Incompetent/Can't : Can't Stand the Rain

purchase [I Cant Stand the Rain]



Maybe we have had enough of the rain. Maybe some of the news pundits are right about how the main stream media tried to make the most of the Carib weather - to the extent that it has surpassed overload and caused unnecessary fears. And maybe J David is right that we have exceeded the "Can't" threshold when we could have been looking at other aspects of the Incompetence/Can't theme.

If you are a regular here, you likely know I have an enduring affinity for the slide guitar, as embodied in such impresarios as Mr Ry Cooder, Ms Bonnie Raitt, Mr Duane Allman and Mr Lowell George. (There are others, but these are among my main staples)

As JDavid pointed out, there are various avenues one can pursue from a theme of Can't - primarily personal incompetence.  I don't think that <I Cant Stand the Rain> falls into this category - the weather is beyond our control, and most likely the lyrics transcend the weather, rather, here, a metaphor for other aspects of the singer's life. You know ... rain is wet and sad and brings you down, especially if you get caught out in it unprepared like...

In my ignorance, I had assumed that this was a Little Feat original. No small amount of their output was original. However, not this.

The song is credited to someone I had never heard of before: a certain Ann Peebles. And while I was only aware of the Little Feat version, there are all sorts of others who have done theirs and you can find many of them at YouTube.

A few of them:

Four-Legged Friends: Beware

Ann Peebles: Beware

[purchase]

"You better beware of the dog that brings the bone,

she´s only trying to break up your home..."

This one´s dedicated to the great Willie Mitchell of Hi Records fame, who passed away last week at 82. Only one out of countless southern soul gems that Mitchell had a producing hand in, Beware shows that there´s much more to Ann Peebles than just her famous million-seller I Can´t Stand The Rain.

1973: I Can't Stand the Rain

Ann Peebles: I Can't Stand The Rain

[purchase]

Though we're solid on the wide segment of the musical spectrum that calls itself rock and roll, and plenty strong on the country/folk/blues, we trend light on the true soul music here at Star Maker Machine. But I suspect we've each got a few horn-heavy favorites in the streaming slipstream, a couple of hidden (or not-so-hidden) sultry pleasures on the CD rack. After all, as the plethora of grammy nominees and chart toppers cracking multiple categories shows, like so many other genres, soul is a big tent, which runs from pop to jazz and back again. And in the end, it doesn't matter what you call it: good soul is good soul.

1973 was a dire year for Memphis Soul. Otis Redding was long gone; Wilson Pickett's career was slipping; Sam and Dave were playing smaller clubs; Isaac Hayes was moving towards a funk sensibility; Al Green would chart twice that year, but his sales -- and his chart presence -- would begin to fade by year's end. Disco was on the rise, and as it did, it's candy-coated poppiness ate away at the authenticity of the heavy horns and melodic organ and bass which typified the "shimmery, sultry" Memphis sound. The virtual collapse of standard-bearing label Stax was still a year away, but the the writing was on the wall, and the books were already falling deep into the red.

Still, there were a few great songs to be wrung from the proverbial stone. Exhibit A: I Can't Stand The Rain, written and performed by rising star Anne Peebles, released on Memphis-based soul and rockabilly label Hi Records. The song, which John Lennon reportedly cited as his favorite record of all time, had crossover appeal from its release as a 1973 single, charting as both Pop (#38) and R&B (#6); its popularity went a long way towards the subsequent success of Peebles' 1974 album of the same name, which planted the title track right up front in the hopes that folks would keep the record spinning.

But the Stax/Hi Records sound was waning in popularity, and in the end, I Can't Stand The Rain -- both single and album -- would represent the pinnacle of a career. Though Peebles continues to perform today, her greatest hit is best known among the rising generations for its cover versions, its commercial placement, and other recycled use in culture. It is telling, in fact, that in 1997, 24 years after the original topped out at #6 on the charts, Missy Elliot's very first single, an "interpolation" of I Can't Stand The Rain entitled The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly), peaked even higher than Peebles' original, hitting number 3 on Billboard's Hot Dance Singles chart.

Here's some bonus covers, a few favorites among a very large series: below-featured Little Feat frontman Lowell George at his slow, funky R&B best, and Cassandra Wilson with a sparse, jagged, bluesy jazz interpretation. Just to show how far soul goes.

Lowell George: I Can't Stand The Rain [purchase]

Cassandra Wilson: I Can't Stand The Rain [purchase]