“Tears of Rain” by Greta Van Fleet
The lyrics of this Greta Van Fleet’s “Tears of Rain” are vaguely reminiscent of a song Stevie Wonder dropped in 1995 entitled “Rain Your Love” (1995). That is to say that they both use the symbol of rain to relay a concept akin to some type of global event where humanity would be blessed by its manifestation.
The Blessing
But blessed with what? In the case of “Tears of Rain”, it would be some kind of unspecified divine providence. Though, considering that the word “tears” is used in the title, we would speculate that it would be some type of emotionally-based phenomenon.
Some may counter argue, considering the terminology used, that said providence may be of the environmental variety. In other words, judging mostly by the second verse for instance, the setting reads as if it is literally a place undergoing a drought. And as such, this song serves as GVF’s rain dance, if you will. They are “pleading for a god” for “just a little bit of rain” to ease the suffering of the people.
Is the narrator praying for a physical rain?
All things considered, there’s only about a 1% chance that the vocalist is being literal. Or look at it like this – Greta Van Fleet are like never literal. And a constant theme throughout “The Battle at Garden’s Gate” (i.e. this song’s album) is the world being in some type of troubled state. So with the entire project in mind, that would be what the concept of a line like “dancing on the coals below us” alludes to.
But in this case, we also see that those affected are “praying for the flood to set (them) free”. For “the flood” would bring the aforementioned rain. And the reason that the people are “praying” and “pleading” is not only due to being in this condition where their “faces are… burning” due to lack of rain. But it would also obviously be due to the fact that they do not see any forthcoming.
Or put otherwise on top of there being no rain, the prospect of some materializing in the near foreseeable future also looks quite grim. No one knows when or where it will come from.
And that is why the song concludes with the vocalist desperately inquiring “who will bring the rain?”
A Song rife with a theme of Desperation
Indeed if there is one primary sentiment being relayed throughout, it would definitely be desperation. But simply trying to explain this song off as being about, say, global warming would probably be taking the simple way out. Interpretations don’t come that easy when you’re dealing with Greta Van Fleet. And under our estimation this song doesn’t have anything to do with the environment per se.
In fact if we really wanted to go off the deep end, we can even put forth that the band are speaking to a concept like the end of the world. Or at least that is the type of outlook being relayed. But where you, the listener, are really tasked with using your imagination is in trying to figure out exactly the featured “rain” is.
And ascertaining such would be boiled down to a question like this – what is one thing we human beings need the most that the world is lacking right now? And no, dear reader, that answer to that query would not be water.
When was “Tears of Rain” released?
This track was released on 16 April 2021. Up until that point and beyond, since 2013 the membership of Greta Van Fleet has remained the same. The band is made up of the following:
- Josh Kiszka (GVF’s leader)
- Jake Kiszka (GVF’s guitarist)
- Sam Kiszka (GVF’s bassist)
- Danny Wagner (GVF’s drummer)
Who wrote it?
The musicians mentioned above are individually credited with writing “Tears of Rain”.
As you have probably guessed or already know, Josh, Jake and Sam Kiszka are in fact siblings. And the first two also happen to be identical twins, with the latter being three years their junior.
Who produced “Tears of Rain”?
The producer of this track is the famed producer, Greg Kurstin. Concurrently he is also one of the top producers in the entire music industry.
The Battle at Garden’s Gate
The labels that put this song out are Republic Records and Lava Records. The album mentioned earlier, “The Battle at Garden’s Gate”, is Greta Van Fleet’s second. And it was made public on the same release date as this song.
“Tears of Rain” wasn’t released as one of the four singles that preceded “The Battle at Garden’s Gate”. The four singles GVF released in support of the album are as follows:
NOTE:
Greta Van Fleet’s first album is called “Anthem of the Peaceful Army” (2018). That project topped the Top Rock Albums chart, via Billboard.
Meanwhile the EP that preceded it, “From the Fires” (2017), accomplished the same feat on Billboard’s Top Hard Rock Albums listing. But even more impressively it was also named the Best Rock Album at the 2019 Grammy Awards, at a time when GVF was relatively new on the scene.
