Episode 4: Have You Ever Seen The Rain by Creedence Clearwater Revival

In 1970, things should have been wonderful for Creedence Clearwater Revival. They weren't. And lead singer John Fogerty put pen to paper and came up with this wonderful song depicting the scene. What happens when it's all ending and you can't do anything about it?

Episode Transcript

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Episode four, Have You Ever Seenthe Rain? By Creeden's Clearwater Revival.
In nineteen seventy, Creden's Clearwater Revivalwas well established as a successful rock band,
starting with their nineteen sixty eight debutalbum, They Gave Us susie Q,
which peaked at eleven on the USBillboard Hot one hundred. Their next
album, by U Country, releasedin nineteen sixty nine, reaching number seven,

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and gave us Born on the Bayou, the b side to Proud Mary,
which reached number two. Later insixty nine, they released Green River,
whose title track reached number two,along with Bad Moon Rising. Two
albums in one year were not enough, and they finished out nineteen sixty nine
releasing one More Willie and the PoorBoys. On this album, we were

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treated to Down on the Corner,which got to number three, and Fortunate
Sun, who topped out at numberfourteen. On came the nineteen seventies and
their fifth studio album, Cosmos Factory. Six of the eleven tracks were released
as single. Looking Out my backDoor got to number two, I Heard
It Through the Grapevine also number two, and Traveling Band and Who'll Stop the

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Rain number two and Up Around theBend and Run through the Jungle reached number
four. Those last four songs releasedas double A side singles, and then
came time to record one more albumin nineteen seventy, Pendulum and the song
Have You Ever Seen the Rain?Music and lyrics are intertwined in our popular

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culture. The songwriters bear their souls, but sometimes their words have meanings unique
to us, the listeners. Herewe explore those meanings. I'm Keith Greeve
and this is interpretations. By thistime, as is often the case,

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things had started to fall apart.Lead singer John Fogerty told Michael Goldberg for
Rolling Stone in nineteen ninety three thathe was dismayed and reacting to the fact
that no one was happy when thingsshould have been wonderful. So he penned
this song as a reaction. Andas Fogerty told Howard Stern in twenty fifteen,

(02:12):
the bandmates never caught on to whatthis song actually meant. Now.
I can't, for the life ofme find the source material to back this
up, but I heard a storythat when the band was recording this song,
they came in and did their partsseparately. John's brother Tom was leaving
the band as He and John clashedover control of the band, but still
did his parts on the album.When it came time to record the vocals,

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there was a journalist present who heardthe lyrics and just looked at Fogerty
and gasped, Oh, John.The writing was on the wall. Everyone
was miserable and there was no comingback. But there's a resigned demeanor to
it all. In the song,It starts out with someone told me long
ago there was a calm before thestorm. I know it's been coming for

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some time. When it's over,so they say, it'll rain a sunny
day, I know, shining downlike water. Before he asks, have
you ever seen the rain coming downon a sunny day? A beautiful day
ruined for no good reason by arain that just doesn't look like it should
be there, And the second versecontinues, yesterday and days before, sun

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is cold and rain is hard.I know I've been that way for all
my time till forever on. Itgoes through the circle, fast and slow.
I know it can't stop. Iwonder this is a pattern repeated throughout
time, And who was he tothink that he can do things differently?

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To me? This is a greatsong when you know things are over and
there's nothing you can do about it. I felt this way a couple times
in my life. I think ofthe f That Noise podcast I did with
my best high school friends for astretch from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty one.
We'd get together once a week overthe inner because we were all in
different parts of the country, andassault the Internet with inappropriate comments and inside

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jokes. It was an absolute blast, but it's hard to get five married,
professional people to coordinate schedules, andeventually it just became too much.
We agreed to take a break,but at that moment I knew it was
never coming back. In two thousandand four, I was living in New
Jersey, single and care free,and as single people in their late twenties

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do, my peer group and Iwere in a rhythm of working hard and
hitting the bars and clubs on theweekends, parties at each other's apartments,
cookouts, etc. One sunny afternoon, as the sun was losing its stamina
toward the end of the summer,my friend Scott and I were sitting on
the balcony at my apartment and helooked at me and he just said,
out of the blue. You know, I figure we got maybe one more

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year of this kind of life ifwe're lucky, before everything changes. I
was taken aback. I'd never reallythought about it, but he was right.
People were a couple. It wasjust a matter of time before responsibility
drew. The curtain closed on thisstage of my life, and he was
dead on two thousand and five waspretty much a repeat, but get together

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as we're getting less and less andby the end of the year I had
my girlfriend move in with me.Two thousand and six we had a baby
girl. Scott moved away with hisgirlfriend, we moved to a different part
of the state, and by theend of two thousand and seven I had
moved back home to Rochester, NewYork. But this song brings me back
to that balcony conversation with Scott atthe end of two thousand and four and

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how he saw it all happen beforeit actually did, and how it all
ended and no one could do anythingabout it, because that's just the way
it is. This has been InterpretationsPodcast. I'm Keith Greeve, your host.
Send all comments and emails to InterpretationsPod at gmail dot com. Follow

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us at Interpretpod on Twitter and Ialso find us on Facebook.