A mystery man on the album cover of Led Zeppelin IV has been identified as a 19th Century thatcher. Local historian Brian Edwards discovered that the man in the image is likely Lot Long from Wiltshire. The original photograph will be exhibited at the Wiltshire Museum in 2024. Summer Goodkind reported
A mystery man who appeared on the iconic album cover of Led Zeppelin IV, released on November 8, 1971, has finally been identified as a 19th-century thatcher named Lot Long from Mere in Wiltshire. The album cover, featuring a portrait of an old man carrying a bundle of sticks, has captivated fans for over half a century, with many speculating about its meaning and hidden messages.
The discovery of the man’s identity was made by Brian Edwards, a local historian and avid fan of the band, while he was conducting research on 19th-century photographs. As he sifted through a collection of images, the image of the old man caught his attention, triggering a sense of familiarity from his teenage years as a rock music enthusiast.
Edwards described his reaction to the discovery, stating, “My jaw hit the floor. I knew straight away it was him, I knew where I’d seen him before. I listened to Led Zeppelin a lot in my teenage years. It’s such an iconic album. I hope the band will be pleased with the find.”
Led Zeppelin IV, which has sold over 37 million copies worldwide, features the band’s massive hit “Stairway to Heaven.” The album cover had previously been believed to be a photograph of a painting, supposedly discovered by the band’s lead singer, Robert Plant, in an antiques shop in Reading. However, it has now been revealed that the framed image is actually a colorized photograph, and its current whereabouts remain unknown.
With the assistance of Edwards, the Wiltshire Museum has acquired the original photograph and plans to showcase it in an exhibition next year. The original portrait, taken in the 1890s, was a black and white photograph that carried the caption “A Wiltshire Thatcher” and was accompanied by a handwritten note.
To identify the photographer, Edwards compiled a list of Victorian Wiltshire photographers and discovered a man named Robert Farmer from Salisbury. Ernest, the photographer mentioned in the note, was identified as Ernest Farmer, the first head of the school of photography at what is now the University of Westminster. Edwards noted that the photographer’s “truly expert compositions” were primarily taken in the Salisbury area.
Through further research on thatchers from that time period, Edwards concluded that the man in the photograph was likely Lot Long, who passed away in 1893, just one year after the image was taken. Edwards explained, “It had to be him, he was the only thatcher in the area when Farmer was on what seems to have been a photography tour. He looks a bit weather-beaten, and he died just one year after the shot was taken.”
The photograph is now owned by the Wiltshire Museum and will be featured in an exhibition titled “The Wiltshire Thatcher: a Photographic Journey through Victorian Wessex” in the spring of 2024. David Dawson, the museum’s director, expressed excitement about the exhibition and highlighted the contrast between Farmer’s rural photography and his life in London, stating, “It is fascinating to see how this theme of rural and urban contrasts was developed by Led Zeppelin and became the focus for this iconic album cover 70 years later.”
In addition to Led Zeppelin IV, several other album covers have sparked controversy and intrigue over the years. The Smiths’ album Meat Is Murder featured a cover art that was perceived as cryptic, with frontman Morrissey repurposing an image from the controversial Vietnam War documentary In the Year of the Pig. The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers album, designed by Andy Warhol, featured a provocative image of an anonymous male and a working zipper. Nirvana’s Nevermind album cover, depicting a baby swimming towards a dollar bill on a fishhook, has been seen as a critique of consumerism. Spencer Elden, the baby featured on the cover, filed a lawsuit claiming exploitation, but the case was dismissed in 2021.
Led Zeppelin IV’s album cover, now with the mystery man identified as Lot Long, adds yet another layer of fascination to the band’s enduring legacy..