All I Can Say …
Blind Melon’s “No Rain” will forever be one of my summer songs.
Riff Summer Challenge
Blind Melon’s “No Rain” will forever be one of my summer songs.
Here we are at the mid-point of the summer of 2021. At least to me, the world still teeters on the balance for a host of reasons; and this new Coronavirus “Delta” variant making its first (and hopefully only) first world tour is not helping matters any.
[Incidentally, am I the only one who pictures Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin when I see or hear the word “Delta”?]
Anyway, almost 30 years ago, Blind Melon, a mash-up band of misfits, signed a big old record deal with Capitol Records. After a failed recording session in Los Angeles, the band decamped for Durham, North Carolina, to rehearse with producer Rick Parashar (then coming off Pearl Jam’s Ten). During those rehearsals, the band wrote songs that captured a sound that, at least to me, had some semblance of the essence of Southern chill.
The band then followed Parashar to the grunge music mecca, Seattle, to record the songs. The album they turned in to Capitol, the self-titled Blind Melon, is literally the furthest thing from grunge.
Ignoring the zeitgeist, Capitol Records released the self-titled Blind Melon record in the fall of 1992 …to a giant collective critical and commercial shrug.
I was working at the college radio station in the early spring of 1993, and I noticed two copies of the CD in the throw-away bin (we were much too cool to play anything this “corporate”).
I took them both—one for me and one for my then-girlfriend.
It was a sunny and warm April late afternoon when I popped the CD in my player at home. As I listened, it sounded like nothing else at the time. It was new, yet familiar and definitely unlike anything else I was listening to.
I was surprisingly charmed but the 1970s vibe I heard on Blind Melon.
As I listened to it, “No Rain” was not yet a single, but it was clear the back-to-back punch of “Change” and “No Rain” was the stand-out. Not necessarily my favorites off the record, but they’re truly great songs.
The powers that bee (deliberate) would eventually release “No Rain” as a single in June of 1993. And the rest, as they say, is history.
And, yes, in case you’re wondering, this is the song often referred to as “the bee girl video.”
The title alone speaks directly to an idyllic summer, right? Days filled with “No Rain,” but the song itself is not so simple. There is a lot more depth than meets the ear. It’s not just an earworm; the song toys with your ears, your eyes (if you’re familiar with the video), your head, and your heart.
While I had stopped smoking weed by 1993, the music put me in a stoner happy state. If you’ve smoked weed, you know this vibe. It’s mid-afternoon on a warm, not too hot, summer day and you’ve backed your Camaro, Nova, Vista Cruiser, or whatever, to a public park somewhere. You and your tribe rip some bong hits, open up the back and blast tunes and toss a frisbee around (works in a city setting too, just need a boombox). Musically, “No Rain” (and really the whole album) has got that sunny, laid-back, everything is perfect, chill vibe to it. It’s f’ing brilliant.
The video has the band dancing around a prairie in the sun while a little bee girl wanders around Los Angeles searching for her tribe. And that’s both the beauty and the genius of the video. The video highlights that, at the end of the day, don’t we all just want the same two things?
Our tribe.
Reliable emergency contact for our phone.
However, lyrically, “No Rain” is dark.
It will surprise no one who knows me; it’s this darkness that initially resonated with me. Upon first listen, it’s easy, it’s great, peaceful …and then as you hear the song, it’s like, “Wait a minute ...” The juxtaposition of a chill sound with intense lyrics can’t help but make you feel something.
I’ll ask you to read the lyrics and try, if you can, not to hear the guitars:
All I can say is that my life is pretty plain
I like watching the puddles gather rain
And all I can do
Is just pour some tea for two
And speak my point of view
But it’s not sane
It’s not sane
I just want someone to say to me
Oh, oh, oh, oh
I’ll always be there when you wake, yeah, yeah
You know I’d like to keep my cheeks dry today, hey
So stay with me and I’ll have it made (I’ll have it made)
And I don’t understand why I sleep all-day
And I start to complain that there’s no rain
And all I can do is read a book to stay awake
And it rips my life away, but it’s a great escape
That’s some dark stuff, and I don’t feel people have ever really given the song the consideration it’s deserving of. Frankly, I feel that way about the band as a whole, but that’s a totally different discussion.
For me, there is comfort in this song. There is warmth. For as dark as the lyrics may read, the music sublimely diminishes that. To the point where you might not recognize that there are some shout-outs for loneliness and depression:
I just want someone to say to me
Oh, oh, oh, oh
I’ll always be there when you wake, yeah, yeah
You know I’d like to keep my cheeks dry today
And I don’t understand why I sleep all-day
I’ve always found pleasure in what I call “Sad Bastard Music.”
Sad Bastard Music
A Playlist for the Broken Heartedmedium.com
But “No Rain” is something different for me. It’s not just dark or sad. It’s about living with and in that darkness and sadness. It’s about making peace with those two things. Listening to “No Rain” can make you realize you’re not alone and that you can still be …well, maybe not happy, but at least content.
I know summer is supposed to be a happy time. It’s filled with sun-soaked smiles, fun, and of course, cold beverages (big-ups to G. Love — someone should do “Cold Beverages” for this challenge.) But it’s not that way for everyone, and with that said, it doesn’t mean that those folks don’t feel the feels of summer …they just feel it differently.
“No Rain” isn’t a summer song in the traditional sense.
The sound and vibe of “No Rain” screams summer, but the lyrics remind me that life is more than just “tasty waves and cool buds” (who wants to name the movie quote?) I can play the song in the dead of winter, and it puts sunshine in my ears and in my heart and makes me smile.
That’s the beauty of the song for me; regardless of season, it puts that sunshine in me …and often when I need it most and despite its dark lyrics.
“No Rain” serves to remind me that all of us, in our own little way, are looking for some sunshine. For our band in the prairie, for our tribe or some semblance of a tribe. We know it’s not going to be sunny all the time, but we know this song will always be sunny.
So “No Rain” isn’t just a summer song for me because of the way it sounds; it’s a summer song because it serves to remind those of us in our bee suits to remember to dance in the sun from time to time — regardless of the season.