Rain is one of the many 1960s bands who never quite made it despite the strong pedigree of the members and enough industry interest to land them in the studio. The group was made up of members of the U.S.-based garage rock band
the Lost Souls and English band
the Undertakers. Their formation is a confusing tangle of lineups and groups that involves
Brian Epstein,
the Beatles, and
Jackie Lomax, but ended with the band using the name
Rain and playing a style that combined freakbeat-heavy and melodic
Beatles-inspired songs that were buoyed with West Coast harmonies and a mix of
Byrds-y jangle and
Traffic-style experimentation. Their trips to the studio in late 1967/early 1968 never resulted in the release of an album, but decades afterward
Grapefruit Records managed to get ahold of the master tapes and cleaned them up nicely on
Tomorrow Never Comes: The NYC Sessions 1967-1968, adding some songs the band recorded after changing their name to the decidedly more psychedelic
Gypsy Wizards Band.
Unlike many recordings that were lost to time, the
Rain album was well worth digging up, and one can't help but wonder why some record label didn't take a chance on them. The reason is likely that music this melodic and chipper was out of step with the heavier sounds of 1968. Hearing it years later when such distinctions don't really matter, it's easy to fall in love with the gently trippy, deeply hooky, and occasionally hard-rocking songs on offer. Tracks like "You, You, You" or "No Deposit, No Return" have the loosely rocking feel of
Moby Grape's best work, "You Can't Hide Your Love" comes across like
the Who tackling
the Hollies' songbook, and slower, more introspective cuts like "Sundrops" and "Midnight Blue" have a lovely soft-focus psychedelic tint. The trio are all fine players -- especially drummer
Bugs Pemberton, who bashes away like
Keith Moon's younger brother -- the production is pleasantly tight and trippy, and the band's harmonies are a treat. This is definitely one lost album that requires the "classic" appellation, and
Grapefruit deserves a lot of praise for finally getting it out into the world. The
Gypsy Wizards Band demos are a nice addition, but the band were much better at post-
Beatles psychedelic pop than they were at orchestrated hippy-dippy tweeness. Skip those tracks and stick to the
Rain album because this is an exciting archival find that fans of mid- to late-'60s pop need to seek out. ~ Tim Sendra
