THE SLEEVE

• The actual photo used for the cover was said by Page to have been discovered by Plant when the pair of them visited an antique shop in Reading. Describing it, Page said: “The old man on the cover carrying wood is in harmony with nature. He takes from nature. It’s a natural cycle.”

• The high-rise blocks of flats pictured on the back cover of the album were situated at Eve Hill in Dudley. They were demolished in 1999.

• Zep’s customary iron control did not prevent a bizarre version of the sleeve surfacing on a Russian pressing in the 1990s that replaced the stick carrying old man with a contented Russian worker smoking a pipe.

• The gatefold sleeve recreates The Hermit character in the Tarot card. A symbol of self-reliance and wisdom, it was drawn by a friend of Page, Barrington Colby. Page later based his fantasy sequence in their film The Song Remains

The Same on the same image.