Songs with lyrics about rain seem appropriate

Once, in the middle of a rain storm in the mid-to-late 1980s, I found myself in the backseat of my aunt's car.It was pouring, and this wasn't good.My aunt was supposed to take my brother and I to the Kings Island amusement park the next day. If this weather held up, we probably wouldn't be able to go.So — perhaps with the prompting of Aunt Marilyn — my brother and I started singing a song we'd picked up, possibly in preschool."Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day."I couldn't have been more than 7 at the time; it probably was one of my first duets.While it wouldn't be wise to vouch for the quality of the performance, the message was delivered.The rain did go away, and we rode roller coasters the next day.Honestly, after the week we've had in Northwest Ohio, it's been tempting to try singing that old song one more time.With the exception of Monday, it has rained all week. The weather has created a comprehensive rescheduling of postseason baseball and softball games.On Wednesday, driving to Findlay before what I hoped would be a trip to Hamler to cover softball, the information came across.The game was postponed.At that moment, an old song, "Blame it on the Rain," popped into my head.It's not the best song in the world (and the artists it's credited to, Milli Vanilli, are their own story altogether), but it did make me think.Few things have been used as much for song lyrics as the rain.Sometimes, the use of low pressure as a song device is literal (like Eddie Rabbit's "I Love a Rainy Night); other times, it's a metaphor for politics or even protest (Credence Clearwater Revival's "Who'll Stop the Rain").Mostly, it seems, the rain is like the color blue: used to describe a melancholy emotion, often about love.It's actually difficult to think of something used as often as the rain to convey an emotion, finish a lyric, or at the very least, sell a song.It's tempting to write that Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," is my favorite recording where precipitation is mentioned, but that's not true.Instead, that honor belongs to Bruce Hornsby and the Range's "Mandolin Rain." Hornsby is a different artist, someone who is just as comfortable in bluegrass as he is with mainstream pop.Hornsby's commercial peak was in the 1980s, when he hit it big with tunes like "Every Little Kiss" and "The Way it Is."Those songs appeared on 1986's album "The Way it Is," Hornsby and The Range's best-selling album."Mandolin Rain" was also part of that work, and it's a fascinating track, in part, because of how it was received. While it has been classified as soft rock, and topped the adult contemporary charts, it also reached No. 2 on the mainstream rock chart.If that weren't enough, it also cracked the top 40 as a country single. The song has almost no country elements in it, except, perhaps, for the mandolin itself (it should be noted that two decades later, Hornsby recorded a bluegrass version of the track with the legendary Ricky Skaggs. It's spellbinding).Songs about rain just have a way to reach all kinds of people. But after a week like this, you can understand how the rain has an emotional impact on everyone. It's hard to remain upbeat when it's dark, gray and wet outside. The only good thing, perhaps, is sitting inside and listening to music. It reminds me of another one of my favorite songs about rain, penned by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and recorded by B.J. Thomas. "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head." The lyrics express an idea worth remembering: "I'm never gonna stop the rain by complaining, because I'm free. Nothing's worrying me." As I write this, it finally looks like the clouds are parting. Perhaps, finally, the rain has gone away, to come again another day. Let's hope. Zach Baker is the sports editor for The Courier and Review Times.