All My Love (Led Zeppelin song)
1979 song by Led Zeppelin
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"All My Love" is the sixth song on Led Zeppelin's eighth studio album, In Through the Out Door (1979).
| "All My Love" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Led Zeppelin | |
| from the album In Through the Out Door | |
| Released | 15 August 1979 |
| Recorded | November–December 1978 |
| Studio | Polar, Stockholm, Sweden |
| Genre | |
| Length | 5:53 |
| Label | Swan Song |
| Songwriters | John Paul Jones, Robert Plant |
| Producer | Jimmy Page |
Credited to Robert Plant and John Paul Jones,[1] it is a ballad[2] that features a synthesizer solo by Jones.[3] "All My Love" was written in honour of Plant's son Karac,[4] who died at age five in 1977.[5]
"All My Love" is one of only two Led Zeppelin songs that Jimmy Page had no part in writing.[2]
Recording and releases
"All My Love" is a mid-tempo rock-style ballad[6] that biographer Nigel Williamson describes as "underpinned by a semi-classical arrangement of the kind popular at the time with the likes of Genesis and ELO".[7] The original working title was "The Hook". The song was recorded between November and December 1978 at Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. A studio outtake of an extended version of the song exists timed around 7:55 (the song itself would be timed around 6:57). It has a complete ending, with Plant extending the last chorus with much ad-libbing and a twangy B-Bender guitar solo by Page.[8]
Led Zeppelin performed the song during their concert tour of Europe in 1980.[8] "All My Love" is also included in the Led Zeppelin compilations Early Days and Latter Days, Remasters and Mothership.
A mono mix of the song was re-released in 2015 on In Through the Out Door (Deluxe Edition), under the title "The Hook".[9]
Plant has described the song as a tribute to his son Karac for the "'joy he gave us as a family ... And in a crazy way still does occasionally. Every now and again he turns up in songs ... for no other reason than I miss him a lot'".[5]
Critical reception
In a review for In Through the Out Door (Deluxe Edition), Andrew Doscas of PopMatters described "All My Love" as "the saddest and most heartfelt Zeppelin song."[10] Doscas described the song as "a fitting ode to Plant's son, which hauntingly enough sounds like a foreshadowing of a band on the path to an impending and unforeseeable dissolution".[10]
In its 1999 list of "Top 500 Tracks", Radio Caroline ranked the song at number 239.[11]
In an interview he later gave to rock journalist Cameron Crowe, Plant stated that this song was one of Led Zeppelin's "finest moments".[12] However, guitarist Jimmy Page and drummer John Bonham had reservations about the song's soft rock sound.[13]
Personnel
According to Jean-Michel Guesdon and Philippe Margotin:[14]
- Robert Plant – vocals
- Jimmy Page – electric guitars, acoustic guitars
- John Paul Jones – bass, synthesiser
- John Bonham – drums
See also
- List of cover versions of Led Zeppelin songs – "All My Love" entries