Rain (Beatles song)
"Rain" | ||||
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Single by the Beatles | ||||
A-side | "Paperback Writer" | |||
Released | 30 May 1966 | |||
Recorded | 14 & 16 April 1966 | |||
Studio | EMI, London | |||
Genre | Psychedelic rock[1][2] | |||
Length | 2:59 | |||
Label |
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Songwriter(s) | Lennon–McCartney | |||
Producer(s) | George Martin | |||
The Beatles UK singles chronology | ||||
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The Beatles US singles chronology | ||||
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Promotional film | ||||
"Rain" on YouTube |
"Rain" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 30 May 1966 as the B-side of their "Paperback Writer" single. Both songs were recorded during the sessions for Revolver, although neither appear on that album. "Rain" was written by John Lennon and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. He described it as being "about people moaning about the weather all the time".[3]
The song's recording contains a slowed-down rhythm track, a droning bass line and backwards vocals. Its release marked one of the first times that reversed sounds appeared in a pop song, although the Beatles used the same technique on the Revolver track "Tomorrow Never Knows", recorded days earlier.[4] Ringo Starr considers "Rain" his best recorded drum performance. Three promotional films were created for the song, and they are considered among the early precursors of music videos.
Background and inspiration
Commenting on "Rain", Lennon said it addressed "People moaning because ... they don't like the weather".
In an early-1970s article on the
Composition
According to musicologist
Set in the key of G major (the final mix pitches it about a quarter of a semitone below this, while the backing track was taped in A flat major), the song begins with what 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 in the so-called 6
4 (second) inversion. The fifth and sixth measures return to the G chord. Pollack says the refrain seems slower than the verse, though it is at the same tempo, an illusion achieved by "the change of beat for the first four measures from its erstwhile bounce to something more plodding and regular".[12]
After four verses and two refrains, a short solo for guitar and drums is played, with complete silence for one beat. Following this, the music returns accompanied by a portion of singing for which the recording is reversed.[12]
Allan Kozinn describes McCartney's bass as "an ingenious counterpoint that takes him all over the fretboard ... while Lennon and McCartney harmonize in fourths on a melody with a slightly Middle Eastern tinge, McCartney first points up the song's droning character by hammering on a high G (approached with a quick slide from the F natural just below it), playing it steadily on the beat for twenty successive beats."[15]
Recording
The Beatles began recording "Rain" at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) in London on 14 April 1966, in the same session as "Paperback Writer". They completed the track on 16 April, with a series of overdubs before mixing on the same day.[16] At that time, the band were enthusiastic about experimenting in the studio to achieve new sounds and effects.[17][18] These experiments were showcased on their seventh album, Revolver.[19] Geoff Emerick, who was the engineer for both sessions, described one technique he used to alter the sonic texture of the recording by taping the backing track "faster than normal". When played back, slightly slower than the usual speed, "the music had a radically different tonal quality."[20] The opposite technique was used to alter the tone of Lennon's lead vocal: it was recorded with the tape machine slowed down, making Lennon's voice sound higher when played back.[21]
Lennon played a 1965
The increased volume of the bass guitar contravened EMI regulations, which were born out of concern that the powerful sound would cause a record buyer's stylus to jump.[27] The "Paperback Writer" / "Rain" single was therefore the first release to use a device invented by the maintenance department at EMI called Automatic Transient Overload Control (ATOC).[28] The new device allowed the record to be cut at a louder volume than any other single up to that time.[20]
Backwards sounds
The coda of "Rain" includes backwards vocals,[29] which Lennon later claimed was the first use of this technique on a record,[30] although "H'tuom Tuhs", by Sydney band The Missing Links had actually been released in October of the previous year.[31][nb 2] Edited together from Lennon's vocal track, the backwards portion consists of him singing the word "sunshine", then a drawn-out "rain" taken from one of the choruses,[33] and finally the song's opening line, "If the rain comes they run and hide their heads".[23] In author Robert Rodriguez's description, accompanied by the backing vocalists singing the song title on another track, Lennon's vocal "evoked the sound of a blissed-out zealot speaking in tongues in a trancelike state".[34]
Both Lennon and producer George Martin claimed credit for the idea.[26][35] Lennon said in 1966:
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 stoned and 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.[36][37]
Harrison confirmed Lennon's creative accident,[38] as did Emerick,[20] but Martin told Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn in 1987:
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.[16]
Lennon repeated his version of events in a 1968 interview with Jonathan Cott of Rolling Stone.[39][nb 3] In a 1980 interview, Lennon recalled:
I got home from the studio and I was stoned out of my mind on marijuana and, as I usually do, I listened to what I'd recorded that day. Somehow I got it on backwards and I sat there, transfixed, with the earphones on, with a big hash joint. I ran in the next day and said, "I know what to do with it, I know ... Listen to this!" So I made them all play it backwards. The fade is me actually singing backwards with the guitars going backwards. [Singing backwards] Sharethsmnowthsmeaness ... [Laughter] That one was the gift of God, of Jah, actually, the god of marijuana, right? So Jah gave me that one.[40]
Regardless of who is credited for the technique, "from that point on", Emerick wrote, "almost every overdub we did on Revolver had to be tried backwards as well as forwards."[5][nb 4]
Release and reception
"Rain" was released as the B-side to "Paperback Writer" in the United States on 30 May 1966 (as Capitol 5651)
In the United States, the song peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 9 July 1966,[49] and remained in that position the following week.[50] The "Paperback Writer" single reached number 1 in the UK and the US,[51] as well as Australia and West Germany.[52]
Rolling Stone ranked "Rain" 469th in its list of "
Music critic Jim DeRogatis describes the track as "the Beatles' first great psychedelic rock song".[61] Music historian Simon Philo recognises its release as marking "the birth of British psychedelic rock", as well as a forerunner to the unprecedented studio exploration and Indian aesthetic of "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Love You To", respectively.[62] It has been noted for its slowed-down rhythm track and backwards vocals, anticipating the studio experimentation of "Tomorrow Never Knows" and other songs on Revolver, which was released in August 1966.[16][22] Musicologist Walter Everett cites its closing section as an example of how the Beatles pioneered the "fade-out–fade-in coda", a device used again by them on "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Helter Skelter", and by Led Zeppelin on "Thank You".[63] From its introduction in "Rain", the Hindustani gamaka vocal ornamentation was adopted by several bands in the late 1960s, including the Moody Blues (on "The Sun Set"), the Hollies ("King Midas in Reverse") and Crosby, Stills & Nash ("Guinnevere").[64]
"Rain" was first mixed in stereo in December 1969
Promotional films
The Beatles created three promotional films for "Rain",[69] following on from their first attempts with the medium for their December 1965 single.[70][71] Authors Mark Hertsgaard and Bob Spitz both recognise the 1966 promos for "Paperback Writer" and "Rain" as the first examples of music videos.[72][73][nb 6] In the case of "Rain", it marked a rare instance where the Beatles prepared a clip for a B-side, later examples being "Revolution" and "Don't Let Me Down".[75]
The films were directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who had worked with the band on the television programme Ready Steady Go![76] One shows the Beatles walking and singing in the gardens and conservatory of Chiswick House in west London, and was filmed on 20 May.[77][78] The other two clips feature the band performing on a sound stage at EMI Studios on 19 May; one was filmed in colour for The Ed Sullivan Show and the other in black and white for broadcast in the UK.[77][79] McCartney was injured in a moped accident on 26 December 1965,[80] six months before the filming of "Rain", and close-ups in the film reveal a chipped tooth.[81] McCartney's appearance in the film played a role in the "Paul is dead" rumours from 1969.[23] The band also promoted the single with a rare TV appearance,[82] miming to both songs on the BBC show Top of the Pops on 16 June.[83][84]
The Beatles' Anthology documentary video includes an edit combining the Chiswick House promo for "Rain" with shots from the two black-and-white EMI clips and unused colour footage from the 20 May filming.[85] The new edit also employs rhythmic fast cuts.[86] Unterberger writes that this creates an impression that the 1966 promos were more technically complex, fast-paced and innovative than was the case. For example, the backwards film effects are 1990s creations. Such effects were actually first deployed in the "Strawberry Fields Forever" promotional film of January 1967.[87]
Covers, samples and media references
Dan Ar Braz covered "Rain" on his 1979 album The Earth's Lament, and later performed it with Fairport Convention at the Cropredy Festival in 1997.[88] Polyrock covered the song on their second album Changing Hearts (1981). Todd Rundgren has also covered the song,[23] as has the late Dan Fogelberg, who reprised it as part of his own cover of "Rhythm of the Rain". Shonen Knife covered the song on their 1991 album 712. Aloe Blacc sings it as Boris the Frog in the eponymous Beat Bugs episode 3b.
The Beatles tribute act Rain derives their name from the song.[91] Oasis first named themselves the Rain after the Beatles track.[23] In music critic Chris Ingham's view, Oasis went on to add "a dash of Slade" to "Rain" and "base their entire style on it".[26]
Personnel
According to Ian MacDonald:[22]
- John Lennon – lead and backing vocals, rhythm guitar
- Paul McCartney – backing vocals, bass
- George Harrison – backing vocals, lead guitar
- Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine
Charts
Chart (1966) | Peak position |
---|---|
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)[92] | 12 |
US Billboard Hot 100[93] | 23 |
US Cash Box Top 100[94] | 31 |
Notes
- ^ Pollack likens the sound of the guitar to both an Indian tambura and "pipes".[12]
- ^ The hit novelty song "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!", where side B is side A played backwards, was released in late July 1966.[32]
- ^ Lennon told Cott: "I got home about five in the morning, stoned out of me head ... I staggered up to me tape recorder and put it on [the wrong way 'round], and I was in a trance in the earphones, what is it, what is it ... I really wanted the whole song backwards ... so we tagged it onto the end.[39]
- ^ Martin reaffirmed his own account in an interview with Steve Turner, saying, "I can tell you – I created that." According to Turner, Martin cited experiments he had made with tape manipulation before working with the Beatles, such as the 1962 BBC Radiophonic Workshop single "Time Beat".[41]
- Swinging London satire", in contrast to the "deeper and darker" "Rain" and its evocation of "an enlightened or narcotic acceptance".[46]
References
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External links