Have You Ever Seen the Rain

CCR in a reflective, almost vulnerable mode, "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" was written by Fogerty about the tensions within the band itself — the sense that success was consuming them, that good fortune carried its own darkness — though the lyric translates easily into something more universal. The imagery of sunshine followed by rain while the sun is still shining captures a specific emotional experience: the presentiment of loss while still inside the good thing, the knowledge of endings arriving before the ending itself. The production is notably open, the arrangement leaving space around Fogerty's voice in a way CCR rarely did. The guitar figure is gentle and recurring, the chorus simple enough to be hummed without thinking. It's one of those songs that doesn't announce its depth — it arrives quietly and sits with you. Fogerty's vocal is warm and plainspoken, the blues influence submerged in favor of something closer to folk or country. The song has been used in so many films and television shows that its emotional associations have layered over time, but the original record retains its intimacy. Best experienced alone, during the kind of day where the sky can't decide what it wants to be.