{"id":798614,"date":"2019-08-16T12:13:37","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T18:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=866992"},"modified":"2019-08-16T12:13:37","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T18:13:37","slug":"flashback-led-zeppelin-return-to-the-stage-ahead-of-their-final-lp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/flashback-led-zeppelin-return-to-the-stage-ahead-of-their-final-lp\/","title":{"rendered":"Flashback: Led Zeppelin Return to the Stage Ahead of Their Final LP"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Happy 40th anniversary to Led Zeppelin<\/a>\u2019s In Through the Out Door<\/em>, the band\u2019s stunning final statement that has only begun to be appreciated in recent years. Unsurprisingly, this magazine slammed it so hard<\/a> its hinges almost flew off: \u201cIf perchance Robert Plant<\/a> meets someone who doesn\u2019t dump on him, he should avoid calling her \u2018the apple of my eye\u2019 or she will probably reject him,\u201d Charles M. Young cracked in Rolling Stone.<\/em> \u201cJust as I am rejecting \u2018I\u2019m Gonna Crawl<\/a>,\u2019 in which he sings that clich\u00e9 almost as if it meant something.\u201d Four decades later, the syrupy synths have only gotten sweeter, and the songs keep on crawling.<\/p>\n

The album marked the return from a two-year hiatus the band had taken due to turmoil and tragedy. Robert Plant was badly injured in a car accident in 1975; two years later, his five-year-old son Karac died of a stomach virus. Jimmy Page<\/a> was suffering a severe heroin addiction, while John Bonham<\/a> was battling alcoholism (eventually leading to his 1980 death). As a result, John Paul Jones<\/a>, usually the first to arrive at Abba\u2019s Polar Studios in Stockholm during sessions for the LP, took the reins. \u201cI suppose you could say that In Through the Out Door<\/em> is my album, the way Presence<\/em> was Jimmy\u2019s album,\u201d he told Ritchie Yorke in 1991.<\/p>\n

The album opens with \u201cIn the Evening,\u201d a track inspired by Page\u2019s near-involvement in the soundtrack to Kenneth Anger\u2019s film Lucifer Rising<\/em> and featuring guitar effects achieved with help of a mechanical bowing device called a Gizmotron. From the start, it was evident that this would be the most experimental record the band would ever make. With songs like the samba-inspired \u201cFool in the Rain\u201d and the ambitious \u201cCarouselambra\u201d that clocks in over 10 minutes, the band had officially entered art-rock territory. \u201cAll My Love,\u201d Plant\u2019s ode to Karac, oozed with such heart-wrenching melody, it made up for the puzzling rockabilly track \u201cHot Dog.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album was rumored to be originally titled Look<\/em>, but the title was changed to In<\/em> Through the Out Door<\/em> as a nod to the band overcoming their struggles. (\u201cThat\u2019s the hardest way to get back in,\u201d Page said). Hipgnosis<\/a> \u2014 the English design company co-owned by Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson \u2014 designed six different album sleeves, each depicting sepia-toned scenes in a New Orleans\u2013inspired bar. Copies were famously packaged in brown paper bags, concealing which cover was purchased. Even with this odd gimmick, the record sold an astounding 2 million copies in the first 10 days of its release. With record sales at a dangerous low, the album\u2019s success helped revive an ailing industry.<\/p>\n

Instead of embarking on a tour, the band decided to return to the stage with two outdoor shows at England\u2019s Knebworth Festival on August 4th and 11th, 1979 \u2014 their first time playing on U.K. soil in four years. In the video<\/a> above, they tear through \u201cIn the Evening\u201d with Bonham taking the lead, pounding the drums during an intense strobe-light display. \u201cSo don\u2019t you let her get under your skin,\u201d Plant sings. \u201cIt\u2019s only bad luck and trouble\/From the day that you begin.\u201d<\/p>\n

With an enormous crowd and opening acts that included Todd Rundgren and Utopia, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, the Marshall Tucker Band, and the New Barbarians featuring Keith Richards, Ron Wood, and Ian McLagan, the band were under immense pressure to get back in the groove. \u201cI wasn\u2019t as relaxed as I could have been,\u201d Plant recalled. \u201cThere was so much expectation and the least we could have done was to have been confident enough to kill. We maimed the beast for life, but we didn\u2019t kill it. It was good, but only because everybody made it good.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy 40th anniversary to Led Zeppelin\u2019s In Through the Out Door, the band\u2019s stunning final statement that has only begun to be appreciated in recent years. Unsurprisingly, this magazine slammed it so hard its hinges almost flew off: \u201cIf perchance Robert Plant meets someone who doesn\u2019t dump on him, he should avoid calling her \u2018the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-798614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 02:02:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}