Immense tragedy overshadowed Led Zeppelin’s 1979 album, In Through the Out Door.
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Robert Plant’s son Karac had died in 1977 from a respiratory infection. The singer told Rolling Stone, after losing his son, “I found that the excesses that surrounded Led Zeppelin were such that nobody knew where the actual axis of all this stuff was. Everybody was insular, developing their own world.”
And it’s the first Led Zeppelin album with limited songwriting contributions from band leader Jimmy Page. John Paul Jones echoed Plant’s sentiment about the band’s internal dynamics. He mentioned “two distinct camps” within the group—Plant and Jones, clean, while Page and Bonham struggled with addiction.
Still, In Through the Out Door was a massive commercial success, though it’s largely defined by two songs: “All My Love” and “Fool in the Rain.” The former is Plant’s touching tribute to Karac, while the latter marks Led Zeppelin’s final single.
Only Fools Rush In
The opening verse to “Fool in the Rain” expresses how Plant feels about a woman. But anxiety weighs on his emotions.
Well there’s a light in your eye that keeps shining
Like a star that can’t wait for night
I hate to think I been blinded, baby
Why can’t I see you tonight?
Plant’s character, aloof and smitten, waits on a corner of the street for his date. But she never shows. He checks his watch and says he’ll give it another 10 minutes before giving up and returning home.
Now I will stand in the rain on the corner
I watch the people go shuffling downtown
Another ten minutes no longer
And then I’m turning around, ’round
His anxiety intensifies, and the storm he’d hoped would blow over begins to rain on him. Soaked and sad, Plant then realizes his terrible mistake.
He’s been standing on the wrong corner all along.
And the thoughts of a fool’s kind of careless
I’m just a fool waiting on the wrong block
Samba Blues
Led Zeppelin experimented with many styles on In Through the Out Door. “Fool in the Rain” was written in a samba style and its Latin groove gives the track a lightness.
You feel for the bumbling actions of Plant’s character and if this were a rom-com, his date might show up at the last moment, just as he’s about to leave.
But, here, she doesn’t. And Plant, still aloof, ends the song by repeating: Light of the love that I found.
In Through the Out Door was the final album released by Led Zeppelin before drummer John Bonham’s death in 1980. (The group released a compilation album, Coda, in 1982, but they had already disbanded by then.)
Page famously disliked releasing singles, wanting listeners to focus on the entire album. But “Fool in the Rain” shows the lighter side of a band operating under dark clouds.
It’s the final U.S. single from the band. They never performed it live.
Photo by Pete Still/Redferns
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