We Need the Rain

I remember sitting on a porch in coastal South Carolina this past summer waiting in a sheltered rocker for an inevitable storm to arrive, watching as the skies became swollen and black.

Months later, back in New York, after a hot, dry summer gave way to a bitter, wet and stormy winter when many of the assumptions of the way people live around here came to an ignoble end, I wrote this song. It had been a wonderful few years of dry, sunny weather, but, as people said often in those days, we needed the rain.

Spent the last few weeks pulling together a demo. Pardon the singing  (tho' the vocal sits nicely in the track thanks to the the wonderful upper midrange hump of the RCA 77DX in its omnidirectional setting), but dig the decent lead guitar tone thanks to the great Seymour Duncan Seth Lover pickups (as close to a new PAFs as you're gonna get).

Listen to the demo of We Need the Rain here.

Out on the horizon a messenger wind
corkscrews the trees while the sky closes in.
And the dust devils rattle like a blender full of teeth,
grinding raw the protection for the meat underneath.
The sidewalks of the city are empty now of men.
And I stoop in desert doorstep looking for someone I knew here way back when.
Sometimes things happen you can never explain.
We love the sunshine but we need the rain.

We took what we could carry and burned the rest
and slept in the open with our guns at our chests.
O the wailing and crying! O the mourning and grief!
The prayers for forgiveness and the prayers for relief.
By the houses of the holy where they purify the dead
I met a Yankee peddler whose father always said:
"You can't take it with you, but you can't remain."
We love the sunshine but we need the rain.

By the banks of the river that the willow trees frame
I knelt in the sand and scratched out my name.
I emptied my pockets of curses and keys,
and on the high ground near Dover joined the refugees.
I wheeled out on the ridge like the vultures always do;
turned around one last time, looked back, and thought of you.
It all turns to powder--ain't no use to complain.
We love the sunshine, but we need the rain.

Comments

[Angel III Masa]

Cool lyrics. Very inspiring indeed. I bet with this, rain is not far to pour in. I like the part "We took what we could carry and burned the rest
and slept in the open with our guns at our chests". Amazing pieces of words used in it. I am very glad to have bumped into something inspiring like this. We need the rain indeed and we need it right here, right now. Cool, eh?

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