The Beatles "Rain" appreciation thread *

Oasis based their entire career on Rain and She Said She Said. I'm Only Sleeping too.

 

One of the coolest songs ever and yet it only found a B-side! It marks the foray of the Fabs into more edgier and psychedelic sounds over the next 12-18 months. Probably in the minority, but I don't like the stereo mix of this song especially when listening through headphones. The stereo mix of Paperback Writer is also not the best but I prefer the centered upfront vocals.

How is the 5.1 mix of Rain on the Anthology DVD?

 

They were at the top of their game when Rain and Paperback Writer came out. I still remember the excitement of waiting to see what they would come up with next.

 

I'm a little late to this discussion but this is my favorite Beatles song, by a mile. I sometimes say my favorite Beatles song is "The Abbey Road Medley" but since that's truly song fragments, I must say "Rain".

Andy Partridge wrote a splendid mini-essay regarding "Rain" last year in either MOJO or NME when they did the 25 Best Beatles songs around the 9.9.09 release date.

The crux of his point was that it was probably the overall strongest song because it was as far as they could push the boundaries and still play it on stage without any accompanying musicians. You could do the backwards loops with scat vocals, I guess. It is about as avant-guard as the Beatles got with 2 guitars, a bass and a drum kit though, for sure.

A Masterpiece.

 

My comps always put the single between the sides of Revolver, giving the great back-to-back (and shoulda-been single) of "Rain" and "Good Day Sunshine"...

 

It is a masterpiece, but other than the backwards vocal tag, there isn't much avante-garde-ness to it. It's a very easy song to play on guitar and the overall crunchy jangle owes a lot to the Byrds. The bass and drums are the real hook here; the vocals aren't anything new, harmony-wise.

 

Here's the entire excerpt from the essay by Andy Partridge: