Pop Song 422 of 500 "Who'll stop the rain?' Creedence Clearwater Revival 1970

Pop Song 422 of 500 "Who'll stop the rain?' Creedence Clearwater Revival 1970Show more

Lyrically, "Who'll Stop the Rain" breaks into three verses, with a historical, recent past, and present tense approach. All three verses allude to a sense of unending malaise, pondered by "good men through the ages", "Five Year Plans and New Deals/wrapped in golden chains", and the Woodstock generation.
Interpreting the song in its time period (1970), and the resigned but somewhat angry feeling of the song, many see "Who'll Stop the Rain" as a thinly veiled protest against the Vietnam War, with the final verse lyrics and its references to music, large crowds, rain, and crowds trying to keep warm being about the band's experience at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969.

In 2007 during a concert in Shelburne, Vermont, he said the following about the song:

Well, this next song has a bit of a fable surrounding it. A lot of folks seem to think I sang this song at Woodstock way back then. No. I was at Woodstock 1969. I think. It was a nice event. I'm a California kid. I went up there and saw a whole bunch of really nice young people. Hairy. Colorful. It started to rain, and got really muddy, and then half a million people took their clothes off! Boomer generation making its presence known, I guess. Anyway, then I went home and wrote this song.

Long as I remember the rain been comin' down
Clouds of mystery pourin' confusion on the ground
Good men through the ages tryin' to find the sun
And I wonder, still I wonder, who'll stop the rain?
I went down Virginia, seekin' shelter from the storm
Caught up in the fable, I watched the tower grow
Five Year Plans and New Deals, wrapped in golden chains
And I wonder, still I wonder, who'll stop the rain?
Heard the singers playin', how we cheered for more
The crowd had rushed together, tryin' to keep warm
Still the rain kept pourin', fallin' on my ears
And I wonder, still I wonder, who'll stop the rain?