SwayBlog

Don't let the title deceive you — Led Zeppelin's 1973 album "Houses of the Holy" does not contain the hard-rocking banger of the same name. (That song appeared on the next album, 1975's "Physical Graffiti.") Instead of focusing on anthemic rockers, "Houses of the Holy" saw the band expanding their musical palette in a variety of ways and recording slower, gentler tracks like "The Rain Song." This was not, by any means, their first ballad, but at 7 minutes and 39 seconds, it was only second to "Stairway to Heaven" as Zep's longest song at that point in their career. And of course, Led Zeppelin was simply not known for their love ballads. 

As quoted by Far Out Magazine, Brad Tolinski wrote in his book, "Light & Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page," that the inspiration for "The Rain Song" supposedly came from a conversation Zeppelin drummer John Bonham had with George Harrison, who was then at the height of his solo career. "George was talking to Bonzo one evening and said, 'The problem with you guys is that you never do ballads,'" Page recalled to Tolinski. "I said, 'I'll give him a ballad,' and I wrote 'Rain Song,' which appears on Houses of the Holy. In fact, you'll notice I even quote 'Something' in the song's first two chords."

Indeed, there are some subtle similarities between the intros of "The Rain Song" and the Beatles' "Something," and as Far Out speculated, it's possible that Page co-wrote "The Rain Song" as a "pastiche" of Harrison's brand of guitar-driven love songs.

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