Coda (album)

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Coda
Coda cover
Studio album by Led Zeppelin
Released 19 November 1982
Recorded 9 January 1970 – 21 November 1978
Genre Hard rock, heavy metal, blues-rock, folk rock
Length 33:04
Label Swan Song
Producer Jimmy Page, Peter Grant
Professional reviews
Led Zeppelin chronology
In Through the Out Door
(1979)		 Coda
(1982)		 Profiled
(1990)

Coda is a studio album by English rock band Led Zeppelin, released in 1982. This collection of outtakes from various sessions during Led Zeppelin's twelve-year career was released two years after the group had officially disbanded following the death of drummer John Bonham. The word coda, meaning a "tail" that ends a musical piece following the main body, was therefore chosen as an apt title. It is said that John Paul Jones suggested this as the album title.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Overview

Led Zeppelin guitarist and producer Jimmy Page explained that part of the reasoning for the release of the album related to the popularity of unofficial Led Zeppelin recordings which continued to be circulated by fans:

“

Coda was released, basically, because there was so much bootleg stuff out. We thought, "Well, if there's that much interest, then we may as well put the rest of our studio stuff out.

 ”

According to the Led Zeppelin biography Hammer of the Gods, the band also owed Atlantic Records one more album from the five album deal that created Swan Song Records in 1974. As such, Coda can be seen as a contractual fulfillment.

"We're Gonna Groove" opens the album and, according to the album notes, was recorded at Morgan Studios in June, 1969. It was later acknowledged to have come from a January, 1970 concert at the Royal Albert Hall, with the guitar parts overdubbed and the original guitar part removed - this can be heard in the original Royal Albert Hall show on January 9th, 1970. "Poor Tom" is from sessions for Led Zeppelin III, the drumming, however has been subject to much speculation, as it sounds like a loop, fans have wondered if the song was finished this way during the sessions for "III" or if the recording was manipulated to sound this way for Coda.[citation needed] "I Can't Quit You Baby" is taken from the same concert as "We're Gonna Groove" but was listed as a rehearsal in the original liner notes. This was edited to get rid of the crowd noise present on the recording, and the overall "live" feel, the beginning and ending are missing, as well as a part in the middle. Crowd tracks are muted on the multitrack mixdown on this recording as with "We're Gonna Groove". "Walter's Walk" is from the 1972 Houses of the Holy sessions, although debate remains as to the chronological origin of the vocal performance by Robert Plant (which may have been recorded or overdubbed at a later date; often speculated that it was recorded in the early 1980s, perhaps during the making of Coda itself, even the guitar parts have a similar tone to the overdubs in "We're Gonna Groove").[citation needed]

"Ozone Baby", "Darlene", and "Wearing and Tearing" are outtakes from the In Through the Out Door sessions in 1978, though the drum sound is mixed with more reverb than the recordings present on In Through the Out Door - a trademark of 1980s recordings. "Bonzo's Montreux" is a 1976 John Bonham drum instrumental with electronic effects added by Jimmy Page. This song would later be included on both boxed sets, being combined with Bonham's Moby Dick drum solo on the 1990 Led Zeppelin boxed set, and as an individual track on the 1993 Led Zeppelin boxed set 2.

The inner liner features a collage of photographs. The main photo on the right side — showing the band members apparently clapping — was taken the day before their Knebworth appearances in 1979 and in that village. However, the band were dissatisfied with the image, and their images — and the ground where they stand — are all that remain from that photo. Superimposed behind the band is a photo of a green field in Chaddesley Corbett, Worcestershire, England, near Bonham's home.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "We're Gonna Groove" (James Albert Bethea, Ben E. King) – 2:40
  2. "Poor Tom" (Jimmy Page, Robert Plant) – 3:01
  3. "I Can't Quit You Baby" (Willie Dixon) – 4:17
  4. "Walter's Walk" (Page, Plant) – 4:31
  5. "Ozone Baby" (Page, Plant) – 3:35
  6. "Darlene" (John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Page, Plant) – 5:06
  7. "Bonzo's Montreux" (Bonham) – 4:17
  8. "Wearing and Tearing" (Page, Plant) – 5:31

[edit] 1993 bonus tracks

In 1993 four bonus tracks were added to the album on the edition included in the career-spanning box set Complete Studio Recordings:

  1. "Baby Come On Home" (Bert Berns, Page, Plant) – 4:30
  2. "Travelling Riverside Blues" (Robert Johnson, Page, Plant) – 5:11
  3. "White Summer/Black Mountain Side[Live]" (Page) – 8:01
  4. "Hey Hey What Can I Do" (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant) – 3:55

All the four bonus tracks had appeared before on the boxed sets series: "Baby Come On Home" was first released earlier that year (1993) on the Boxed Set 2, and the other three were on the Boxed Set (1990). "Hey Hey What Can I Do" was released in 1970, backing "Immigrant Song", as the group's only non-album B-side. The other two tracks are from BBC performances.

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Additional personnel

CD Mastering engineers

  • Barry Diament - original CD - Atlantic Studios (mid-1980s)
  • George Marino - remastered CD (1990)

[edit] Charts

[edit] Album

Year Chart Position
1982 Billboard Pop Albums 6

[edit] Singles

Prior to 21 March 1981, Billboard did not produce a Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, so the charted tracks from Coda are Led Zeppelin's first entries on that chart.

Year Single Chart Position
1982 "Darlene" Billboard Mainstream Rock 4
1982 "Ozone Baby" Billboard Mainstream Rock 14
1982 "Poor Tom" Billboard Mainstream Rock 18

[edit] Additional notes

Catalogue: (US) Swan Song 79 00511, (UK) Swan Song A0051.

[edit] External links

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Coda
v • d • e
Led Zeppelin
John Bonham · John Paul Jones · Jimmy Page · Robert Plant
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Compilations
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