Album cover of “Led Zeppelin IV”
Photo: Getty Images, Michael Ochs Archives. All rights reserved.
The “Led Zeppelin IV” cover and its backstory remained a myth for half a century. Now investigations have solved the mystery of the person: it is said to be “Bild Lot Long”, a widower from Wiltshire.
“Led Zeppelin” cover mystery solved
The cover shows a man bending over, his hands gripping a pole that carries a bundle of hazelnut bushes on his back. Now it turns out it’s a late Victorian black and white photo of a Wiltshire roofer. This was discovered by Brian Edwards, a visiting scientist at the University of West of England. He discovered the image in a photo album while researching an exhibition he was curating in 2021.
“Led Zeppelin have created the soundtrack that has accompanied me since my teenage years and I truly hope that the discovery of this Victorian photograph delights and entertains Robert, Jimmy and John Paul.”
Further investigation revealed that the person on the cover, named Lot Long, was born in Mere, southwest of England, in 1823 and died in 1883. At the time of recording, Long was a widower living in a small cottage on Shaftesbury Road. A partial signature on the picture in question also suggested the photographer. This is probably Ernest Howard Farmer, the first head of the school of photography at the then newly named Regent Street Polytechnic, now part of the University of Westminster.
The cover was originally created by Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant. He discovered a framed color photograph of the original picture of the Wiltshire roofer in an antique shop near guitarist Jimmy Page’s home in Pangbourne, Berkshire. The accompanying album “Led Zeppelin IV” was released in 1971 and has sold over 37 million copies worldwide.
Farmer’s photo is now in the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes, where an exhibition of the image and other images of the West of England from the Victorian period will be held in spring 2024.