Led Zeppelin- In Through the Out Door @45- Jimmy Page

When Led Zeppelin released their eighth studio album In Through the Out Door in August 1979, we had no way of knowing that it would be their last original studio effort. In Through the Out Door was immediately massively successful, rocketing to #1 sales in only its second week out in both the US and UK because of songs “In the Evening”, “Southbound Suarez”, “Fool in the Rain”, and the achingly tender “All My Love”, eventually equaling Led Zeppelin II for career best-seller.

Jimmy Page, the mastermind Presence behind the Led Zeppelin legacy, returned In the Studio to reveal that by the time that the lengthy sold-out tour to support the preceding iconic double album, Physical Graffiti,  wound down in 1975, the Led Zeppelin juggernaut had soared to heights previously unknown by a rock band and had entered, figuratively speaking, the jet stream of the entertainment world. From that altitude the view is breathtaking, but the extremes of speed, temperature, and lack of oxygen make it impossible to survive without aid and the right protection. Just one misstep and the unforgiving immutable laws of Nature kick in, regardless of where your record is on the sales chart or how many concert tickets you have sold.

Thus began a five year period when a series of tragedies befell Led Zeppelin, even while guitarist/composer/producer Jimmy Page, singer/ lyricist Robert Plant, bass/keyboard/composer John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham continued to record timeless hard rock such as “Achilles’ Last Stand”,”Nobody’s Fault but Mine”, and “For Your Life” from Presence, which amaze even now almost half a century later.

Yet, cruel but consistent, and in spite of overwhelming popularity, about half of the music critics of the day savaged Led Zeppelin upon release of In Through the Out Door in August 1979 for being woefully out of synch with the Punk Rock ethos, which many of those self-anointed gatekeepers saw as a musical laxative for rock’s bloat. Led Zeppelin guitarist/composer/producer Jimmy Page joins me for a rare classic rock interview here In the Studio to recall the considerable challenges they faced making In Through the Out Door on the album’s forty-fifth anniversary. –Redbeard