I just heard a weird jazz version of “Fool In the Rain” at the precious coffee shop near the undisclosed location where I am spending the semester. A few weeks ago, I sat through an excruciating dinner where someone insisted on playing “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” on YouTube on his iPhone, even though we were at a nice restaurant (it was my fault, I had mentioned that it made me sad to think that the sweet, dorky, Jamaican tourist Sting of that video had devolved into a pompous rock dinosaur suitable only for tantric monkey sex mockery). Also too, it is supposed to rain a lot today.
So…what are the best songs about rain? There’s a lot that I sort of like — “Bus Stop”, “Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall”, “Rainy Night In Georgia”, “You Left Me Standing In the Rain” — but only one I can think of that I love, “I Wish It Would Rain”.
Wildcat12
Blame it on the rainNah, I’ll save everyone from a link.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Are there any Nickelback songs about rain?
Xecky Gilchrist
I always liked CCR’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain.”
chopper
Rainy Night in Soho.
sphouch
Blame it on the rain, Rainy days and Sundays, Raindrops keep falling on my head, November rain, Kentucky rain, Who’ll stop the rain, Have you ever seem the rain..
Okay, so some are higher quality than others, but it’s hard to knock Credence
Davis X. Machina
Best song with actual rain: (or Foley of rain) “Riders on the Storm”.
proverbialleadballoon
here comes the rain again
purple rain
kwAwk
raining in baltimore — counting crows
piratedan
this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHMxqskojgo
i listen to this every time the spouse travels
pepper
it’s raining men–the weather girls.
passerby
Though Riders on the Storm is one of my favorites, I’d like to offer Ann Peebles’ I Can’t Stand the Rain. I think it’s perfect for a rainy Sunday morning.
Pour up a Bloody Mary and get your buzz going.
Turn up the sound.
karen marie
The Ronettes’ Walking in the Rain, of course!
Or Grace Jones even.
Flash in the Pan?
caphilldcne
It’s Raining Men
MattF
Yeah, I’m a sucker for Gillian Welch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5DeY3H1oaU
Matoko Borgia-Steeler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOoyr02vFSs&feature=related
patrick II
Willie Nelson, Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.
I thought I remembered Dougj saying that it was one of his favorites too awhile back. Maybe that was a different doug than this head-of-infidelity guy.
Whenever I hear it I end up humming it around the house the rest of the day. My brown eyed wife hates it.
Arm The Homeless
Lie back, and think of English Summer Rain
Splitting Image
“Rain” by the Beatles.
Seconding and thirding the two CCR songs. And “Here Comes the Rain Again”.
Also, don’t forget “I Can See Clearly Now”.
DougJ, Head of Infidelity
@patrick II:
I totally forgot, one of my all-time favorites. I’ll listen to it right now.
plaindave
Let it Rain
Arm The Homeless
@kwAwk: Glad you brought them up.
Rain King
August and Everything After might be one of my favorite albums of the 90’s, along with Nirvana Unplugged
PeorgieTirebiter
Blue Umbrella is one of my favorite John Prine songs. I guess Small Change getting rained on by his own .38 doesn’t really count as a ” rain” song.
karen marie
But this has always been my favorite rain song – Bonnie Raitt’s Runaway.
Stephen1947
Randy Newman’s “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today” – preferably delivered by Judy Collins
scottinnj
FIre & Rain – James Taylor
LIke Tears in Rain – The Bamboos (a melbourne funk band – not from Blade Runner)
Not about rain but in the title- Purple Rain
Rainy Day & Women #12 and 35 -Dylan
Splitting Image
“April Showers”, by Spike Jones.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1yqg4zbyDk
aretino
Angie Stone’s No More Rain (in this Cloud)
karl
Irving Berlin’s Isn’t This a Lovely Day?
mistermix
Only Happy When It Rains – Garbage
A real classic.
karen marie
Dylan’s Buckets of Rain from the album Blood on the Tracks. Sadly, it’s not on Youtube except as a cover.
It’s already close to 90 here and not a whisper of rain coming for months.
Bubblegum Tate
Oran “Juice” Jone–“Walking in the Rain”
joeyess
I wrote and recorded a song about rain.
The kick drum sounds like shit, but it’s not my fault.
RSA
I like Red Rain, by Peter Gabriel. I’ll also mention a song with some of the dumbest lyrics that mention rain: MacArthur Park.
Edit:
@Arm The Homeless:
Ditto.
piratedan
also this from the Lovin Spoonful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–9O1ElmXc8
Matoko Borgia-Steeler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85KhtrJyfYc
DougJ, Head of Infidelity
@karen marie:
The Nico Case version is great.
lamh35
Needs more Hip Hop and R&B on this thread.
“Can You Stand The Rain” by New Edition
Missy Elliot – The Rain (SupaDupaFly)
Onihanzo
Ella Fitzgerald’s cover of Nat King Cole’s Because of Rain, of course.
lamh35
Just for fun:
Milli Vanilli – Blame It On The Rain
Adele – Set Fire To The Rain
I’m bored and at work…could do this all day…LOL ;)
Kiwanda
“Love Reign O’er me”, also in the “has rain sounds” category.
Jewish Steel
So Central Rain. Electric 12 string out front, REM doing their best Byrds impression.
Dave-EO
Jesus & Mary Chain – Happy When it Rains.
Arm The Homeless
@mistermix: Oh, Shirley Manson, how you’ve aged…
But the remixes will always stand out as some of the best, like this Stupid Girl mix.
Also, Too. KMFDM is good for the soul
BrianM
Linton Kwesi Johnson – Loraine. (Parts are cringe-worthy, but I love other parts.)
Lizzy L
Early Morning Rain by Gordon Lightfoot.
send me home
“The Rain Song”
Not a Led Zep fan, but I love this song, especially the mellotrons.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
hallelujah it’s raining McCain!
I can’t wait for It’s Raining Mitt, or I Love The Mitt Life (I Love to Boogie).
Denny
Lowell George’s version of I can’t Stand the Rain off of “Thanks, I’ll Eat it Here”.
THE
I’m Singin’ in the Rain by Gene Kelly classical song and dance number.
lamh35
@THE: oooh…txh for this one. love, love, love that movie and Gene Kelly of course.
Matoko Borgia-Steeler
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Mittflops keep falling on my head
And just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed
Nothin’ seems to fit….
Xboxershorts
Grateful Dead had a real sad song about love lost called looks like rain.
Some friends of mine did a fine cover at a show in February:
http://youtu.be/TXEkhUD6kDY
Villago Delenda Est
Tom Petty’s Louisiana Rain
Yutsano
This has been done. And considering this guy’s autobiography, this song is pretty ironic.
EDIT: And I WANT THAT BOAT!!
forked tongue
Leonard Cohen, “Famous Blue Raincoat”
Neil Young, “See the Sky About to Rain”
Joni Mitchell, “Rainy Night House”
Velvet Underground, “Hey Mr. Rain”
E L V I S, “When It Rains, It Really Pours”
Tom Waits, “A Little Rain” and “Make It Rain”
send me home
“A Place in the Rain” Joe Jackson
When the rivers run dry
We can go to our place in the rain
Pay off the piper and pay all the bills
Pay for the getaway car
Blow out the candles and head for the hills
Pray that we make it that far
Run from the poison and run from the flames
Run from the maddening crowd
Laugh at the whispers of who’ll take the blame
And sing all the sinners out loud
It’s amazing what crazy can do
When every good citizen’s sane
When heaven’s a desert
We’ll go to our place in the rain
It’s amazing what comes into view
When you just connect your heart back to your brain
When heaven’s a desert
We’ll go to our place in the rain
kth
“Rhythm of the Rain”, by the Cascades, is a little twee but works very nicely in the afore-referenced Quadrophenia soundtrack.
@Xboxershorts: apparently it falls to this Dead-indifferent listener to remind the Deadheads in attendance of “Box of Rain”, one of their most well-known and beloved tunes.
also “Crying In The Rain”, Everly Brothers, which is pretty good
and “Raining In My Heart”, Buddy Holly, which is not so much
forked tongue
Also “Here’s That Rainy Day” or “Come Rain or Come Shine,” pretty much no matter who sings ’em.
Joel
I actually liked this song by DJ Muggs (formerly of Cypress Hill) and the lead singer of Buckcherry. About as far from Sting as you can get.
On a Sting-related tangent, a song from his pompous rock dinosaur age (Shape of My Heart) did yield the melody for this great track.
Svensker
@Stephen1947:
I’d agree I Think It’s Going to Rain Today is a great song — I love Irma Thomas’s version
Steeplejack
@lamh35:
The Dramatics, “In the Rain.”
Arm The Homeless
I assume that a Flood implies heavy rain, I submit one of my favorite’s from TOOL
Mr. Wonder’s Higher Ground just because
gaz
Weevie Stonder – Sredni Vashtar *
okay so it’s not literally about rain, but the whole song is set on the backdrop of the sound of rain.
Edit: ack wrong link – looking for it now
Edit: can’t find it – meh – I’m a freak – must be an exceptionally rare track
The reason I nominated it is the oddball factor. It’s a strange and creative piece. it’s from the album “Drawing on Other People’s Heads” IIRC – I’m not sure that’ll help though
Steeplejack
@piratedan:
Your linky broken. Maybe you want “Rain on the Roof”?
lamh35
@Steeplejack:
Tony! Toni! Tone’! – It Nevers Rains in Southern California
Peabo Bryson – Can You Stop The Rain
karen marie
@DougJ, Head of Infidelity: Oooh, thanks!
Elizabelle
Enjoying the rain in Virginia.
Was just outside. The garden was saying “yesssss!”
Nice, steady, soft rain.
Evap
It might as well rain until September – Carol King
Who’ll Stop the rain?
MikeJ
In that video I think Sting was a dorky tourist in Montserrat, not Jamaica. They recorded that album at AIR studios.
Also, Blake Babies and the Cult each had a song called Rain.
Black Sheets of Rain by Bob Mould.
Neon Rainbow by Alex.
Ocean Rain by Echo & the Bunnymen.
Rain Holds by Golden Palominos.
and one of my faves
You Look Like Rain by Morphine.
Not Sure
What, no Rain Song?
And I guess there’s always Beethoven’s 6th Symphony.
pragmatism
Missy Elliot – the rain
Thom Yorke – and it rained all night
Grateful dead – box of rain
Dr. Squid
Jackyl was pretty underrated if you couldn’t get past the chainsaw in A minor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U0fRwAbrHI
Xboxershorts
Raining here in North Central PA, gonna be seriously snowing soon….
Cold Rain and Snow –
http://youtu.be/LG4eFaWZnn0
Obrey Ramsey
EriktheRed
Cracker – Another Song About the Rain
Urge Overkill – View of the Rain
patrick II
Must be a young crowd. Nobody mentions Gene Kelly’s “Singing in the Rain” which may be the most famous of all “rain” songs.
Steeplejack
For geezers of a certain age: the Cowsills, “The Rain, the Park and Other Things.” Pure pop cheese, but when it came out I was living someplace that got 85 inches of annual rainfall. I could relate.
Steeplejack
I always liked this one: the Sir Douglas Quintet, “The Rains Came.” Rock that Farfisa chord organ!
Matoko Borgia-Steeler
@patrick II:
Check #47 in this thread, pops.
Watusie
@pepper:
Total awesomeness.
Jennifer
Stormy Weather. I’m partial to the Billie Holliday version, but lots of folks have done it well.
Arm The Homeless
@MikeJ:
Nom, Nom, Nom. That’s some tasty baby-makin’ music right there, yo
existential fish
I’m partial to Dry the Rain by the Beta Band (as heard in the high point of High Fidelity, which is no easy task)
SiubhanDuinne
@gaz:
Ooh I love the Saki short story “Sredni Vashtar” but never knew it had inspired a song! Thanks!
Montysano
Jimi Hendrix: Rainy Day, Dream Away. “Lay back and groove on a rainy day”. Certainly one of the most singular albums ever made.
ETA: Yes, Morphine, yes Tom Waits!
Steeplejack
@Lizzy L:
That’s a classic. Here’s a nice live version, complete with weird introduction.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
Led Zeppelin version of ‘When the Levee Breaks.’ That is all
BruceJ
Rain, Jerry Garcia Band, “Cats Under The Stars”…Donna Godchaux’ lovely voice…
Arm The Homeless
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: Used that as an outro during an Emergency Management presentation on the systemic failures during the 1927 Mississippi River floods. No one under 30 had a clue. I was disappointed…
EDIT: No one has brought up Slayer-Reign In Blood?
Watusie
David Allen Coe’s famously defined the necessary elements of the perfect country & western song (must include mention of mama, trains, trucks, prison, and drinking).
Which inspired Steve Goodman to write the following immortal supplementary verse to “You Don’t Have to Call Me Darlin’, Darlin’ (You Never Even Called Me By My Name)”:
I was drunk
The day my mama
Got out of prison.
And I went
To pick her up
In the rain
But before I could get to the station
In my pick-up truck,
She got runned over by a danged old train.
One of the greatest sing-along-songs in divey bars ever.
Nina
Rainbow from the great South Park Chef Aid anthology.
Steeplejack
Holy shnikeys! I got so caught up in the hoopla that I forgot my all-time favorite rain song of all time ever: Jorge Ben Jor’s “Chove Chuva (Constant Rain).”
Here’s the Brasil ’66 version I heard first.
And the original.
jwb
@Jennifer: Can’t believe no one mentioned Stormy Weather until comment 77.
Nina
Where there’s rain, there’s Rain Street, The Pogues.
patrick II
@Matoko Borgia-Steeler:
Yeah, I saw it after I posted. Missed it the first time thru.
Friday Jones
@pepper: AND it’s Homer Simpson’s favorite song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hw3TiwyBDs
rea
Can’t believe nobody has mentioned Clapton until comment 93
Friday Jones
@existential fish: Nice. “I will now sell five copies of “The Three EPs” by The Beta Band.”
Steeplejack
Someone upthread mentioned Elvis’s “Kentucky Rain”. A classic.
Also, Johnny Rivers, “Summer Rain”.
JerryN
We’ve missed one Dead song (more of a JGB song, ‘tho the boyz played it every now and then) Mission in the Rain
Svensker
@Steeplejack:
Love that song (the Brasil 66 version is the one I knew). Didn’t know it was about rain, though. Which should have been obvious but it wasn’t.
David
Rainy Day Women — I prefer this remake:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6hitAXH1OI
maurinsky
In the Pouring Rain – Spottiswoode & His Enemies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M519e6-NL_o
Friday Jones
A few others have mentioned Ann Peebles’ “I Can’t Stand the Rain”…just placing my vote.
Also too, Blind Melon “No Rain”. Still like the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qVPNONdF58&ob=av2e
Tom Q
When I saw how many responses were already here, I assumed all my picks would have been covered. But, unless I missed it, no one’s mentioned Brook Benton’s Rainy Night in Georgia, one of my faves.
TG Chicago
Just like in the ‘days of the week’ thread, I was going to mention Morphine… but thankfully that was already done.
And I also second Slayer~!
So all I’ve got left is Africa by Toto. I’m not sure that’s even really a song about rain, but it’s the best I’ve got.
Keith
Rainy Day Dream Away – Jimi Hendrix
Steeplejack
On the jazzy side, Henry Mancini’s “Soldier in the Rain” is evocative. I can’t find Ted Nash’s excellent version from his album The Mancini Project.
@forked tongue:
Doesn’t even have to have singing: Stan Getz, “Here’s That Rainy Day.”
Schlemizel
can’t believe nobody has mentioned Lou Cristie’s “Rhapsody In The Rain”
not that its my fav but everyone else got here first & this thing sticks in my brain some times – ratz
Nina
Rains down in Africa, Toto.
Steeplejack
@Tom Q:
DougJ mentioned it at the top. Here you go.
Jim
It’s a shame about Sting, considering he used to be kind of cool once.
wapsie
It must have been mentioned somewhere upthread — I can’t believe it hasn’t been — but I didn’t see it: the Beatles’ “Rain” — Lennon at his best mid-60s psychedelic.
Also Hendrix, “Rainy Day Dream Away”.
eemom
how ’bout Singin In the Rain, Clockwork Orange version?
Steeplejack
This is a good thread. It’s 50° and raining all day here in NoVa. A nice day to cocoon in the man-cave. Might have to break out Kind of Blue or some Erik Satie, my ultimate go-to rain music.
Steeplejack
Tangentially rain-related weather song: Lou Rawls, “Dead End Street.” Another favorite of mine. Love the gradually building horns.
suzanne
R.E.M.’s “So. Central Rain” and “I’ll Take The Rain”.
GnR’s “November Rain”. Yeah, shut up, I know.
Prince’s “Purple Rain”.
Hornet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMQn5quTIYc
smintheus
Irma Thomas, It’s Raining
suzanne
And can I please add FUCK BLIND MELON?!
Clime Acts
MADONNA – RAIN
One of her best, and most underrated up tempo ballads. Really beautiful. And the video is a stunner.
danielx
The Rain Song, Continental Drifters…sentimental favorite.
runt
Soil Festivities, Movement 1 by Vangelis.
handsmile
A couple more for this soggy Sunday:
“Tinseltown in the Rain”, The Blue Nile
“Thunder Cries”, The Golden Palominos
Polyrock, a Philip Glass-affiliated rock band from the 1980s, did a cover of The Beatles “Rain” that I included among my favorite cover songs on that topic thread a few months back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av76V0rHVwI
On these music threads, I love how great songs, evaporated from memory, now flood back.
Steeplejack
Nicky Holland, “Lady Killer.”
Just one fleeting mention of raindrops deep in this song, but damn if it isn’t a perfect late-night rainy weather song.
Song starts at 1:50 after the prelude.
Steeplejack
@handsmile:
True dat. I’m awash.
Will
“The Rain Song” by Led Zeppelin.
Jacel
“Rainy Day In June” from the same album by The Kinks as “Sunny Afternoon”.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Don’t know why
There’s no sun up in the sky
Stormy weather….
and Rain on the Scarecrow, which is pretty much the only Melloncamp song I really like.
MikeJ
@maurinsky: Another fan of Spottiswoode. Saw him at the 9:30 once, bought his CD Ugly Love straight from him.
tjmn
Rain, rain, come my way,
Make the nasty pollen go away!
handsmile
@Steeplejack:
Pour yourself a potable, put on the Satie and enjoy an afternoon’s cocoon.
Shostakovich string quartets and a nap will be my own choices. Cheers!
gogol's wife
Of course, everybody’s favorite, Shirley Temple’s “I Love To Walk in the Rain,” by Walter Bullock and Harold Spina.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya02B1zHdbA
Punchy
Roger Daltrey and his Who-sists make me make a choice in “Love, Rain, or Me”
chrismealy
Quasi, “It’s Raining” (which I think is a riff on the Irma Thomas version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JA9Hfx4TVQ
Steeplejack
@handsmile:
Cheers to you!
I have to go out to get a few things, so that will make the cocooning all the more pleasant when I get back. Thinking about a rib-eye and a spud for dinner tonight. Or maybe a pot of chili. Comfort food, anyway.
Steeplejack
An obscure and atypical Buffalo Springfield song: “In the Hour of Not Quite Rain.” Strings just seem to go with rain.
alex milstein
The Beatles “Rain”
The Cascades “Rhythm of the Rain”
Lovin’ Spoonful “Rain on the Roof”
Doug Sahm/Sir Douglas Quintet “The Rains Came”
Ronettes “Walking in the Rain”
Cowsills “The Rain, The Park and Other Things”
alex milstein
And though it had nothing to do with rain, how about Bob Dylan and “Rainy Day Women #12 and 35 (Everybody must get stoned)”
Splitting Image
Can’t believe no one has mentioned Mariah Carey’s “Through the Rain”.
.
.
.
Kidding. I actually can believe it.
alex milstein
Has anybody mentioned Brook Benton’s “Rainy Night in
Georgia?” His voice was so cool. Then there is Lou Christie and “Rhapsody in the Rain.) Am I showing my age too much?
Yutsano
@Steeplejack:
If you do this right the shopping list is quite similar.
Paul at Predictable Funk
Etta James, “Cry Like A Rainy Day.”
Texpunk
<a href="“>
The Waters of March . . . Al Jarreau did it with Oleta Adams
Steeplejack
@Yutsano:
Yeah, that’s what I thought. Options open.
quannlace
And if you wanna go way far back-
“For The Rain, It Raineth Everyday.”- W. Shakespeare
MikeJ
Not strictly about rain, but I Will Wait for You is from Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, which should count for something.
Catherine Deneuve and eye popping colour. Yum.
Mike the dealer
Only Happy When It Rains may be my favorite song of all time.
Mike the dealer
Only Happy When It Rains may be my favorite song of all time.
Yutsano
@Steeplejack: I myself have no idea what to do for dinner, except I tend to reserve cooking for the week days. And I need to start thinking about the fact that I’ll be gone from here for six weeks soon. It’s still three weeks out but it is rapidly approaching.
Steeplejack
People mentioned “Riders on the Storm” upthread. Yonderboi does a trippy acid-jazz cover.
Steeplejack
@MikeJ:
Le plus yum!
Steeplejack
@Yutsano:
Where are you going? For work, I presume.
Cmm
The Springsteen song “Downbound Train” has one of the most perfect lyrics ever: “Now I work down at the carwash / where all it ever does is rain…”. First thing that came to mind.
BobS
Feels Like Rain, by John Hiatt
Steeplejack
A good Peanuts strip for this thread. I couldn’t find the one I really wanted, but this one works too.
Jon O
@chrismealy: Just what I had in mind. Good on you.
Libby
I’m fond of Rain on the Roof and, having a fondness for musicals, I like Singing in the Rain. But my all time forever favorite is by a local artist from when I lived in Northampton, MA. Very old song. Waiting on the Rain by the Herschler Brothers. First verse:
Took a lover ’cause I wanted one.
Took some time ’cause I needed some.
Took advantage, but what’s done is done.
I’m just waiting on the rain.
Wish there was some way to post the music.
Yutsano
@Steeplejack: I wish. Post-surgery recovery at my parents. I’ll come back here to check on things and because I’ll have follow-up appointments and such, but for the most part this place will be empty.
DougJ, Head of Infidelity
@Punchy:
Which would Sully choose?
policomic
@karl: As soon as I saw the post, I searched the comments to see if this song had been mentioned. Thank you, Karl.
eemom
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That is an awesome song. Love the intense, furious guitar/drumbeat.
youtube
handsmile
And since la francaise has been introduced (#141) ici, permittez-moi to advise that Francois Hollande has just been declared the victor (with 29%) in the first round of the French presidential election today. Sarkozy polled second with 25%; the far-right Marie LePen won a stronger than expected 20%.
The second-round contest between the two top vote-getters, Hollande and Sarkozy, will be held on May 6. It is widely expected that Hollande, the Socialist Party candidate, will become France’s next president.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/22/francois-hollande-france-election
Pardon this interruption. Now another quarter for the juke-box, garcon!
matscol
OMD’s “Crush” – ‘I can’t stand this fuckin rain’
gogol's wife
OT, but I keep waiting for an open thread to bring this up. The Times’s Public Editor has a column today, “A Hard Look at the President,” urging the Times to give up its pro-Obama bias and start being more fair in its coverage of Romney. Can you believe it? It ends, “Readers deserve to know: Who is the real Barack Obama? And the Times needs to show that it can address the question in a hard-nosed, unbiased way.” I am furious!
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Not in the title, but in the second verse of Prefab Sprout’s When Love Breaks Down:
Oh my, oh my, have you seen the weather
The sweet September rain
Rain on me like no other
Until I drown, until I drown
Steeplejack
@handsmile:
Not French but Frenchy: Rêve Bohème, “Rain Waltz.”
Steeplejack
@Yutsano:
Hope you have a good convalescence. And I presume you’ll stay connected here?
trollhattan
@Montysano: Hard to believe it took 84 posts to come up with this one. Anybody growing up in Seattle knew Jimi was speaking to us, “Lay back and groove…”.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Steeplejack:
Tangentially, Eric Dolphy (w/Mal Waldron, Booker Little and rhythm section) Fire Waltz (pt.1)
Steve M.
Chopin’s Raindrop Prelude?
Amir Khalid
There’s this Jose Feliciano number, Listen to The Falling Rain, that I remember from my childhood.
Yutsano
@Steeplejack: The plan is to liveblog as much as I can, since I will at least have my Crackberry. There will more than likely be more details when I’m actually home and on the loopy drugs. Those posts will be fun!
Bob Munck
Don’t forget the rather strange one about sex in a Pacer, Bohemian Rhapsody in the Rain.
DougJ, Head of Infidelity
@eemom:
From a real heartland liberal!
trollhattan
Also, too, Beatles’ “Fixing a Hole.”
Douglas
I See The Rain by the Marmalade — classic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCn61DuBrgo
eemom
@gogol’s wife:
How utterly, pathetically revolting.
The thing is though, it is SO not worth getting one’s blood pressure up over that shit. The explanation is so simple. Those fucking leeches are gonna DIE without a horserace to suck on for the next seven months, and deep down in their stale candy hearts they know they’re not gonna get one. They’re gonna shrivel up and die on the sidewalk.
It is desperation, nothing more.
joel hanes
Not a song, but Ezra Pound :
Ancient Music
Winter is icumen in,
Lhude sing Goddamm,
Raineth drop and staineth slop,
And how the wind doth ramm!
Sing : Goddamm.
Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us,
An ague has my ham.
Freezeth river, turneth liver,
Damn you, sing : Goddamm.
Goddamm, Goddamm, ’tis why I am, Goddamm,
So ‘gainst winter’s balm.
Sing goddamm, damm, sing Goddamm,
Sing Goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM.
Steeplejack
@trollhattan:
Damn, I forgot that! One of my favorite George Harrison guitar solos. Real simple, but he keeps going down, down, down.
miserybob
@karl: Isn’t This a Lovely Day?
Yep. Karl wins thread. Specifically the Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong version on Verve. In fact, go now and purchase “The Complete Ella and Louis on Verve”, 3 CD set. On it is the answer to every “What’s the best song about…” question.
spaceman_spiff
Surprised no one mentioned The Cult, “Rain”.
Then again, not really.
Lynn Dee
@Steeplejack:
Ha! I loved this song — The Rain, the Park and Other Things — way back when.
Lynn Dee
@PeorgieTirebiter:
Blue Umbrella is a favorite of mine too.
Amir Khalid
Also, Kathy’s Song by Paul Simon, not least for this sublime final verse:
And as I watch the drops of rain
Weave their weary paths and die
I know that I am like the rain:
There but for the grace of you go I
Todd Dugdale
James Gang “Ashes, the Rain, and I”
eemom
@Amir Khalid:
Excellent choice — and that really is a rain song.
I have literally loved Paul Simon ever since I was a kid and first heard El Condor Pasa on the radio. I googled recently to find out who Kathy was — she was a British girlfriend he was with in London in the years before his career really took off. She also appears in the song America (“Kathy, I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh…”)
They broke up reportedly because she didn’t want to move to the U.S. and do the fame & fortune thing.
forked tongue
There are a lot of songs about rain mentioned in this thread, but I can’t help feeling the category of “good,” much less “best” songs about rain is getting stretched a bit. That said, I wonder whether anyone else has heard the insanely hooky “Some Other Sucker’s Parade” by Del Amitri:
Patience they say is a saintly virtue
But hell, why should I wait
‘Til the clouds go rain on some other sucker’s parade?
forked tongue
Ooh, maybe the bestest of them all, Magnetic Fields’ “All the Umbrellas in London”:
All the umbrellas in London couldn’t stop this rain
And all the dope in New York couldn’t kill this pain
And all the money in Tokyo couldn’t make me stay
All the umbrellas in London couldn’t stop this rain
Sonora
Johnny Lang – Still Raining
handsmile
@eemom: (#186)
I googled recently to find out who Kathy was
Is “googling” a euphemism for on-line stalking in this case? Your personal biography continues to intrigue. :)
ETA: Of course, “I googled recently…” should be in block quotes. I’ll never learn it seems, aka FYWP.
suzanne
@Amir Khalid: That is a perfect song. Absolutely perfect in every way. Even though Paul Simon is more of my parents’ generation, I just have always adored his music. I still listen to Graceland in its entirety probably more than any other album.
@Yutsano: Hugs, and you MUST entertain me while inebriated!
barkleyg
@mistermix:
piratedan
@Steeplejack: aye, ty steeple, you know how those you tubes go
maybe this one will be better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwDh-xea40s
schrodinger's cat
I love the rains, especially monsoon. Nobody does monsoon songs better than Hindi movies.
1. Rim Zhim gire sawaan South Bombay in the rains, in the 70’s.
2. Ghanan Ghanan Praying for the much elusive rain in Lagaan, music by Rehman, much better than the stuff he did for Slum Dog millionaire.
MikeJ
@spaceman_spiff: I mentioned it.
Howzabout the Violent Femmes, I Hear the Rain.
PeorgieTirebiter
@Steeplejack: Likely atypical because the lyrics were the winning submission to a contest run by KHJ-Radio. Back when they ruled the am airwaves on the west coast and Humble Harve was yet to be convicted of murder. Good times.
Comrade Mary
Yep, it’s raining in Rochester. Hotel room is nice, though.
Bruce S
If you’re gonna listen to Just Walkin’ in the Rain, go back to the Prisonaires. They wrote it. In prison.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSvvYcqQg-A
Bruce S
Stan Getz – Sweet Rain (the song and the whole album)
Also, not sure if this one has been mentioned, but Fogerty/Creedence’ “Who’ll Stop the Rain” was a good ’60s “rain=ruination” song in the “Hard Rain” tradition.
Steeplejack
@PeorgieTirebiter:
Hmm, that’s very interesting. Thanks for the info.
mak
Patty Griffin, “Rain” http://www.izlemex.tv/rain-patty-griffin/
Hawes
@mak: Man, I read the whole thread waiting to see if anyone had the Patty Griffin song.
So I guess I will go with the New, Sober Ryan Adams:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp_7-OW_YuU
Hawes
Oh, from the same session:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJchhPoQfBc&feature=relmfu
mak
@Hawes:
Yeah, I got about ten posts in before I decided to do a text search.
blink
Olu Dara has Rain Shower for you.
4jkb4ia
“I Think It’s Going To Rain Today”, although that has probably been named 10 times by now.
4jkb4ia
@Arm The Homeless:
Great song, but more about Henderson the Rain King than rain itself.