Tuesday Tunes 168: Rain Returns

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We’ve had a lot of rain in the past few days, with flooding in some parts of the country. There have been a couple of torrential downpours here, one of them around 1am the other night after the loudest clap of thunder I’ve ever heard, and a vivid lightning flash that lit up the whole sky. More of the wet stuff is forecast for this week, and it seems a good plan to choose rain as this week’s theme. I ran a couple of posts on this back in the spring, so it seems right to bookend what passes for summer here with another set, now that autumn is upon us.

You might think that having already played two sets of rain songs – back in the days when I gave you eight songs a week, too – that I would be running out of possible choices. Far from it: this seems to be a popular subject for song titles. I’m starting this week with a Bob Dylan song, but in a real stomper of a cover version:

Though that performance dates from 1977 Bryan Ferry actually released his version of A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall as the opening track on his debut solo album, These Foolish Things, in October 1973. He was still the lead singer of Roxy Music at the time, but generally this album was a departure from the band’s style. It was a set of covers of some pop and rock songs mixed with standards, like the title track. I bought the album back then and loved it – it was one of those that saw me through my uni days. It peaked at #5 in the UK Albums chart, at #10 in the Netherlands and #18 in Australia, but only got as far as #204 in the US. That probably isn’t all that surprising, as Roxy Music have never been as successful over there as they have elsewhere, and certainly not in their early days. This was the lead single, coinciding with the album’s release, and peaked at #10 in the UK. It was always a good one for the uni discos!

In my previous selesctions I played one of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s two rain songs, and it seems a good opportunity to give you the other one now:

That video is a fairly recent official one, issued in 2018 as part of a project to mark the band’s 50th anniversary. This also included remastered reissues of all of their albums, and I think the sound quality on this one bears that out. Have You Ever Seen The Rain was a track on the band’s album, Pendulum – their sixth in a little over two years. It was released in November 1970, their second release of the year, after they had given us three in 1969. It peaked at #5 in the US and #8 in the UK – not their best performer but still pretty respectable, with more than 1m US sales. This was the only track released as a single, in January 1971: it got to #8 in the US and made #1 in Canada, but only reached #36 here in the UK. It’s a typical CCR song – which means I like it a lot!

Regular followers will know that I’m a big fan of the Canadian band Cowboy Junkies. I wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to play them, would I? Their usual style of song is what I would call languid and laid back, so by their standards this one is positively upbeat:

What can I say about Cowboy Junkies and Margo Timmins that I haven’t already said? Simply gorgeous, both her and her voice. Southern Rain was the opening track on their fourth album, Black Eyed Man, which was released in February 1992. It reached #8 in their native Canada and #21 in the UK, but only got to #76 in the US: some people just don’t recognise good music! This song was released as a single, peaking at #20 in Canada but not making the charts anywhere else. For me, they can do no wrong, though.

In last week’s post Playing For Change I played one of Peter Gabriel’s songs, which involved him singing as part of a worldwide project. It made me realise that I haven’t played him often enough, so I’m making up for that a little today:

Red Rain was the opening track on Peter Gabriel’s fifth album, So, which was released in May 1986. It was his first to be given its own title, after the previous four had all just been known by his name, though they did of course come to be called 1,2,3 and 4. It is a great album, and deservedly reached #1 in the UK and #2 in the US, selling more than 5m copies in the US and 900k in the UK. In the US this track was the second single from the album and reached number three on their Mainstream Rock chart, for three weeks between July and August 1986. In the rest of the world it wasn’t released until 1987, when it became the fifth and final single from the album, and as a result received less airplay and fewer sales, peaking at a relatively lowly #46 in the UK. You may well know a couple of the other tracks better – Sledgehammer and Don’t Give Up – but I still like this one too.

Today’s final tune is by one of my favourites, who I have played several times before. It is a song with a message, and it gives the selection a rousing finale:

Rain On The Scarecrow is the first track on John (Cougar) Mellencamp’s eighth album, Scarecrow, which was released in July 1985. As the introduction suggests, it is a song about the decline of American farming and the hardships that farmers suffer, which is very much part of John’s philosophy: along with Willie Nelson and Neil Young he founded the now annual series of Farm Aid concerts, which began in September 1985 and have raised funds to support farmers since then. This year’s event took place last Saturday, and if you want to know more you can find details here. Just look at the list of performers! The Scarecrow album reached #2 in the US, Canada and Australia, but didn’t chart in the UK – we have been much slower to pick up on him. It has sold more than 5m copies in the US – but I bought it too, so we can be certain that it sold at least one copy here! This was the fifth track to be taken as a single from it, a year later, and reached #21 in the US.

That’s a wrap for today. Enjoy your week, and I hope you don’t get washed away in the coming deluge. Take care 😊☔️

72 thoughts on “Tuesday Tunes 168: Rain Returns”

  1. Pingback: September Grass | Take It Easy

  2. Since I retired and moved to Norfolk, I have seen more rain that I ever expected to see in my remaining lifetime. To be honest, the very last thing I want to do is to listen to songs about rain. Thanks anyway, Clive. 🙂
    Best wishes, Pete.

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  3. Fun post, Clive! My favourite, as you might guess, is Creedence Clearwater Revival … though I am very familiar with the song, I don’t think I had ever seen that video … fun and yet sad. The others I mostly didn’t know, but I liked most of them. Sorry I’m so far behind on your blogs … I’m behind on everything, even breathing!

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  4. I like that you’re taking your signs from nature for your themes. There are so many songs about rain that it wouldn’t surprise me if this theme extends into next week. The only one I wouldn’t give a second listen to is the first one. My two runaway favorites this week were John Mellencamp and Peter Gabriel.

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    • As this is the third time I’ve used this theme it may not happen again next week! But other nature themes might work: I’ve done variations on that before and they are always fun. Those are two good favourites from this set!

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  6. Its been a rainy week here too and calling for it the rest of the week as well. The rainy songs are perfect. “Have you Ever Seen The Rain” is my favorite out of these selections, but Mellencamp’s is really good too! Make sure you don’t get washed away either!

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  7. Would you mind sending Northern Alberta some of that rain. We had a rainstorm this morning. The roads were wet, kind of. The storm lasted maybe 2 minutes. We have been getting about 2 minutes of rain every 2 – 3 weeks since July. Before that we had no rain at all. If it weren’t for the muskeg all around us we would be a desert. Next year is supposed to be worse. Anyone who can send us rain, we will take it.

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    • Thank you, glad you liked them. I’m a huge John Mellencamp fan, and feel that he has never got the sales here that he deserves. I’ve done my bit, though – I have all of his albums going right back to his early Johnny Cougar days 😊

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  11. Have you ever seen the rain is a song I first recognized from Bonnie Tyler. There may have been more versions but her voice did great with the song. But after I heard the original this was the version I liked more.

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  13. A fine selection of ‘rain’ songs, Clive! I love the Cowboy Junkies and especially Southern Rain. It’s great to finally see the video of it! What a terrific idea of Mellancamp to support rural famers through the annual concerts. Thank you for a fun afternoon’s music listening and learning along the way!

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    • Thank you, Annika. I’m a bit surprised that it took me three goes before I included Southern Rain – usually I jump at the first chance to gaze at Margo and listen to her beautiful voice! I don’t think the three of them expected Farm Aid to take off the way it did, but it has been very successful in raising money and creating awareness. I’m glad you enjoyed them 😊

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