"The Rain Song" is a ballad of over 7 minutes in length. Guitarist Jimmy Page originally constructed the melody of this song at his home in Plumpton, England, where he had recently installed a studio console. A new Vista model, it was partly made up from the Pye Mobile Studio which had been used to record the group's 1970 Royal Albert Hall performance and The Who's Live at Leeds album.

Page was able to bring in a completed arrangement of the melody, for which singer Robert Plant composed some lyrics. These lyrics are considered by Plant himself to be his best overall vocal performance. The song also features a mellotron played by John Paul Jones to add to the orchestral effect, while Page plays a Danelectro guitar. George Harrison was reportedly the inspiration for "The Rain Song" when he made a comment to Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, about the fact that the group never wrote any ballads.

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, oh

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, ooh

Oh, oh

Oh, oh

Oh

Talk talk, talk, talk

Hey, I felt the coldness of my winter

I never thought it would ever go

I cursed the gloom that set upon us, 'pon us, 'pon us, 'pon us

But I know that I love you so

Oh, 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 the mystery of the quotient, quotient

Upon us all, upon us all a little rain must fall

Just a little rain, oh

Ooh, yeah-yeah-yeah

Songwriters: Jimmy Page / Robert Plant

The Rain Song lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

v