LED ZEPPELIN at Herb Greene Studio in San Francisco 1969

Credit: Alamy

Rare bootleg Led Zeppelin album covers from Soviet Russia unearthed

Sun 20 November 2022 18:30, UK

From the off, the Soviet Union did everything it could to erase the cultural influence of the West. That became much harder in the spring of 1964 when Beatlemania swept through the communist bloc. The Soviet Union feared rock music because it threatened to subvert the political order. Popular music’s ability to seep through the cracks in state bureaucracy undermined the authority of the Union and humanised the West, making communism a much harder sell. The cut-through appeal of rock ‘n’ roll bands like The Beatles, Cream and Led Zeppelin alienated an entire generation from communist ideals, sparking a revolution of the mind.

Soviet officials swiftly set about neutralising the threat. Police units broke up rock concerts, long-haired youths were pulled off the streets and forcibly shaven, and rock musicians were imprisoned for everything from tax evasion to political subversion. People who wanted to hear the music of Led Zeppelin, for example, were forced to source it via illegal means. This black-market dissemination of music was big business for a time and included pressing albums illegally and creating fake album covers such as the ones below.

Reddit user “zingo-spleen” was kind enough to upload some scans of covers created for illegal Led Zeppelin pressings. The artworks are for Led Zeppelin II, III, IV and Houses of The Holy, which was renamed V in Russia. Offering some background info about the records, “zingo-spleen” wrote: “These are two double albums in gatefold sleeves, with a cover on each side. II and III are together as a set, while IV and V (Houses of the Holy) are together as a set. Not sure why the first one is not included – blame the Russians and their twisted logic. I found these in a thrift shop a long time ago and couldn’t bear to get rid of them, even though I’ve had offers.”

The pressings were distributed by underground record label AnTrop, named after Rusian producer and sound engineer Audrey Tropillo, who became the head of Petersberg’s Melodia in 1990. This was the era of “perestroika”, a period of political upheaval in Russia. “Since there was much turmoil in Russia at the time,” zingo-spleen continued. “He made the St. Petersburg branch independent of central headquarters and started releasing a series of classic rock albums. These releases were not legitimate.”

Using the facilities at Melodia, Tropillo pressed and distributed albums by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. As an independent record label, AnTrop put its own logo, numbers and copyright on the covers. You can check them out below. Keep an eye out for the man in the window of Led Zeppelin IV.