Rebuilding Rob

I may have been partially inspired by my Gen X life – a great blog that you should check out – for the subject of today’s post.

I don’t normally make a habit of watching at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. I do, however see some of his clips on social media, including TikTok. There is one question that I see him ask several of his guests: what is your all-time favorite song? Colbert usually goes on to clarify that he doesn’t mean “What is a song that you would hear on an eternal loop for the rest of your life?” but rather “what is the one song that you would choose to hear every time you’ve turned on the radio?”

For most of us, this is an incredibly loaded question – as it is for most everybody. I am no different. How does one pick one song from all of human history as their all-time favorite? There are so many different criteria for such a question: is it the song that makes you feel happy? Sad? Energized? Does it have the best lyrics, the best melody? The most sophisticated guitar or drum solos?

The topic of “my all-time favorite song” changes from time to time. But if you were to ask me, right now, gun-to-my-head level of urgency, I would say that “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” by Creedence Clearwater Revival is my all-time favorite song. I have a tendency to connect whatever song I’m hearing to whatever big moment is taking place.

“Have you ever…” has been elevated to something somewhere between a companion piece, and a predator stalking me through the highest and lowest points of my life. The Spin Doctors cover, from the 1993 movie Philadelphia, was playing at the moment I proposed to X1. Then, 16 years later, I heard the CCR original the day that I moved out of South Carolina.

From the Wikipedia article about the song:

In his review of the song for AllMusic, Mark Deming suggests that "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" is about the decline of the countercultural political idealism of the 1960s during the Nixon administration, in light of events such as the Altamont Free Concert and the Kent State shootings.[9] 

However, John Fogerty has said in interviews and prior to playing the song in concert that it concerns tensions within Creedence Clearwater Revival themselves and the imminent departure of his brother Tom Fogerty from the band. 

"That song is really about the impending breakup of Creedence. The imagery is, you can have a bright, beautiful, sunny day, and it can be raining at the same time," Fogerty told Rolling Stone magazine in 1993.

It’s one of those songs that is both simple and sophisticated . While its melody is upbeat, its lyrics, referring to “the rain”, can be taken as dark times ahead.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related posts:

• Acknowledge Me: The Simple Art of Being Seen
• Rob’s Retro Movie Review: This is Spinal Tap (1984) – The Movie That Scaled to Eleven
• A Death in the Family (And My Disposable Income): My Life in Comics
• The Supporting Cast: Navigating the Eras of Male Friendship
• Life is What Happens: A Look Back at My Non-Existent 2025 Vision

The article “My All-Time Favorite Song” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.