A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall: Encyclopedia - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962 somewhere in Bleecker Street, New York. It was first recorded in Columbia Records' Studio A on the 6th December 1962 for his second album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The lyric structure is based on the traditional ballad Lord Randall.

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall - Analysis

The ballad is made up of five considerable stanzas of metaphor and imagery.

The song was written at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the bleakness of the lyrics reflects the worried mood of the time. However, the meaning behind the words has stayed relevant throughout the years as they seem to have a broader sweep in their descriptions of injustice, suffering and warfare.

Some have suggested that the refrain of the song refers to nuclear fallout, however Dylan himself refutes that this was a specific reference:

"It's not atomic rain, it's not fallout rain... I [just] mean some sort of end that's just got to happen"

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall - Live performance

Although Dylan may have first played the song to friends, "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" was formally premiered at Carnegie Hall on 22nd September 1962 as part of a hootenanny organized by Pete Seeger. Although he was originally given a ten minute set to do three songs, Dylan's set was extended to twenty minutes to make room for "Hard Rain's"' six-and-a-half minutes of apocalyptic vision. Bob Dylan is quoted for saying "You know I've been asked that many times before but the song isn't about acid rain just hard rain."

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall - Covers

• Pete Seeger: We Shall Overcome (1963); World of Pete Seeger (1973); We Shall Overcome: Complete Carnegie Hall Concert (1989); The Best of Broadside 1962-1988 (2000)
• Linda Mason: How Many Seas Must a White Dove Sail? (1964)
• Joan Baez: Farewell Angelina (1965); First 10 Years (1970); Live Europe '83: Children of the Eighties (1983); Rare, Live & Classic (1993)
• Rod MacKinnon: Folk Concert Down Under (1965)
• Per Dich: Surt og Soodt(1966)
• Leon Russell: The Shelter People (1971); The Songs of Bob Dylan (1993); Retrospective (1997)
• Bob Gibson: Bob Gibson (1971)
• John Schroder: Dylan's Vibrations (1971)
• The Tribes: Bangla Desh (1972)
• Bryan Ferry: These Foolish Things (1973); Street Life (1986); More Than This: The Best of Bryan Ferry (1999)
• The Staple Singers: Use What You Got (1973)
• Nana Mouskori: À Paris (1979)
• Roxy Music: Street Life: 20 Greatest Hits (1986)
• The Texas Instruments: The Texas Instruments (1987)
• Ball: Bird (1988)
• Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians: Born on the Fourth of July (soundtrack) (1989)
• Barbara Dickson: Don't Think Twice, It's Alright (1992)
• Vole: A Tribute to Bob Dylan (1992)
• Melanie: Silence Is King (1993)
• Hanne Bol: Misty Parade (1994)
• Gerard Quintana and Jordi Batiste: Els Miralls de Dylan (1999)
• Andy Hill: It Takes a Lot to Laugh (2000)
• Both: Duluth Does Dylan
• Jason Mraz: Listen to Bob Dylan

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki