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Rain (Beatles song)

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"Rain"
Song

"Rain" is a song by the British rock band The Beatles, credited to Lennon/McCartney. It was first released in the late spring of 1966 as the B-side of the "Paperback Writer" single.[1] Both songs were recorded during the sessions for Revolver but neither appears on that album.

Written primarily by John Lennon, "Rain" has been called The Beatles' finest B-side, especially notable for its heavy sonic presence and backwards vocals, both of which were a hint of things to come on Revolver, released two months later.[2][3][4]

A promotional film was made for the song "Rain", starring the Beatles. This video, along with other Beatles videos at the time, sparked George Harrison to say, "So I suppose in a way we invented MTV."[5]

Recording

The inspiration for "Rain" is agreed on by Neil Aspinall, the Beatles' roadie, and John Lennon. They both described the band's arrival in Australia, marked by rain and poor weather.[6] Lennon said, "I've never seen rain as hard as that, except in Tahiti", and later explained that "Rain" was "about people moaning about the weather all the time".[7]

Recording began on April 14, 1966, in the same session as "Paperback Writer", and concluded on April 16 with a series of overdubs.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). These experiments were showcased in their influential seventh album, Revolver. Geoff Emerick, who was the engineer for both sessions, described one technique he used to alter the sonic texture of the track by recording the backing track "faster than normal." After playing the tape normally, "the music had a radically different tonal quality.[8] A similar technique was used to alter the tone of Lennon's lead vocal. It was recorded with the tape machine being slowed down, so making Lennon's voice sound higher when played back at normal speed.[9] The last verse of "Rain" includes backwards vocals, which was one of the first uses of this technique on a record.[10] The backwards vocals are actually John singing the first lyrics of the song: "When the rain comes, they run and hide their heads."[11] Both John Lennon and George Martin have claimed credit for the idea, but Lennon said:

After we'd done the session on that particular song—it ended at about four or five in the morning—I went home with a tape to see what else you could do with it. And I was sort of very tired, you know, not knowing what I was doing, and I just happened to put it on my own tape recorder and it came out backwards. And I liked it better. So that's how it happened.[12]

Emerick confirms Lennon's creative accident, but Martin remembers it differently:

I was always playing around with tapes and I thought it might be fun to do something extra with John's voice. So I lifted a bit of his main vocal off the four-track, put it on another spool, turned it around and then slid it back and forth until it fitted. John was out at the time but when he came back he was amazed.[8][3]

The "Paperback Writer"/"Rain" single was the first release to use a new device invented by the maintenance department at Abbey Road called "ATOC" for "Automatic Transient Overload Control". The new device allowed the record to be cut at a louder volume, louder than any other single up to that time.[13] On the final mix of the single, John Lennon was on lead vocal and rhythm guitar. Paul McCartney was on backing vocal as well as bass guitar. George Harrison was on backing vocal and lead guitar. Finally, Ringo Starr played drums and the tambourine.[4]

Release

File:Beat rain.jpg
Lennon and McCartney in the grounds of Chiswick House, London, in the "Rain" video.

It was released as a B-Side to Paperback Writer on May 30, 1966 in the United States and June 10, 1966 in the United Kingdom. Later it appeared on the compilation album Hey Jude in the US and Rarities in the UK. It also appeared on the Past Masters Volume Two CD.

The Beatles created a promotional film for "Rain", which is considered one of the early precursors of music videos.[14] The film was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who had worked with them before on the pop 1960 television program Ready Steady Go!,[15] and features The Beatles walking and singing in a garden, walking in a greenhouse, and performing on a soundstage.[5] The video was filmed at Chiswick House in London.[16] McCartney was injured in a moped accident on December 26, 1965, and closeups in the film reveal a scarred lip and a chipped tooth.[5][15] McCartney's appearance in the film played a role in the "Paul is Dead" rumors from 1969. [17]

Musical Structure

While technologically elaborate, it is simply structured musically. It is in the key of G major and begins with what Alan W. Pollack calls, "a ra-ta-tat half-measure's fanfare of solo snare drums", followed by a guitar intro of the first chord. The verses are nine measures long, and the song is in 4/4 time. Each verse is based on the G, C, and D chords (I, IV, and V). The refrain contains only I and IV chords, and is twelve measures long (the repetition of a six-measure pattern). The first two measures are the G chord. The third and fourth measures are the C chord, with the third measure in 6/4 time instead of the regular 4/4 time. The fifth and sixth measures return to the G chord. The refrain, though seeming to be in a slower tempo than the verse, is the same tempo. Pollack says this illusion is achieved by "the change of beat for the first four measures from its erstwhile bounce to something more plodding and regular..." After four verses and two refrains, a short solo for guitar and drums is played, with complete silence for one beat. What is heard next is what Pollack calls, "historically significant" reverse lyrics. [18]

Herb Bowie interprets the musical implementations, including the backward lyrics, playing the backing track at a faster speed and slowing it down later, and Starr's "stop and go drumming" as "represent[ing] the 'rain or shine' polarities in musical terms." Bowie explains that "rain or shine" is the equivalent of the "stop and go", "forward and backward", etc. of the instrumentation. He says that the music is a representation of the lyrics, and then goes on to hypothesize that the musical devices are "the subjects of the song themselves," symbolizing the "transformative and liberating effects of art."[19]

Critical reception

"Rain" is one of the Beatles's most critically-acclaimed songs, appearing on a number of best-of lists, including Rolling Stone magazine's The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (#463).[20] AcclaimedMusic.net, a site which combines hundreds of such lists from around the world, ranks "Rain" at #557 on the Top 3000 Songs, the 22nd highest-rated Beatle song on the site.[21][22]

Notable in "Rain" is Ringo Starr's drumming, of which he said it was his best performance.[23] Critics agreed; both Ian MacDonald and Rolling Stone said his drumming was "superb," and Richie Unterberger of All Music Guide praised his "creative drum breaks."[10][24][25]

"Rain" has been covered numerous times since its release as a single, including by Ibex, Humble Pie, and The Allman Brothers. The Grateful Dead performed the song numerous times throughout the 1990s; often as an encore. U2 have also covered the song.

Notes

  1. ^ Hamel, Stephen. "Steve's Beatles Page: Rain". Stephen Hamel. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
  2. ^ Sheff (2000), p197.
  3. ^ a b Lewisohn (1988), p74.
  4. ^ a b MacDonald (2005), p196.
  5. ^ a b c The Beatles (2003). The Beatles Anthology, DVD #3, "Rain" (DVD). Apple Corps Limited.
  6. ^ Beatles (2000), p140
  7. ^ Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Ringo (2000), p212.
  8. ^ a b Emerick (2006), p117
  9. ^ Lewisohn (1988), p83.
  10. ^ a b Unterberger, Richie. "Song Review of Rain". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
  11. ^ "Rain by the Beatles". Retrieved 2008-03-01.
  12. ^ "Rain". The Beatles Interview Database. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
  13. ^ Emerick (2006), p117.
  14. ^ "The Beatles and the Birth of the Music Video". BBC. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
  15. ^ a b Miles (1998).
  16. ^ ""The Beatles Rain Video". Retrieved 2008-02-27.
  17. ^ "Paul is Dead??". Rec.Music.Beatles. Retrieved 2008-03-01. {{cite web}}: |first= missing |last= (help)
  18. ^ Pollack, Alan W. "Alan W. Pollack's Notes on "Paperback Writer" and "Rain"". Retrieved 2008-03-01.
  19. ^ Bowie, Herb. "Reason to Rock: Rain". Retrieved 2008-03-01.
  20. ^ "The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. 2004-12-09. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
  21. ^ "Top 3000 Songs: The Top Songs from 1966". Acclaimed Music. 2007-07-31. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
  22. ^ "Top Artists: The Beatles". Acclaimed Music. 2007-07-31. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
  23. ^ Miles (1997), p280.
  24. ^ MacDonald (2005), p198.
  25. ^ "Rain". Rolling Stone. 2004-12-09. Retrieved 2007-12-22.

References

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