How Led Zeppelin’s ‘Coda’ Marked the Definitive End of an Era

Most folks would not have blamed Led Zeppelin for soldiering on with a brand new drummer following the premature demise of John Bonham in 1980; they definitely would not have been the first group to do it. Instead, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones put their world-conquering band to mattress, issuing a closing send-off with the odds-and-ends compilation Coda on Nov. 19, 1982.

The lean, contractually obligated LP does not have the similar move as Zeppelin’s correct studio albums, however its eight tracks paint a compelling portrait of their musical evolution over the course of their staggering 12-year profession. Live renditions of “I Can’t Quit You Baby” and the beforehand unreleased “I’m Gonna Groove” from a 1970 Royal Albert Hall efficiency show Zep’s reverence for blues and R&B (which they pilfered freely of their early days) and their unparalleled onstage thunder. “Poor Tom” and “Walter’s Walk,” taken from the Led Zeppelin III and Houses of the Holy classes, respectively, present the band’s skill to change effortlessly between craving, acoustic folk-rock and swaggering electrical blues.

Coda‘s second aspect, in the meantime, incorporates three outtakes from the band’s closing studio album, 1979’s In Through the Out Door. “Ozone Baby” and “Darlene” are cocksure rock ‘n’ roll romps, the former anchored by Page’s slinky riffs and the latter by Jones’ pressing piano enjoying. The blistering “Wearing and Tearing,” written as a response to the nascent punk revolution, is the liveliest tune of the bunch. And “Bonzo’s Montreux,” the instrumental “drum orchestra” that Page dressed up with studio results, is a succinct show of Bonham’s inimitable groove and a touching tribute to the late skinsman.

Listen to Led Zeppelin’s ‘Wearing and Tearing’

It would have been straightforward for Led Zeppelin to unexpectedly assemble an affordable, artless assortment of archival materials to fulfill Atlantic Records, however they needed Coda to honor their legacy and stand as much as the relaxation of their towering discography. “When I started to think about it originally, we wanted to do something in the best taste possible, under the circumstances,” Page advised the Daily Beast in 2017. “Obviously some people were disappointed, because they’d have liked a new album rather than something which was posthumous, and they didn’t want John Bonham to not be around anymore. But who did, man?”

Commercially, Coda fell quick of Led Zeppelin’s earlier chart-topping, multi-platinum successes, nevertheless it was no slouch. The album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 9 and ultimately peaked at No. 6, going platinum inside just a few months of launch. It was a becoming ode to 1 of the most dizzying careers in rock historical past, and it marked the definitive finish of an period.

By the time Coda hit cabinets, Plant had already launched his solo profession, releasing Pictures at Eleven in June 1982. Markedly extra subdued than Zeppelin’s output and sufferer in spots to sterile ’80s manufacturing, the album nonetheless peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and ultimately went platinum. Pictures at Eleven started a six-album, decade-long solo run for Plant that peaked with 1988’s Now and Zen, which married the digitized pop-rock du jour with the swaggering arduous rock of his former band to the tune of 3 million U.S. gross sales.

Page, in the meantime, made a extra tepid foray into solo territory, barely grazing the Top 50 of the Billboard 200 with his scored soundtrack for Death Wish II, launched in February 1982. His subsequent album and first correct industrial post-Zeppelin launch satirically reunited him with Plant for the rock/R&B supergroup the Honeydrippers. The band’s debut EP and sole launch, 1984’s The Honeydrippers: Volume One, additionally featured Jeff Beck, Chic’s Nile Rodgers and David Letterman’s musical director Paul Shaffer. It soared to No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and went platinum, spawning the No. 3 hit “Sea of Love” in the course of.

Despite Plant’s guarantees, a full-length Honeydrippers album by no means materialized. Page as an alternative shaped a brand new supergroup, the Firm, with then-ex-Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers. Their eponymous 1985 debut went gold and produced a average hit in “Radioactive,” however the group disbanded after 1986’s Mean Business underperformed critically and commercially. A 1985 collaborative album with folk-rock singer-songwriter Roy Harper (whom Zep honored on Led Zeppelin III) titled Whatever Happened to Jugula? additionally flew below the radar.

Amid the Firm’s temporary tenure, the three surviving Led Zeppelin members staged a ballyhooed — and disastrous— reunion at Live Aid in July 1985. Backed by a jet-lagged Phil Collins, who had flown to Philadelphia instantly after performing in London, the band fumbled by way of a three-song set that featured hoarse vocals from Plant and sloppy, out-of-tune guitar enjoying from a clearly inebriated Page. “It was horrendous,” Plant advised Rolling Stone in 1988. “Emotionally, I was eating every word that I had uttered. And I was hoarse. I’d done three gigs on the trot before I got to Live Aid. We rehearsed in the afternoon, and by the time I got onstage, my voice was long gone.”

Watch Led Zeppelin’s Live Aid Reunion

Following Live Aid and the dissolution of the Firm, Page issued his first (and solely) solo album, Outrider, in June 1988. It carried out respectably, reaching No. 26 on the Billboard 200 and going gold. Perhaps extra notably, the album and supporting tour featured Jason Bonham on drums. The 21-year-old Bonham additionally backed Page, Plant and Jones at one other abortive reunion present in 1988, for Atlantic Records’ Fortieth-anniversary live performance at Madison Square Garden. As with Live Aid, the band squabbled about whether or not to play “Stairway to Heaven,” with Plant as soon as once more reluctantly agreeing at the final minute. And as with Live Aid, they had been displeased with the efficiency, which Plant later described as “foul.”

Page and Plant wouldn’t reconvene for a number of years after their messy 1988 reunion. In the meantime, Page linked up with then-former Whitesnake and Deep Purple vocalist David Coverdale for 1993’s Coverdale-Page. The album was a Top 5, platinum-selling success and earned some favorable critiques, in addition to the inevitable, unsavory Zeppelin comparisons. It definitely did not make a fan out of Plant, who for years had referred to Page’s new accomplice as “David Cover-version.” But the leonine singer did not must stew for lengthy: Page and Plant reunited in 1994 for an MTV Unplugged particular, which grew to become the platinum-selling No Quarter dwell album, launched that October.

The duo supported No Quarter with an intensive world tour, adopted by the 1998 studio album Walking Into Clarksdale. None of these ventures featured Jones, who had discovered about the reunion by way of media experiences. The bassist had solely recorded sporadically since Zeppelin’s dissolution, scoring the Scream for Help soundtrack in 1985 and collaborating with avant-garde singer Diamanda Galas on 1994’s The Sporting Life. Jones’ displeasure at his exclusion was evident at Zeppelin’s 1995 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, when he sniped at his former bandmates, “Thank you, my friends, for finally remembering my phone number.” He went on to concern two correct solo albums, 1999’s Zooma and 2001’s The Thunderthief, to little fanfare.

Page and Plant each insisted that they hadn’t meant to snub Jones and their reunion was by no means meant to be a Led Zeppelin undertaking. That fabled gathering wouldn’t come till Dec. 10, 2007, when Page, Plant, Jones and Jason Bonham held their first — and final — full-length live performance in almost 30 years at London’s O2 Arena to honor late Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun. The historic present, which was far better-received than Zeppelin’s earlier reunion makes an attempt, was memorialized on the 2012 dwell album and movie Celebration Day.

Watch Led Zeppelin Perform ‘Kashmir’ Live From ‘Celebration Day’

Both Page and Jones expressed curiosity in a full reunion tour, however Plant staunchly refused to select up the mantle once more. During his 2008 tour with Alison Krauss in assist of their 2007 collaborative album Raising Sand, the singer issued a press release debunking additional Zeppelin reunion rumors. “It’s both frustrating and ridiculous for this story to continue to rear its head when all the musicians that surround the story are keen to get on with their individual projects and move forward,” Plant mentioned. “I wish Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham nothing but success with any future projects.”

Plant caught to his phrase, releasing further solo albums with Band of Joy, the Sensational Space Shifters and Krauss all through the 2010s and early 2020s. Jones received again to his hard-rock roots by teaming up with Dave Grohl and Josh Homme to type Them Crooked Vultures, who launched their eponymous debut album in 2009. Page, in the meantime, remained the self-appointed steward of Led Zeppelin’s legacy, reissuing the band’s discography with hordes of beforehand unreleased bonus materials. The most up-to-date reissue, Coda, arrived in 2015 as a three-disc set, full of alternate mixes, outtakes and dwell cuts. It was little doubt a cathartic launch for Page, the band’s stalwart archivist.

“When I was mapping the whole project out, I’d already made up my mind that Coda was again going to be a huge celebration of everything,” Page advised the Daily Beast. “Purely by the fact of making Coda a double, I really wanted to put out just about everything [in the vaults]. I knew I was going to finish with two companion discs for the last one, with all the studio stuff that people might have heard about, the stuff that helped create the mythology of Led Zeppelin. So here it is, folks. I’m giving it all to you!”