Released on the ‘Paperback Writer’ single, ‘Rain’ is considered by many Beatles fans to be their finest b-side.
Can you hear me, that when it rains and shines
It’s just a state of mind?
Can you hear me? Can you hear me?
Much like Revolver’s ‘I’m Only Sleeping’, ‘Rain’ found The Beatles exploring LSD-influenced feelings of detachment from the real world, and the belief that heightened consciousness can be found within the self.
The song is generally credited to John Lennon, although Paul McCartney claimed it was co-written.
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.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
The Beatles had discovered during the ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ sessions that slowing down the speed of their recordings revealed hidden depths. They recorded the rhythm track of ‘Rain’ at a fast tempo, then slowed the tape down so the song was a tone lower.
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 Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
Ringo Starr’s drums, locked in to McCartney’s high bass guitar notes, were a key feature of the song.
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.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Ringo Starr later said ‘Rain’ was among his favourite performances on a Beatles recording. “I feel as though that was someone else playing – I was possessed!”
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.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
The other key feature of ‘Rain’ was John Lennon’s backwards vocals, heard during the coda at the song’s end. Lennon claimed that the discovery was the result of a stoned accident, when he threaded his rough mix tape of the song into his reel-to-reel player the wrong way round.
I got home from the studio and I was 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. The fade is me actually singing backwards with the gutars going backwards. [Singing backwards] Sharethsmnowthsmeaness… [Laughter] That one was the gift of God, of Ja, actually, the god of marijuana, right? So Ja gave me that one.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Lennon’s version of events was backed up by George Harrison and studio engineer Geoff Emerick. George Martin, meanwhile, recalled the discovery as being his.
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.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
Listen to the released song’s coda reversed, to hear the backwards vocals in their correct form:
In the studio
The Beatles recorded ‘Rain’ over two sessions.
On 14 April 1966, the group taped five takes of the rhythm track for ‘Rain’, which was performed quickly and later slowed down. It featured Ringo Starr on drums and John Lennon and Paul McCartney on electric guitars.
McCartney added a bass guitar part during the first session, and Lennon overdubbed two lead vocal takes.
The Beatles finished recording ‘Rain’ on 16 April, adding overdubs including tambourine, bass and extra vocals. The backwards vocals were added during the second session, when they also carried out the mono mixes that appeared on the ‘Paperback Writer’ single.
The most underrated Beatles song. Should have been another double a-side.
Now I know where Oasis got the template
Absolutely (well, this and Slade). Not that Oasis were ever half as good as this. Lennon’s vocal on this is surely the model for Liam G’s singing.
For sure.
Paperback Writer is a pretty awesome song. Rain is a song with an interesting sound but it’s not a great melodically flowing pop song. Rain is a Bside.
I agree. Outside of Beatle fanatics (like us) it’s not a well known song at all – even to those who were around at the time. To me, it’s a much more interesting RECORDING / PERFORMANCE than it is an interesting song (as are quite a few Lennon compositions).
The song has very melodic line.
Rain is a heavily stoned sixe.
Rain should have been on a Rubber Soul/Revolver double album. One of my favorite songs, ever.
Rain is definitely a great song, and especially the vocals sound beautiful, either played backwards or reversed to play forwards.
John seemed to be a creative genius, but then we hear that others did significant amounts of the work. So I don’t know what to believe. I know that Paul was a workaholic, so he would regularly visit John’s place to write. Maybe a lot of those shared songs would have been John-only songs if Paul had not dropped by so often.
Only they knew.
Can you solve a mystery? Over the years I’ve read how great the Drumming by Ringo Starr and the Bass playing by Paul McCartney are. I’d like to know who’s playing the Guitars on Rain? Is it John and George, George and Paul or John and Paul? Those Guitars have a sound of a Tamboura and are very Psychedelic! I’ve always thought it was mainly George Harrison since he was immersing himself in Indian Classical Music.
The unusual tamboura sound of the guitar is by the effect of slowing down the tape, as explained in the article. There is some version of Rain in YouTube with the original higher speed and it sounds like normal guitars.
Love Ringos drumming oh gosh wish i could play/ also Pauls Rick bass
They both are playing and I read somewhere they were using an alternate tuning (open G) which together with the slowed down tape contributes to the unique sound.
The guitars are clearly played by John and George – John wrote the song, so of course, he was going to play the rhythm guitar and George was playing the lead guitar; besides, Paul was occupied with playing the bass and he is playing his Rickenbacker bass, so he did not play guitar on this song.
The bass is an overdub, so Paul could have played guitar – as he did with Paperback Writer.
Hey, you’re right – I was listening to the isolated guitar parts on YouTube as well as Take 5 and I could detect a third guitar part in the mix, so this implies that John, George and Paul were all on guitars with Ringo on drums for the basic track.
Late ’65 early ’66 is the period of monotonic songs for John Lennon. The word, Tomorrow never knows, Rain, even I’m only sleeping, all sounds with few chords, linear melodies, less musical material but big lyrics. Maybe drugs effect, maybe Indian influence, maybe both.
I have a feeling that John’s voice is a bit dull in the 2009 stereo mix? I don’t mean ‘controlled’ I mean almost in the background!
I think Paul was also into the same few-chords thing at about that time–Eleanor Rigby, Got to Get You Into My Life, Paperback Writer. Interesting how often the two of them moved in step with each other.
Late ’65 early ’66 is the period of monotonic songs for John Lennon. The word, Tomorrow never knows, Rain, even I’m only sleeping, Dr Robert, she said she said, all songs with few chords, linear melodies, less notes but big lyrics. Maybe drugs effect, maybe Indian influence, maybe both.
I have a feeling that John’s voice is a bit dull in the 2009 stereo mix of Rain? I don’t mean ‘controlled’ I mean almost in the background!
Rain is truly fantastic!! Ringo Starr’s drumming is perfect. Nobody could play Ludwig’s like him. Buddy Rich and Charlie Watts were probably shocked.
George playing lead guitar – 1964 Gibson SG
John playing rhythm guitar – 1965 Gretsch Nashville
Paul – 1964 Rickenbacker 4001S Bass Guitar
Ringo – Ludwig Drums
Just a minor addition: Ringo is also playing the tambourine in addition to drums.
For interest:
On Japanese version of Hey Jude (1970), there has appeared “lyrics” of John’s coda as follows:
Stare it down and nourish, what comes near you, ra…in.
I love this transliteration of the backwards vocal! It’s kind of poetic.
I think all 3 are playing guitars on this.
Wrong – John and George are on guitars while Paul is on bass and Ringo is on drums.
The bass And drums carry the song. Typical Lennon composition.
The official sheet music has Paul playing guitar with John, and George playing the bass part. For any guitarists out there, they played out of 1st position A. Not sure whether the tape slowing dropped the key to G, or they dropped the instruments down a whole step .., but the licks and chords are from playing around that A chord.
That info is incorrect – the recording has John and George on guitars and Paul on bass as well as Ringo on drums.
This webpage (http://www.beatlesebooks.com/rain) will further verify that it was the four of them on their usual instruments.
Here’s some trivia: a band from Manchester called themselves Rain after this song, but after Chris Hutton was sacked and replaced by Liam Gallagher, they were renamed Oasis, and the line-up was completed by Noel Gallagher, Liam’s brother.
In the US, this was released as a double A-side along with “Paperback Writer”.
I have not seen any comments except Bill’s about the circumstances surrounding the release of “Rain”. In the USA I seem to remember that it was released on a “single” vinyl record. Small size. Big hole for the record player. “Paperback Writer on side number one. “Rain” was not released on a LP until later.
Many people missed out on a great song at that time. You would hear it on AM car radios for awhile. Great song for the northwest which is where I am from. Those northern harmonies they are singing always remind me of bagpipes. Fantastic!
An interesting take here says there is just one guitar played by George. This is based on the new releases and especially the Coda.
What do you guys think?
Are there other Rain outtakes?
Is the final version based on take 5?
This is the line-up according to the recent deluxe Revolver release:
John: lead vocal, harmony vocal, guitar
Paul: harmony vocal, guitar, bass
George: harmony vocal
Ringo: drums, tambourine
The information is wrong – if you listen to Take 5 at the actual speed, there are two guitars, bass and drums, so logically, John and George would’ve been on guitars while Paul and Ringo were on bass and drums respectively, and Paul couldn’t do both guitar and bass simultaneously on the basic track.
Unfortunately, the SDE line-ups are not always 100% correct or accurate, due to errors or omissions.