In Through the Out Door

In Through the Out Door was the last studio album Led Zeppelin released in their lifetime, and its title names the trouble they were in. Robert Plant had lost his five-year-old son Karac in 1977, and the band's tax exile had kept them from playing in Britain for more than two years; getting back into the public mind was like trying to enter through the out door. It was recorded in three weeks in November and December 1978 at ABBA's Polar Studios in Stockholm, and mixed at Page's home studio. The balance of power had shifted. Jimmy Page and John Bonham, struggling with heroin and alcohol, were often absent, so John Paul Jones and Plant assembled the songs during the day and the other two added their parts at night. Jones, absorbed in a newly acquired Yamaha GX-1 synthesizer, took a writing credit on six of the seven songs — the largest share he ever had, and this is the only Led Zeppelin studio album with no writing credit for Bonham at all. The buoyant groove of “Fool in the Rain,” the daring structure of “Carouselambra” and the warm afterglow of “All My Love,” written for Karac, define it. It hit number one in the US in its second week and stayed there for seven.