Led Zeppelin’s classic album ‘Led Zeppelin IV’ has been the source of mystery for music fans for decades, but now the man featured on the iconic album cover has been identified.
Wiltshire native Brian Edwards, a visiting research fellow at the University of the West of England, made the breakthrough while curating an exhibition at the Wiltshire Museum. While searching for early photographs of Stonehenge, he came across the familiar image of an elderly man on the album cover, carrying a bundle of thatched wood and using a walking aid.
The man in the photo has been identified as Lot Long, a Wiltshire thatcher born in 1823 and died in 1893. The photograph was taken in the late-Victorian era and was discovered in an album titled ‘Reminiscences of a visit to Shaftesbury. Whitsuntide 1892. A present to Auntie from Ernest’.
The album, released 52 years ago today (November 8), has sold more than 37 million copies worldwide. It was ranked as the 106th greatest album of all time by NME in 2013, and includes the legendary song ‘Stairway to Heaven’.
The band’s singer Robert Plant is believed to have purchased a copy of the photograph from an antique shop near guitarist Jimmy Page’s house in Pangbourne, Berkshire. Plant performed ‘Stairway to Heaven’ for the first time in 16 years last month (October 21) at a charity show in Oxfordshire, after a “six-figure” donation was made towards the show.
In other Robert Plant news, earlier this year the singer declared that it was Phil Collins’ “positive energy” that acted as a “driving force” to get his solo career off the ground following the tragic death of Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham.
The mystery of the man on the iconic Led Zeppelin IV album cover has been solved and fans of the legendary British rock band can now fully appreciate the image.
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