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This article is about an album by Led Zeppelin. For the computing sense, see Presence information.

Presence is the seventh studio album by English rock band Led Zeppelin, released by Swan Song Records on March 31, 1976. This album was conceived after 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 Led Zeppelin. During his convalescent period 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 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.

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 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 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.

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 written by Blind Willie Johnson)

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

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Singles - Billboard (North America)

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

External links

• Presence ⚠ "mbid" is missing! at MusicBrainz

• Pages with empty short description
• Led Zeppelin albums
• 1976 albums
• Albums with cover art by Hipgnosis