In a recent endowment to the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, Fantasy Records donated the rest of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s lyric journals and the long lost album entitled: “What Is This Weather Stuff?”
The album consists of many unreleased songs, as well as two of John Fogerty’s most popular ones: “Who’ll Stop the Rain” and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain.” Many have speculated that “Who’ll Stop the Rain” is about the war in Vietnam and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” is about the breakup of the band in 1972
However, those theories are, to put it as delicately as possible, garbage.
The A side alone of “What Is This Weather Stuff?” makes it evident that Fogerty truly doesn’t—or, at least, didn’t at the time– understand the concept of rain. In Fogerty’s donated lyric journal, the margins are littered with questions like “I’ve never seen rain, have you ever seen it?” and “Who starts the rain, and who’ll stop it?” and “What are we supposed to do while it’s falling down on us???”
The original chorus for “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” is as follows:
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
Cause I haven’t. What is it?
The song, fourth on what we might call “the weather album,” was eventually rewritten for Pendulum, released in 1970. It was in February of that year that Fogerty, driving through Alabama, saw rain coming down on a sunny day—a sight which surprised him so much that he swerved off the road and into the Green River, which then inspired the song “Fortunate Son.”
The first song on the A side is called “Where Does the Rain Begin?” in which Fogerty questions what rain is.
Where does the rain begin?
I look up at the sky
I wonder what’s fallin’ down
It just makes me want to cry
Things got wet, and I still don’t get
Where this rain comes from
Oh Lord, please do not think I am dumb
The next song, “What Really Is Rain Anyway?”, poses the same question, which is asked once again, with increased urgency, in the third song, “No, Seriously. What Is Rain?”
Why am I left in the dark
When it gets soggy in the park?
Good Lord, I know the pain.
Please oh please just tell me…
What is rain?
On the recording one can hear an audible “Are you kidding me?” uttered by Fogerty’s brother and guitarist, Tom. Tom and the other band members (Stu Cook and Doug Clifford) requested more of a voice in the band’s arrangements and repertoire, but Fogerty refused — apparently so he could try to figure out what weather was through song.
The record’s B side reveals that Fogerty eventually understood, if not what rain and weather are, then at least what water is, as we hear in the songs “2 Part Hydrogen, 1 Part Oxygen” and “Okay, I Get It Now”. Those are followed by two other compositions dealing with weather-related conundrums, “My Windshield Is Foggy” and the plaintive “This Weather Ruined My Leather.”
Why didn’t you bring an umbrella?
This jacket is brand new!
We could’ve just stayed inside
And seen what was on the tube
Girl, this weather ruined my leather
Yes it did
However, the final song on the album, “Are Volcanoes Weather Too?”, suggests that, in the end, Fogerty didn’t understand weather after all, and probably never did.
The sound of the album is vintage Creedence: stinging guitars, meat-and-potatoes bass and drums. However, to be clear, this album is terrible. It’s just awful. There’s very little redeemable about it.
Small wonder, then, that Fogerty’s misunderstanding of weather is what led to the break-up of CCR in October of 1972.
What Is This Weather Stuff?
Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Recording Date: 1969
Running Time: 28 min.
A Side:
1. Where Does the Rain Begin?
2. What Really Is Rain Anyway?
3. No, Seriously. What Is Rain?
4. Have You Ever Seen The Rain?
5. Who’ll Stop the Rain?
B Side:
1. 2 Part Hydrogen, 1 Part Oxygen
2. Okay, I Get It Now
3. My Windshield Is Foggy
4. This Weather Ruined My Leather
5. Are Volcanoes Weather Too
