Rain and romance

Rain and romance

After the long dry spell has come the rain (although, we have been cautioned, the regular showers we are enjoying do not necessarily mean that the drought is over), bringing up memories of songs which include the weather, sometimes mislabelled as 'bad'.

Of course, it is not only Jamaican performers who have songs which include the falling of raindrops. Three of the many which come to mind are Crying in the Rain (Everly Brothers), Rainy Night in Georgia (Ray Charles) and A Hard Rain's

A-Gonna Fall (Bob Dylan).

Of the three, thematically the Everly Brothers' track connects directly with Delroy Wilson's Rain From the Skies. Both are about a man concealing heartache by fusing his tears with an outpouring from above. The Everly Brothers sing:

"I'll never let you see

The way my broken heart is hurtin' me

I've got my pride and I know how to hide

All my sorrow and pain

I'll do my cryin' in the rain

If I wait for cloudy skies

You won't know the rain from the tears in my eyes."

The countries are different, but the utilisation of rain to mask cracks in the macho facade are the same, as Delroy Wilson tries to fool himself that it is not his tears that are rolling down his cheeks - even though we all know the truth:

"Ever since you went away

Every day, it's just a cloudy day

And I don't know if it's rain from the skies

Or tears from my eyes

Falling on my face

And rolling down my cheeks."

There are any number of songs about romance and rain. In Pitta Patta, Ernie Smith starts with the query, "Have you ever been inside/On a rainy rainy night/Holding your baby tight?/Well I have". And in the chorus Banana Man (who had this big song in the early 1990s), put the matter of rain romance a bit more plainly on the Real Rock rhythm:

'The wickedest time a when the

rain start fall

The girl dem start to bawl

Who nah sen telegram

Dem a make phone call

Say dem want de hamma fi tear

dung dem wall ..."

Taking it a step further as only she can (and get away with it), Lady Saw lays her needs - and abilities - on the table in It's Raining. The introduction is about her skills ("Dis ya one ya hard, hard! Anyway you want it baby, gymnastic, acrobatic, slide back boogie, any way you want it me have it"), before she sets the damp conditions for the encounter:

"It's raining my body's calling

I'm in need of my darling

Mi well want the fire under mi herring

Baby, come an bake mi pudding."

Romain Virgo also has a rain song in I Want to Go Home, the accompanying video featuring water running heavily down the window of an eatery he is in. He makes his lady's needs plain, singing:

"The rain is falling

My baby is all alone

Don't want to be alone

Want to go home."