The
Rain Song
by
Led Zeppelin
Taken from their 1973 album
Houses of the Holy, the Rain Song weighs in at 7 minutes and 39 seconds. The verses are interspersed with long sections of gently pulsing
guitar, as well as a swelling orchestral
string section, complete with a
cello providing the
bass. There are no
drums until about 3:30, and they start out with
John Bonham's shuffling, quiet snares and brushed
cymbals, and grow slowly up to match the
crescendo the song is following, exploding into the
winter verse and backing down towards the song's close like a
thunderstorm ending. The quiet, peaceful ending is a perfect
segue into the picked guitar at the beginning of
Over the Hills and Far Away.
Lyrics:
It is the
springtime of my love,
the second season I am to know;
You are the sunlight in my grove
so little warmth I felt before.
It isn't hard to feel me glow
I watch the fire that grew so low.
It is the
summer of my smile;
flee from me keepers of the gloom.
Speak to me only ith your eyes,
it is to you I give this tune.
It ain't so hard to recognize--
these things are clear to all from time to time
I felt the coldness of my
winter,
I never thought it would ever go.
I
cursed the gloom that slipped upon us,
but I know that I love you so.
...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:
Upon us all,
upon us all a little rain must fall.
...Just a little
rain.