Video hit Creedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Who'll Stop The Rain (1969)

Who'll Stop the Rain is a song written by John Fogerty and originally recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival for their 1970 album Cosmo's Factory. Backed with "Travelin' Band", it was one of three double sided singles from that album to reach the top five on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and the first of two to reach the #2 spot on the American charts, alongside "Lookin' Out My Back Door". In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked it #188 on its "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.

Lyrically, "Who'll Stop the Rain" breaks into three verses, with a historical, recent past, and present tense approach. All three verses allude 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 malaise is not defined, but appears to allude to a sense, that man's problems have to be dealt with by those who wish to fix them, and no ancient philosophers, money promising government, nor Flower Power generation can merely push them off by thought, money nor communal love. The song's universal topical appeal made it unusual in the time of its release and gives it a quality, that helps it maintain its popularity 40 years later.

Musically, in contrast to the 1950s-Rock inspired "Travelin' Band", "Who'll Stop the Rain" has more of an acoustic, folk-rock feel to it. Like many folk-rock songs, it starts off with a ringing acoustic guitar riff, though the backing throughout has more of a roots rock sound than that heard on more standard folk-rock recordings.[1] Interpreting the song in its time period (1970), and the resigned but somewhat angry feeling of the song, many see "Who'll Stop the Rain" as a thinly veiled protest against the Vietnam War, with the final verse lyrics and its references to music, large crowds, rain, and crowds trying to keep warm, being about the band's experience at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969. There is also a line during the song's second verse about "five-year plans and new deals wrapped in golden chains" that may indicate a general cynicism altogether about politicians. For his part, when asked by Rolling Stone about the meaning of the song's lyrics, John Fogerty was quoted as saying,

“Certainly, I was talking about Washington, when I wrote the song, but I remember bringing the master version of the song home and playing it. My son Josh was four years old at the time, and after he heard it, he said, 'Daddy stop the rain'. And my wife and I looked at each other and said, 'Well, not quite'." ”

In 2007 during a concert in Shelburn, Vermont, he said the following about the song:

“Well this next song has a bit of a fable surrounding it. A lot of folks seem to think I sang this song at Woodstock way back then. No. I was at Woodstock 1969… I think. It was a nice event. I’m a California kid. I went up there and saw a whole bunch of really nice young people. Hairy. Colorful. It started to rain, and got really muddy, and then (yelling) half a million people took their clothes off!!! (Normal voice again) Boomer generation making its presence known I guess. Anyway, then I went home and wrote this song. ”

The half-minute long fadeout of the song, which reprises the repeating guitar pattern from the intro, seems to reinforce the song's main theme of the 'rain' continuing to go on, interminably.

Film

In 1978, the song was used in the film Who'll Stop the Rain. The movie starred Nick Nolte as a Vietnam veteran. It was originally going to be called Dog Soldiers after the source novel, but when the producers got the rights to use the song, they changed the title to it.

The song also appeared in the 1989 film Powwow Highway. Both the original song and a softer, slower cover version sung by Courtney Jaye are included in the soundtrack of December Boys.

A clip of the song appears in the film The War.

The song was also included in the movie "Philadelphia."

The 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.