Fool in the Rain

This week's edition of Retro Friday features the Led Zeppelin song, Fool in the Rain.

I most usually pull songs from the 80's and early 90's for Retro Friday, but this week I'm going a bit further back.

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band that formed in 1968 and consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With their heavy, guitar-driven blues and rock sound, Led Zeppelin are regularly cited as being one of the originators of heavy metal and hard rock, even though the band's unique style drew from many sources and truly transcends any single music genre. Led Zeppelin did not release songs from their albums as singles in the United Kingdom, as they preferred to establish the concept of album-orientated rock.

The band parted ways following Bonham's death in 1980, but continue to be held in high regard for their artistic achievements, commercial success, and broad range of influence. The band is widely touted as being one of the most successful, innovative and influential bands in the history of music. Led Zeppelin is said to have sold over 200 million albums worldwide according to some sources, while other sources state sales of more than 300 million records.

Today's featured Retro Friday Song is Fool in the Rain. A bittersweet song for some Zeppelin fans, “Fool in the Rain” was the band’s final U.S. single. It appeared on their 1980 album In Through the Out Door. The song created a strong finish for them though, going all the way to #21 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Surprisingly enough, the song was partially inspired by a soccer tournament. While watching the World Cup in 1978 (which was based in Argentina), Robert Plant and John Paul Jones came up with the idea for a latin-inspired song, specifically one with a samba beat. The lyrics of the song seem to tell a minor tale of woe, about a man who was stood up by a girl he was supposed to meet on a street corner, only to realize by the end that he is standing on the wrong corner, and is just ‘a fool in the rain.’

Original videos of Led Zeppelin playing their classic hits are very closely guarded by the band, although occasionally videos of live performances find their way onto the web. Fool in the Rain, however, doesn’t currently have an easily-accessible performance video associated with it, unless of course you’d like to hear a cover band playing it or some guy trying his hand at the song’s drum licks in his basement.

Here is some audio of Fool in the Rain for your listening pleasure. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!



Cheers!