Rain

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”rain

Rain is never good in a Hemingway novel – it’s invariably portends something somber/sad.

But after I had got them out and shut the door and turned off the light it wasn’t any good. It was like saying good-bye to a statue. After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.

— A Farewell to Arms, last lines

Similarly, pop rock songs about rain are often dark (Dylan’s A Hard Rain’s Going to Fall, for example).

But moving past the dark songs, it’s surprising just how many songs have (at least) “rain” in the title – some sad, some boisterous, some just, well, mention rain. In no particular order:

  • A Hard Rain’s Going to Fall – Bob Dylan
  • Rainy Day Women #12 and 35 – Bob Dylan (just a silly song)
  • Who’ll Stop the Rain? – Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR)
  • Have You Ever Seen the Rain? – CCR, again
  • In the Early Morning Rain – Gordon Lightfoot (I heard an early version of this song – not the one on “Gord’s Gold” – and he sounds like he’s trying to do the Dylan nasal sound. Not pretty.)
  • Rainy Day People – Gordon Lightfoot
  • Let It Rain – Eric Claption (with Derek and the Dominos?)
  • Rain – The Beatles (Not on any album; B side of Paperback Writer – not really well known)
  • Fool in the Rain – The Beatles
  • Like a Rainbow – Rolling Stones (OK – a stretch, but one of my favorite Stones songs. So peppy!)
  • Fire and Rain – James Taylor
  • Purple Rain – Prince
  • It’s Raining Men – The Weather Girls (I had to look that up. Classic camp!)
  • Here Comes the Rain Again – Eurythmics
  • The Rain Song – Led Zeppelin
  • Rainy Days and Mondays – The Carpenters (before I started listening to the radio: released in 1971)
  • Rainy Night in Georgia – Written by Tony Joe White in 1967; popularized by Brook Benton in 1970.
  • Raindrop Keep Falling on My Head – B.J. Thomas (you think he’d have those initials today? I only like this because it was in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and used effectively.)
  • Red Rain – Peter Gabriel (solo, after Genesis. The “So” album)
  • Famous Blue Raincoat – Leonard Cohen (yeah, a stretch, but a great song. Jennifer Warnes does a great cover of this song – and other Cohen favorites – on her “Famous Blue Raincoat” album.)

I deliberately left out Singing in the Rain just because…

Could also pad out the list with “thunder” references (You Love the Thunder, Jackson Browne; Thunder Road, Bruce Springstein), but I didn’t go there.

Also, off the top of my head I can’t think of any other “thunder” songs.