"The Rain Song" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was released in March 1973 as the second track on their fifth album, Houses of the Holy. Recording "The Rain Song" is a ballad of over seven minutes in length. Guitarist Jimmy Page originally constructed the melody of this song at his home in Plumpton, England, where he had recently installed a studio mixing console. A new Vista model, it was partly made up from the Pye Mobile Studio which had been used to record the group's 1970 Royal Albert Hall performance and the Who's Live at Leeds album. With a working title of "Slush", a reference to its easy listening simulated orchestral arrangement, Page was able to bring in a completed arrangement of the melody, for which singer Robert Plant wrote the words. Plant ranks his vocal performance on the track as one of his best. The song also features a Mellotron played by John Paul Jones to add to the orchestral effect, while Page plays a Danelectro guitar. Page wrote "The Rain Song" in response to George Harrison complaining to Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham that the group were unable to write ballads. In Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page, biographer Brad Tolinski quotes Page's recollection: However, there is some disagreement about exactly what was said by whom. Live history During Led Zeppelin concerts from late 1972 until 1975, the band played "The Rain Song" immediately following "The Song Remains the Same", presenting the songs in the same order as they appeared on the album. They organised their set list 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 US 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. Reception In a contemporary review for Houses of the Holy, Gordon Fletcher of Rolling Stone gave "The Rain Song" a negative review, pairing it with "No Quarter" as "nothing more than drawn-out vehicles for the further display of Jones' unknowledgeable use of mellotron and synthesizer". Writing for the same publication in 2003, Gavin Edwards said that Page and Plant "rose to the challenge" presented