Led Zep Fool in the Rain

Back to the OP original question about why they never played Fool in the Rain live.

If my research is correct, they released ITTOD in August 1979 (at a time when Page & Bonham were both struggling with addictions). Led Zeppelin only played 14 times after that release, starting June 17, 1980 in Dortmund, Germany until their last ever show on July 7 in Berlin.

John Bonham choked to death on his own vomit, a la Hendrix, September 25, 1980 and that was the end of the story.

Listening to Jimmy Page' hi-def remasters series makes it perfectly clear how essential Bonzo was to that band, and it was a heartbreaking end to an amazing group during a time when music trends had not been kind to the original classic-rock juggernauts.

It makes sense to me why Fool in the Rain was never played live.

@rettrussell Very interesting and insightful — makes a lotta sense.  Thanks for that!

Just following up on @hifiguy42 mention of Rosanna — made me go back to listen to it and found this live version I thought might be worth sharing…

https://youtu.be/S-CXfoveDFw?si=MaH1Zg0uHgb0hNuU

BTW, can anyone think of a more stunning reinvention than Toto did with Toto IV? Fleetwood Mac did, but those were basically two different bands when Buckingham/Nicks came to town. Don’t even get me started on Jefferson Starship. Yuck.  You could argue Steely Dan made a big transformation going from Aja to Gaucho where they went from a melody-based sound to more of a groove-driven thing — totally different sound post Aja. Anyway…

On another thread I brought up “Home at Last” off Steely Dan’s Aja album as another example of a shuffle, which in this case is the Purdie shuffle. Here’s a nice little exposeé with Donald and Walter as to how it got incorporated into the song in case you haven’t seen it — pretty interesting I think…

https://youtu.be/_ldtieSEyQM?si=Zz-VnsEFgMRFjGUQ

Maybe not a shuffle (actually a swing), but just gotta love the drums on this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMGeqRxzykA

@toddalin GREAT tune!!!  And thanks for sharing!  It’s kinda like a jazz meets Steely Dan kinda fusion vibe, and you’re right — the drums are absolutely money on this.  I think a lotta country/blues players are highly underrated, and this lays that bare IMHO.  I used “Tin Pan Alley” from this album for years to review high-end audio equipment because this was such an extremely well-recorded album and exceedingly rare for pop/rock recordings especially back in that era. Thank you!