Another Zepp Poll

They may have released a couple of more albums and then broken up and went their separate ways, only to re-unite every 5 or 10 years or so to do reunion tours and possibly to release another new album here or there.

 ^  In Through the Out Door was mostly great is what it was, but it's hard to say...Plant's direction away from Zep's traditional sound on his first two solo albums continued in the vein of that record and is a clue to where he was interested in going musically, whether the rest of them would have gone along is unknown..I suspect they would've stayed together for at least another 5 to 10 years, you don't find that kind of chemistry very often and though they all may have done some solo work, their relationship would've continued (unlike the Beatles)

They would have done what I think they did after 1975 anyway....continued to suck.

 ^ they did rock that year, not their best live period but interesting

I think their popularity was on the slide anyway (correct me if I'm wrong), although I know they played a huge show at Knebworth in 79.. but in terms of record sales...?

I think they would have released at least one more album, which may have had a softer sound.

Plant would have started up a solo career and left the band, and Peter Gabriel would have joined zepp to create future poppier albums. 

Certainly no popularity loss - they would have continued selling LPs by the truckload and selling out all sorts of stadia - look at The Who & Pink Floyd for evidence of that. I think that they were all too close as a foursome of mates to have quit - it was the loss of Bonham that prompted that and the fact that Plant is now doing his own thing (very well, I think) that has made him refuse to take any further part.

BTW - I saw them at Knebworth in 79 - I thought they were awful. It must be me, I suppose

It's quite possible that they'd have surprised everybody with a new turn in their musical direction (back to the roots? heavier? poppier? folkier?). I think that Led Zep might have gone on as a band, although they surely would have made a number of solo projects. Listening to their later work, would it have been possible that John Paul Jones (try to get your copy of The Thunderthief!) might have led them into proggier waters? Or would Plant have set sails to Bluegrass anyway and taken the others with him? Might Page have done something like Outrider with LZ? Nobody knows and maybe that it's good like that. I like to remember them as one of the greatest bands and wouldn't have wanted to see them go down the drain like Collins-led Genesis.

rushfan4 wrote: They may have released a couple of more albums and then broken up and went their separate ways, only to re-unite every 5 or 10 years or so to do reunion tours and possibly to release another new album here or there.

I agree with that