Main Writer: Lennon
Recorded: April 14 and 16, 1966
Released: May 30, 1966
7 weeks; no. 23 (B side)

"Rain" is a Lennon song about nothing much — "People moaning because . . . they don't like the weather," he said. But the song, released months before Revolver as the B side to "Paperback Writer," was the Beatles' first public attempt to capture the LSD experience on record. They did it by infusing the track with tantalizing sounds — melting-chant harmonies, the brusque, leadlike flair of McCartney's bass, Starr's disorienting drum fills — and the promise of a realm beyond the usual senses. "I can show you," Lennon sings, "can you hear me?" — as if he's already got a head start. The most surreal effect was an accident: While stoned, Lennon threaded a rough mix the wrong way on his home tape recorder. He was thrilled with the backward vocals he heard — so thrilled he demanded the sound be used on the song's fade-out. "From that point on," engineer Geoff Emerick wrote, "almost every overdub we did on Revolver had to be tried backwards as well as forwards."

Appears On: Past Masters

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