The Rain Song

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t 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 - These things are clear to all from
time to time.

Talk Talk - I've felt the coldness of my winter
I never thought YOU would ever go. I cursed the gloom that set upon us...
But I know that I love you so

These are the seasons of emotion and like the winds they rise and fall
This is the wonder of devotion - I seek the torch we all must hold.
This is the mystery of the quotient - Upon us all a little rain must fall...It's just a little rain...

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"The Rain Song" is a love 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.[1]

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.[2] The song also features a mellotron played by John Paul Jones to add to the orchestral effect, whilst Page played a Danelectro guitar.[1] John Paul Jones played the low end string part on a real cello, partly bowed and partly plucked. He had earlier played cello and did string arrangements for the Yardbirds with Jimmy Page on the album Little Games when he was a session musician.

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.[3][4] In tribute to Harrison, the opening two notes are recognisably borrowed from his ballad "Something."[3]

The working title for this track was "Slush," a reference to its easy listening mock orchestral arrangement.[1]