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You are here: Home / Music / Song of the week

Song of the week

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From JPK at Can’t Explain:

Jimi Hendrix Experience, “Rainy Day, Dream Away” (1968)
I wanted to talk about how directly this traces back to Jimi Hendrix’s origins in the Pacific Northwest and the various indoors activities that get us through the long rainy winters. Hendrix grew up in Seattle, leaving for military service when he was still a teen. But then a funny thing happened this week—a dump of snow on our collective heads comparable to what I used to take in stride in Minnesota, but the kind of thing that absolutely paralyzes us around here. It’s not that many inches but I saw a local news segment where a man-on-the-street referred to it as “snowmageddon” (I thought it was “snowpocalypse”?). Anyway, this tune works for a winter wonderland too—as much as I dislike the inconvenience, I have to admit snow looks better out the window. Stay warm, everyone!

Reader Interactions

43Comments

  1. 1.

    MikeJ

    Snow wasn’t the problem, ice on the trees that were then on the power lines were the problem. Mine was out for 24 hours.

  2. 2.

    trollhattan

    Oh yes, growing up in in rainy Seattle, listening to Jimi sing about being cooped up inside in Rainy Seattle, really helped. “Lay back and groove!”

    Tracked that side to vinyl exhaustion.

  4. 4.

    lamh35

    Aw damn DougJ, I thought sure you’d do a little Etta today.

    I’ve said before, that my all time favorite is “At Last” whch will be played at my wedding if I ever get married “at last”…lol. But this one has a hold on my ears right now!

    Something’s Got A Hold On Me

    Let me tell ya the difference between hearing Etta James sing her songs and hearing Beyonce’ sing them. Beyonce can sing granted, but she’s pretty much lived a charmed life. Etta James LIVED the songs that she sang. Etta’s singing in in the same vein as Mary J Blige. You feel the pain/happiness/love/whatever that Etta sings and Mary J is the same.

    Anyway, RIP Etta James.

  5. 5.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The problem with rain in Seattle (indeed, all of Puget Sound) is that, for the most part, you don’t get “gully washers”, you get endless drizzle.

    November is always good for winter storms with lots of hard rain, and typically rivers like the Stiligamish, Snohomish, Skykomish, etc leave their banks.

    Then there was the infamous storm that sank the Lacey V. Murrow floating bridge.

    Then there are summers in Seattle. Having grown up in the south end of the Willamette Valley, I was quite used to 90 degree heat (it’s dry, after all). If it hits 90F in Seattle, people start passing out from heat exhaustion. Or at least claim to be…most have never experienced July and August in Georgia to know what REAL heat exhaustion is…

  6. 6.

    Raven

    I was stationed at Ft Lewis Washington in the summer of 68 between tours of Korea and the Nam. We’d take the bus to Seattle and hang on the “Ave” at UW and on hippie hill. They’d measure our hair and if it was more than 1/2 inch long we couldn’t get a pass so we really stood out among the flower kids. Fortunately there was Cowboy Bob, a Navy Vet and junkie, who would sell us herb and acid despite our looks. I didn’t get to see Jimi but did see Buddy Miles and the Electric Flag at the Eagles Auditorium. I also hitched up to the Sky River Rock Festival and Lighter Than Air Fair in Sultan over Labor Day. That whole summer was amazing, there were flyers all over warning people not to go to Chicago because it was a set up. We watched from the barracks as we spent those last 2 weeks saddling up to go. Hell of a time it was.

  7. 7.

    jl

    I have no personal knowledge of Washington state during bad weather. Swear upon all holy books, every time I’ve visited there, the weather has been just perfect. Perfect temp, perfect breeze, perfect picture perfect fluffy clouds. Sunshine just bright and warm enough, shade just cool enough, light rain showers arriving at perfect intervals for optimal variety and refreshment.

    However, my Rocky Mt relatives who lived there for almost a decade would wonder why, in place where (they claimed, as others do) it rained so much, no one there ever learns how to drive in the rain.

    And since doesn’t snow enough for anyone to make special arrangements, or drivers and peds to learn to get used to it, snow and ice was a complete disaster.

    But, I am blessed, never had to deal with that when I visited.

  9. 9.

    MikeJ

    @jl: As a former New Englander I have no problem driving in the snow. However, being on the same roads with Seattle drivers is terrifying. I’ve long said the solution to Seattle drivers is require two weeks in Boston and only allow the survivors to return. There would be no more of this “after you”, “no after you” bullshit that makes it take a half hour to negotiate a four way stop.

  12. 12.

    Benjamin Franklin

    @Raven:

    My haircut wasn’t ‘high and tight’, but was noticeably shorter which didn’t seem to matter at Fillmore West in 68 when White Lightning flowed like Red Mountain

    Rip Torn stole the show when he appeared on stage with a Nixon mask that had a large nose shaped like a phallus and a strap-on missile in his crotch climaxing with a red-necked heckler Rip invited onto the stage wherein a crowd pleasing fistfight broke out. I don’t even remember who the acts where. It didn’t matter after that.

  14. 14.

    Raven

    @Benjamin Franklin:

    My home boy from San Fran used to sing

    Drinkin that Red Mountain Wine

    Drinkin that Red Mountain Wine

    Drinkin All Day and Most the night

    Drinkin All Day and Most the night

    Drinkin All Day and Most the night

    Drinkin that Red Mountain

    Drinkin that Red Mountain
    Drinkin that Red Mountain Wine

    He would then regale us with tales of drinkin Silver Satin and Koolaid. Claimed you could stay drunk for 3 days just by drinkin water behind it.

    Took me 35 years to find him on the Big Island where he lives on SF Firefighter disability.

  17. 17.

    jl

    @MikeJ: Boston? Boston? You talking about Boston? I done seen things, trafficwise, in Boston, lemme tell you. Bad things. And I never spent long there.

  20. 20.

    zzyzx

    @MikeJ: I see it as the flip. Every year New Englanders move here, laugh at our inability to drive in the snow (well every other year really since we don’t get a storm every year), start to go up Queen Anne or Capitol Hill because it’s just a couple of inches and in Boston that would be a joke, and the rest of us go out with our cameras and shoot funny videos of them crashing into other cars.

    Seattle’s snow is icier than east coast snow – shoveling 18 inches in Worcester last December was easier than getting rid of the 2 we got in the build up to the storm – and the city is much much hillier. Factor in side streets that are narrow, have cars parked on both sides and 15% slopes and it’s a different world. Seeing how in the 17 years I’ve lived here, we’ve had one storm that wasn’t gone a few days later, the city has just decided to close for a few days, play like a bunch of kids, and wait for it to melt. It’s a much more fun way to deal with it.

  21. 21.

    MikeJ

    @jl: That’s what I love about Boston driving. I once went three blocks in reverse the wrong way down a one way street and nobody seemed to think a thing of it. I wish Seattlites would pick up a little of that gumption.

  22. 22.

    Benjamin Franklin

    @Raven:

    Saw Santana for the first time at Hollywood Bowl in ’69. Stole the fucking show.
    Opened for Janis Joplin (Cozmic Blues launch).

  23. 23.

    Raven

    @Benjamin Franklin: Yea, I had never heard of him. We scored, dropped, went to the beach for a couple of hours and went to the show. I’ll never ever forget it, Jingo first and foremost. Went to see him again last summer and it was the first time since that day. Still stunning. I saw Janis at Thanksgiving in Florida with the Full Tilt BB and the only thing that saved it was that she did a song with Johnny Winter.

  29. 29.

    Raven

    @Benjamin Franklin: Ack! Your killin me! How bout Glen Schwartz and PG&E. I saw them open for Beck with Rod Stewart and Nicky Hopkins and this guy Schwartz blew Jeff Beck away. Soon thereafter he go God and moved to Cleveland where he plays in a bar and yells at women!
    Schwartz was the James Gang Lead before Walsh.

  31. 31.

    Raven

    Gotta catch you later on this, time for a British costume drama with the princess. God I’m fucking old!

  33. 33.

    Benjamin Franklin

    @Raven:

    Natch..

    Schwartz? Never hoid of ‘im. He blew away Plynth and Joe Walsh?

    Fucking awesome.

    And hey; you’re only as young…………

  34. 34.

    jl

    @MikeJ: And from my limited, but ‘interesting’ time in Boston traffic, the police probably did not worry about it too much either, if you seemed local, or the oblivious pedestrian walking in a beeline across whatever going wherever, simply assuming everything would get out of the way.

  35. 35.

    NineJean

    @jl:

    And since doesn’t snow enough for anyone to make special arrangements, or drivers and peds to learn to get used to it, snow and ice was a complete disaster.

    It isn’t that it doesn’t happen enough so much, but when it does…

    1 — it rains. Usually a lot
    2 — then it freezes.
    3 — then it snows.
    4 — warms up enough that the snow starts to melt
    5 — then it freezes. again.
    6 — then sometimes (like today) you get this warm/cold weather pattern that dumps a huge layer of ice over everything.

    Keep in mind that there is no place in, or anywhere around Seattle, that’s flat. If you’re on ice you go downhill.

    “Getting used to it” means knowing when to just hunker in when it’s raining hard and a cold front’s moving in.

    Small price to pay, I guess, for living in paradise for most of my life…

  36. 36.

    hitchhiker

    Nice to come home from a stomp through the slushy ice & see this thread w/so many bj neighbors. Whatever else there is to complain about tonight, the air smells amazing.

    And speaking of good guitar music, I was doing some work today for a music school client of mine & ran across this clip of one of their more precocious students playing at the Key a couple of years ago. Pretty good stuff.

  38. 38.

    NineJean

    @zzyzx: Think you made the point. When you’re talking about “snow” in Seattle (or in Portland, where I live now) you’re almost always really talking about “ice that looks white on top”.

    I’ve spent almost 60 years living somewhere between Bellingham and Eugene — and it was only when I had to take a winter trip to Iowa a few years ago that I actually learned what it was that most everybody else in the country thought of when they used the word “snow”.

    Something new to me, never knew this stuff existed!

  41. 41.

    stickler

    Grew up near Spokane. They can handle snow, because they have to. Live in Portland. They cannot handle snow, because they don’t have to, and just as with Seattle above — when they get it, it’s apocalyptic.

    I was in Seattle in 1990 when we got a massive storm — started out 40 and rain, temps dropped all through the day until they reached the low 20s, and precip hammered down the whole time. What a horrific mess. Because it’s hard to see the lanes in the rain, Seattle (and PDX) have lots of “turtle” bumps glued to the lane stripes. Seattle had some brand new snowplows, but so the blades wouldn’t rip off the turtles, they’d installed rubber strips to the bottom of the blades on all the plows. For the next week, the City of Seattle had a fleet of Zambonis, driving around polishing the ice. Now THAT was Snowmageddon.

  42. 42.

    wonkie

    I grew up in Iowa but i live on an island in the Sound now. When it snows I am stranded.

    The snow is like concrete. It’s not that nice dry soft powdery stuff like Iowa snow. It is half melted and half frozen and drivig through it is like plowing a field. My little car just hasn’t got the power to push through that crap on the steep island hills.

    It took me two hours to drive twenty miles this morning. The snow has melted off the road but there were trees down everywhere. The only reason I got off the island is because the guy driving ahead of me had a chain saw.

    I hate it.

  43. 43.

    J

    Love that Jimi song, Dougj. Spent the last hour listening to a bunch of Jimi songs I hadn’t listened to in years. Fun stuff. Great taste in music – I always appreciate your Lauryn Hill post title references too. Just curious, since we seem to share some similar favorites, how old are you? I am 32.

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