Friday Aug 08, 2025
Episode 286 - When It Rains It Snows part 1
John Walker returns after many a year to talk about the classic TMBG b-side "When It Rains It Snows." With John being a fellow podcaster (FYIz), we get pretty chatty about music nerd stuff, so join us on this musical adventure as we dissect "When It Rains It Snows" and talk time signatures and lyrics, and next week in part 2 you'll get the remainder of the discussion, live versions, covers and scoring.
18 days ago
Hi! Occasional listener, first time commenter. Great episode! As an amateur musician, I enjoyed listening to all the talk about the recording process, and also the explanation of meter. Besides TMBG, I’m a huge fan of 1970’s progressive rock. Your discussion of meter reminded me a lot of Rush’s style. Their drummer, Neil Peart (.), was a master of ”disguising the meter”, as you called it. Just one example, Limelight (Moving Pictures, 1980), the chorus is clearly in 3, in terms of the vocals and the chord changes, but Peart continues drumming in 4, with the same quarter note value, alternating measures of ”bass snare bass” with ”snare bass snare”. Really the entire song goes all over in terms of meter, often alternating every few measures, yet feels very listenable and not in any metrical cliché at all. And there’s plenty more examples, especially in their 1970’s and early 1980’s output, their most ”progressive” period. Also lots of odd meters like 5, 7, 11, etc., a whole other discussion! Sorry, rabbit hole/soapbox off. Back to TMBG! Thanks for the show.