The post-Led Zeppelin discography is littered with vanity projects, weird detours and huge disappointments – but also some of the best records of the succeeding eras.
They weren’t immune to the odd partial reunion, whether that’s Jimmy Page‘s turn on John Paul Jones‘ 1985 soundtrack Scream for Help or Page’s guest appearance on the subsequent Robert Plant album Now and Zen. Page and Plant also released a pair of shared projects into the ’90s, but the trio never produced another major studio record together.
Ironically, some of their highest-profile successes emerged from collaborations with others.
Jones’ only Top 20 LP outside of his time with Zeppelin was with Them Crooked Vultures, a supergroup featuring Dave Grohl and Josh Homme. Page’s lone Top 5 Billboard hit album was recorded alongside David Coverdale; his only chart-topping single came courtesy of the Firm’s “Radioactive,” which went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Rock Tracks chart in 1985. Plant never had an album go higher than No. 2, last matched by 2007’s Raising Sand with Alison Krauss.
Plant has been the most consistent, by far, in releasing albums under his own name. But his stubborn experimental streak, often coupled with an unwillingness to return to Led Zeppelin’s sound and feel, has meant that the results were just as inconsistent. At the same time, he’s the only member of the core three to have regularly worked with a backing band, building the foundation for a late-career creative surge with the world music-leaning Sensational Space Shifters.
How do they shape up? Here’s a ranking of every major post-Led Zeppelin project released in the wake of John Bonham‘s death in 1980.
Led Zeppelin Solo Albums Ranked
There have been vanity projects, weird detours and huge disappointments – but also some of the best LPs of the succeeding eras.
Why Led Zeppelin Won’t Reunite Again