I went with Physical Graffiti.

Three.

You know, Page and Plant's No Quarter record is a surprisingly sweet gem. It does have the advantage of being a compilation but I think it holds its own with any Zep record.

Also, while we're talking about Zeppelin, who else agrees with me that The Song Remains the Same is better than How The West Was Won?

Um, I couldn't disagree more with either of those points. No Quarter is a nightmare to me that I wish never happened. TSRTS has the best live Zeppelin available on film which is the "If You're Going to San Francisco" part. Other than that it's just about pure shit. Besides that, "How the West Was Won" is superior in every way, including the best drum solo I've ever seen in my life.

I actually loathe about 75% of the live Zeppelin I've seen and heard. Wankery doesn't even begin to describe it. If I'm listening to Zeppelin, 99% of the time, I'm listening to them in the studio. Zeppelin is as loose and messy as they need to be on the albums. Live they're usually just plain obnoxious noise. Sorry.

That being said, III is awesome and I don't consider Physical Graffiti very much better than it at all. PG, III and IV are their best by a long shot. The next one in line for me would be Houses of the Holy, but I don't like it half as much as either of those three.

I'd have to say one, two and three are their best albums in descending order.

The only thing I ever didn't like that I heard Zep do was the Whole Lotta Love (Medley) on HTWWW. It starts off great but then it gets so lame it just kills me. I thought 'Why did they have to release this?'. Until then I considered them flawless.

I took the first album. It's my favorite from start to finish; others have some higher peaks and MUCH lower valleys.

JcS

I know what you mean but those valleys don't really start until Houses unless you include Stairway. Wouldn't you agree 1 2 & 3 are rock solid?

Zep 1. Rawer than their other efforts. Not a big fan of their albums after 4. 1 to 4 showed Zep to be an album based band, whereas everything after simply showed them as a singles band. Houses of the Holy would fall somewhere in between. I hate "The Ocean" and "Dancing Days" but love "Over the Hills and Far Away" and "The Song Remains the Same".

I love it but I can't stand 'D'Yer Maker' but someone wants to explain the title to me and how to pronounce it I still have no idea and would like to learn.

The first album is killer, end to end. The guitar solo on the first cut (Good Times Bad Times) sets the tone for the rest of their career.