Led Zeppelin - The Rain Song (1973)

They were said to be as important to the 1970s as The Beatles were to the 1960s. They were born from the ashes of The Yardbirds and were originally intended by Jimmy Page to be a supergroup featuring Keith Moon, Jeff Beck, and others. Moon said the idea would “go over like a lead balloon” and the group only recorded one song (heard here). What eventually came together was one of rock’s most legendary lineups: Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones. With a small twist of Moon’s “lead balloon” comment, Led Zeppelin had just begun.

This ballad comes from the group’s fifth album, Houses of the Holy. The idea of the song came about after former member of The Beatles, George Harrison, commented to John Bonham how the group didn’t have any ballad-type songs. What eventually transpired was music written by Jimmy Page and lyrics penned by Robert Plant. In tribute to Harrison, you can hear that the opening of the song borrows chords from the opening of “Something” by The Beatles, which was written by Harrison.



Led Zeppelin - The Rain Song (1973)

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Lyrics:

It is the springtime of my loving
The second season I am to know
You are the sunlight in my growing
So little warmth I've felt before
It isn't hard to feel me glowing
I watched the fire that grew so low

It is the summer of my smiles
Flee from me, keepers of the gloom
Speak to me only with your eyes
It is to you I give this tune
Ain't so hard to recognize, oh
These things are clear to all from
Time to time

Talk, talk, talk, talk

Hey
I've felt coldness of my winter
I never thought it would ever go
I cursed the gloom that set upon us
But I know that I love you so
Aw, but I know that I love you so

These are the seasons of emotion
And like the wind, they rise and fall
This is the wonder of devotion
I see the torch we all must hold
This is a mystery of the quotient- quotient
Upon us all- upon us all a little rain must fall

Just a little rain, oh
Ooh, yeah