Thread: rain
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Old 06.06.2004, 20:23
Anonymous
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It has been my understanding that the song is about the "hard" rain that comes from nuclear fallout. This song came out at the height of the anti-war protests of the 60s and the pervasive fear of nuclear holocaust (civil fallout shelters, backyard bomb shelters, etc.).

Consider the idea of a nuclear winter and this line from the song:

Yesterday, and days before, sun is cold and rain is hard,
I know; been that way for all my time.
’til forever, on it goes through the circle, fast and slow,
I know; it can’t stop, I wonder.

I have always thought that the novel "On the Beach" was an influence behind the song. The book came out in 1957 and the movie starring Gregory Peck came out in 1959. It was an anti-war movie that looked at the extinction of mankind from nuclear war. The story is primarily located in Australia wherre people await the coming deadly radiation after the entire northern hemisphere has already died from fallout.
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