Enough of the Rain!

If you are living in the Northeast, you know that we have been mired in one wet weather pattern.  I think it has rained every day this week, and next week is more of the same.  It does wonders for the humidity, and since it's summer, it's killing our planned outdoor time.  Enough already!

But the rain got me to thinking about songs about rain.  And there are plenty of good ones.  How about we go with the flow and turn the weather to our advantage?  Let's do this thing!

First up, let's go with some songs about umbrellas.  I have two of them.  I love the Hollies Bus Stop, a love song about first meeting under a shared umbrella.  It's an oldie but goodie.  And then there is XTC's 1000 Umbrellas off of the classic Skylarking album.  I shouldn't complain about rain - XTC are English, and the English know a little bit about the rain.  If you don't think that these two songs aren't a powerful start to this post, then you must be smoking something.

The Beatles, another English outfit, did a song simply entitled Rain.  I remember when this song first came out - it was all over AM radio as the latest hit from the Liverpool boys.  Like everyone else in America, we were captivated and listened over and over.  Now, here's your chance.  God, I miss the Beatles.

Let's bring this back to the U.S.  One of America's great songwriters hails from the heartland, and he wrote a song about the difficulties of farming.  The vagaries of weather are just one of their problems.  Rain on the Scarecrow by John Mellencamp is one of his finest songs ever.  Check it out and see if you agree.

Tina.  Do I even need to say her last name?  One of America's most iconic musical performers from the 20th Century, Tina did a great song called I Can't Stand The Rain.  And hey, at this point, I can't stand it either.  I was lucky enough to see Tina live in Philly, and she was fantastic.  Here's a live version of that tune from Rio.  See what you missed?

We're going to finish up with two songs from CCR.  What band does two songs about rain, even if just as a metaphor?  Other than CCR, I'm not sure, but they put out both Have You Ever Seen The Rain and, as a grand finale for this post, Who'll Stop The Rain.  My brother is a huge Fogerty fan, and thinks he is one of America's rock masters.  It's hard to disagree given the musical legacy he left. 

That's it for the rain songs.  You can thank me for not putting Eddie Rabbit's I Love The Rainy Nights in this post.  Oops, I guess I just did, but at least I didn't earworm it for you. 

I hope wherever you are that you are high and dry, and if you are someplace that needs the rain, that you get it.  I have two more posts about Austin, and three, yes, three, more live music reviews post-Austin.  It's been a great live music month at BRP!  Enjoy sweet summer and rock on, my friends.