BE THE RAIN
NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE
SONGWRITER: NEIL YOUNG
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: GREENDALE
LABEL: WARNER BROS
GENRE: ROCK
YEAR: 2003
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945)
is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, and activist. After embarking on a
music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s,
Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and
others. Since the beginning of his solo career with his backing band Crazy Horse,
Young has released many critically acclaimed and important albums, such as After the
Gold Rush, Everybody
Knows This Is Nowhere, and Harvest.
Young has received several Grammy and Juno Awards. The Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame inducted him twice: in 1995 as a
solo artist and in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield. In 2000, Rolling Stone named Young #34 on their list of the 100 greatest musical artists. According
to Acclaimed Music, he is
the 7th most celebrated artist in popular music history. His guitar work,
deeply personal lyrics and signature high tenor singing voice define his long career. He also plays piano and
harmonica on many albums, which frequently combine folk, rock, country and other
musical styles. His often distorted electric guitar playing, especially with
Crazy Horse, earned him the nickname "Godfather of Grunge" and led to his 1995
album Mirror Ball with Pearl Jam. More
recently he has been backed by Promise of the Real. 21 of
his albums and singles have been certified Gold and Platinum in U.S by RIAA certification.
Young directed (or co-directed) films using
the pseudonym "Bernard Shakey", including Journey
Through the Past (1973), Rust Never Sleeps(1979), Human Highway (1982), Greendale(2003),
and CSNY/Déjà Vu (2008).
He also contributed to the soundtracks of the films Philadelphia (1993) and Dead Man(1995).
Young has lived in California since the 1960s
but retains Canadian citizenship. He was awarded the Order of Manitoba in 2006 and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2009. He became a United States citizen, taking dual citizenship,
in 2020.
Greendale is the 25th studio album by Neil Young. Young
and Crazy Horse's
Greendale, a 10-songrock opera, is set
in a fictional California seaside town. Based on the saga of the Green family,
the "audio novel" has been compared to the literary classics of Thornton Wilder's Our Town and Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg,
Ohio for its complexity and emotional depth
in exploring a small town in America.
Greendale combines numerous themes on
corruption, observation of the passing of time, environmentalism and mass media
consolidation. The album, concert, film and DVDs have produced a vast
divergence of critical opinion ranging from being called "amateur" to
being voted as one of the best albums of 2003 by Rolling Stone magazine music
critics.
Save the planet for
another day.
("Attention shoppers,
Buy with a conscience and save.")
Save the planet for another day.
("Save Alaska!
Let the caribou
stay.")
Don't care what the governments say.
("They're all bought
and paid for anyway.")
Save the planet for another day.
("Hey Big Oil!
What do you
say?")
We were runnin' through the night,
Never knowin' if we would see the light.
Paranoid schizophrenic visions,
Livin in fear of the wrong decisions.
We got to wake up,
We got to keep goin.
If they follow us
There's no way of knowin'.
We got a job to do.
We got to save Mother Earth.
Be the ocean when it
meets the sky.
("You can make a difference.
If you really
try.")
Be the magic in the Northern lights.
("Six Days...
Six nights.")
Be the river as it rolls along.
("It has three eyed fish.
And it's smellin'
strong.")
Be the rain you remember fallin'.
("Be the rain.
Be the rain.")
Yeah rain was fallin'
and we're soakin' wet.
Hail is beatin' down on our head.
The wind is blowin' through our hair,
Faces frozen in the frigid air.
We got to get
there...
Alaska.
We got to be there,
Before the big machines.
We got a job to do.
We got to save Mother Earth.
Dream the hunter on the
Western plain.
("The birds are all gone.
Where did they
go?")
Dream the fisherman in his boat.
("He's comin
home empty.
He's barely
afloat.")
Dream the logger in the great Northwest.
("They're runnin out of trees.
They got to give it a rest.")
Dream the farmer in the old heartland.
("Corporate greed and chemicals
Are killin' the land.")
Next mornin' Sun was
up at dawn.
She looked around and Earth was gone.
Dark visions he had last night.
He needed peace, he needed light.
He heard the rumble
And he saw the big machines.
The Green Army rose
And it was a bad dream.
He had a job to do.
He had to save Mother Earth.
Be the ocean when it
meets the sky.
("Greek freighters are dumping
Crap somewhere right now.")
Be the magic in the Northern lights.
("The ice is melting!")
Be the river as it rolls along.
("Toxic waste dumpin'
From corporate farms.")
Be the rain you remember fallin'.
("Be the rain.
Be the rain.")
Save the Planet for
another day.
("Be the rain.
Be the rain.")
Be the river as it
rolls along.
("Be the rain.
Be the rain.")
"Be the rain.
Be the rain."