Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin tabs Led Zeppelin discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Led Zeppelin guitar tabs

CD reviews

Coda

Led Zeppelin - Coda Audio CD

A fair review of the Led Zeppelin "Coda" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Led Zeppelin reviews here, or go back to the Led Zeppelin tabs.

Band: Led Zeppelin
Title: Coda
Rating:

Release Date: 1990-10-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: We're Gonna Groove 2: Poor Tom 3: I Can't Quit You Baby 4: Walter's Walk 5: Ozone Baby 6: Darlene 7: Bonzo's Montreux 8: Wearing and Tearing

Misfit songs, not garbage!
This "collection of leftovers" is full of excellent songs that just did not fit with other albums. Just because Led Zeppelin did not include a song on an album did not mean that that song was bad, but just that Jimmy did not feel the song fit. "Wearing and Tearing" is a classic example of a great song that was scratched from "In Through the Outdoor" at the last moment, not because the song was bad, far from it, but Page did not feel that it fit in with the other more softer songs. I love a lot of these songs and don't dislike any of them. None of them are garbage, because Led Zeppelin did not make garbage! As a Zeppelin fan I appreciate that Page chose to give us more songs. Forget these pompous windbags that feel they are too good to listen to these misfit songs. .

Why all the haters?
Yes, it is a last-ditch effort to put together some unreleased tracks and make some more money after John died and the band broke up. I don't understand why so many people, casual and hardcore Zeppelin fans alike, hate this album. But who cares? Releasing "previously unreleased" material is commonplace today, I just view Zeppelin as pioneers in that respect (along with pioneering many other things in rock music).

The point here is that the music is GOOD. In my opinion, Coda is better than several of their earlier efforts. Sure, there are a few duds, but there are a few gems too, namely "Ozone Baby" and "Darlene". I am also a big fan of "Bonzo's Montreux", in which the entire song is a killer drum solo, although I do understand that 4 minute drum solos are not everyone's cup of tea.

Honestly, I think this is just one of those situations where so many people have "heard" that it is really bad so many times that they start to believe it themselves and decide to hate it before they really give it a chance. The usual reaction to me is "What. . . you actually LIKE Coda?!", "Nobody likes Coda!" Well I do, and I like it alot. Give it a chance and you may too go against the flow and decide you like it!.

Energy!
Yes it a compilation of unreleased tracks but there is an energy in this album that reminds of Led Zeppelin I and II. After In Through The Out Door this album is a breath of fresh air. I loved the blues influences of I and II and except for When The Levee Breaks they kind of went away from that on later albums so it was good to hear some discarded blues stuff on Coda. Coda is not the perfect swan song for the band but it to my mind it does a far better job than ITTOD. This really is a good album if you are a blues fan.

Zeppelin's Coda is the band's Let it Be with many great gems 25 plus years on

How this album came to be, let's set the stage shall we. Led Zeppelin's odds and ends album Coda was released in November of 1982.
In 1980, Led Zeppelin were riding high on the success of In Through the Out Door which was on its way to selling 7 million copies in the US alone (not bad for Zep standards and outsold Led Zeppelin 3 and Presence). The band toured Europe and were selling out venues nightly but then tragedy struck, drummer John Bonham passed away on September 25, 1980 as the band was rehearsing for a US tour. Over two months later, the band broke up after the death of Bonham whose style was hard to replicate and deemed him irreplaceable.
Throughout 1981 and 1982, guitarist Jimmy Page worked on the soundtrack to Death Wish II and Robert Plant released his solo debut Pictures at Eleven (which hit #3 in the US) whilst bass player John Paul Jones went into soundtrack work. Also, Page went through the Zep vaults to cobble together a final Led Zeppelin album which would be called Coda.
The recordings were from between 1970 and 1978 with some fresh overdubs by Plant and Page where required as followed.
We open with the rocker "We're Gonna Groove" which is the same version as it would appear on the 2003 Led Zeppelin DVD and recorded at The Royal Albert Hall in January, 1970 (not Morgan Studios like the notes stated). It's the same version as on the DVD but Page overdubbed guitar solos in 1982 to fill out the song (the overdubs were removed on the DVD version) and Plant's voice went through a phaser (unlike the version on the Led Zeppelin DVD). Next is "Poor Tom" which is a great countryish outtake from Led Zeppelin III. The song has Page playing acoustic guitar over a classic Bonzo drum pattern with Jonesy filling out the bass and Plant singing and playing harmonica. Next is "I Can't Quit You Baby" which is the same song as on Led Zeppelin I, but on steroids. Harder drumming and more furious guitar and singing than on the original. It has a very raw feel to it. This track is also on the Zep DVD from Royal Albert Hall but shortened for vinyl constraints (and not a rehearsal like the liner notes state). The first half ends with the Houses of the Holy outtake "Walter's Walk". This rocker just rocks and would have appeared on Houses save time constraints and there were no lyrics so Plant recorded the vocals in 1981/82 with fresh lyrics.
The album's second half consists of the outtakes from In Through the Out Door except as noted. The rocker "Ozone Baby" is from the ITtOD sessions and was one of the rock radio hits from the album. "Darlene" is next and is one of the album's best tracks and the biggest rock radio hit from the album. Another ITtOD outtake which just rocks. Next is "Bonzo's Montreux" which is a John Bonham drum workout that was recorded in Montreux in 1976. It just features Bonham and Page messing around in the studio one day and Page later added some electronic stuff to it. The closing "Wearing and Tearing" is Zeppelin's answer to the punk music movement that was popular in Europe at the time (it didn't get big in the US until years later) and is from the ITtOD sessions. It has a very fast-paced beat and is a killer rocker.
Coda, when released, quickly stormed to #4 on the Billboard album chart and went Platinum quick but by then Men at Work, Michael Jackson, A Flock of Seagulls and later Duran Duran were all dominating the US music scene.
In 1993, this album was re-issued on The Complete Studio Recordings box set (see review) with the four bonus tracks that appeared on Led Zeppelin's 1990 and 1993 box sets.
If you are an unbiased Zep fan (like myself), pick this up, if not your loss.
Recommended! .

Nothing Extra...
Let's face it-(ALL ZEPPELIN MUSIC GETS 5 STARS)! This particular packaging(mini lp)gets 5 stars. The music gets 5 stars. There is no new remastering here, so I take away 2 stars. There are no "extra tracks", like on the "CODA" disc in the "Complete Studio Recordings" box set. So, minus 2 more stars. Then, I just HAVE to give back 1 star, again, for the packaging! Sorry, but in mho, mini lp packaging should have been the industry standard, from the beggining!.

You can see a complete list of all Led Zeppelin discography, or go back to the Led Zeppelin tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.