Ozone Baby by Led Zeppelin

Album: Coda (1982)

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Songfacts®:

Recorded in 1978 at a studio in Sweden owned by Abba, this was intended for the Led Zeppelin album In Through the Out Door, but it didn't make the cut. It was released on Coda, an album of unreleased tracks put out after John Bonham's death.
The entire band's instrumentals come in right at the opening with Robert Plant's vocals starting in soon after. This was Zeppelin's typical style, a straightforward "get it done" 12-bar-blues attitude without very much pretension. It shows something of their character that they were consistent in doing this on one of the last songs done by the classic lineup.

Another telling sign of Zeppelin's character: How many drummers do most bands go through? Next to the bass, the drummer is usually the most-rotated spot. Not Zeppelin! Lose the drummer, and that's it, the band calls it quits - but to be fair, growing tensions within the band could have broken them up anyway.
A bit of rock history trivia: Led Zeppelin today is remembered as practically having walked on water. One easily forgets that back when these albums were coming out, while they had a huge fan base, rock critics panned them almost unanimously. Rolling Stone raspberried every single Zep album.

Comments: 8

Grey Pilgrim from PhoenixThis song was definitely worthy of In Through The Out Door (ITTOD). Just very original sounding Led Zeppelin. The most exciting thing for me about ITTOD is it catches Page’s playing in transition to the sound he adopted in the 80s, but a more precise version of what he adopted in the 80s. The solo in this song is a perfect example. It’s on the edge of chaos a bit, but whereas in the 80s it may have ventured into actual (always enjoyable) chaos, here he delivers a stunningly complex little exercise with precision. I imaging him doing take after take of this solo in the studio. But who knows. He’s Page. He could have done it in one take.
Peter Griffin from Quahog, RiThis should have been on In Through The Outdoor. All 3 outtakes from ITtOD were good.
Justin from Georgetown, Innot to make a far off reference but.. it reminds me of the first nirvana album. after hearing all the other crap a million times. hearing something that rough actually was alot more enjoyable to me. this song gets better to me all the time. just the way the bass flows with the ooh its my love.. the lyrics are kinda boring thou
Bill from Topeka, Ksi can play the drums to this but if i wanted to play this somewhere no one would know what the song is
Mark from Worcester, MiJohn Paul Jones thought the Coda songs "were all good cuts." Page wanted to do a live album and was "disgusted" to have to put together an album for a group who's drummer had died. Plant nixed the live album. In the long run it's better we at least had the chance to hear these cuts. They're not really up to zep standards but JPJ is right. They're not bad cuts.
Danny from Tallahassee, FlIt wouldnt go with In Through The Out Door but this is actually a pretty good song i guess thats to be expected from Led Zeppelin even, the outtakes are great.
Paulo from New York, NyAgreed; would have been incongruous on ITtOD.
Adrian from Wilmington, DeOk Zeppelin song, I can see why it was left off In Through the Out Door. The guitar solo is nice, but Robert's lyrics and vocals just aren't up to par.

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