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1.40pm
22 December 2013
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There have been references made by many, including The Beatles themselves I think, to a moment in The Beatles’ Story where all of a sudden everything went from Black & White to Colour much like it does during the classic ‘Wizard of Oz’ film. While everyone no doubt has their own take on when exactly that moment occurs, for me the colours start splashing the very moment Ringo hits hard & furious at the outset of this one. This is where the acid kicks in full bloom, with all four performing at the height of their powers, whether it’s George & John’s driving guitars or Paul’s inventive pulsating bass and Ringo’s thunderous drumming, all four shine very brightly on this what very well may be the single Greatest B-Side of All-Time (I don’t consider ‘Strawberry Fields Forever ‘ to be a “B-Side”). The Harmonies are up there with some of their finest to nicely compliment the stellar playing by the group. Yes, it’s not only the moment in The Beatles’ Story where everything turns to colour in my opinion, but the precise moment of the 1960’s where Black & White became awashed in Glorious Technicolour, outstanding…:-)
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Mr. Kite, natureaker1.56pm
Reviewers
14 April 2010
Offline What a glorious tribute to my favorite Beatles song. Well written, Billy.
To the fountain of perpetual mirth, let it roll for all its worth. And all the children boogie.
7.29pm
22 December 2013
Offline Ringo & Paul’s playing usually gets most of the attention (and perhaps rightfully so) while pondering this amazing track, but John & George’s hypnotic guitars don’t get enough credit for nailing the feel here. It’s somewhat reminiscent of John & George’s dual guitar attack on ‘I Feel Fine ‘, but with that particular track, the “dual” borders on a “duel” between the two, as though they’re at odds with one another subconsciously. On ‘Rain ‘, however, Lennon/Harrison’s double dose locks into a most harmonious ambience that most certainly inspired Ringo & Paul to lose it like they do on this track. John & George became forever in tuned to each other’s higher beings (whether they liked it or not!) after their Dentist Experience together, and Ringo & Paul just had to know and the result is the most Magnificent Rainfall on Earth to date, really, how do you top ‘Rain ‘?! The Answer? You pull out a ‘Revolver ‘ and re-invent the, then revolving, wheel of Popular Music. NO ONE could dismiss them as “Jovial Moptops” after hearing ‘Rain ‘, now you had to ask yourself not only just who these guys are, but what?!…:-)
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Shamrock Womlbs, Von Bontee5.15am
1 December 2009
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Great posts there @Billy Rhythm
Reviving this thread because my Mom just heard the song for the FIRST time (her local Top 40 station didn’t play b-sides when she was a teenager) and liked it! (To my surprise – I figured it’d be too “heavy metal” for her tastes.)
GEORGE: In fact, The Detroit Sound. JOHN: In fact, yes. GEORGE: In fact, yeah. Tamla-Motown artists are our favorites. The Miracles. JOHN: We like Marvin Gaye. GEORGE: The Impressions PAUL & GEORGE: Mary Wells. GEORGE: The Exciters. RINGO: Chuck Jackson. JOHN: To name but eighty.
5.50am
11 November 2010
Offline vonbontee said
Great posts there @Billy Rhythm
Reviving this thread because my Mom just heard the song for the FIRST time (her local Top 40 station didn’t play b-sides when she was a teenager) and liked it! (To my surprise – I figured it’d be too “heavy metal” for her tastes.)
That reminds me of one time when I was watching the Anthology documentary as a kid. My parents were out of town for some reason I don’t remember and my grandma was looking after me and my younger sister. It got to the segment where they showed the Rain promo video and my grandma said “I’ve never heard that song before.”
Also, at one segment where the Beatles played Till There Was You , my grandma sung along and at the end of the song, she said “I didn’t know that the Beatles did a version of that song.”
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4.48pm
22 November 2014
Offline Even though it’s a great song I don’t really agree with this conventional wisdom among Beatles fan that Rain is the Beatles’ finest b-side. I always felt that I Am The Walrus was the superior song and one of John’s best. But they’re both amazing songs that were wasted as a b-side. 
6.45pm
23 January 2015
Offline I much like this song and the music video is absolutely cute. I like it!
1.00pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Ringo on his drumming on ‘Rain ‘ from an interview with ‘Rock Cellar Magazine‘
Rock Cellar Magazine: Speaking of drumming, you’ve always cited “Rain ” as a career highlight on the skins.
Ringo Starr : It’s not my best playing; it’s just different. I played Rain and I’ve never played like it since or before it. It’s very busy for me. (sings “When the rain comes..” and imitates drum fills) I always tend to take the fill half-time whereas with that song it was full-on (smacks his hands) fast! If anyone ask me about my strangest drumming it’s Rain . I don’t think it’s the best I ever played and I don’t think it’s the most inventive I’ve ever played but it’s certainly different than 99% of everything else I’ve played.
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5.20pm
28 March 2014
Offline Billy Rhythm said
There have been references made by many, including The Beatles themselves I think, to a moment in The Beatles’ Story where all of a sudden everything went from Black & White to Colour much like it does during the classic ‘Wizard of Oz’ film. While everyone no doubt has their own take on when exactly that moment occurs, for me the colours start splashing the very moment Ringo hits hard & furious at the outset of this one. The Harmonies are up there with some of their finest to nicely compliment the stellar playing by the group. Yes, it’s not only the moment in The Beatles’ Story where everything turns to colour in my opinion, but the precise moment of the 1960’s where Black & White became awashed in Glorious Technicolour, outstanding…:-)
I absolutely love this song & video, and your description BR, but for me the Movie Help ! is definitely when colour came to my mind first. Like you said, everyone will have their own take on it.
Matter of fact that first uber rare 1963 colour video of She Loves You on stage comes to mind too, but I think it was released much later out of the vaults.
BEATLES Music gives me Eargasms!
6.37pm
1 December 2009
Offline Bongo said
I absolutely love this song & video, and your description BR, but for me the Movie Help ! is definitely when colour came to my mind first. Like you said, everyone will have their own take on it.
Well, you’re obviously comparing apples and oranges, since records can’t be in colour the way films are! But that colour photography in “Help !” is something special, no question. And famous film director Steven Soderbergh agrees with you: http://www.metro.us/entertainm…..nLBsjj4XQ/ (Relevant quote has to do with “…the birth of modern colour cinematography”)
…but back on topic, I can understand the use of colour to describe the impact of the song, since it always sounded vaguely “green” to my ears. And that feeling was reinforced when I first saw the official “Rain ” promo video a few years ago, with its abundant green plantlife on display.
GEORGE: In fact, The Detroit Sound. JOHN: In fact, yes. GEORGE: In fact, yeah. Tamla-Motown artists are our favorites. The Miracles. JOHN: We like Marvin Gaye. GEORGE: The Impressions PAUL & GEORGE: Mary Wells. GEORGE: The Exciters. RINGO: Chuck Jackson. JOHN: To name but eighty.
7.41pm
8 January 2015
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Yes I’m fairly sure “green” was much on their minds at the Rain stage 
Rock Cellar Magazine: Speaking of drumming, you’ve always cited “Rain ” as a career highlight on the skins.
Ringo Starr : It’s not my best playing; it’s just different. I played Rain and I’ve never played like it since or before it. It’s very busy for me. (sings “When the rain comes..” and imitates drum fills) I always tend to take the fill half-time whereas with that song it was full-on (smacks his hands) fast! If anyone ask me about my strangest drumming it’s Rain . I don’t think it’s the best I ever played and I don’t think it’s the most inventive I’ve ever played but it’s certainly different than 99% of everything else I’ve played.
Just to shamelessly plug my Ringo effortpost, it is interesting how Ringo plays those fills straight and not on the half-beat like he did later. But I contend it is the beginning of his air-fill style, just that he was still thinking in terms of his surfer-fill style at the time so it’s an odd mixture of both.
I think the reason people think of it as a real demarcation is also that they went over to riff-based songs in songwriting terms for that single and beyond to Revolver itself. And Paul literally had to play that on the Rickenbacker, the Hofner would have been horribly out of tune, so a few things came together there.
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1.07am
28 March 2014
Offline vonbontee said
Bongo said
I absolutely love this song & video, and your description BR, but for me the Movie Help ! is definitely when colour came to my mind first. Like you said, everyone will have their own take on it.Well, you’re obviously comparing apples and oranges, since records can’t be in colour the way films are! But that colour photography in “Help !” is something special, no question.
I was thinking more of the videos from Help !. They were the first Beatles videos to come out in colour, 1 year before “Rain & Paperback Writer “.
But ya as far as green goes, they were certainly lush green videos. 
BEATLES Music gives me Eargasms!
3.28pm
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline @Matt Busby In answer to your question in another thread about the gates seen in the Rain video, the video (along with the Paperback Writer video) was shot in the grounds of Chiswick House in London on 20 May 1966.
The gates that can be seen
are the gates into the grounds of Chiswick House.
Joe’s article on the video shoot can be found here.
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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
3.41pm
8 February 2014
Offline Necko said
Also, at one segment where the Beatles played Till There Was You , my grandma sung along and at the end of the song, she said “I didn’t know that the Beatles did a version of that song.”
I happened to be singing that tune to myself (having just heard it in the car) as I sat down to a card game with my mom and others, and mom asked me “where did you ever get that song in your head?” The answer surprised her.
2.03pm
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Moderators
1 May 2011
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2.05pm
22 December 2013
Offline meanmistermustard said
The latest in previosuly unseen promo footage, this time ‘Rain ‘.God knows where this is coming from and how its getting out but here’s hoping there is far more to come.
While the “how” is still very much a Mystery, the “where” appears to be from the “Cutting Room Floor” of where the recent DVD Package that was just announced was being compiled…:-)
4.38pm
1 January 2017
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10.24pm
Reviewers
29 August 2013
Offline Super track – holds up so well. Was listening to it yesterday and it could have been newly recorded.
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11.44pm
26 January 2017
Offline Its such an underrated riff at the beginning. I love that video as well. Accidental psychedelia it seems to me.
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5.31am
24 March 2014
Offline I particularly like the way John sings here. That kind of laid back, lazy feel he adopts. Similar to “I’m Only Sleeping “. A style that Liam Gallagher imitated for ever later on.
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