Music Blog

It’s All About The Rain

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for  Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday post
entitled ‘World Meteorological Day’
and the theme of ‘weather conditions’.
Here’s my response to this week’s challenge.

© Freepik

In honor of World Meteorological Day, Jim at Song Lyric Sunday has challenged us this week to write about a song related to weather conditions such as cyclones, floods, hurricanes, rainfall, storms, tornadoes, typhoons, and/or winds.

Creedence Clearwater Revival, commonly called CCR, was an American band from California. The group consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty, his brother, rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook, and drummer Doug Clifford. Since forming 1959, they were first know as the Blue Velvets and later as the Golliwogs, before settling on Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1967. CCR was the first major act to be signed to perform at Woodstock in 1969. They were inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame in 1993.

CCR disbanded acrimoniously in late 1972 after four years of chart-topping success. Tom had quit the band the previous year, and John was at odds with the remaining members over matters of business and artistic control, all of which resulted in lawsuits among the former bandmates. Though the band has never publicly reunited, John Fogerty continues to perform Creedence Clearwater Revival songs as part of his solo act, while Stu Cook and Doug Clifford performed as Creedence Clearwater Revisited from 1995 to 2020. Sadly, Tom Fogerty died in 1990. CCR’s music remains extremely popular and is a staple on U.S. classic rock radio. 

I’m featuring two CCR songs this week. John Fogerty has said in interviews and prior to playing the song in concert that “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” concerns tensions within Creedence Clearwater Revival itself and the imminent departure of his brother Tom from the band. “That song is really about the impending breakup of Creedence. The imagery is, you can have a bright, beautiful, sunny day, and it can be raining at the same time,” Fogerty said in an interview in 1993.

This is “Have You Ever Seen The Rain”  by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

LYRICS

Someone told me long ago
There’s a calm before the storm
I know
And it’s been comin’ for some time
When it’s over, so they say
It’ll rain a sunny day
I know shinin’ down like water

I want to know
Have you ever seen the rain?
I want to know
Have you ever seen the rain
Comin’ down on a sunny day?

Yesterday and days before
Sun is cold and rain is hard
I know
Been that way for all my time
Till forever on it goes
Thru the circle, fast and slow
I know and it can’t stop, I wonder

I want to know
Have you ever seen the rain?
I want to know
Have you ever seen the rain
Comin’ down on a sunny day?

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: John Cameron Fogerty
Have You Ever Seen The Rain lyrics © Jondora Music, Shanty Kelyn Music, Concord Copyrights

Up next is“Who’ll Stop the Rain”, originally recorded by Creedence for their 1970 album Cosmo’s Factory. It was one of the singles from the album to reach the top five on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and the first, along with “Lookin’ Out My Back Door” to reach the #2 spot on the American charts.

The resigned but somewhat angry feeling of the song has many saying “Who’ll Stop the Rain” is a thinly veiled protest against the Vietnam war. The song breaks into three verses with a historical, recent past, and present tense approach. It’s been said that, lyrically, “Who’ll Stop the Rain” alludes to a sense of unending malaise, pondered by “good men through the ages”, Five Year Plans and New Deals “wrapped in golden chains“, and the Woodstock generation. The final verse is indeed about the band’s experience at Woodstock in August 1969, with its references to pouring rain, music and large crowds trying to keep warm. John Fogerty wrote “Who’ll Stop the Rain”in 1970 after CCR’s performance at Woodstock.

This is “Who’ll Stop The Rain” by Creedence Clearwater Revival

LYRICS

Long as I remember the rain been comin’ down
Clouds of mystery pourin’ confusion on the ground
Good men through the ages tryin’ to find the sun
And I wonder, still I wonder, who’ll stop the rain?

I went down Virginia, seekin’ shelter from the storm
Caught up in the fable, I watched the tower grow
Five Year Plans and New Deals, wrapped in golden chains
And I wonder, still I wonder, who’ll stop the rain?

Heard the singers playin’, how we cheered for more
The crowd had rushed together, tryin’ to keep warm
Still the rain kept pourin’, fallin’ on my ears
And I wonder, still I wonder, who’ll stop the rain?

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: John Cameron Fogerty
Who’ll Stop the Rain lyrics © Jondora Music, Shanty Kelyn Music, Concord Copyrights

World Meteorological Day

Big thanks to Jim Adams for hosting another great Song Lyric Sunday this week and every week. Be sure to follow the link and check out Jim’s site.

Thanks for stopping by and listening to some tunes.

That’s all she wrote. See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2025

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for Nancy’s Notes 🖊️🎶, The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk, The Rhythm Section, et al., and are not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.

51 thoughts on “It’s All About The Rain”

    1. The 60s through early 80s did it for me, Barbara. I am sinfully out of touch with anything newer than that! I love Big Band & Swing, Blues, the great old standards but I also love heavy metal, classical, country and opera. There’s some good new music but a lot I think is pretty bleak. And then there’s Weird Al! LOL!

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  8. Great picks, Nancy. “Have You Ever Seen the Seen” and “Who’ll Stop the Rain” are among my all-time favorite CCR picks.

    My six-year-older sister had the 45 of “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” and “Hey Tonight” as a teenager. I must have been around 8 years when I first heard these two songs. I loved them right away.

    John Fogerty does a wonderful of keeping CCR’s music alive. I’ve seen him twice, most recently last June, and he still has it. I love this man! 🙂

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  12. A wonderful homage to my favorite band Nancy. They did love singing about the rain and the moon!! If you haven’t seen it, there is a great Netflix documentary on there first cocert in London at the Royal Albert Hall. it’s really good 💕☺️

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  15. Two lovely song selections today, Nancy that both fit in perfectly with the theme. Noah was 500 years old before God said anything to him about a flood and he never wondered who will stop the rain, but when it finally ended, there was a rainbow.

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    1. Love CCR and it was a no brainer for me; it seems like many of their songs are deep into the elements. I thought I wanted to go to Woodstock; in hindsight I’m glad I didn’t. I never was one to find comfort in a chilly, muddy tent in a crowd of 1/2 million people.

      Thanks so much, Willow.

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  18. Although I knew both of these songs well, it was because I am old, and not because I was really into CCR. They are like a staple item in my musical history, that seeped into my consciousness when I wasn’t paying attention. Of course, I was only like 8 in their heyday so…… Both very solid choices though, Nancy.

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  21. Great post Nancy! For such a short window as they had…they really produced more than many produce in twice the years. Fogerty is one of my favorite songwriters.

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