums contain electric hard rock anthems balanced with acoustic ballads and intricate arrangements, Presence was seen to include more simplified riffs. It is Led Zeppelin's only studio album that features neither acoustic tracks nor keyboards (almost buried in the mix, a lone acoustic guitar can be heard on "Candy Store Rock").

The album peaked at #1 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart. Its catalogue numbers were (US) Swan Song SS 8416 (UK) Swan Song SSK59402, before being changed to 92439-2 for when the remastered version was released.

The cover and inside sleeve of this album, created by Hipgnosis, features various images of people interacting with a black obelisk-shaped object. Inside the album sleeve, the item is referred to simply as "The Object". It was intended to represent the "force and presence" of Led Zeppelin. In the liner notes of the Led Zeppelin Remasters, Jimmy Page explained:

“

There was no working title for the album. The record-jacket designer said `When I think of the group, I always think of power and force. There's a definite presence there.' That was it. He wanted to call it `Obelisk'. To me, it was more important what was behind the obelisk. The cover is very tongue-in-cheek, to be quite honest. Sort of a joke on [the film] 2001. I think it's quite amusing.

”

The background used in the cover photograph is of an artificial marina that was installed inside London's Earl's Court arena for the annual Earl's Court Boat Show that was held in the winter of 1974-1975. This was the same venue where the band played a series of concerts a few months after the Boat Show, in May of 1975.

In contrast to earlier albums which contained several tracks played live at Led Zeppelin concerts, only two tracks from Presence were played in full on stage. "Achilles Last Stand" and "Nobody's Fault But Mine" were added to the setlist for the 1977 tour of the United States and stayed through the band's final concerts in 1980. Some of the guitar solo from "Tea for One" was also incorporated into "Since I've Been Loving You" in these shows, but the actual song was never performed live until the Page and Plant tour of Japan in 1996, where it received three airings backed by an orchestra.

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page except where noted (According to the band- but "Nobody's Fault But Mine" was a 1920s gospel/blues song recorded by Blind Willie Johnson). This album features the hardest rock recorded since Led Zeppelin IV's "Black Dog" and "Rock And Roll".

"Achilles Last Stand" – 10:25
"For Your Life" – 6:20
"Royal Orleans" (Bonham/Jones/Page/Plant) – 2:58
"Nobody's Fault But Mine" – 6:27
"Candy Store Rock" – 4:07
"Hots on for Nowhere" – 4:43
"Tea for One" – 9:27

[edit] Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year	Chart	Position
1976	Pop Albums (Billboard 200)	1

Singles - Billboard (North America)

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1976	"Candy Store Rock"	Pop Singles (Billboard Hot 100)	50

[edit] Personnel

Led Zeppelin:
- Jimmy Page - Electric Guitars, Producer
- Robert Plant - Vocals and Harmonica
- John Paul Jones - 4,5 and 8 string Bass Guitars.
- John Bonham - Drums and Percussion
Peter Grant - Executive Producer
Keith Harwood - Engineer, Mixing
Jeremy Gee - Tape Engineer
George Hardie - Sleeve design
Hipgnosis - Sleeve design

[edit] External links

Presence at MusicBrainz

[edit] References

^ Light & Shade Cameron Crowe, Led Zeppelin Boxed Set liner notes
^ Brad Tolinski and Greg Di Bendetto, "Light and Shade", Guitar World, January 1998.