Lot Long
publication date: Sunday, November 12, 2023 (part of November 2023)
category: 
Mysteries
clue: A lucky lot at an auction turned up a photograph of this man with more than four sticks on his back, ending a mystery that had long perplexed rock and roll historians.
explanation: In 1971, Led Zeppelin used an image of a thatcher with a bundle of sticks on his back on the cover of their untitled fourth album, which contained the songs "Four Sticks" and "Rock and Roll." The picture was long assumed to be a color oil painting, but the subject and location were a mystery. In 2023, a lot of antique photographs digitized by an auction house turned out to contain the original black and white photograph taken in Wiltshire in 1892, which was determined to have been hand-colored at a London school of photography. The thatcher was subsequently identified as Lot Long. more…
intended difficulty: hard
solved by: Russ Wilhelm, Steve West, and LaVonne Lemler
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