Jimmy Page unearths lost Led Zeppelin demo, The Seasons – the acoustic guitar arrangement that became The Rain Song

Jimmy Page has shared a previously unreleased track created during the sessions for Led Zeppelin’s 1974 record Houses Of The Holy. Dubbed The Seasons, it’s an instrumental arrangement that eventually formed the basis for 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 in to The Season, later to be titled The Rain Song,” explains Page in his post.

“Again there would be a contrasting acoustic guitar instrumental movement with melotron 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.”

Page put the song together in the evening at home using his multitrack recorder. He says a separate overture – then-titled The Plumpton and Worcester Races – later fulfilled his aim for the rousing (if not instrumental) introduction the band finally settled on in The Song Remains The Same.

“The first set of recordings were done at Olympic Studios with George Chkiantz,” notes Page of the production. “We then came to record at Stargroves, Sir Mick Jagger’s country home, and, like Headley Grange, [where we recorded parts of multiple albums, we used] the Rolling Stones recording truck.