View source for A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall

{{use mdy dates |date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox song
| name     = A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall
| cover    =
| alt      =
| type     =
| artist   = [[Bob Dylan]]
| album    = [[The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan]]
| released = {{Start date|1963|5|27}}
| format   =
| recorded = December 6, 1962
| studio   =
| venue    =
| genre    = [[Contemporary folk music|Folk]]
| length   = 6:55
| label    = [[Columbia Records|Columbia]]
| writer   = [[Bob Dylan]]
| producer = [[John Hammond (producer)|John Hammond]]
| misc     = {{External music video|header=Official audio|{{YouTube|T5al0HmR4to|"A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" (Official Audio)}}}}
}}
"'''A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall'''" is a song written by American musician and Nobel laureate [[Bob Dylan]] in the summer of 1962 and recorded later that year for his second studio album, ''[[The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan]]'' (1963). Its lyrical structure is based on the question-and-answer refrain pattern of the traditional British ballad "[[Lord Randall]]", published by [[Francis James Child|Francis Child]].

The song is characterized by [[Symbolism (arts)|symbolist imagery]] in the style of [[Arthur Rimbaud]], communicating suffering, pollution, and warfare. Dylan has said that all of the lyrics were taken from the initial lines of songs that "he thought he would never have time to write."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/02/science/space/timeless-questions-about-the-universe.html|title=Timeless Questions About the Universe|last=Overbye|first=Dennis|date=2013-07-01|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-05-24|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=April 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415124127/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/02/science/space/timeless-questions-about-the-universe.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Nat Hentoff]] quoted Dylan as saying that he immediately wrote the song in response to the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]],<ref name=":0"/> although in his memoir, ''[[Chronicles: Volume One]],'' Dylan attributed his inspiration to the feeling he got when reading [[microfiche]] newspapers in the [[New York Public Library]]: "After a while you become aware of nothing but a culture of feeling, of black days, of schism, evil for evil, the common destiny of the human being getting thrown off course. It’s all one long funeral song."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Chronicles: Volume One|last=Dylan|first=Bob|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=2004|isbn=9780743272582|page=85}}</ref>

==History==
Dylan originally wrote "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" in the form of a poem. The first iteration of the lyrics was written on a typewriter in the shared apartment of Dylan's friends [[Wavy Gravy]] and singer [[Tom Paxton]], within [[Greenwich Village]], [[New York City]].<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-bob-dylan-songs-20160524/a-hard-rains-a-gonna-fall-1963-20160523|title=100 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=May 24, 2016|access-date=2018-05-24|archive-date=May 24, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180524151454/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-bob-dylan-songs-20160524/a-hard-rains-a-gonna-fall-1963-20160523|url-status=live}}</ref> Significant edits occurred after this time, for instance, an earlier draft which appeared in both ''[[Sing Out!|Sing Out]]'' and ''[[Broadside (magazine)|Broadside]]'' folk magazines contained "a highway of golden with nobody on it" rather than the final lyric "a highway of diamonds".

On September 22, 1962, Dylan appeared for the first time at [[Carnegie Hall]] as part of an all-star [[hootenanny]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Mike |last=Marqusee |author-link=Mike Marqusee|title=Wicked Messenger: Bob Dylan and the 1960s |publisher=Seven Stories Press |year=2005 |pages=64f|isbn=1-58322-686-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Robert |last=Shelton |title=No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan |publisher=Da Capo Press |year=2003 |page=152 |isbn=0-306-81287-8 }}</ref> His three-song set marked the first public performance of "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall,"<ref>It was the final song performed in the set. It followed a rendition of "As Long as the Grass Shall Grow", which consisted of music written by Dylan and lyrics by the noted Native American poet/singer/songwriter [[Peter LaFarge]], recounting the US government's violation of its longstanding treaty with the Seneca nation in upstate New York.</ref> One month later, on October 22, U.S. President [[John F. Kennedy]] appeared on national television to announce the discovery of [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] missiles on the island of [[Cuba]], initiating the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]]. In the sleeve notes on the ''Freewheelin''' album, [[Nat Hentoff]] would quote Dylan as saying that he wrote "A Hard Rain" in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis:<ref name=":0">{{cite book|editor-last1=Friedman|editor-first1=Jonathan C. |title=The Routledge History of Social Protest in Popular Music|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=9780415509527|pages=151|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BC16oLUzlSIC&pg=PA151 }}</ref> "Every line in it is actually the start of a whole new song. But when I wrote it, I thought I wouldn't have enough time alive to write all those songs so I put all I could into this one." In actuality, Dylan had written the song more than a month before the crisis broke.

The song was recorded in a single take at [[Columbia Records]]' Studio A on December 6, 1962.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.artdependence.com/articles/bob-dylan-s-never-before-seen-draft-for-a-hard-rains-a-gonna-fall/|title=Bob Dylan's Never-Before-Seen Draft for A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall|date=August 25, 2015|magazine=ArtDependence Magazine|access-date=January 23, 2019|archive-date=April 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415124647/https://www.artdependence.com/articles/bob-dylan-s-never-before-seen-draft-for-a-hard-rains-a-gonna-fall/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Analysis and reception==
Folk singer [[Pete Seeger]] interpreted the line "Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison" as referring to when a young person suddenly wants to leave his home but then qualified that by saying, "People are wrong when they say 'I know what he means.'"{{sfn |Gilliland |1969 |loc=show 31, track 4, 9:20}}

While some have suggested<ref>{{cite web|title='A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall...'|url=http://www.thisdayinquotes.com/2011/05/hard-rains-gonna-fall.html|website=This Day in Quotes|date=May 27, 2014|access-date=6 June 2016|archive-date=April 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415150103/http://www.thisdayinquotes.com/2011/05/hard-rains-gonna-fall.html|url-status=live}}</ref> that the refrain of the song refers to [[nuclear fallout]], Dylan disputed that this was a specific reference. In a radio interview with [[Studs Terkel]] in 1963, Dylan said: <blockquote>No, it's not atomic rain, it's just a hard rain. It isn't the fallout rain. I mean some sort of end that's just gotta happen&nbsp;... In the last verse, when I say, "the pellets of poison are flooding the waters," that means all the lies that people get told on their radios and in their newspapers.<ref>Reprinted in Cott (ed.), ''Dylan on Dylan: The Essential Interviews'', pp.&nbsp;7–9.</ref></blockquote>In ''[[No Direction Home]]'', [[Martin Scorsese]]'s documentary on Dylan, the [[Beat Generation|Beat]] poet [[Allen Ginsberg]] talked about the first time he heard Dylan's music: <blockquote>When I got back from India, and got to the West Coast, there's a poet, [[Charles Plymell|Charlie Plymell]] - at a party in [[Bolinas]] — played me a record of this new young folk singer. And I heard "Hard Rain," I think. And wept. 'Cause it seemed that the torch had been passed to another generation. From earlier bohemian, or Beat illumination. And self-empowerment.<ref name=seeger>{{cite video|people=Ginsberg, Allen|date=2005|title=No Direction Home|medium=DVD|publisher=[[Paramount Pictures]]}}</ref></blockquote>

Author [[Ian MacDonald]]  referred to "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" as a "surrealistic anti-nuclear nightmare" and suggested it may possibly rival "[[I am the Walrus]]" as the most idiosyncratic protest song ever written.<ref>{{cite book|last1=MacDonald|first1=Ian|title=Revolution in the Head: The Beatles Records and the Sixties|date=1994|url=https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Revolution_in_the_Head/qr7z-LnVsZ4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA269&printsec=frontcover}}</ref>

==Live performance==

Although Dylan may have first played the song to friends, "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" was formally premiered at [[Carnegie Hall]] on September 22, 1962, as part of a [[hootenanny]] organized by [[Pete Seeger]].  Seeger recalled: "I had to announce to all the singers, 'Folks, you're gonna be limited to three songs. No more. 'Cause we each have ten minutes apiece.' And Bob raised his hand and said, 'What am I supposed to do? One of my songs is ten minutes long.'"{{sfn |Heylin |2003 |p=102}}

Dylan featured the song regularly in concerts in the years since he premiered it, and there have been several dramatic performances.  An October 1963 performance at Carnegie Hall was released on ''[[The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home]]'', while another New York City performance, recorded one year later, appeared on ''[[The Bootleg Series Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall]]''.  Dylan performed the song in August 1971 at [[The Concert for Bangladesh|The Concert for Bangla Desh]], organized by [[George Harrison]] and [[Ravi Shankar]], for [[East Pakistan]] refugee relief (now independent [[Bangladesh]]) after the [[1970 Bhola cyclone]] and during the 1971 [[Bangladesh Liberation War]].  On December 4, 1975, at the [[Forum de Montréal]], Canada,<ref>[http://www.bobdylan.com/us/events/venue/Forum%20de%20Montreal Set Lists:Forum de Montreal] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130410201649/http://www.bobdylan.com/us/events/venue/Forum%20de%20Montreal |date=April 10, 2013 }} Bobdylan.com</ref> Dylan recorded an upbeat version of the song, which appeared on ''[[The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue]]''.  That rendition was featured in the 2019 Netflix documentary ''[[Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese]]'', and it also appears on the box set ''[[Bob Dylan – The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings|The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings]]'', along with a November 21, 1975 performance and a still earlier rehearsal.  On May 23, 1994, Dylan performed the song at "The Great Music Experience" festival in Japan, backed by a 90-piece symphony orchestra conducted by [[Michael Kamen]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/access/55239750.html?dids=55239750:55239750&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=May+24%2C+1994&author=Arlene+Vigoda&pub=USA+TODAY+%28pre-1997+Fulltext%29&desc=BORN+TO+BE+WILDE&pqatl=google | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130724184731/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/access/55239750.html?dids=55239750:55239750&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=May+24,+1994&author=Arlene+Vigoda&pub=USA+TODAY+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=BORN+TO+BE+WILDE&pqatl=google | url-status=dead | archive-date=July 24, 2013 | title=Born To Be Wilde | work=[[USA Today]] | date=May 24, 1994 | access-date=July 24, 2013 | author=Vigoda, Arlene }}</ref>  At the end of 2007, Dylan recorded a new version of "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall"  exclusively for the [[Expo 2008]] [[Zaragoza]] world fair, scheduled to open on June 8, 2008, to highlight the Expo theme of "water and sustainable development". As well as choosing local-band [[Amaral (music group)|Amaral]] to record a version of the song in Spanish, Dylan's new version ended with a few spoken words about his "being proud to be a part of the mission to make water safe and clean for every human being living in this world."<ref>{{cite news
| first = Howell
| last = Llewellyn
| url = https://www.reuters.com/article/musicNews/idUSN2358049520071123
| title = Dylan reworks "Hard Rain's" for Spanish expo
| access-date = November 24, 2007
| work = Reuters
| date = November 23, 2007
| archive-date = March 15, 2008
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080315040640/http://www.reuters.com/article/musicNews/idUSN2358049520071123
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.expozaragoza2008.es/ 
 |title=Expo Zaragoza 2008 
 |access-date=December 2, 2007 
 |publisher=Expo web site 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071203045050/http://www.expozaragoza2008.es/ 
 |archive-date=3 December 2007 
 |url-status=dead 
}}</ref>

[[Patti Smith]] performed the song with orchestral accompaniment at the [[2016 Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize Award Ceremony]] on December 10, 2016, to commemorate Dylan receiving the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]]. During the rendition, Smith was overcome with emotion and missed several key lines. She apologized and explained to the audience that she was nervous about performing the iconic song. <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2016/12/10/patti-smith-stumbles-then-delivers-bob-dylan-less-nobel-ceremony/95266436/|title=Patti Smith stumbles then delivers at Bob Dylan-less Nobel ceremony|date=December 10, 2016|website=USA Today|access-date=August 23, 2017|archive-date=December 31, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161231203840/http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2016/12/10/patti-smith-stumbles-then-delivers-bob-dylan-less-nobel-ceremony/95266436/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Covers==
{{more citations needed section|date=August 2020}}
*[[Pete Seeger]]: ''[[We Shall Overcome (Pete Seeger album)]]'' (1963); ''World of Pete Seeger'' (1973); ''We Shall Overcome: Complete Carnegie Hall Concert'' (1989); ''The Best of Broadside 1962–1988'' (2000)
*[[Joan Baez]]: ''[[Farewell Angelina]]'' (1965); ''[[The First Ten Years (Joan Baez album)|The First 10 Years]]'' (1970); ''[[Live -Europe '83]]: Children of the Eighties'' (1983); ''[[Rare, Live & Classic]]'' (1993)
*[[Rod MacKinnon]]: ''Folk Concert Down Under'' (1965)
*[[Leon Russell]]: 1971 single release, from ''[[Leon Russell and the Shelter People]]'' 
*[[Bryan Ferry]]: the single from ''[[These Foolish Things (album)|These Foolish Things]]'' (1973) reached number 10 in the [[UK Singles Chart]] in September 1973<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/14894/bryan-ferry/|title=BRYAN FERRY &#124; full Official Chart History &#124; Official Charts Company|website=www.officialcharts.com|access-date=October 6, 2019|archive-date=November 20, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191120215837/https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/14894/bryan-ferry/|url-status=live}}</ref> and appeared on compilation albums  ''[[Street Life: 20 Great Hits]]'' (1986) and ''[[More than This (compilation album)|More Than This: The Best of Bryan Ferry]]'' (1999)
*[[The Staple Singers]]: '' What the World Needs Now'' (1968);''Use What You Got'' (1973)<ref>{{youTube|7zwBHd4kll0|Bryan Ferry - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall [Official]}}</ref>
*[[Nana Mouskouri]]: ''Le ciel est noir - Nana Mouskouri au Théâtre des Champs-Élysées'' (1974 live release); ''À Paris'' (1979 live release); ''Le Ciel est Noir - Les 50 Plus Belles Chansons de Nana Mouskouri'' (2007 release); Rendez-Vous (2011 release, recorded as a duet with Canadian singer [[Garou (singer)|Garou]]).
*[[Willie Nile]]: on ''[[Positively Bob: Willie Nile Sings Bob Dylan]]'' (2017)
*[[Edie Brickell and New Bohemians]]: ''[[Born on the Fourth of July (film)|Born on the Fourth of July]]'' (soundtrack) (1989)
*[[Barbara Dickson]]: ''Don't Think Twice, It's Alright'' (1992)
*[[Melanie Safka|Melanie]]: ''Silence Is King'' (1993)
*[[Hanne Boel]]: ''Misty Paradise'' (1994)
*[[Arthur Brown (musician)|Arthur Brown]]  ''Live in Bristol'' (2002)
*[[Aviv Geffen]] ''Geshem Kaved Omed Lipol'' (in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]: גשם כבד עומד ליפול)
*[[Andy Hill (composer)|Andy Hill]]: ''It Takes a Lot to Laugh'' (2000)
*[[Bill Frisell]]: guitar instrumental version on live album ''East/West'' (2005)
*[[Jason Mraz]]: ''[[Listen to Bob Dylan: A Tribute]]'' (2005)
*[[Faust (band)|Faust]]: ''Nodutgang'' (compilation) (2006)
*[[Ann Wilson]] (lead singer of [[Heart (band)|Heart]]): ''[[Hope & Glory (album)|Hope & Glory]]'' (2007 solo release) (with [[Rufus Wainwright]] & [[Shawn Colvin]])
*[[Les Fradkin]]: ''12'' (2007)
*[[Robert Křesťan]]: ''Dylanovky'' (2007)
*[[Amaral (band)|Amaral]]: [[Spanish language|Spanish]] version for EXPO [[Zaragoza 2008]] called ''Llegará la tormenta'' (The storm will arrive)
*[[Ernst Jansz]]: have translated the song in Dutch: Zware regen. From his CD Dromen van Johanna (Visions of Johanna)
*[[Jimmy Cliff]]: ''Sacred Fire EP'' (2011)
*[[Walk Off the Earth]]: ''A Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall - Marshall and Sarah Blackwood'' (2011)
*[[Tom Russell]] with [[Lucinda Williams]] and [[Calexico (band)|Calexico]]: ''Mesabi'' (2011)
*[[Jamie Hartman]] with [[Rosi Golan]]: III (2012)
*[[Laura Marling]]: covered the song in 2017 for the season four finale of [[Peaky Blinders (TV series)|Peaky Blinders]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Schatz|first=Lake|title=Laura Marling covers Bob Dylan's 'A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall'|url=https://consequenceofsound.net/2017/12/laura-marling-covers-bob-dylans-a-hard-rains-a-gonna-fall-stream/|date=December 21, 2017|website=Consequence of Sound|access-date=29 December 2017|archive-date=December 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171229172213/https://consequenceofsound.net/2017/12/laura-marling-covers-bob-dylans-a-hard-rains-a-gonna-fall-stream/|url-status=live}}</ref>
*[[Kurt Elling]]: ''The Questions'' (2018)
*[[Jack DeJohnette]]: ''[[Hudson (album)|Hudson]]'' (2017)
*[[Eliza Gilkyson]]: ''2020'' (2020)

==Other media==
Photographer Mark Edwards took a series of photographs illustrating the lyrics of the song which were exhibited in many locations such as the [[United Nations Headquarters|United Nations headquarters]].  These were published in a book in 2006.<ref>{{cite book |title=Hard rain: our headlong collision with nature |author =Mark Edwards |author2 =Lloyd Timberlake |author3 =Bob Dylan |date =September 2001 |publisher =Simon Spotlight/Nickelodeon |isbn =9780689850158 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XXHaAQAACAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{citation |title=Hard Rain proves tough to weather |work=Rocky Mountain News |date=January 16, 1998}}</ref> The song is also mentioned prominently at the end of [[Haruki Murakami]]'s novel ''[[Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World]]''.<ref>{{cite news| author=<!--not stated--> |title=They missed the Nobel, but Murakami fans seek solace in novelist's affection for Dylan |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/10/14/national/missed-nobel-murakami-fans-seek-solace-novelists-affection-dylan/ |work=The Japan Times |location=Kyodo |date=October 14, 2016 |access-date=January 2, 2023}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of Bob Dylan songs based on earlier tunes]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book|editor-first=Jonathan|editor-last=Cott|title=Dylan on Dylan: The Essential Interviews|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|year=2006|isbn= 0-340-92312-1}}
*{{Gilliland |show=31 |title=Ballad in Plain D: An introduction to the Bob Dylan era }}
* {{cite book|first=Todd|last=Harvey|title=The Formative Dylan: Transmission & Stylistic Influences, 1961–1963|publisher=The Scarecrow Press|year=2001|isbn= 0-8108-4115-0}}
* {{cite book|first=Clinton|last=Heylin|title=Bob Dylan: A Life In Stolen Moments: Day by Day 1941–1995|year=1996|isbn=0-7119-5669-3 }}
* {{cite book|first=Clinton|last=Heylin|title=Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited|publisher=Perennial Currents|year=2003|isbn=0-06-052569-X }}
* {{cite book|first=Howard|last=Sounes|title=Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan|publisher=Grove Press|year=2001|isbn=0-8021-1686-8|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/downhighwaylifeo0000soun}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
*[http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/hard-rains-gonna-fall Lyrics] at Bob Dylan's official website

{{Bob Dylan}}
{{Bob Dylan songs (1960s)}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, A}}
[[Category:1962 songs]]
[[Category:Bob Dylan songs]]
[[Category:Edie Brickell & New Bohemians songs]]
[[Category:Joan Baez songs]]
[[Category:List songs]]
[[Category:Pete Seeger songs]]
[[Category:Song recordings produced by John Hammond (record producer)]]
[[Category:Songs written by Bob Dylan]]