The Rain Song - Live History

Live History

During Led Zeppelin concerts from late 1972 until 1975, the band played this song immediately following "The Song Remains the Same", presenting the songs in the same order as they appeared on the album. They organized their setlist in this manner because Page used a Gibson EDS-1275 double-necked guitar for both songs: the top, 12-string neck for "The Song Remains the Same" and then switching to the bottom, 6-string neck for "The Rain Song". The song was dropped from the 1977 U.S. tour, but returned for Led Zeppelin's 1979 concerts in Copenhagen, Denmark and at the Knebworth Music Festival, as well as their European tour in 1980. "The Rain Song" was the only song from Houses of the Holy performed on the 1980 European tour. In this incarnation, Page again utilized the double-neck, the only known time he used that guitar solely for the 6-string portion without using the 12-string portion on a preceding song. For all live versions of the song, the orchestral string sounds were played by Jones on either the mellotron (1972–1975) or a Yamaha synthesizer (1979–1980), as Led Zeppelin never utilised a string section on-stage.

When played live, Page used the 6-string neck of the EDS-1275 for "The Rain Song" in order to have two different tunings on the same guitar. The 12-string neck was tuned to Standard tuning (E-A-D-G-B-E) for his use on "The Song Remains the Same". The alternate tuning used for "The Rain Song" on the 6-string neck was Esus2 (E-A-D-A-D-E) - a step higher than the album cut, which was tuned to "Open page" alternative guitar tuning Dsus2 (D-G-C-G-C-D). This is quite an uncommon modal tuning and makes for a very rich sounding accompaniment, led by John Paul Jones. The likely reason the alternate tuning was used in live performances is that while it required Plant to sing in a higher key, it necessitated a tuning change of only two strings (the B and G) on the EDS-1275, whereas the song's original key would have required the tuning of five strings. As this same guitar would later be used in the show for "Stairway to Heaven", the six-string neck would then need to be returned to standard tuning—the alternate "Rain Song" tuning allowed this to be achieved with relative ease.

Page and Plant recorded a version of the song in 1994 but it was not originally released on their album No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded. It was, however, released on the special tenth anniversary reissue of that album in 2004.