See the Sky About to Rain

Listen while you read:  Neil Young

See the sky about to rain, broken clouds and rain
Locomotive, pull the train, whistle blowing through my brain
Signals curling on an open plain, rolling down the track again
See the sky about to rain

Some are bound for happiness
Some are bound to glory
Some are bound to live with less
Who can tell your story?

See the sky about to rain, broken clouds and rain
Locomotive, pull the train, whistle blowing through my brain
Signals curling on an open plain, rolling down the track again
See the sky about to rain

I was down in Dixie Land
Played a silver fiddle
Played it loud and then the man
Broke it down the middle

See the sky about to rain, broken clouds and rain
Locomotive, pull the train, whistle blowing through my brain
Signals curling on an open plain, rolling down the track again
See the sky about to rain

~  Neil Young

Pretty easy to guess what inspired today's song selection, right? I'm looking at clouds and thunderstorms for the next three days. It is hard to ignore the way weather can impact our moods. "See the Sky About to Rain" is on Neil Young's fifth album, On the Beach, released in 1974. This was supposed to be the highly anticipated follow-up to the very successful Harvest album, but it didn't get great reviews and then sort of got lost for a number of years. It wasn't even made into a CD until 2003. Today, it has garnered a much different reputation, maybe due in part to its mysterious debut.

In an interview with Rolling Stone in 1975, Neil had this to say about the album: "On the Beach is probably one of the most depressing records I've ever made. I don't want to get down to the point where I can't even get up. I mean, there's something to going down there and looking around, but I don't know about sticking around."

I like that thought. Some are bound for happiness and some just aren't. For most of us, there's a balance of happy and sad. And that's the key word: balance. I know when I "go down there," I let myself wallow in it for a bit. But I usually get bored with it and pull myself up and out of it. And I am grateful that I can do that.

Three days of T-storms, and then I'm heading back north for a couple of weeks where the high temps will only reach the mid-40s and the lows will be in the 20s. I can take the cold, and I don't really mind the storms. But both at the same time? Here's to the hoped-for sunny days!