Rain

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Rain is a 1966 song by The Beatles originally released as the B-Side of Paperback Writer. It was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon/McCartney.

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[edit] Writing

Like I'm Only Sleeping on Revolver, the lyrics of Rain dealt with LSD-influenced detachment from the world and the belief that heightened consciousness can be found within. Usually, the song is considered to be written by John Lennon, though Paul McCartney claims it was cowritten. McCartney recalls, "I don't think he brought the original idea, just when we sat down to write, he kicked it off. Songs have traditionally treated rain as a bad thing and what we got on to was that it's no bad thing. There's no greater feeling than the rain dripping down your back. The most interesting thing about it wasn't the writing, which was tilted 70-30 to John, but the recording of it." Lennon had discovered while recording Tomorrow Never Knows how slowing down a recording affects how it sounds. For this reason, the basic track for Rain was played faster and a key higher so it would sounds slower when played back. Engineer Geoff Emerick recalls, "The Beatles played the rhythm track really fast so that when the tape was played back at normal speed everything would be so much slower, changing the texture. If we'd recorded it at normal speed and then had to slow the tape down whenever we wanted to hear a playback it would have been much more work." The drums, locked in to McCartney's high bass notes, were a key feature of the song. McCartney recalls, "The drums became a giant drum kit... We got a big, ponderous, thunderous backing and then we worked on top of that as normal, so that it didn't sound like a slowed-down thing, it just had a big ominous noise to it. It was nice, I really enjoyed that one." Ringo Starr later said that Rain was among his favorite performances, saying "I feel as though that was someone else playing - I was possessed!" Starr also recalled, "I think I just played amazing. I was into the snare and the hi-hat. I think it was the first time I used this trick of starting a break by hitting the hi-hat first instead of going directly to a drum off the hi-hat." Another feature of the song was the backwards vocals heard during a coda towards the end of the song. Lennon claimed that the idea came when he accidentally threaded the tape of a rough mix backwards while on drugs. Lennon recalled, "Half the musical ideas I've had have been accidental. The first time I discovered backwards guitar was when we made Rain. This was a song I wrote about people moaning about the weather all the time. I took the tracks home to see what gimmicks I could add, because the song wasn't quite right. I got home from the studio stoned out of my mind on marijuana, and, as I usually do, I listened to what I'd recorded that day. Somehow I got it on backwards and I sat there, transfixed, with the earphones on, with a big hash joint. I ran in the next day and said, 'I know what to do with it, I know... Listen to this!' So I made them all play it backwards. I wanted to do the whole song backwards. We ended up with a bit of the voice at the end backwards and half the guitar backwards." George Harrison and Geoff Emerick support this story, though producer George Martin recalls differently. Martin remembered, "I was always playing around with tapes and I thought it might be fun to do something extra with John's voice. So I lifted a bit of his main vocal off the four-track, put it onto another spool, turned it around and then slid it back and forth until it fitted. John was out at the time but when he came back he was amazed. Again, it was backwards forever after that."

[edit] Recording

Rain was recorded in two different sessions. The song was started on April 14, 1966, on the same day that Paul McCartney recorded his bass part for Paperback Writer. The band recorded five takes of the basic track, performed fast and later slowed down. The song was completed on April 16, when tambourine, bass, and more vocals were overdubbed. It is also likely that the backwards vocals were recorded today, as they made the mono mixes that appeared on the Paperback Writer single on this date.

[edit] Recording Sessions

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[edit] Personnel

[edit] The Beatles

[edit] Production

[edit] LOVE Mix

A section of Rain is included on the 2006 Beatles remix album LOVE. Though the song is not designated it's own mix, the vocal overdubs from the chorus section were included at the end of a mix of All You Need Is Love.

[edit] Available Versions

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[edit] Source

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