We all know that Led Zeppelin, and in particular Jimmy Page, had an interest in black magic. Jimmy bought Aleister Crowley’s old house in the 1970s. Their third album ‘Led Zeppelin III’ featured two Crowley quotes in the run out groove of the original vinyl release; ‘Do what thou wilt’ and ‘so make it be’. I knew all that but what I didn’t know was that the old man on the cover of ‘Led Zeppelin IV’ is actually Aleister Crowley. He also appeared on the cover of the Beatles ‘Sergeant Pepper’ album designed by Peter Blake. So the Fab Four may have had Crowley on an album cover before Led Zeppelin but for me the Led Zep connection is more interesting. What do you think?
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 
I don’t know… that doesn’t look much like Crowley. I always thought the cover painting was of a Russian peasant or some such. Still, cracking album…
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You may be right. I was a little lazy with the research on this post. I read that snippet in a magazine recently. It might have been the NME. But having looked on line now there are a lot of references to the picture being that of a random hermit purchased by Robert Plant. There are however some sites that suggest the man is Crowley. I suspect that you’re right and it isn’t in fact Mr Crowley!
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