CODA
1. We're Gonna Groove (Live)
2. Poor Tom
3. Friends
4. Walter's Walk
5. Darlene
6. Hey, Hey, What Can I Do
7. Ozone Baby
8. Sugar Mama
9. Bonzo's Montreux
10. Wearing And Tearing
11. Key To The Highway/Trouble In Mind
12. Baby Come On Home
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Howdy-doo-dah. I would like to present a revised version of rock band Led Zeppelin's fittingly-titled final studio album, Coda. Actually, it's honestly less of a studio album and more of a "best of the leftovers" compilation. With that in mind, I have reassembled it so that it includes all (as opposed to simply some) of the good songs left off their eight original studio albums. When these albums were remastered and reissued in the 2010s, many outtakes, alternate recordings, early mixes, and so on, were put out on accompanying bonus discs. A few of those outtakes were of a level of quality relatively close to what the band put on those eight studio albums, which is really why I decided to revamp this LP in the first place; the official version of the album from 1982 is simply not their best work (I'll elaborate on that below). I sequenced it carefully, of course, so as to create the best possible listening experience. In all honesty though, I don't like this band very much anymore. I stopped listening to them several years ago, after I learned about all the monetary theft (via publishing royalties) and rape that the band and its' individual members committed. They've done some very disgusting things. This updated version of Coda is, as a result, largely a holdover from when I was into the band in high school. But I suppose I've begun to separate the art from the artist ever so slightly here and have recently found myself able to listen to them in small amounts without a bad conscience. But anyways.
After their drummer John Bonham drank himself to death during tour rehearsals, the rest of the legendarily hedonistic band members decided to finally call it quits after twelve highly profitable, drugged-out years. On December 4th, 1980, it was announced to the world that Led Zeppelin was no more. Nonexistence, though, is no match for a legally binding contract; one more record was still owed to their label, so a few ideas were floating around their long-haired heads as for what could be done to resolve this. The group had amassed many high-fidelity live recordings over the course of their twelve years together, and had already released their first live album (alongside a concert film) in 1976, so a second live album was a distinct possibility. They also had a bunch of leftover songs and outtakes, which could potentially be assembled together into an album. The live album option was eventually vetoed, but in truth the two ideas were sort of merged together; the official release of Coda in 1982 contained six studio recordings as well as two live tracks (with audience sounds removed), one of which received guitar overdubs.
A rare version of Led Zeppelin's self-titled debut LP,
recorded in 1968, with turquoise instead of red text.
So where did all these songs originate? Three, the rocker "Ozone Baby," the rock 'n' roll hoedown "Darlene," and the faux-punk "Wearing And Tearing," were leftovers from the sessions for their final "real" album, In Through The Out Door (1979), recorded at ABBA's studio (of all places). These songs were almost released as an EP at their popular Knebworth show that same year, but that didn't end up coming to fruition, and they remained unreleased. Alongside these, there was a drum solo with synth overdubs from 1976 called "Bonzo's Montreux," which was recorded for, as far as I can tell, no project in particular. This showcase and/or memorial to the dead drummer was apparently intended as the album's centerpiece, but I can't say it really comes off that way. It's just a half-decent drum solo, and far from the best I've ever heard at that. There was one outtake from their fifth album, the rocker "Walter's Walk," which received guitar overdubs and a new vocal in 1981, as well as another from their third album, the acoustic romp "Poor Tom," which needed no finishing touches whatsoever. The latter has a pleasant shuffle groove. The two covers, "I Can't Quit You Baby" and "We're Gonna Groove," were performed live at the band's Royal Albert Hall concert in January 1970 (which was filmed, and a few decades later released on DVD), with the latter receiving nicely layered guitar overdubs. The former had already been released as a similarly arranged studio recording on their debut album, and is, as a result, highly redundant. I decided to remove it so as to make room for several other good leftovers that didn't make the cut in 1982.
These include two outtakes from the sessions for that same debut album, the blues-rocker "Sugar Mama" and the blue-eyed soul-styled "Baby Come On Home." The former had been in the running for Coda at one point and appears here in the mix prepared for it at the time. The other was thought lost until the 1990s, when it was found, mixed, and released, in a relatively short span of time. I added two more leftovers from Led Zeppelin III (1970), one being the band's only non-album B-side, the country rocker "Hey Hey What Can I Do," and the other being the faux-delta-blues-with-a-very-put-on-vocal-warble "Key To The Highway/Trouble In Mind." Way back in high school, the latter song was my introduction to acoustic blues music (while Blue And Lonesome by The Rolling Stones, bought at an Irish truck stop in 2018, was my introduction to both that band and blues music in general); thank goodness that I've since begun listening to many of the Black blues greats, who inserted much more spirit, soul, feel, and pain into the music than just about any White artist has ever managed to cram into their pleasant imitations of the historic tradition. "Hey Hey What Can I Do" appears in its' original single mix, although the closing guitar part has sensibly been faded out early compared to the original single (it's no loss whatsoever). My final addition is a very interesting alternate version of that album's track "Friends," put down in 1972 while half the band was visiting Bombay, India. Backed by some Indian classical musicians recruited by a student of Ravi Shankar, they put down versions of two of their already-released songs, "Friends" and "Four Sticks," with the former being the only one to receive a vocal; that's why I included only the one track. Unlike "I Can't Quit You Baby," this one has a very interesting updated arrangement, although it is a slightly shakey performance.
The Song Remains The Same (1976), the band's first official live album.
All in all, this brings the album from eight songs (33 minutes long) to twelve songs (48:30 minutes long). Many stylistic changes are introduced that were not present before, making for a significantly more well-rounded, pleasurable, and interesting listen, as opposed to the group simply retreading well-tread hard rock ground (in far less interesting ways than they had already done before) over the course of a brief (and slightly unsatisfying) 33 minutes. The stylistic diversity should also help to mask the slightly subpar quality of much of the music. One thing made abundantly clear by putting songs from all across the band's history back to back to back, though, is the serious deterioration in singer Robert Plant's vocal capability, which began setting in in the years following 1970. He ought to have taken better care of his precious instrument. The only editing I did to the recordings was the removal of the quiet count-in from "Bonzo's Montreux," so that I could make it come immediately after the ending of "Sugar Mama" with almost no gap of silence whatsoever, keeping the album's momentum moving (something which the seconds of silence before the long drum solo did not help with). All songs are sourced from the 2015 3-CD remaster of Coda, apart from "Key To The Highway/Trouble In Mind," which is from the 2-CD remaster of Led Zeppelin III from the previous year. While this isn't their best album by a significant shot, it's hopefully a better listen now than it was before, and is somewhat more in line with their actual studio albums.
