Led Zep Fool in the Rain

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!

As I understand the lore this was a John Paul Jones arrangement which tinkered with a Brazilian motif. It was written around when Presence was being arranged/recorded. The problem at that time was heroin. Page was truly strung out as was Plant- to a lesser extent. Plant described talking to Page as "tapping on a thick glass". Jonsie stepped up and managed the sessions saving Page "Led Wallet" a fortune in studio time. Supposedly Page and Plant would no-show at studio time and get billed for it. 

As for "just my opinion" as to why it was not played live: It's a radio song. The 1st 6 notes get repeated ad-nauseum and the Brazilian Carnival whistling and stomping is irritating. It's probably hard to duplicate in a 4 piece live presentation as well.  

I'm not insulting anyone's preferences for or against this tune- just proffering my personal take on it. Obviously I'm a huge Zep fan and their worst stuff is superior to most other's work. 

As a massive Zeppelin fan and broad music connoisseurs, this is my favorite Zep song. Granted a more mature me. I think it points directly toward what was coming from Plant's solo work. The drumming is incredible and changes style. The guitar solo is unique and very cool - it grew on me over the years. The lyrics completely emotive and brilliant.  It's not classic sounding for them except in that it is definitely a unique creation and still theirs.