The Story Behind the Final Song Led Zeppelin Recorded Before John Bonham’s Death

By the time Led Zeppelin started working on their 1979 album In Through the Out Door, it was suspected that it would be band’s final album together. Ultimately, the band did call it quits after the release of the album, following the death of drummer John Bonham on September 25, 1980, and In Through the Out Door became the final recording by all four original members of Led Zeppelin.

“We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend, and the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were,” read a statement by the band, issued on December 4, 1980.

Before their split and during the recording sessions for In Through the Out Door, the band’s lifestyles had already taken a toll on their productivity with Jimmy Page addicted to heroin, and Bonham, who appears less on the album, to alcohol, and each member laying down their individual parts in more of a piecemeal fashion.

Recorded at Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, once owned by ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and their group’s manager Stig Anderson, In Through the Out Door was steered predominantly by Robert Plant and John Paul Jones—who also co-wrote “South Bound Suarez” and “All of My Love” without Bonham and Plant. “There were two distinct camps by then,” recalled Jones in 2006, “and we [Plant and I] were in the relatively clean one.”

By the time the album was winding down, the band took on what would become the final track, the soulful, bluesy, and gently synthesized “I’m Gonna Crawl.”

The band finally recorded the closing track, “I’m Gonna Craw” to tape—labeled as “Every Little Bit of My Love,” “I Could Crawl,” “Blot,” and “Blurt”—on November 23, 1978, and it was the final recording by all four members.

[RELATED: The Led Zeppelin Song the Band Barely Played Live Because It Was Too Difficult]

‘She’s the Apple of My Eye’

The lyrics fall around the ultimate woman—I love that little lady / I got to be her fool—one that the protagonist would do anything for—even crawl.

Oh, she’s my baby

Let me tell you why

Hey, she drives me crazy

She’s the apple of my eye

‘Cause she is my girl

And she can never do wrong

If I dream too much at night

Somebody, please bring me down

Hey, I love that little lady

I got to be her fool

Ain’t no other like my baby

I can break the golden rule

‘Cause I get down on my knees

Oh, I pray that love won’t die

And if I always try to please

I don’t know the reason why

If she would come back

Only stay with me

Every little bit of my love

I give to you girl

I don’t have to go by plane

I ain’t gotta go by car

I don’t care just where my darling is

People I just don’t care how far

I’m gonna crawl

“I’m Gonna Crawl” Was Never Played Live

The band began working on the album following the death of Plant’s son Karac in 1977, and a previous taxation exile they had taken in 1975 blocked Led Zeppelin from touring in the UK for two years, which prevented them from touring the album or ever playing “I’m Gonna Crawl” live.

Despite the dissonance among the band during its recording, In Through the Out Door went to No. 1 internationally, including the UK and Billboard 200.

Photo: Led Zeppelin (l to r) John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Bonham, posed sitting on a car bonnet during their first photo shoot for WEA records in London in December 1968. (Dick Barnatt/Redferns)