Blame it on the Rain

Named for a song which doesn't appear anywhere near this mix.

1. Grateful Dead, "Box of Rain"
2. Fleetwood Mac, "Dreams"
3. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, "Tupelo"
4. Willie Nelson, "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain"
5. Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"
6.  The Beatles, "Rain"
7. The Temptations, "I Wish it Would Rain"
8. Tom Waits, "Rains on Me"
9. Guns N' Roses, "November Rain"
10. Morphine, "You Look Like Rain"
11. Neil Young, "See the Sky About to Rain"
12. Sonic Youth, "Rain on Tin"
13. Queensrÿche, "Another Rainy Night (Without You)"
14. Slayer, "Raining Blood"
15. The Pogues, "Rainy Night in Soho"
16. Prince & The Revolution, "Purple Rain"

AG told me that her sister made a rain-themed mix, starting with Bob Dylan's "Buckets of Rain." This led to a talk about Dylan's rain songs, whether they're Gonna Fall, Day Women #12 & 35 or Storms to take Shelter From, which inevitably led to this CD. One doesn't need to comb through their iTunes library to find out how many rain songs there are--"Purple Rain," "November Rain" and "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" should be a part of even the most casual fan's music education. The Grateful Dead are at their best on "Box of Rain," and The Beatles turn in their best b-side with "Rain." Elsewhere, Nick Cave's "Tupelo" and Sonic Youth's "Rain on Tin" have actually changed the way I hear precipitation, and made me like it more.

I spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to pick between Led Zeppelin's "The Rain Song," "When the Levee Breaks" and "Fool in the Rain," and ended up ditching all of them when I realized I already had three other eight-minute songs. Maybe they'll get on the next one, but with the recipient in mind I gave priority to Neil Young, The Temptations and Fleetwood Mac. Still, I couldn't resist up filling the metal quota with prime Slayer and Queensrÿche. There's really no use in putting anything next to "Raining Blood," to the point where I'm worried that even the awesome "Another Rainy Night" and the tender "Rainy Night in Soho" have been reduced to palate-cleansers.

Finally, Tom Waits has apparently written a song about everything, having now appeared on my theme mixes for rain, cars, New York, L.A., moving, trains, phones, cats, dogs and clothes. "Rains on Me" is from the original Free the West Memphis 3 album.