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Zep Should Release "In Through the Out Door" -- Complete and Uncut


Ted Servo

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I think if Zep repackaged and re-released "In Through the Out Door," it would get the re-appraisal it deserves. I took the songs from "Coda" that were from the "In Through the Out Door" sessions and included them with the others,with a revised sequence. I think what emerges is a great, eclectic album. I give it 5-stars. Most importantly, it kicks off with three-rocking numbers. I think this remedies what was the problem with the original -- after "In the Evening," there really wasn't another hard rock number. Here is the sequence I created.

1. In the Evening

2. Ozone Baby

3. Wearing and Tearing

4. Hot Dog

5. Fool in the Rain

6. Carouselambra

7. Southbound Suarez

8. All My Love

9. Darlene

10. I'm Gonna Crawl

Similarly, just taking the original songs from "Physical Graffiti" and re-sequencing gives the album a new focus. Now the more off-beat numbers are no longer in the shadow of the hard rock songs, which were likewise in the shadow of the opuses. I think putting the hard rock songs together maintains a great consistency of tone -- with the space-rock and quirkier numbers together to emphasize the eclecticism. All the songs sound good to great now. Nothing seems like filler. Here's the sequence (split like the original double album should have been, I do believe). Just about the best double album and even best rock album ever? Wish Zep would do the same with this one, too. I think it is now indisputably their best collection -- much more so than the common favorite, "Zep IV." But I think "ITtOD" is right up there, and "Presence" is still the most underrated.

Disc One

1. Houses of the Holy

2. Trampled Underfoot

3. Night Flight

4. The Wanton Song

5. The Rover

6. Sick Again

7. Custard Pie

8. Ten Years Gone

Disc Two

1. Kashmir

2. Down by the Seaside

3. Black Country Woman

4. In the Light

5. Bron-Yr-Aur

6. Boogie with Stu

7. In My Time of Dying

One last thing, if this were for the original four-sided vinyl release, then I would put "Boogie with Stu" between "Black Country Woman" and "In the Light," so the fourth side wouldn't be too long.

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I don't know. The stuff that is on Coda is on Coda for a reason. It wasn't good enough to make the cut.

I will say ITTOD is in my top 3 Zep albums, though. In The Evening, I'm Gonna Crawl and Fool In The Rain are my faves.

I finally got to hear "Coda," which I had avoided because I thought it was just a bunch of throw-a-ways, and was surprised how good it is. I like the rock songs that were missing from "ITtoD" and put it down to more of JPJ taking the reins, since Jimmy was pretty messed up at the time. I really was somewhat disappointed when I heard ITtod for the first time in '79. I thought it was watered down, esp. after "Presence." It was like, hey -- this is album has only one hard rock song!

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Not a bad idea. I know there's a version of "Fool In The Rain" that's about a minute longer than the one on the album. It's the same version,actually,it just doesn't fade out at the same point as it goes on for more than another minute with Robert's vocals.

That would be nice to include on the re-release.

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Nothing on PG sounds remotely like filler to me. :huh: Plus I think the sequencing works brilliantly.

I wouldn't argue for re-sequencing ITTOD and/or Coda, either, though I do agree that ITTOD is often overlooked, not by Zep fans particularly but by music lovers as a whole.

However, the great thing these days is that we can all compile our own playlists on our iPods or whatever, and sequence the songs the way we like best! Better to do that than mess with the albums themselves, I think.

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I've never had anything against In Through the Out Door either. The other thread about it also mentions bad reviews. I can't say I recall any at the time but the only one that stands out in my memory is one that ran in Creem. Unfortunately I can't seem to find it at their site but then again they might not have archived it.

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This is true. To me, Coda doesn't really count as one of their true studiio releases. Only released because of the tragic death of Bonzo. As for IN Through the Outdoor, Fool In the Rain to me stands above the rest.

That stuff was bound to come out anyway. History has taught all bands and artists eventually realease their outtakes. There may have been some backlash against stuff like that years ago but now it's a "bonus track" or special feature on a reissue. Even bands that never broke up revisit their past and issue outtakes, especially if what was once a cast aside track in their prime is better than what they are currently doing. The reality is what was considered a thowaway track on Coda is still classic Zep. That album has it's place in Zep history.

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This is true. To me, Coda doesn't really count as one of their true studiio releases. Only released because of the tragic death of Bonzo. As for IN Through the Outdoor, Fool In the Rain to me stands above the rest.

It was released basically to fulfill their recording contract.

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I've never had anything against In Through the Out Door either. The other thread about it also mentions bad reviews. I can't say I recall any at the time

Jeez, you must have a very short or bad memory, then! It was absolutely slated at the time!

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Not a bad idea. I know there's a version of "Fool In The Rain" that's about a minute longer than the one on the album. It's the same version,actually,it just doesn't fade out at the same point as it goes on for more than another minute with Robert's vocals.

That would be nice to include on the re-release.

Fool In The Rain fades out?

You may mean All My Love. I believe that's the one that goes a bit further and I prefer that version as well.

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This is true. To me, Coda doesn't really count as one of their true studiio releases. Only released because of the tragic death of Bonzo. As for IN Through the Outdoor, Fool In the Rain to me stands above the rest.

Not only that, there is a LOT of post-1980 "studio magic" from Robert and especially Jimmy on Coda...

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Not only that, there is a LOT of post-1980 "studio magic" from Robert and especially Jimmy on Coda...

I think the 3 ITTOD tracks on Coda were already in the can before Bonzo died. They were supposed to go on a companion EP around the time ITTOD came out.

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Jeez, you must have a very short or bad memory, then! It was absolutely slated at the time!

Perhaps but like I said, the only review that I can recall reading was in Creem and it was a good one. At least to the best of my recollection. Then again, it has been 30 years ago. Besides that, the only review that really matters to me is what I thought of it. I could give a shit what any of the reviewers had to say about it, then or now. Did you decide it was a bad record based solely on what reviewers thought of it?

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I've never had anything against In Through the Out Door either. The other thread about it also mentions bad reviews. I can't say I recall any at the time but the only one that stands out in my memory is one that ran in Creem. Unfortunately I can't seem to find it at their site but then again they might not have archived it.

The originally Rolling Stone review hammered the album. This was, in time, replaced with a more generous review as part of RS reappraisal of the band

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The originally Rolling Stone review hammered the album. This was, in time, replaced with a more generous review as part of RS reappraisal of the band

I know a lot has been made of Rolling Stone's reviews of Zeppelin over the years but it never really stopped me from reading it. I'm quite capable of thinking for myself and forming my own opinions about music so I always kind of got a kick out of those fans that took that shit so seriously. It has been interesting to see them do a lengthy feature on Rush and put AC/DC on their cover in recent months though.

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Perhaps but like I said, the only review that I can recall reading was in Creem and it was a good one. At least to the best of my recollection. Then again, it has been 30 years ago. Besides that, the only review that really matters to me is what I thought of it. I could give a shit what any of the reviewers had to say about it, then or now. Did you decide it was a bad record based solely on what reviewers thought of it?

I think you were replying to someone else, but in my case -- I heard ITtoD when it premiered in '79 (read below for more). I wanted so much to love that album, I really tried .... but could only like it at the time. I thought of a what-if scenario -- what if they had included the three rocking tracks that didn't make the original cut (which I read was due to space limitations, and the fact that JPJ had worked so hard on the other tracks). (As a side note, I remember Rolling Stone's "Sad Zep" review at the time...only voicing enthusiasm just for "In the Evening." In any case, try my sequence and see how it works as a piece. For me, "Fool in the Rain" and "Southbound Suarez" were reborn and fit so well in the other-all puzzle, so to speak. See if you don't really like the Coda songs better now that they are placed among their ITtOD brethren. Why not put them together and re-release them? I mean, some will argue that the original cut of "The Wild Bunch" is better -- but the full version makes it clear what a great film it really is -- to damn near everybody. Same with some of these albums, Phys-Graf included. I'm just saying that they can be even better, and work better as a piece. I think that with some of these bands, they were either too immersed in the project, and/or were too messed up by drugs, etc -- that they needed someone to come in and organize it for them -- who had a feel for such things. Consider "Sandinista!" Most consider it a big muddle -- a great single album awash in filler. But all you have to do is pull out the space-rock and reggae dubs in the order they appear and put them together on a separate playlist. Keep the rocking ones on their own -- in the exact same order -- what happens? Masterpiece! It all works! The dubs and space-rock experiments make up an amazing sound collage. Another example -- take the Stone's "Black and Blue" -- re-sequence it (putting "Hot Stuff" in the middle where it belongs as just a fun, goofy song) and you get a fabulous album. Add "Slave" and "Worried about You" from the same sessions, but that were released years later on "Tattoo You," and you get a 5-star classic! Blows "Some Girls" away for my money. The breadth and depth of it -- the variety -- is just astonishing. I don't think the Stones themselves knew then, or even now -- what they had. Now that's one that I think should definitely be re-released in a fresh form as described to get the recognition it deserves. That's the point -- we like these albums -- but what about getting them fresh recognition so they get the props they deserve? I like things that break the conventional wisdom. Anyway, here's what I wrote in another venue about what I did with ITtOD -- first just in switching songs around with CODA (then later what I wrote in the above).

So for the very first time, I got to listen to "Coda." What happened was truly surprising. I had always thought it was just a collection of throwaways that the band had assembled to cash-in (it was that expectation plus my interest at the time in post-punk that kept me from giving it a spin). But now that I have at long last heard "Coda," I am happy to report that it is an album's worth of pretty good stuff. As I listened to it more (and read about the different songs on the 'net), something occurred to me...I realized the tracks that had not been included on Zep's last "official" band-release -- "In Through the Out Door" -- are all really good, hard-driving rock songs.

Suddenly a light bulb switched on -- what if I replaced (what I consider) the lesser tracks of ITtOD with these three songs? What would happen?

But before I get to that, here is a little background about me and my love affair with Led Zeppelin. In the '70's I had been the hugest Led Zep fan (kind of like the obsessed kid in "Almost Famous" who exclaims, "Jimmy Page touched my pen!!"). As typically has happened to me, I got into them just as they were fading out (as when I discovered the Beatles at 10 just months after their break-up). In the case of Zep, this was after "Presence" and the live "The Song Remains the Same" -- and worse yet -- what would turn out to be their last US Tour.

But I got totally absorbed by their albums, and listened to them constantly from the 8th through the 10th grades. I would pour through the rockzines for any news that they were working on a new album. I was literally dying for them to go back on tour with some great new songs.

Finally, after well over two years, the word was that they were working on new material. I kept hoping and praying for the album's imminent release. At long last, it came in the Summer of '79 -- a good three-and-a-half years after "Presence." I breathlessly listened to the premiere on LA's KMET (94.7) hosted by Jim Ladd. And...I was a little let-down. But I figured there must be something I just wasn't getting. I wanted so bad to love that album. Still...I thought there was something amiss about it at the time. First off, after the riff-rock magnificence of "In the Evening," came the somewhat slight boogie number, "Southbound Suarez." After that was the nice, but-nothing-to-write-home-about, "Fool in the Rain." Hey rock fans, this was turning out to be an album with really only one hard rock song!

Nevertheless, I did like all the other songs quite a bit, including the charming Bakersfield/countrybilly tribute, "Hot Dog." Even "All of My Love" had that nice Zep balladeer feeling to it, though it wasn't a top-drawer effort in that regard. But still, even after repeated listenings...there was still something missing. I just couldn't whole-heartedly embrace this LP -- especially because after the straight-up rock attack of "Presence," ITtOD just seemed a little...watered-down.

But now, having finally heard "Coda," I realize what had been left off ITOtD. I think that a lot of this is due to the fact that John Paul Jones had to take some of the reins while making this album, since Page was pretty wrecked at the time by his heroin-habit. As a result, the album got weighted more with the songs that John Paul Jones had authored (more-or-less) rather than the harder rocking Page tunes.

Now, I don't mean to disparage JPJ...I think he is an awesomely talented musician and composer. In fact, I'd say he is the most underrated of the band members. And I do think "Carouselambra" on ITtOD is amazing -- and it really is JPJ's opus. It is just such a great mix of progressive and even new wave textures. It has three distinct movements -- and I think it stands out as one of their most daring, original compositions. (To further buttress the case for JPJ, think of his important co-authorship of "In the Light," and "No Quarter", as well as his significant contributions to "The Rain Song" and "Stairway"...to name but a few examples).

But at the time, "Southbound Suarez" and "Fool in the Rain" just struck me as middle-drawer Zep numbers, along with "All My Love." In fact, SS and AML are the only songs in their entire catalogue that Page did not have a hand in writing. Nowadays, I like all those songs, and with my more open-mind (and ears) I think that "In Through the Out Door" is a very good, underrated album.

But still, I like even better the collection I have assembled -- in replacing those songs with the ones that didn't make the cut originally. In fact, I think that "Darlene" is an outstanding 5-star rock album. It's sort of a what-if scenario -- imagine if Page had more control over the final edit of the album -- would this have been the result? They had to make choices about what to keep and what to leave out, since they didn't have enough other songs to build it up to a double album. Essentially, the band was restricted to what would physically fit on a single vinyl LP.

But truth be told...I think that putting all the tracks together from the ITOtD sessions would still make a really outstanding album. And now in the age of CD's, the only constraint on running times is the memory capacity of a CD. So now it is often the case that an album is released that plays somewhere between the old single LP (max. @ 50 minutes) or double vinyl LP format (minimum @ 65 mins.) But of course, I can do pretty much whatever I want here in my own sandbox. Ultimately, I may put all ten songs together on one playlist...

(I think that it has been often the case that an outstanding effort by a group of musicians often gets misrepresented by the album that is eventually released, due to either the song choices, and/or especially the actually sequencing of the collection. I think I found this to be especially the case after I re-sequenced Zep's "Physical Graffiti" and The Clash's "Sandinista!" You can find the playlists for those here. But first -- give "Darlene" a listen!)

(A note on the title: I was thinking at first of coming up with some amalgam of "In Through the Out Door" and "Coda," but I couldn't think of a good one. I thought of calling it "Carouselambra," but decided that was too much associated with ITOtD. I thought of other song titles, but settled on "Darlene," since I thought it was a refreshing, down-to-earth title -- the sort Zep had never put on their albums [i just read that Page wanted to call their 1976 LP "Thanksgiving," since he finished mixing the album just in time for T'day, but ultimately the band decided on "Presence."] But I like "Darlene," since it a song from the ITtOD sessions that is a tribute musically to Jerry Lee Lewis(most obviously) -- and also to Chuck Berry. I find it especially charming, since it is reminiscent of Chuck's "Nadine" and "Maybelline." I think it is a nice way of making a nod to their roots -- and the music they obviously felt the greatest love for when growing up).

"Darlene"

1. In the Evening

2. Ozone Baby

3. Wearing and Tearing

4. Hot Dog

5. Carouselambra

6. Darlene

7. I'm Gonna Crawl

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I see nothing whatsoever the matter in engaging in a bit of revisionist history in regards to resequencing In Through the Out Door but in all honesty I like it just the way it is. I also never had a problem with it (bad reviews or not) when it was initially released.

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