Jimmy Page Shares Demo For Led Zeppelin Classic The Rain Song

Bruce Henne | 03-30-2023

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(hennemusic) Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page is sharing the original demo for "The Rain Song" in sync with this week's 50th anniversary of the release of "Houses Of The Holy."

Featuring the singles "Over The Hills And Far Away" and "D'yer Mak'er" and classic tracks like "Dancing Days", "No Quarter" and "The Ocean", Led Zeppelin's fifth album delivered their fourth straight UK No. 1 while also topping the US charts, where it went on to sell more than 11 million copies in the region.

"My original idea for the opening tracks for 'Houses of the Holy' was that a short overture would be a rousing instrumental introduction with layered electric guitars that would segue in to 'The Seasons', later to be titled 'The Rain Song'," explains Page. "Again there would be a contrasting acoustic guitar instrumental movement with melotron that could lead to the first vocal of the album and the first verse of the song.

"'The Seasons' was a memo to myself as a reminder of the sequence of the song and various ideas I'd had for it in its embryonic stage. I'd worked on it over one evening at home. During the routining of the overture now titled 'The Plumpton and Worcester Races', the half time section was born and the overture shaped in to the song, 'The Song Remains The Same'. These rehearsals were done in Puddle Town on the River Piddle in Dorset, UK.

Get more details from Page and stream audio of both "The Seasons" and "The Rain Song" here.