h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I sit here waiting for Hurricane Sandy, also known as "Frankenstorm." In the last few days, I've heard the song "You'll never walk alone" twice -- once in a CD for "Carousel," where it was to be expected, and once
in a CD of Barbra Streisand hits, where it was unexpected. Was Fate trying to tell me something?

I'm wrakcing my brain trying to think of other storm-related songs. Last week I heard "It's gonna rain all through the day," in the excellent Audra McDonald revival of "100 in the Shade." Great recording, but I don't want to hear it again quite so soon. I don't have any recordings of Lena Horne singing "Stormy Weather." On the other hand, I have two recordings of Jerome Kern's "Til the Clouds Roll By," both of them excellent. There's also Gene Kelly's "Singin' in the Rain." Also Julie Andrews singing "The Rain in Spain" in "My Fair lady."

So, rain is covered. Hurricanes have lots of wind, too. Hurricane Sandy is supposed to converge with a cold front sweeping in from the Midwest, possibly causing snow in some areas. I could dig into my Christmas collection for "In the bleak midwinter, icy winds did blow."

Right now I'm listening to Dizzy Gillespie's greatest hits in a collection that Ken Burns compiled. Before that I was listening to Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," some trio sonatas by
Telemann, some flute sonatas by Locatelli, and Engelbert Humperdincks's greatest hits. No, not the guy responsible for Hansel and Gretel, but the contemporary singer who brought the world "Quando, Quando, Quando," and "Man Without Love." After Dizzy finishes his trumper riffs, I can look fiorward to some Mozart Violin sonatas and selections from Gounod's "Faust."

i just thought of another wind-related song: "let's go fly a kite," from Disney's "Mary Poppins." Heck, the whole movie is about what happens when the wind changes direction. You need wind for kite-flying, that's for sure.

The classic rainstorm song, from 'The Fantasticks':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPfqFD2kfVU

How about 'Peter Kagan and the Wind'?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJiU4PnQ2Mk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyGt0D5wKAY&feature=relmfu

Great hurricane music:

'The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny'?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMITQnn2IVs&playnext=1&list=PL4C20C69741C18877&feature=results_video

'Porgy and Bess'? I seem to recall a hurricane in there:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XDnTV-TMoA

"Soon it's gonna rain" from "The Fantasticks"? Good call!

I don't remember a hurricane in "Porgy and Bess." Are you sure you aren't thinking about "Their Eyes Were Watching God"? There's a doozy in that book.

There are thunderstorms in Haydn's "The Seasons" and Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. Haydn also wrote a choral piece called "The Storm." Purcell wrote a semi-opera based on Shakespeare's "The Tempest."

There's a song "Slowly, slowly he sank into the sea," from Disney's 1961 film adaptation of "Babes in Toyland." The point of the song was that Mary Mary's boyfriend was on a ship, and a storm came along and blew him overboard. I can't find a CD of that soundtrack anywhere.
It'snot high art in any event, and I don't miss it.

Yeah, there's a hurricane in 'Porgy and Bess'. I looked. That's when they're all in the church, and Sportin' Life shows up singing, 'It Ain't Necessarily So'. Gershwin made a suite out of that part, too.

I wondered if there was some music for 'The Tempest', too. That would be a good one.

Now you've got me thinking...

Gershwin apparently didn't write music for the storm itself, so I didn't know. I have a CD for Purcell's "Tempest."

If you can bear it, there's Chris de Burgh's Waiting for the Hurricane.

"April Showers" is about rain, and it's gentle.

Right now I'm listening to some overtures by Mikhail Glinka.
After that, I'll hear some Vaughan Williams choral works such as "Dona Nobis Pacem" and "Sancta Civitas." Following that, I'll hear some Baroque trumpet concertos and sonatas.

Hi paulh

Here is a shanty from your part of the world that might be appropriate in a storm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCaFu_z1QLAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCaFu_z1QLA

hope you enjoy.


L F L

Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35", "Idiot Wind" and "Hurricane" just to name three off the top of my head (although the latter has nothing to with wind but is the nickname of a famous boxer).

Dr.John wrote "Sippiana Hericane" which is both worth listening to and reading about:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2005/nov/25/popandrock.shopping3

Here is a favourite of mine Paul, Have you ever seen the rain? by Creedence Clearwter Revival.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu2pVPWGYMQ

Jimi Hendrix - In from the storm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Td8AFRXWA

I just love that song, Hendrix at his best.
Vanessa Mae, playing (Vivaldi) Storm followed by Dylan's Shelter From The Storm.

Thanks, Thinker. I have a Creedence Clearwater CD that has "Who'll stop the rain" and "Have you ever seen the rain?"

I hate YouTube because it takes so long to load. I avoid it whenever possible.

Here are the songs with "rain" in their titles in my Pop CD collection:

"Let it rain" by Eric Clapton
"I wish it would rain down" by Phil collins
"Crying in the rain" by the Everly Brothers
"Box of Rain" by the Grateful Dead
"I made it through the rain" by Barry Manilow
"Blue eyes crying in the rain," by Willy Nelson
"Rainy day man," by Tony Orlando
"Early mornin' rain," by Peter, Paul and Mary
"Don't rain on my parade" by Barbra Streisand by way of Jule Styne
"I wish it would rain" by the Temptations
"Raindrops keep falling on my head" by B J Thomas
"Crown rain chant" from the 1969 Woodstock Concert

That's more than enough, especially if the storm knocks out my power and I can't hear them anyway.

I recommend Nanci Griffith, 'I Wish It Would Rain'.

The problem with that is that I don't have the recording, and YouTube is too much of a hassle.

I have almost 200 movie soundtrack and Original Cast Broadway musical CDs. I can search those for rain-oriented songs:

I've already mentioned "Singin' in the rain" and "Till the clouds roll by." There's also "Come rain or come shine" from "Bloomer girl."

I don't have my musicals indexed by individual song, so a search doesn't turn up much.

If there's too much rain, the river will rise, so Carly Simon's "Let the river run" and Paul Simon's "Bridge over troubled water" would work. There's also Linda Ronstadt's "Blew by you."

Do you have trouble loading http://www.archive.org? There's an amazing amount of recordings on there - including hard-to-find early classical recordings. You can also download from there, if you want to make your own playlist.

I'll try it later, Dmitri -- lots to do now in advance of the hurricane. My choral group has a website where they post sound files [JPEGs] for the pieces we'll be singing in our December concert. There are nine files, of which I've downloaded five to my computer desktop. It takes about an hour to download one file. Once it's downloaded, it plays fine.
I could listen to the files online without donwloading them to the computer. When I do that, it only takes about 30 minutes to get a whole file in playable shape. I prefer to have them on my desktop, where I can listen to them without going online.

Don't you live in Pennsylvania? Frankenstorm is likely to cause damage there as well.

I saw Bruce Springsteen play in Copenhagen on a very rainy summer day years ago He opened with Creedence's "Who'll stop the rain?" - very nice

Bruce Springsteen had the misfortune of being born with an indistinct voice. I think he wrote some good songs, but I'm not sure. I try to concentrate on his songs, and start to tune out as he strains for high notes. I also tune out after a few tracks when Taylor Swift sings.

If someone has great song ideas but not a great voice, working on diction is a huge help. Leonard Cohen makes sure that you understand every word. So does Willy Nelson. Neil Diamond is also good.