What would the ninth Led Zeppelin album have sounded like?
On September 24th, 1980, John Bonham died in his sleep at the age of 32. Led Zeppelin, the band for which he was the talismanic, ‘Wildman’ drummer, died with him. Two years earlier, Keith Moon died in his sleep, also at the age of 32. The Who, the band for which ‘Moon the Loon’ was the drummer, did not.
If a band like The Who, whose sound was defined by Moon’s going ballistic on a drum kit, could continue without their anarchic soul, it stands to reason that Led Zeppelin could have too, if they wanted to. So, what would a ninth Led Zeppelin album have sounded like had the band not ended at the dawn of the 1980s?
The band members have said on multiple occasions that they were in a transitional period at the end of their 1970s imperial phase. The last unabashedly great album they made was Physical Graffiti in 1975. And while their following two albums have their defenders, both were misfires, ensuring that the legendary career of Led Zeppelin ended not with a bang, but with a whimper.
What can we make of their direction based on those two albums though? Their seventh album, the 1976 Presence, is probably the best of a limp duo, mainly because it’s still possibly the purest guitar album ‘Led Zep’ ever did. Which is saying a hell of a lot, to be sure, but that reputation doesn’t come from a positive place.
Why were the last two Led Zeppelin albums disappointments?
Robert Plant was severely injured in a car accident in August 1975, just as the band were set to begin touring their previous album, that masterpiece Physical Graffiti. Instead, while Plant recuperated, Jimmy Page began writing new material. Thus, the resulting album was his baby. The wheelchair-bound Plant contributed lyrics and vocals to the album and left Page to arrange and produce the record.
Presence was, by their lofty standards, a critical and commercial flop, but a much better effort than their final album. While 1979’s In Through The Out Door was a more experimental record with some interesting high points, it was also absolutely the sound of a band on the brink.
Plant had tragically lost his five-year-old son Karac to a stomach virus. Bonham and Page’s addiction issues with alcohol and heroin, respectively, meant that they barely contributed anything to the album’s writing and arranging, just turning up to record their parts and leave. However, even at that point, the band seemingly had no plans to end or take a break.
In fact, they had a world tour booked to begin in October 1980, and word was that they were going to enter the studio afterwards. There’s little knowledge on what that record would have sounded like, but the possibility was broached by Page in an interview with Classic Rock magazine in 2015.
When asked what a ninth Led Zeppelin album would have sounded like, he said, “Riffs, interestingly constructed riffs and hypnotic music. John Bonham and I spoke about this a lot. Let’s put it this way, on the next Led Zeppelin album, John wouldn’t have been playing with brushes. John loved the idea of anything where he could really get going.”
So, a ninth Led Zeppelin album could have been a tantalizing mix of the guitar thrills of Presence with the experimental zest of In Through The Out Door. However, it’s tellingly tragic that Page describes the album almost entirely through what Bonham could bring to it. Sure, The Who may have continued without ‘Moonie’ but to say they were never the same afterwards is selling them short.
The band lost something profound without their drummer, and Zeppelin were savvy enough to know that. While it’s fun to speculate, a ninth Led Zeppelin album, or any new music without their drummer is only ever going to be hypothetical.
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