I’ve written before about Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry. I particularly like the McGhee song “Rainy Day” (with Terry on harmonica). I’m really taken with its emotional feel, which is different from most songs.
Generally, a break-up song features very pure emotions: sadness, despair, anger. But in “Rainy Day,” there’s a mix of emotions. Certainly, the singer is sad. But he’s experiencing it from a distance. He’s feeling down because it’s raining and his true love left him on a rainy day.
There’s also an implied final scene in the kitchen where “she had two cups of coffee.” That always reminds me of the George Jones’ song “A Good Year for the Roses,” with the lines:
And a lip print on a half-filled cup of coffee that you poured and didn’t drink
But at least you thought you wanted it, that’s so much more than I can say for me
But enough of that. The song speaks for itself. And it is perfect for a rainy Saturday morning.
Image cropped from Brownie McGhee by Michael Bennetts from Nambassa Trust and Peter Terry (broken link: http://www.nambassa.com) via Wikipedia.
