IN THROUGH THE OUT DOOR

By the late of the 70's, Led Zeppelin was starting to face the consequences of their own excesses. Guitarist Jimmy Page and drummer John Bonham were dealing with tough addictions, heroin and alcohol respectively, while singer Robert Plant was questioning himself about his own future in the music business after the death of his son, Karac. The music's situation was also having changes, pop music and the synthesisers were hitting the scene, and Led Zeppelin had to keep pace with the times and added some synthetic sound to their works. Thus was born "In Through The Out Door".

"In Through The Out Door" is the eighth and last studio album of Led Zeppelin and was released in 1979. The album marks a mixture of sounds and rhythms from different styles. It has a massive use of keyboards and synthesizers by John Paul Jones that excels beyond the chords of Jimmy Page. A fact that greatly marked the release of the album was the edition of six different covers because the scene in the bar was photographed by six opposite angles. It became also the band's final studio album, because it was released one year before the death of their drummer John Bonham.

"In Through The Out Door" has seven tracks. The first track "In The Evening" written by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones is a very powerful song in the same line of the good old days. It's a classic Led Zeppelin's tune with a catchy riff and great keyboard lines. It's the second lengthiest song on the album and is a great song to open the album, respecting the good old tradition of their great opening musical numbers. This is one of the two highlights of the album. The second track "South Bound Saurez" written by Robert Plant and John Paul Jones is a song centred around John Paul Jones's piano, with strong vocals, and where is particularly noticed the almost absence of Jimmy Page. It's one of the only two Led Zeppelin's songs without the participation of Jimmy Page, in the song writing, in the history of the band. The other is "All My Love", also from this album. It's a piano oriented song with excellent vocals from Robert Plant, as usual. The third track "Fool In The Rain" written by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones was chosen to be released as a single, with "Hot Dog" as the B side. It's a song dominated by piano and with a Latin touch. It's a song that spans several musical genres, and in the end, it has also a surprising samba section. It's an excellent song with a great drumming work that proves that John Bonham could play all type of music. The fourth track "Hot Dog" written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page is clearly a song influenced by the country music. As you know, I don't like particularly of this kind of music, and you can remember, for sure, my negative observations about those songs written by Greg Lake for Emerson, Lake & Palmer. However, in this case and despite being the weakest song on the album, it's audible. The fifth track "Carouselambra" written by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones is the other highlight on the album and stands alongside as one of the best and most progressive Led Zeppelin's tracks. It's the lengthiest song on the album and it's also their second lengthiest song ever. This is a fantastic song dominated by keyboards and with an incredible drum work, which soon became one of my favourite songs from the band. The sixth track "All My Love" written by Robert Plant and John Paul Jones was a song written in honour of Plant's son Karac, who died while Led Zeppelin were on their 1977's USA tour. It's a very beautiful ballad, one of the most beautiful ballads that I ever heard, and where the emotional lyrics are sung with a very sentimental feeling by Robert Plant. This is one of their finest ballads. The seventh and last track "I'm Gonna Crawl" written by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones is a song heavily influenced by the American soul-blues. It's a very good song very well performed and where Robert Plant have, for me, one of his best vocal performances. It became, unfortunately, the Led Zeppelin's swan song.

Conclusion: I really always loved "In Through The Out Door". I always considered it their second most prog effort with "Houses Of The Holy". Still, "In Through The Out Door" was always the most controversial, unloved and misunderstood album of Led Zeppelin. So, it became an underrated album, one of the many underrated albums in the progressive rock history. "In Through The Out Door" is an album without weak points. It has two excellent progressive songs, "In The Evening" and "Carouselambra" and the rest of the album is very good, and even "Hot Dog" is good. "In Through The Out Door" is another album where Led Zeppelin changed their type of music. So, if John Bonham hadn't died so soon, I would be very curious to know what the musical path they would have followed in the future. Let's now write a few lines about John Paul Jones. I think he was placed in the shadow of the band, but he always was the quiet force of the group. He hadn't the charisma of Robert Plant, the virtuosity of Jimmy Page or the living force of John Bonham. Still, he is a very complete musician a basilar stone in the band. "In Through The Out Door" is essentially a John Paul Jones album. Though he had always contributed with songs to the group, on this album he confirmed he is a great songwriter, really.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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