40 years ago today a strange billboard appeared over Sunset Blvd., and likewise, a strange album with no names on it but just a man, hunched over with a basket full of sticks graced the cover. This was Led Zeppelin’s fourth album, or as it came to be known, to many, ‘Led Zeppelin IV’, even though it has no official title. This was to be a milestone in rock and roll. This was to be their biggest selling album, and in America, the biggest selling album that never reached #1, only ever getting as high as second place.

It is hard to imagine what would have happened had Zeppelin not taken the advice of Fleetwood Mac, and told to move it on out to the country to record this new record. Moving out to Headley Grange, and enlisting the help of the Rolling Stones’ mobile studio, the band started recording what would become their masterpiece…and one of the greatest rock and roll albums of all time.

Jimmy Page had said, “We needed the sort of facilities where we could have a cup of tea and wander around the garden and go in and do what we had to do." Unbelievable, the country air did them good, since most of the tracks that were recorded were improvised on the spot, and many done in one take. Eleven songs were recorded for the LP, but only eight made it on, leaving the other three to appear on 'Physical Graffiti’, "Down By The Seaside”, “Boogie With Stu” and “Night Flight”. It also spawned two singles, 'Black Dog" and “Rock and Roll”.

Jimmy page was key behind Zeppelin’s production, but he was also the creative force behind the album artwork. The painting of the old man on the front was actually purchased in a thrift store by Robert Plant. Looking back, Page was way ahead of his his time. This was actually Led Zeppelin’s 'green album’, as when you unfold the jacket and see the old, peely wall with the painting and the high rise flats in the distance, page said it was an intentional paradox. he wanted to show the movement of the band that was carrying on from the last LP, from city to country, but also was trying to say that people should not build all over the place and pillage nature.

Page was insistent to put the album out with no names on it, and was actually worried that doing so would be commercial suicide. he argued with the record label and insisted that the album be released with no wording or titles, and instead came up with a symbol instead. After doing so, the other members adopted their own symbols too, and these were actually sent out in the press preceding the album to acquaint writers with symbols to use instead of names. the inside of the LP was a painting reproduced form a tarot card, called 'The Hermit’.

Last year, Britain’s Royal Mail issued a postage stamp of the album in their classic album series of stamps.