Have you ever heard a song or album and the weather seemed such an integral part of the experience – so much so, that every time the weather conditions are right you still remember that song or album?   Well it’s happened to me.   Repeatedly.   

Today,  it’s “raining cats and dogs” and I spent a fair amount of time on the road looking from some rainy day photo ops.  It was raining so hard it was keeping time with Led Zeppelin’s song “Bonzo’s Montreax” (from the CODA album) which was playing in my car.   But this is not about that song.   

During my drive I realized it was exactly a day like today when I purchased my very first RUSH album, A FAREWELL TO KINGS (on cassette and vinyl).  The album was released September 1st, 1977.  I was 17 and only had a drivers permit.  I was only working on the family farm and had saved my allowance for this purpose.  I got to the car and greedily unwrapped the cassette to play in the car.  The weather was dark and cloudy not unlike the cover art with the post apocalyptic setting – the landscape crumbled and the crown of the king lying on the ground. The king plopped down on the throne like a puppet whose puppeteer had fled or a jester frozen in time – the joke had been played once to often.  I popped the cassette in the player and it started to rain.  I took the scenic route home through the countryside past hill and dale, field and farm listening in amazement and feeling transfixed as “Xanadu” blasted from the car speakers.    by time “a thousand years had come and gone…” I was completely enthralled, mesmerized in my rainy day drive.   I got home during “Cinderella Man” and felt lost in the myth, the poetry and story telling.   I continued to just sit in the car and listened thru to Cygnus X-1 (Book One) as the rain continued to beat on the car roof.  Wipers off I mused and wondered if Cygnus X-1 would have a Book 2 in this musical adventure.   The transformation was complete I was a RUSH fan.     For years to come A FAREWELL TO KINGS, HEMISPHERES, PERMANENT WAVES and MOVING PICTURES would be my favorite RUSH albums.   I would listen to them frequently.   

Well with Todays rain it was time to revisit the memory and the feeling of that first listen.   And though I am older I find it still extremely enjoyable and satisfying.  It’s just one of those things.   🙂