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Did you know that there are (IIRC) six different outer sleeve designs labelled A to F, shown on the top of the spine. Mine is design A.
I didn't remember about the different sleeve designs, just had a look and mine's D. And it came in a brown paper bag so you couldn't tell which sleeve you had.
It was the first Led Zeppelin album I bought, on the day of release. In retrospect it's really not one of their best, but I thought it was amazing at the time.
That was when I was first getting into heavier rock music - I bought Rainbow's Down to Earth, In Through the Out Door, Judas Priest Unleashed in the East, Whitesnake's Lovehunter and Gillan's Mr Universe, all released within a couple of months of each other.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
I've often thought their next record would have coincided with NWOBHM - Jimmy has alluded to him and Bonzo being dissatisfied with ITTOD and discussing a more "hard driving" follow up.
He also uses it all over the 2nd Firm album "Mean Business".....
I’d read before listening to it that In Through The Out Door was driven by John Paul Jones, who I’ve always felt was the best musician in Led Zeppelin. I’d recently listened to his excellent solo album Zooma, and was really looking forward to hearing what a Zep album sounded like with him in creative control.
Oh dear. Parping synths lie heavily across the whole album, which is simultaneously densely produced and devoid of any real depth. Page is... well, he’s there, and playing well, but doesn’t really seem to bring many creative ideas this time. Almost as if he’s a session guitarist on his own record. The whole thing feels like it’s been made out of obligation - the four of them saying “We should make an album” rather than “We want to make an album”.
I think that Hot Dog is complete pants. The final track is alright but they'd already done that 'slow bluesy closer' stuff on Presence.
There were the three tracks from the sessions that were at one point considered for a separate ep: Ozone Baby, Darlene, and Wearing and Tearing.
Personally I'd have pulled South Bound Suarez, Hot Dog and Crawl, and put in three above. Wearing and Tearing would've been a good album opener.
I'd probably go with this as a final track listing:
Side 1.
Wearing and Tearing
Ozone Baby
Fool in the Rain
Darlene
Side 2.
Carouselambra
All My Love
In the Evening
This totally alters the balance of the record of course. On side 1 you get the punky, synthy, new wave spiky stuff completely front loaded. But it gives the whole atmosphere the kick up the arse it needs, and sort of fulfils their remit of showing a) they could still play, b) there was still a pulse in Zep, and c)they could ride out changes in the musical landscape. I'd have to check if all those tracks are in the same key. That'd be quite funny if they were!
Side 2 is basically your more reflective, intricate, more self-indulgent Zeppiness. Actually, In the Evening was the closing track off the seminal Remasters compilation in 1990, and it works an absolute treat as a 'cinemascope' epic album closer.
As far as the old line from Pagey about him and Bonzo saying they wanted the ITTOD follow up to be harder, this is completely true. As a matter of fact, a lot of Pagey's good ideas ended up with the Firm and also Coverdale Page.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein