In Through the Out Door is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin,
and their final album of entirely new material.
It was recorded over a three-week period in November and December 1978 at ABBA's Polar
Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, and released by Swan Song Records on 15 August 1979.
In Through the Out Door was the band's eighth and final studio release to reach the top
of the charts in America, and was the last released by the band before the death of drummer
John Bonham in 1980.
Background The album was named by the group to describe
its recent struggles amidst the death of Robert Plant's son Karac in 1977, and the taxation
exile the band took from the UK.
The exile resulted in the band being unable to tour on British soil for over two years,
and trying to get back into the public mind was therefore like "trying to get in through
the 'out' door."
In contrast to previous Led Zeppelin albums, In Through the Out Door features much greater
influence on the part of bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones and vocalist Robert Plant,
and relatively less from drummer John Bonham and guitarist Jimmy Page.
Two songs from the album—"South Bound Saurez" and "All My Love"—were the only two original
Led Zeppelin songs that Jimmy Page had no part in writing.
With the exception of "Darlene," a boogie-woogie based song credited to all band members, Bonham
did not receive writing credits for any of the songs recorded at Polar Studios.
This diminished input by Page and Bonham is attributed to the two band members often not
showing up on time at the recording studio, with Bonham struggling with alcoholism and
Page battling heroin addiction.
As Jones said, "there were two distinct camps by then, and we [Plant and I] were in the
relatively clean one."
Many of the songs were consequently put together by Plant and Jones during the day, with Page
and Bonham adding their parts late at night.
According to Jones, this was Following the recording sessions at Polar
Studios, the album was mixed at Page's personal studio at his home in Plumpton.
"Wearing and Tearing", "Ozone Baby" and "Darlene" were recorded during sessions for this album,
but were dropped because of space constraints.
All later appeared on Coda.
Album sleeve design The original album featured an unusual gimmick:
the album had an outer sleeve which was made to look like a plain brown paper bag, and
the inner sleeve featured black and white line artwork which, if washed with water,
would become permanently fully coloured.
There were also six different sleeves featuring a different pair of photos, and the external
brown paper sleeve meant that it was impossible for record buyers to tell which sleeve they
were getting.
The pictures all depicted the same scene in a bar, and each photo was taken from the separate
point of view of someone who appeared in the other photos.
The bar is the Absinthe Bar, located at 400 Bourbon Street in New Orleans, LA.
The walls are covered with thousands of yellowed business cards and dollar bills.
It was re-created in a London studio for the album sleeve design.
The album artwork was designed by Hipgnosis.
Storm Thorgerson recalls the design in his book Eye of the Storm:
In 1980, Hipgnosis were nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of best album package
for In Through the Out Door.
Release and critical reaction The album was intended to be released before
the band's twin concerts at Knebworth in 1979, but production delays meant that it was released
shortly after their performances at this event.
Plant jokingly referred to the delays at times during the performance on 4 August.
Despite receiving poor reviews, the album went to No. 1 on Billboard's chart in its
second week on the chart.
On this album's release, Led Zeppelin's entire catalogue made the Billboard 200 between the
weeks of 23 October and 3 November 1979, an unprecedented feat.
The album remained on the US top spot for seven weeks and sold three million copies
by the end of September 1979.
It is also the Led Zeppelin album that has been most weeks on the top of the charts.
To date, the album has sold six million copies in the US.
Following its release, Plant, Page and Bonham all expressed reservations about the album.
In 1990 Plant stated: In a 1998 Guitar World magazine interview,
Page was asked about the paradigm shift of the album's composition and style:
GW: I thought maybe you were losing your enthusiasm for the band.
Page: Never.
Never.
In fact, Bonzo [i.e. drummer John Bonham] and I had already started discussing plans
for a hard-driving rock album after that.
We both felt that In Through the Outdoor was a little soft.
I was not really very keen on "All My Love".
I was a little worried about the chorus.
I could just imagine people doing the wave and all of that.
And I thought, 'That is not us.
That is not us.'
In its place it was fine, but I would not have wanted to pursue that direction in the
future.
In the same interview Page explained that in juxtaposition to the previous Presence
album, John Paul Jones was inspired to create new material from his recently purchased Yamaha
GX-1 synthesizer, and he was "...working closely with Robert, which was something that had
not happened before."
Page said in 2004, "we wanted, after In Through the Out Door, to make something hard-hitting
and riff-based again.
Of course, we never got to make that album."
He is also quoted as saying "It wasn't the most comfortable album.
I think it was very transitional... a springboard for what could have been.
On the other hand, former road manager Richard Cole stated in his book Stairway to Heaven
during his time with the band, that after John Bonham sat through and listened to 'All
My Love', he declared that it was the best song in which he ever heard Robert sing.
In Through the Out Door was Led Zeppelin's final album to be released while the band
was together.
Drummer John Bonham died the next year on 25 September 1980.
Accolades Track listing
Sales chart performance Singles
Sales certifications Personnel
Led Zeppelin John Bonham – drums
John Paul Jones – bass guitar, mandolin, keyboards, synthesizer, piano
Jimmy Page – electric & acoustic guitars, Gizmotron, production
Robert Plant – lead vocals Additional personnel
Barry Diament – mastering Peter Grant – executive producer
Hipgnosis – record sleeve Leif Mases – engineering
George Marino – remastered Compact Disc release
Jeff Ocheltree – drum tech with John Bonham Lennart Östlund – assistant engineering
References
External links In Through the Out Door at MusicBrainz
Images of the six covers Storm Thorgerson's official website – includes
an In Through The Out Door feature Rick Barrett In Through The Out Door Album
Covers