CCR bassist Stu Cook celebrates his 74th birthday today (April 25th). And yesterday was Doug Clifford’s 74th birthday…strange. Creedence Clearwater Revival’s song “Have You Ever Seen the Rain”, the second of CCR’s “rain” songs was a product of the turbulence within the band at the time. It was on the album Pendulum in 1970, written by John Fogerty and peaked at number-eight on the Billboard Hot 100 as a double A-side with “Hey Tonight.”
John Fogerty was fond of using the word “rain” as a metaphor for troubles. He used it in political sense on “Who’ll Stop the Rain” and then to signify discontent within the band on “Have You Ever Seen the Rain.” Both were hits. Bassist Stu Cook shines some light on the second “rain” song.
“It was part of that period of Pendulum where things were starting to get edgy, particularly between Tom and John — Tom struggling for more room within the band and ultimately deciding to leave anyhow. I played piano on that song, and by that I mean just doubling some bass parts, intro figures, outro figures, turnaround figures, stuff like that. Sort of a revisit, another rain song. I like the other rain song better.”
