The Beta Band - Dry the Rain
Say It Out Loud
The Beta Band gave us Dry the Rain and it’s the musical equivalent of a philosophical shrug. It's 1997, flannel shirts are a thing, and The Beta Band offers up a song that's part invitation to self-expression and part whimsical journey into your own mind. The opening guitar riff saunters in like it owns the place, a cool cat strolling down an alley, completely indifferent to the chaos around it. Steve Mason delivers the lyrics like he's sharing the world's best-kept secret, but with the understanding that it's a secret nobody's going to take terribly seriously. Then he drops the wisdom nugget:
If there's something inside you want to say
Say it out loud, it'll be okay
That’s not just a lyric. It’s a poetic permission slip, something akin to a shared secret in the dim glow of a confessional booth. Life's a bit of a carnival of absurdity, but seriously, let it out. You'll survive the existential rollercoaster. Probably.
Dry the Rain is a quirky friend who’ll hand you a fortune cookie that reads "Your existential crisis will be brief, and you'll find a ten-dollar bill on the sidewalk." It's a musical pat on the back, a nudge to share those thoughts you've been marinating in during the small hours after too much strong drink. We each have a mental backlog of hints, allegations, and things left unsaid that require airing, like so many books in a dusty library. The charm of Dry the Rain lies in its ability to blend introspection with a genuine and generous sprinkle of dry humor. It's not your typical self-help anthem; it's more a self-help pamphlet written by someone who's seen it all and decided to share the wisdom with a wink and a knowing smirk. Did Gandalf write the song? Merlin perhaps?
The Beta Band crafted a tune that's part therapy session, part fanciful escapade. Dry the Rain invites you to spill your mental beans, all while grooving to a musical vibe that says, "Life's a bit absurd, but hey, at least we can laugh about it."
A sense of humor keen enough to show a man his own absurdities will keep him from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those worth committing.
-Samuel Butler
There’s temporal ambience here, owing to the blend of folk, electronic, and experimental influences. Wouldn’t Umberto Eco be proud as we engage with the song’s “open work” in a fluidity of meaning. One can get as lost in this song as one can in the labyrinth of our own cartoon minds with all those other things left undone, unsaid, and unthought. Dry the Rain is whatever you need it to be: confessional booth, wise sage, playful tune… whatever you need in that six minutes punctuated with a trumpet-accented coda. Do you need someone to dry the rain in your soul, or did you simply forget your umbrella? The Beta Band assures us the rain is always worth drying. This life is a comedy in several tragic acts. Next time you're feeling like your brain is a bit of a mess, remember The Beta Band's sage advice: say it out loud, and it'll be okay. Probably.
Yes.