Led Zeppelin or Graf LZ-42 Excelsior
If one has been born without wings, it does not mean that one cannot fly. The Led Zeppelin heading origin derives from the name of renowned progressive rock band from 1970th; however, it is not an accolade to the British rockers, who are widely considered as one of the most pioneering and leading rock groups in the music history and one of the evolution sources to the hard rock and heavy metal transformation. In a way, I am rather paying respect to the entire rock & roll crusade which was the foundation of inspirational and psychological formation during my teen years. Led Zeppelin’s meaning captures one’s imagination with the astonishingly surrealistic contradiction of visual elements such as an illogical air and mass combination and irrational romanticism and military force divergence. The story how the band had chosen its name is quite unremarkable and rather accidental; I am not even going to repeat it here. Perhaps, that is why they never capitalized the name’s visual impact in illustrating their albums or collaterals. They used the old photo of spectacular LZ 129 Hindenburg’s crash only once on the cover of the band's debut album. I have always felt a certain void on this romantic subject matter.
Zeppelins is a quite remarkable and fascinating, air-travel achievement of humanity. They have been named after Graf Zeppelin, who pioneered the German airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. The shape of the blimp is extremely similar to the shape of a submarine, hint – airship, and yet it is swimming in entirely different “waters”. “Then there was war in heaven. (...) I cannot get over it, that the moon is not Queen of the sky anymore, and the stars the lesser lights. It seems the Zeppelin is in the zenith of the night, golden like a moon, having taken control of the sky.” That is how writer D. H. Lawrence describes his encounter with one of armed blimps during the First World War attack. No wonder that the magnificent look of Count (Graf) Ferdinand von Zeppelin creations made them a propaganda tool to the Nazi Party and Fascist regime. Airships would proudly display the Nazi swastika; get involved to the marching music parades, etc. In spite of their misleading visual appearance as a surreal massive and powerful monstrosity the rigid airships are surprisingly light and fragile. That is the reason why after many impressive crashes the Zeppelin’s Company reconsidered the craft development. After the beginning of the Second World War, the Luftwaffe ordered the scrapping of the remaining airships, and most of them were demolished.
The Latin name Excelsior which has a poetic meaning - ever upward, and the abbreviation LZ 42 on the side of the dirigible aircraft are the reference to the numeration of Graf Zeppelin’s fleet, where LZ stands not for “Led Zeppelin”, but for Luftschiff Zeppelin, lead ship of the Hindenburg class. The number forty-two has its own noteworthy story. First of all, according to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy created by Douglas Adams, 42 is the “Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything”. It is the magical response to all human aspirations. Adams described his choice of this digit as a completely ordinary and random choice; however, forty-two became a symbol of life absurdity for many people and has attained the cult status in the contemporary culture. In addition, forty-two is a pronic number and an abundant number, it is the third primary pseudoperfect number, and it is the third pentadecagonal number, and a noncrossing partitions number and an open meandric number. As you may see it is all utter and total – surrealistic absurd! And yet, it is hauntingly attractive, is it not?
(Title Rus) Свинцовый Дирижабль или Граф Цеппелин LZ-42 Только в Вышину (латин)
Software media: Autodesk 3ds Max ®, Adobe Photoshop ®, Planetside Terragen®,Photo Stock,
George Grie, April 2014
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Led Zeppelin or Graf LZ-42 Excelsior, dark contemporary surrealism
Led Zeppelin or Graf LZ-42 Excelsior, dark contemporary surrealism