Led Zeppelin’s third track from their 1979 album In Through the Out Door, “Fool in the Rain”, is their opposing song to their massive classic hit “Stairway to Heaven”. “Fool in the Rain” is quite literally about a guy who was waiting in the rain for a woman in the wrong corner, thinking that he’d been stood up when the woman did not show up.
The song has a latin-samba feel and it was inspired by the World Cup soccer tournament in 1978 hosted by Argentina. Jimmy Page was inspired by Argentina’s Samba rhythms as he was watching the games. The song was actually the last Led Zeppelin song to chart in the US before they formally disbanded in 1980.
Although the piano track is quite a standout and the obscure distortion effect was pioneering, it was legendary drummer John Bonham’s rhythms that put this song together.
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An audio clip of Bonham’s isolated drum track of “Fool in The Rain” has surfaced on YouTube and here Bonham’s incredible drumming in the song can be appreciated even more.
The audio clip begins with Bonham yelling “F***ing hell” before counting down and starting his astounding drumming.
Not long after the band released this song, Bonham died of pulmonary edema where he choked on his vomit after taking an equivalent amount of alcohol as 40 shots of vodka. Led Zeppelin never got to play “Fool in the Rain” live with Bonham. And as Robert Plant and Jimmy Page keep on reiterating, Led Zeppelin will never be the same without Bonham. His drumming skills were unique and out of this world, very difficult to mimic yet alone replace. No drummer will ever live up to the groove and swagger that Bonham had with Zep. His drumming prowess will be forever worshipped, as it keeps inspiring many rock drummers today.
Listen to Bonham’s isolated drumming audio below: