It is so true as Californians have experienced it for a few days, and it is supposed to continue till Wednesday!! No it never rains here, but when it does, the sky is falling, buckets of water are pouring, literally.
The 1972 Albert Hammond & M. Hazelwood’s song, ‘It never rains in Southern California’ was a worldwide hit, and even though I cannot remember from when and where I knew this song, it is part of some collective pop memory.
Albert Hammond, who is none other than the Strokes guitarist’s dad, has crafted more hits in the 70’s, the 80’s, and even the 90’s than many could ever dream of , but this precise song reached number 5 in the charts in 1972, and was his biggest solo hit ever.
Even though this song musically belongs very much to its decade, it still works, since it brings back all the nostalgia of the full orchestration of this time, with piano and strings, a little on the cheesy side, as a sort of easing listening tune with a hook in the chorus you cannot get out of your head for days.
And the metaphor about the rain in the lyrics is all about this broken Californian-Hollywood dream, a place where bad things do not happen, but only the worst can occur.
Like this rain right now in LA, it is the worst it has been for a long time, I see the flood coming, man it pours for sure!