Formed out of the ruins of the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin quickly rose to high acclaim, becoming an era-defining classic rock band. From Jimmy Page’s incredible guitar playing to the powerful drum beats of John Bonham, the group were more than equipped in their position as musical pioneers, helping the development of hard rock.
After releasing multiple albums, including their seminal 1969 self-titled debut, the band found themselves at the height of their career during the early 1970s. However, a series of unfortunate events occurred as the decade continued, particularly for Robert Plant, the band’s lead singer.
In 1975, the same year Led Zeppelin released Physical Graffiti, Plant and his wife, Maureen, suffered a severe car crash, causing the latter to need a life-saving blood transfusion. Just two years later, the couple experienced further tragic fortune when their son, Karac, came down with a stomach virus. The five-year-old succumbed to the illness, naturally leaving Plant devastated. Even worse, Plant was on tour with the band in North America when he passed away, meaning he was unable to say goodbye to his son.
In response to the tragic event, Plant penned a track with John Paul Jones in memory of his child. The result was ‘All My Love’, which appears on Led Zeppelin’s final album, In Through the Out Door. The song isn’t as heavy as the band’s typical style, with Plant singing tender lines such as “his is the force that lies within/ Ours is the fire, all the warmth we can find/ He is a feather in the wind.”
The song was one of three that Plant wrote in dedication to Karac, although the other two, ‘I Believe’ and ‘Blue Train’, did not appear on Led Zeppelin albums.
Despite the deeply personal nature of the song, Page and Bonham were not big fans of ‘All My Love’, believing it to be “too soft”. In Brad Tolinski’s Light and Shade, Page revealed: “I was a little worried about the chorus”.
He added: “I could just imagine people doing the wave and all of that. And I thought ‘That is not us. That is not us.’ In its place it was fine, but I would not have wanted to pursue that direction in the future.”
The song finds its place as the penultimate track on Led Zeppelin’s final album, which was released just a year before another tragic death occurred as Bonham passed away in 1980. The band released a statement which announced their disbandment, writing, “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.”
Listen to ‘All My Love’ below.