By the time Led Zeppelin began work on their 1979 album In Through the Out Door, it was assumed that it would be the band’s final album together. The band eventually called it quits after the release of the album, with the death of drummer John Bonham on September 25, 1980, and In Through the Out Door became the final recording by all four founding members of Led Zeppelin.
“We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend, and the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were,” said a statement released by the band on December 4, 1980.
Before their split and during the recording sessions for In Through the Out Door, the band’s lifestyles had already taken a toll on their productivity with Jimmy Page addicted to heroin, and Bonham, who appears less on the album, to alcohol, and each member laying down their individual parts in more of a piecemeal fashion.
Recorded at Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, once owned by ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and their group’s manager Stig Anderson, In Through the Out Door was steered predominantly by Robert Plant and John Paul Jones—who also co-wrote “South Bound Suarez” and “All of My Love” without Bonham and Plant.
“There were two distinct camps by then,” recalled Jones in 2006, “and we [Plant and I] were in the relatively clean one.” By the time the album was winding down, the band took on what would become the final track, the soulful, bluesy, and gently synthesized “I’m Gonna Crawl.”
The band finally recorded the closing track, “I’m Gonna Craw” to tape—labeled as “Every Little Bit of My Love,” “I Could Crawl,” “Blot,” and “Blurt”—on November 23, 1978, and it was the final recording by all four members.
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