To mark the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin‘s fifth album, Houses of the Holy, Jimmy Page has released an early demo of “The Rain Song” titled “The Seasons”.
“My original idea for the opening tracks for Houses of the Holy was that a short overture would be a rousing instrumental introduction with layered electric guitars that would segue in to ’The Seasons,’ later to be titled ‘The Rain Song.’ Again there would be a contrasting acoustic guitar instrumental movement with Mellotron that could lead to the first vocal of the album and the first verse of the song.
‘The Seasons’ was a memo to myself as a reminder of the sequence of the song and various ideas I’d had for it in its embryonic stage. I’d worked on it over one evening at home. During the routining of the overture now titled ‘The Plumpton and Worcester Races,’ the half-time section was born and the overture shaped into the song, ‘The Song Remains the Same’…
Led Zeppelin guitarist, Jimmy Page