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In Through the Out Door
One of six picture sleeve variants for original 1979 vinyl release, also used for digital, 2010's vinyl re-releases, and 2015 remastered. Cover by Hipgnosis
Studio album by Led Zeppelin
Released	22 August 1979 (1979-08-22)
Recorded	November–December 1978
Studio	Polar, Stockholm, Sweden
Genre	Hard rock art rock
Length	42:35
Label	Swan Song
Producer	Jimmy Page
Led Zeppelin chronology
The Song Remains the Same (1976) In Through the Out Door (1979) Coda (1982)
Singles from In Through the Out Door
"Fool in the Rain"/"Hot Dog" Released: 7 December 1979
Original paper bag sleeve
One of paper bag sleeve variants for original vinyl release, whose stamped logo was also used as part of front cover for original tape releases, and 2015 remastered.

In Through the Out Door is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was recorded in three weeks in November and December 1978 at ABBA's Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, and released by their label Swan Song Records on 22 August 1979 in the US and 24 August 1979 in the UK. Unlike earlier Led Zeppelin albums, In Through the Out Door was dominated musically by bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones. It was the band's last release before the death of their drummer John Bonham in September 1980 and their disbandment three months later.

The album was a huge commercial success; it went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in its second week on the American chart. It also went to No. 1 in the UK, Canada, and New Zealand.

Background

The album was named by the group to describe its struggles after 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 more than two years, and trying to get back into the public mind was therefore like "trying to get in through the 'out' door."

The group began rehearsing material in September 1978. After six weeks, they travelled to Polar Studios in Stockholm to begin recording. 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, who often failed to show up on time at the recording studio. Bonham was struggling with alcoholism and Page was battling heroin addiction. Jones later said, "there were two distinct camps by then, and we 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. Jones was inspired by the Yamaha GX-1 synthesiser he had recently purchased, and he was "working closely with Robert, which was something that had not happened before."

After the recording sessions at Polar, the album was mixed at Page's personal studio at his home in Plumpton. "Wearing and Tearing", "Ozone Baby" and "Darlene"—the last a boogie-woogie based song credited to all band members—were recorded during sessions for this album, but were dropped because of space constraints. All later appeared on Coda.

Songs

For In Through the Out Door, John Paul Jones is a co-writer on six of the seven songs, a larger share than on any other Led Zeppelin album. The album's "South Bound Saurez" and "All My Love" are the only two original Led Zeppelin songs that Page had no part in writing.

In Through the Out Door is the group's only studio album for which Bonham received no writing credits.

Side one

"In the Evening" was planned as the opening track for the album as "a full-blown epic", in order to show that Led Zeppelin could still make good music. In an interview, Page explained that he used a violin bow and a Gizmotron effect on his guitar to create the droning sound in the opening section of the song. The track features a contrast between the powerful riffs in the main part of the track, against a relatively quiet middle section.

"South Bound Saurez" starts with a "rollicking piano intro" played by Jones; author Dave Lewis calls it a "track that conjures up the New Orleans bar room feel of the sleeve." Credited to Jones and Robert Plant, it is one of only three officially released original songs by the band not to bear a Jimmy Page composition credit (along with this album's "All My Love", also credited to Jones and Plant, and "Bonzo's Montreux" from Coda, whose composition is credited only to John Bonham).

"Fool in the Rain" was an attempt to combine a samba rhythm with a basic rock tune, resulting in a polyrhythm partway through the song. The idea was inspired by Plant explaining that the group must explore new musical territory in order to remain current.

"Hot Dog" grew out of the band's pre-production rehearsals, where they warmed up by playing a series of old Elvis Presley and Ricky Nelson covers. Dave Lewis calls it a "rockabilly country hoe-down" that "owes much to the state of Texas and to the state of a particular female in Texas."

Side two

"Carouselambra" is a ten-minute track, dominated by Jones' keyboards and covering a variety of musical styles. Page played his Gibson EDS-1275 double neck guitar, which was normally only used for live performances. The group had intended to play the song live for a planned North American tour, which was cancelled after Bonham's death.

"All My Love" is an unconventional love song composed by Plant and Jones when they were the first to arrive at the studio. It was written in honour of Plant's son Karac, who died while Led Zeppelin were on their 1977 North American Tour. Jones played a classically inspired synthesiser solo in the middle of the track.

"I'm Gonna Crawl" is a relaxed blues track. Plant arranged the track to be in the style of mid-1960s soul music such as that of Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding. Jones contributed a string synthesiser arrangement.

Packaging and artwork

The original album featured an unusual gimmick: The outer sleeve was made to look like a plain brown paper bag, reminiscent of similarly packaged bootleg album sleeves with the title rubber-stamped on it, and the inner sleeve featured black and white line artwork which when wiped with a wet rag or sponge would activate an invisible ink and become permanently colored. There were also six different cover sleeve variants (A - F), featuring a different pair of photos for the front and back, and the external brown paper sleeve meant that it was impossible for record buyers to tell which sleeve they were getting. The corresponding letter was printed on the spine to indicate which cover variant it was, and this was sometimes exposed while the record was still sealed. The pictures all depict the same scene of a man sitting at a bar burning a Dear John letter along with six onlookers including the bartender, a piano player, a man holding his coat and three female patrons, all taken from a different point of view with slightly different poses. The photo session was taken in a London studio and was meant to re-create the Old Absinthe House in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The album artwork was designed by Hipgnosis' Storm Thorgerson. In 1980, Hipgnosis was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Album Package for In Through the Out Door.

Release and promotion

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, on 22 and 24 August 1979. Plant jokingly referred to the delays at times during the performance on 4 August 1979.

The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in its second week on the album chart, reportedly selling 1.7 million copies within weeks of release. Subsequently, Led Zeppelin's entire catalogue appeared in the Billboard 200 between the weeks of 23 October and 3 November 1979, an unprecedented feat, topping their own record in 1975, when all their albums up to Physical Graffiti were on the chart. The album remained on the US top spot for seven weeks and sold three million copies by the end of September 1979. It was credited with helping to revive the US record industry, which had begun to struggle. In January 1980, "Fool in the Rain" was released as a single to further promote the album, but it narrowly missed the top 20 of the singles chart. It was the band's final studio release to reach the top of the charts in the United States.

In Through the Out Door is the Led Zeppelin album that has spent the most weeks on the top of the charts (tied with Led Zeppelin II). To date, the album has sold six million copies in the US.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The Daily Telegraph
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
MusicHound Rock
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Smash Hits	7/10
Tom Hull – on the Web	B+
The Village Voice	B+

In Through the Out Door divided contemporary critics and Led Zeppelin fans; some found its synthesiser-influenced music inevitable but forward-thinking while others felt the band had forsaken their heavy, fast sound. According to Jimmy Page biographer Martin Power, "predictably, in the wake of punk, In Through the Out Door received a rough ride from some critics, with Zep's veteran status in the music business now used as a stick with which to beat them."

Reviewing the album in Rolling Stone, Charles M. Young said Page's diminishing creativity resulted in little good material to work with for Plant, whose lyrics Young found inane, and Bonham, whose drumming was viewed as heavy handed. This brought to the forefront the keyboard playing of Jones, who Young said "functions best behind Page, not in front of him". Chris Bohn from Melody Maker said "the impressionable first play" of the record "had everyone in the office rolling around laughing", while accusing the band of being "totally out of touch" and "displaying the first intimations of mortality". By contrast, NME journalist Nick Kent argued that the album was "no epitaph", believing its "potential points of departure" deserved further listening. Robert Christgau also wrote positively of the record in The Village Voice, observing the usual "lax in the lyrics department", but regarding the album as the group's best since Houses of the Holy (1973). He said "the tuneful synthesizer pomp on side two confirms my long-held belief that this is a real good art-rock band", while "the lollapalooza hooks on the first side confirms the world's long-held belief that this is a real good hard rock band". At the end of the year, In Through the Out Door was nominated for the 1980 American Music Awards, in the category of "Favorite Pop/Rock Album".

Following the album's release, Plant, Page and Bonham all expressed reservations about the record. Plant later said that he enjoyed the variation in styles from previous albums, though he appreciated the album was "a bit sanitised". 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." In Through the Out Door was Led Zeppelin's final album to be released while all the original members were still living. Drummer John Bonham died the next year on 25 September 1980.

In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Gaylord Fields said the album was "maligned upon its release a retreat from heaviness" but "now stands as an art-rock oddity with some alluring tangents". Colin Larkin appraised it in his Encyclopedia of Popular Music (2006) as "lacking the definition" of the band's previous records, yet "a strong collection on which John Paul Jones emerged as the unifying factor". Neil McCormick, however, reinforced past complaints about the album, ranking it as the band's worst album in a 2014 retrospective on the band in The Daily Telegraph: "Muddy production, perky synths, jaunty pop rhythms and an orchestral ballad make these songs barely recognisable as the heaviest band in history."

2015 reissue

2015 reissue ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	73/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
Classic Rock	7/10
Pitchfork	8.0/10
PopMatters	5/10
Q
Uncut	8/10

A remastered version of In Through the Out Door, along with Presence and Coda were reissued on 31 July 2015. The reissue comes in six formats: a standard CD edition, a deluxe two-CD edition, a standard LP version, a deluxe two-LP version, a super deluxe two-CD plus two-LP version with a hardback book, and as high resolution 24-bit/96k digital downloads. The deluxe and super deluxe editions feature bonus material containing alternative takes and alternatively titled tracks, "Southbound Piano", "The Epic", "The Hook", and "Blot". The reissue was released with a black and white version of the original album's artwork as its bonus disc's cover. A replica of the brown bag and the colourable line drawing are included in this edition.

The reissue was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 73, based on eight reviews. Q magazine said "it's aged remarkably well and 'All My Love' is breathtakingly beautiful", while Tim Batcup from Classic Rock observed in the bonus material "a scruffier, rambunctious 'Hot Dog' and a sparser 'In the Evening', the drone intro truncated and Jones's synths high in the mix". PopMatters reviewer Andrew Doscas was more critical, especially of the bonus disc: "While In Through the Out Door does have some merit, it's cruel of Led Zeppelin to think that anyone, even a dedicated fan, could muster the strength to listen to the album twice in a row."

Track listing

Original release

The details are taken from the original US Swan Song album (UK edition does not list running times). All tracks written by John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant, except where noted.

Deluxe edition (2015)

Personnel

• Robert Plant – vocals
• Jimmy Page – guitars, Gizmotron, production
• John Paul Jones – bass guitar, keyboards
• John Bonham – drums, percussion

Production

• John Davis – remastering (2015 reissues)
• Barry Diament – mastering (original 1988 Compact Disc release)
• Peter Grant – executive producer
• Hipgnosis – record sleeve
• George Marino – remastering (1994 reissues)
• Leif Mases – engineering
• Jeff Ocheltree – drum tech for John Bonham
• Lennart Östlund – assistant engineering

Charts

Certifications

References

Notes

Citations

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2. Dolan, Jon (5 December 2007). "Led Zeppelin: Complete Album-By-Album Guide". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 3 December 2019. Retrieved 3 December 2019. ...Zeppelin's eighth and final studio album.
3. "RIAA". Recording Industry Association of America.
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5. Lewis 1990, p. 59.
6. ^ Dave Lewis (2003), Led Zeppelin: Celebration II: The 'Tight But Loose' Files, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 1-84449-056-4, pp. 49, 63, 80.
7. Lewis 1990, p. 22.
8. Aizelwood, John (2003). "Closing Time". Q Magazine, Special Led Zeppelin Edition: 94..
9. Gilmore, Mikal (10 August 2006). "The Long Shadow of Led Zeppelin". Rolling Stone. No. 1006. Archived from the original on 13 June 2018. Retrieved 9 December 2007.
10. Snow, Mat (December 2007). "The Secret Life of a Superstar". Mojo.
11. Brad Tolinski and Greg Di Bendetto, "Light and Shade", Guitar World, January 1998.
12. ^ Lewis 1990, p. 62.
13. ^ Lewis 1990, p. 60.
14. Lewis 1990, p. 23.
15. Alfred 2010, p. 4.
16. Lewis 1990, pp. 23, 60.
17. ^ Lewis 1990, p. 61.
18. "In Through The Out Door (1979) Cover Variations". Gotledblog.wordpress.com. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
19. Thorgerson, Storm (1999). Eye of the Storm: The Album Graphics of Storm Thorgerson. Sanctuary Publishing, Limited. pp. 34, 35. ISBN 978-1-86074-259-0.
20. "Grammy Award for Best Album Package (Hipgnosis) – 27 February 1980". Grammy. Archived from the original on 27 December 2014. Retrieved 10 February 2009.
21. Blake 2018, eBook.
22. Welch 1994, pp. 89–90.
23. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "In Through the Out Door – Led Zeppelin". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
24. ^ McCormick, Neil (23 April 2014). "Led Zeppelin's albums ranked from worst to best". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 13 December 2014. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
25. ^ Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 5 (4th ed.). MUZE. p. 141. ISBN 0195313739.
26. Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel, eds. (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 662. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.
27. ^ Fields, Gaylord (2004). "Led Zeppelin". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 479–80. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
28. Starr, Red. "Albums". Smash Hits (20 September – 3 October 1979): 25.
29. Hull, Tom (n.d.). "Grade List: Led Zeppelin". Tom Hull – on the Web. Archived from the original on 18 July 2020. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
30. ^ Christgau, Robert (31 March 1980). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on 25 August 2018. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
31. Akkerman, Gregg (2014). Experiencing Led Zeppelin: A Listener's Companion. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 113. ISBN 978-0810889163.
32. ^ Power, Martin (2016). "Chapter 27: Wearing and Tearing". No Quarter: The Three Lives of Jimmy Page. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1783235360.
33. Young, Charles M. (18 October 1979). "In Through The Out Door". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 11 June 2017. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
34. "Favorite Pop/Rock Album – 18 January 1980". rockonthenet. Archived from the original on 2 February 2009. Retrieved 19 January 2009.
35. Mat Snow, "Apocalypse Then", Q magazine, December 1990, p. 82.
36. Charles Shaar Murray, "The Guv'nors'", Mojo, August 2004, p. 75.
37. Liner notes for the Led Zeppelin boxed set.
38. ^ "In Through The Out Door [Remastered] - Led Zeppelin". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 28 January 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
39. ^ Batcup, Tim (August 2015). "Led Zeppelin Presence / In Through The Out Door / Coda". Classic Rock. pp. 102–03.
40. Richardson, Mark (28 July 2015). "Led Zeppelin: Presence / In Through the Out Door / Coda". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 27 August 2015. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
41. ^ Doscas, Andrew (22 September 2015). "Led Zeppelin: In Through the Out Door (Deluxe Edition)". PopMatters. Archived from the original on 5 July 2018. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
42. ^ Anon. (September 2015). "Review". Q. p. 121.
43. Robinson, John (September 2015). "Led Zeppelin: Presence/In Through The Out Door/Coda (Deluxe Editions)". Uncut. p. 93.
44. Grow, Kory (3 June 2015). "Led Zeppelin Announce Final Three Deluxe Reissues". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 4 June 2015. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
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46. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
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50. Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5.
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53. Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005 (in Japanese). Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
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Sources

• Alfred (2010). Led Zeppelin – In Through the Out Door Platinum Album. Van Nuys, California: Alfred Music. ISBN 978-0-7390-6899-1.
• Blake, Mark (2018). Bring It On Home: Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin, and Beyond. New York City: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306922367.
• Lewis, Dave (1990). Led Zeppelin : A Celebration. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-711-92416-1. Archived from the original on 25 October 2020. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
• Welch, Chris (1994). Led Zeppelin. London: Orion Books. ISBN 1-85797-930-3.

External links

• In Through the Out Door at MusicBrainz (list of releases)
• In Through the Out Door at Discogs (list of releases)
• Images of the six covers Archived 29 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine
• Storm Thorgerson's official website – includes an In Through The Out Door feature
• Rick Barrett In Through The Out Door Album Covers

• 1979 albums
• Albums produced by Jimmy Page
• Albums with cover art by Hipgnosis
• Led Zeppelin albums
• Swan Song Records albums
• Albums recorded at Polar Studios
• Art rock albums by English artists