Take the Weather with You
Background: It’s always fun for me to time how long it takes for someone to bring up the weather when I’m having a conversation with them, especially if it’s our first interaction. There’s a saying in music that you should write about what you know, and since people are so used to talking about the weather, it’s an easy thing to write about. So the songs we focus on in this blog will use weather to tell a story.
“Songs About Rain” By Gary Allan
Lyrically: “Songs About Rain” is sung from the perspective of a narrator who is driving around and trying to get over his ex. Specifically, because “This town has closed down way too early and there’s nothing to do, so I’m driving around in circles and I’m thinkin’ about you.” I love the visual of driving around in circles, because that’s what his mind is doing as well. There’s just one problem with his ability to get over his ex: He’s sad and all the songs on the radio are sad as well.
The situation is more serious than your typical breakup. It is revealed in the first verse that the narrator just heard his ex “Got a new last name,” and he adds, “Sure didn’t know it was gonna hit me this way.” There are multiple great things about this line. Great songwriting often includes saying something without actually saying it. Instead of saying, “I heard you got married today,” it’s “Today I heard you got a new last name.” The followup line sets up a line in the last verse, when he says, “Well I thought I was over you, but I guess maybe I’m not.”
And there is the last reason why this song is so powerful: grief is incredibly random. He might have been over her, but the right (or wrong) songs playing on the radio, the titular songs about rain, make him sad, and he associates sadness with his ex. In a previous blog, we talked about “If You See Her, Say Hello” by Bob Dylan, and my favorite line in that song is, “I haven’t gotten used to it, I’ve just learned to turn it off.” That feeling is prevalent here as well. The narrator’s sadness over the end of the relationship and his ex moving on is suppressed, until he hears all the songs, “Like ‘Rainy Night in Georgia,” “Kentucky Rain,” ‘Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again,” and “Blue Eyes Cryin’, In the Early Mornin’ Rain,” lamenting the fact that “They go on and on” and wishing they would stop so he could go about his life. This was one of the first country songs I remember hearing, and although I was only 10 or 11 when it came out, I absolutely understood what was going on and loved it.
Melodically: The intro uses G, and stays on it for four bars. The verses then come in, using G, D/F#, Em, C, D/F# and Em. With the song written in G major, this is a I, V, vi, IV, V, vi pattern that gets played twice, but the second time around, they end on the C (the IV chord). The second half of the verses, used to create tension in the way a pre-chorus does, use D, B, Em, C, G, D, B, Em, and C (V, III, vi, IV, I, V, III, vi, IV) followed by G, D/F#, Am7, D, G, D, Em, and C (I, V, ii7, V, I, V, vi, IV pattern). The vi chord, if you will recall, creates tension for us as the listener, but the way he sings it, it sounds like there’s some resolve. So the minor chord is what causes the tension, a counterpoint to how he sings it. It’s also better than ending on the I chord, which would leave that part of the song feeling too happy. On the other side, the IV chord, which ends the verses, sounds unresolved with the way he sings it, as it creates an imperfect cadence. This is done for two reasons. Reason one is that the first time the IV chord comes around, it’s in the middle of the pre-chorus sounding part of the verse. The second time around, it’s setting up the list of songs he talks about in the chorus. Speaking of the chorus, it uses G, Bm, C, and G, Bm, C, A, Am, D, G, D/F#, Em, C, A7, and A, which is a I, iii, IV, I, iii, IV, II, ii, V, I, V, vi, IV, II7, II pattern. The outro uses G, Bm, C, and G, G, Bm, C, and Am, a I, iii, IV, I, iii, IV, ii pattern, played twice. Instrumentally, the song uses acoustic guitar, steel guitar, bass, fiddle, mandolin, accordion, piano, and drums.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, verse, chorus, outro/chorus format. I love the sequence of the verses. The first one sets up that he’s going for a drive, and he says he’s thinking about his ex, but presumably the point of the drive is to forget about her. The second verse wonders why, despite there being other songs with different topics, someone chose to play all the songs about rain – like they were doing it intentionally. The third verse finally comes to accept the fact that he’ll “never know what could have been” but still says it “sure ain’t helpin’ this mood that I’m in” that they’re going to keep playing the songs about rain. There’s acceptance at the end, but he also says at some point that he wishes he could blame the songs, but it’s really on him to get over her. Three verse songs are rare in Nashville these days (as are story songs), but this one is a gem and has held up so well over the past 20+ years.
You can listen to “Songs About Rain” below.
2. “Like a Hurricane” by Neil Young
Lyrically: “Like a Hurricane” begins with the narrator describing the time he met a woman in a “crowded, hazy bar” and even said he saw her “brown eyes turning once to fire.” Interestingly, there are no references to a hurricane in the verses, except in the second verse (which gets repeated), when he says, “Time slips away between us and our foggy trip.” But he really leans into the simile in the chorus: “You are like a hurricane, there’s a calm in your eye and I’m getting blown away to somewhere safer where the feelings stay. I wanna love you but I’m getting blown away.” We talked in my similes and metaphors blogs about the importance of not getting bogged down with references to the thing you’re comparing, and it’s just enough. The comparison of someone to a hurricane (either as a compliment or an insult) has become somewhat of a cliche in writing, but there’s nothing about this song that isn’t poetic, despite the potentially easy comparison.
Melodically: The song is written in the key of A minor, and uses Am, G, F, Em, and G in the intro, which is a i, VII, VI, v, VII pattern. In the verses, he uses the same chords. The chorus then uses C, G, F, G, C, G, F, and G, followed by F, Fmaj7, Am, G, F, Em, and G. This is a III, VII, VI, VII, III, VII, VI, VI pattern, followed by a VI, i, VII, VI, v, VII pattern. Because the song is somewhat of an exaltation, it makes perfect sense for it to end on the VII in each section (and for it to build from the VI to the VII in the two ending phrases of the chorus). Instrumentally, the song uses guitar, organ, bass, and drums.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, verse, chorus format. As I mentioned earlier, the second and third verses are the same, which I find to be an interesting choice. If we look at a song like “Crocodile Rock” (which we discussed in the Writing on Assignment blog), that one repeats the first verse as the third verse. But it’s consistent with the first part of the first verse where he says he thought he saw her (as in he thought she was real), but he wasn’t quite sure. The rest of the song fades in and out of whether or not it was a dream when he saw her or whether it actually happened. As he says, he’s blown away, and in that sense, when he mentions her being like a dream in the second and third verses, it just adds to the mystery of the song – doubling down on whether it was real or not.
You can listen to “Like a Hurricane” below.
3. “Snow is Gone” by Josh Ritter
Lyrically: This is one of my favorite songs to get me out of my seasonal depression (and we’ll cover songs with that topic in my next blog). It talks about the birds chirping. The chorus is his greeting to those birds: “Hello blackbird, hello starling, winter’s over, be my darling. Been a long time coming but now the snow is gone.” In addition to being a happy song, this is also a good song to get you out of a seasonal funk in the sense that he doesn’t even mind if the birds answer him back or pay him any attention – he’s just happy to be in a new season. He says in the second verse, “I sang in exultation, I pulled out the stops, you always looked a little bored. I’m singin’ for the love of it, have mercy on the man who sings to be adored.” He does go back and forth slightly as to why he’s singing, whether to attract others or just for himself, but he’s ultimately just happy to be singing.
Melodically: The song is written in the key of Ab major and is played with the capo on the first fret. He uses the chords Ab and Db/G throughout the intro and verses, which is a I, IV pattern, while the chorus uses Bm7, Cm11, Db, Eadd4add9, a ii7, iii11, IV, V pattern, before ending on the I, IV pattern. to create a slight amount of tension with both the chords and the fact that they go from minors to majors, before ending on the I, and IV chords.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus format. The verses are very similar in terms of what they say, as are the choruses, but it works very well with the song. We talked in our last blog about seasonal depression, and speaking from personal experience as a Minnesotan, the first sign of spring doesn’t always mean spring has actually arrived. So the back and forth that he portrays to us in the verses, not being sure how to feel, paired with the certainty of the choruses, although they change slightly too, but with the same message, is very well done. It kind of gives us some uncertainty as listeners, but ultimately we know, due to the melody, that it’s a happy song, or at least that he wants to be happy and doesn’t care who follows him.
You can listen to “Snow is Gone” below. As a side closing note, similar to Bob Dylan, Josh Ritter’s debut showed flashes of great songwriting (though there were no covers on the latter’s first album), as well as his second album (we have looked at “Harrisburg” from that record). But in my opinion, his third record, Hello Starling, which took its name from this song, was his breakout album as a writer. We looked at “Kathleen”, off the same album, in our middle 8s and bridges blog, but the whole collection is worth a listen, in addition to those two songs.
4. “Sunny and Warm” By Keb Mo
Lyrically: “Sunny and Warm” uses a lot of the same visuals as “Lovely Day” (and arguably “Ain’t No Sunshine”) by Bill Withers, but with more weather references. He starts off by talking about fall and winter being over and done with, and everything he’s going to do with the nice weather. This includes falling in love, having a picnic on the 4th of July, and spending time with a love interest. In the first half of this blog, we talked about “Snow is Gone” by Josh Ritter, but the biggest contrast between these two songs is that the Josh Ritter song is all about getting out of a funk and not knowing how to feel about it. “Sunny and Warm” talks about getting out of the funk and immediately being ready to be happy. The other interesting contrast is that the reason the narrator in the former song is happy is because the snow is finally gone. And although that plays into it, the narrator in the Keb Mo song has confidence that he and his love interest will still be happy even after the summer.
Melodically: The song uses D Major 7 (DM7) and Am7 in both the intro, and verses with a funky-jazz rhythm. The pre-chorus uses F#m, F#m/F, Bm, and E. Written in E minor, this is a VII, iv pattern for the verses.
The chorus uses the same pattern from the verses and intro, but after that gets played three times, ends on C#, F#m, B7, A/B, and E. and a VII, iii, VI, ii, V, IV, I pattern in the chorus, and a II, V, I in the pre-chorus. Instrumentally, the song uses guitar, bass, drums, organ, and synthesizers. The smooth sound of the guitar fits so well with the melody, and just makes me smile. The synths to me are reminiscent of “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” by Hall and Oates, which is fascinating to me, because the former is a breakup song, while this is about as lovey dovey as you can get, but it fits both songs very well.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, pre-chorus, chorus, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, solo, half chorus (or tag), chorus, half chorus format. The half choruses are the last lines of the chorus: “It ain’t no crush, it’s forever, when summer is gone, we’ll still be together,” and “Sunny and warm is the way I like it” at the end. This is one of those songs you can just vibe to, so the repetitive nature, rather than having some interrupting bridge or big booming chorus is an excellent choice. This is one of those songs that’s prone to get stuck in my head, but unlike most earworms, this one is always welcome, because it just flows so nicely in all three aspects.
Fun closing note: I mentioned in a previous blog about my friend, Brett, who put “Cover of the Rolling Stone” on his Super Church mix, because of a blog I supposedly wrote that contained that song. “Sunny and Warm” was on his mix in 2022, and I’m so happy it worked out to be in a blog, because it’s one of my favorites. You can listen below.
