In Through the Out Door is the eighth studio album by English rock band Led Zeppelin before John Bonham died and the group disbanded in 1980. 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 sixth and final release to reach the top of the charts in America.

Overview

The album was named by the group to describe its recent struggles amidst the tragic death of Robert Plant's son Karac, and the taxation exile the band took from the UK as a result of the Harold Wilson and James Callaghan administrations, which also adversely affected other major British bands of the time, such as The Rolling Stones. The exile resulted in the band being unable to tour on British soil for over two years. Trying to get back into the public mind was 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 which Jimmy Page had no part in writing. With the exception of "Darlene," a Boogie-Woogie based song credited to all band members (which was eventually released on the 1982 album, Coda), 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. 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. As Jones said:

There were two distinct camps by then, and we [myself and Plant] were in the relatively clean one.

Both Page and Bonham later expressed reservations about the album. In an interview he gave to Guitar World magazine in 1998, Page stated that he and Bonham:

...both felt that In Through the Out Door was a little soft. I wasn't really 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's not us. That's not us. In its place it was fine, but I wouldn't have wanted to pursue that direction in the future.

"Wearing and Tearing", "Ozone Baby" and "Darlene" were recorded during sessions for this album, but were dropped due to space constraints. All later appeared on Coda.

The original gramophone record of this 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 a wet brush, would become permanently fully colored. There were also six different sleeves featuring a different pair of photos (one on each side), and the external brown paper sleeve meant that it was impossible for record buyers to tell which sleeve they were getting. (There is actually a code on the spine of the album jacket, which indicated which sleeve it was — this could sometimes be seen while the record was still sealed.) The pictures all depicted the same scene in a bar (in which a man burns a Dear John letter), and each photo was taken from the separate point of view of someone who appeared in the other photos. The album artwork was designed by Hipgnosis. In 1980 the album was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of best album package.

The album was intended to be released prior to the band's twin concerts at Knebworth in 1979, but 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 August 4.

The album went to #1 on Billboard's charts in its first week of release — a first for a rock band. As a result on this album's release, Led Zeppelin's entire catalogue made the Billboard Top 200 between the weeks of October 27 and November 3, 1979. The album has sold six million copies in the US to date.

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.

Track listing

Side one

1. "In the Evening" (John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant) – 6:49
2. "South Bound Saurez" (Jones, Plant) – 4:12
3. "Fool in the Rain" (Jones, Page, Plant) – 6:12
4. "Hot Dog" (Page, Plant) – 3:17

Side two

1. "Carouselambra" (Jones, Page, Plant) – 10:31
2. "All My Love" (Plant, Jones) – 5:53
3. "I'm Gonna Crawl" (Page, Plant, Jones) – 5:30

Personnel

• John Bonham – drums
• John Paul Jones – bass guitar, keyboards
• Jimmy Page – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
• Robert Plant – vocals

Additional personnel

• Jimmy Page – producer
• Peter Grant – executive producer
• Leif Mases – engineer
• Lennard Östlund – assistant engineer
• Hipgnosis – sleeve

CD Mastering engineers

• Barry Diament - original CD - Atlantic Studios (mid-1980s)
• George Marino - remastered CD (1990)

References in popular culture

• The title of an episode of the TV series La Femme Nikita matches the name of the album, though the music is not used.
• In season 1 episode 5 of The Venture Brothers, Hank Venture is searching through a box of cassette tapes owned by Brock Samson. Hank finds "In Through the Out Door" and asks if he can play it on the stereo. Brock refuses, stating that this particular album brings back memories of the only woman he has ever loved. He also did not wish it to be played because he believed that "Zep sold out on that one." Also in season 3 episode 8, Brock's long lost son Dermott puts a lighter up his "cornhole, so that when the aliens try to probe me, and they totally will, they'll get a facefull of friggin fire! Nobody goes in through my outdoor!".
• The 1985 Prince song "Raspberry Beret" contains a lyric "She walked in through the out door, out door"

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1979	Billboard Pop Albums (Billboard 200)	1 (7 weeks)

Singles

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1980	"Fool In the Rain"	Billboard Pop Singles (Billboard Hot 100)	21

Certifications

Certifier	Certification	Sales
RIAA (U.S.)	6x Platinum	6,000,000

Catalogue

• (US) Swan Song SS16002
• (UK) Swan Song SSK59410

External links

• Lyrics
• Images of the six covers
• In Through the Out Door Revisited
• Storm Thorgerson's official website. Includes an In Through The Out Door feature

References