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.
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