LP
Past, Present and Future
USA (PR 342) Sleeve Only, Promo #2

This rare unreleased promotional record (and sleeve) features an interview with Robert Plant & John Paul Jones conducted by J.J. Jackson on August 12, 1979, a day after the last Knebworth Festival concert.

The history of this record began when an employee from the Atlantic Records Art Department contacted Rick Barrett from Merit Adventures. The employee informed Rick they had three examples of a record sleeve of an abandoned project for Led Zeppelin. Rick obtained the sleeves and placed them for sale in the 1993 Merit Adventure catalog #122.

Shortly after the 1993 sale, Rick discovered this test pressing while inputting his collection into a database. He bought it at a swap meet in Los Angeles and stashed it away, later finding it was the missing piece to this incredibly rare sleeve.

Later, a Led Zeppelin collector found a test pressing with PR-342 etched in the runoff at a swap meet in Los Angeles, CA. Rick negotiated a deal with this collector and acquired the first test pressing.

While Barrett was responsible for uncovering three of the sleeves, the other remaining sleeves most likely came from Atlantic Record employees.

From LedZepNews, here’s a handy breakdown of all known copies of the Led Zeppelin Past, Present and Future sleeve

• The first sleeve. Sold by Rick Barrett in 1993 to a Led Zeppelin collector for $1,500
• The first complete set with the vinyl record. Sold by Rick Barrett to a collector in Dallas, Texas, in the 1990s for $5,000 and then purchased by Robert Musco in 2015
• The second complete set with the vinyl record. Sold by Rick Barrett to a buyer in Japan for $5,000
• Mark Linchner’s sleeve (Version #2)
• Ronald Girouard’s sleeve (Version #3)
• A sleeve sold on eBay by a US seller in 2005 for $355
• A newly emerged sleeve in 2024 offered for sale by Infinity Records for $99,999

Version #1 – Test pressing and sleeve
Version #2 – Sleeve only
Version #3 – Sleeve only
Version #4 – Sleeve only