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This is a posterized version of a photo of a disaster that marked the end of the age of the airship - an explosion which lasted just 32 seconds and caused by a spark that ignited 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen
gas packed above the airships's luxurious passengers' cabins. It was chosen by Jimmy Page as the design on the cover of Led Zeppelin's eponymous debut album. Aside from being posterized, the image
was extended on both sides by adding mirror images wide enough to cover what was left on an 18x10 canvass that was pasted over with the original 10X10 image a little right of centre.
This is a photo of the airship Hindenburg as it caught fire and exploded in flames while attempting to dock with its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station
in Manchester NJ on 6 May 1937. The LZ 129 Hindenburg, designed and built by the Zeppelin Company and operated by the German Zeppelin Airline Company, was
commissioned to service in March 1936. The disaster occurred at the end of its first North American transatlantic voyage of its second season of service. More
Of the 97 passengers and crew on board, 62 survived and the Hindenburg carried approximately 17,000 pieces of correspondence on its final voyage. Amazingly,
176 pieces survived the crash and were postmarked four days after the disaster. The pieces, charred but still readable, are among the world’s most valuable
philatelic artifacts.
(Hindenburg designer Hugo) Eckener, no fan of the Third Reich, named the airship for the late German president Paul von Hindenburg and refused (Nazi
propaganda minister Joseph) Goebbels’ request to name it after Hitler. The Führer, never enthralled by the great airships in the first place, was ultimately
glad that the zeppelin that crashed in a fireball did not bear his name. More
The album cover received widespread attention when, at a February 1970 gig in Copenhagen, the band were billed as "The Nobs" as the result of a legal threat
from aristocrat Eva von Zeppelin (a relative of the creator of the aircraft). Upon seeing the logo of the Hindenburg crashing in flames, she threatened to have
the show pulled off the air. In 2001, Greg Kot wrote in Rolling Stone that "The cover of Led Zeppelin... shows the Hindenburg airship, in all its phallic glory,
going down in flames. The image did a pretty good job of encapsulating the music inside: sex, catastrophe and things blowing up." More
No. 29, Rolling Stone, The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time; No. 38, Rate Your Music, The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time;
No. 61, The Virgin All-Time Album Top 1000; No. 159, Billboard, The 300 Best-Selling Albums of All Time.
No. 36, Rolling Stone, The 100 Greatest Album Covers.
Photo of the Hindenburg crashing at Lakehurst NJ, May 6, 1937 by Charles Hoff for New York Daily News selected by Jimmy Page. Album produced by Jimmy Page. Atlantic, 1969.
(A) Good Times, Bad Times - Babe I'm Gonna Leave You - You Shook Me - Dazed and Confused
(B) Your Time Is Gonna Come - Black Mountain Side - Communication Breakdown - I Can't Quit You Baby - How Many More Times
