Those Who Live in Grass Houses

Rain

Rain

The old man relaxed back into the armchair.

“Credence Clearwater Revival, hey? You know, that song of theirs, Have You Ever Seen the Rain? represented a turning point in history. Same as Jimmy Cliff’s I Can See Clearly Now, released about the same time, in the early seventies. They both introduced a rethink on something that had been a driving force in the sixties.”

He gazed into the distance before continuing. “It was Bob Dylan who started it, I believe. Like he started so many things in those days. He brought it into sharp focus with his song, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall. It was about nuclear war, of course. It hadn’t been an overpowering background to everything in the fifties because we didn’t know enough about it. But in the sixties we knew alright. Had plenty of detail on what it would be like.

“And Bob wasn’t far from being right. There was the Cuban missile crisis, of course, and then it became a constant source of worry on everyone’s mind. Drove a lot of things back then, the anti-war movement, Vietnam, that sort of thing. Plenty of songs were about it.

“Like a dark cloud hovering on the horizon, it was. And we were just kids, frolicking in the sunlight with our music and drugs, sex and freedom, trying to forget. A bright surrealist coat of many colours with an ominous lining of darkness. I don’t think the young today can understand what it was like to live under the shadow of that damn bomb.

“Anyway, it went on like that for years. All the way to the beginning of the seventies. And then things began to change. First of all, here comes Jimmy Cliff singing that he can see clearly now. The rain has gone, he told us. D’you know, I don’t think he knew what that meant to us, that he was announcing that the nuclear cloud had gone. But the unconscious mind knows how to get the message out and we heard it. Some of us looked around and realised that he was right. The immediate danger had passed and depression was lifted.

“Then CCR chimes in, asking whether we’d ever seen the rain on a sunny day? Well, I had, for one - we called it a monkey’s wedding in my part of the woods - but we understood the hidden meaning. The message was clear: the weather’s too good for the rain of bombs to start now.

“And they turned out to be right, at least for a time. We were allowed to be happy again. It played hell with the music, all that disco and stuff, but at least we weren’t so damn serious all the time. I just gave up listening for the decade, the music was so frothy and pink. Had better things to do at the time anyway.

“Yes, I know, people are beginning to think about nuclear war again, now. But I think it’ll be okay as long as there’s a few of us old bastards still around. We know what it’s like, going around with that hanging on your shoulders all the time. We’ll hold you back from that as long as we can. Just heed us when we tell you, that’s all I ask.”

He fell silent then. Seemingly only seconds later, the sound of snoring tore at the air.


House Martell

Word count: 562
The North Remembers, Musically Challenged Prompt 4
Prompt: Have You Ever Seen The Rain - Credence Clearwater Revival.