Jimmy Page recently shared a previously unreleased demo of “The Seasons,” marking the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin‘s fifth studio album, Houses of the Holy.
The instrumental guitar piece went on to become one of the band’s bigger songs, “The Rain Song.”
“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 into ‘The Seasons,’ later to be titled ‘The Rain Song,'” Page explained in the YouTube description of the song.
He continued, “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.”
Page said the song served as a “memo” to himself as he initially workshopped the ideas in their “embryonic stage.”
“It was originally going to be an instrumental – an overture that led into ‘The Rain Song,'” Page told Guitar World way back in 1993. “But I guess Robert [Plant] had different ideas. You know, ‘This is pretty good, Better get some lyrics – quick!'”
Music News Service distributed by Frankly Media. Copyright(c) 2023 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved