Blind Melon – No Rain

Song

"No Rain" is a song by American rock band Blind Melon. It was released in 1993 as the second single from the band's debut album Blind Melon. The song is well known for its accompanying music video, which features the "Bee Girl" character. The music video, directed by Samuel Bayer, received heavy airplay on MTV at the time of its release. It subsequently helped propel Blind Melon to a multi-platinum level.

The song is the band's highest-charting song, reaching number 20 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number one on both the Billboard Album Rock Tracks and Modern Rock Tracks charts. It proved to be successful internationally, peaking at number one in Canada and number eight in Australia.

Background

"No Rain" is in the key of E Mixolydian, and is performed in a moderately fast tempo.

Although the song is credited to the whole band, it was bassist Brad Smith who wrote the greater part of "No Rain". He said: "The song is about not being able to get out of bed and find excuses to face the day when you have really, in a way, nothing." At the time, Smith had been dating a girl who was going through depression (she would sleep through sunny days and complain when it didn't rain), and for a while he told himself that he was writing the song from her perspective, though Smith later realized that he was also writing about it himself.

Music video

The music video, directed by Samuel Bayer, stars Heather DeLoach as the "Bee Girl", a young tap dancer wearing a homemade bee costume and large glasses, modeled after the Blind Melon album cover: a family picture of Georgia Graham, younger sister of drummer Glen Graham. The Bee Girl's story is intercut with footage of Blind Melon performing in a field against a clear blue sky.

It opens on the girl's tap routine; the audience responds with mocking laughter, and the girl runs off-stage in tears. As the song plays, she wanders through Los Angeles, stopping to perform her dance for whomever will watch, but she still feels alone. Ultimately, at the point in the song where the word "escape" is repeated, she peeks through a gate, which elicits a look of astonishment on her face, then runs through it to join a group of "bee people" just like her, dancing joyfully in a green field.

As a result of the video, DeLoach appeared on the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards doing her "Bee Girl" dance to close the show, and also appeared as the "Bee Girl" in the video for "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "Bedrock Anthem".

Album

Blind Melon è il primo ed eponimo album in studio del gruppo rock statunitense Blind Melon, pubblicato nel 1992 dalla Capitol Records.

Artist

I Blind Melon sono una band alternative rock statunitense, formatasi nel 1989, a Los Angeles, dall'incontro di due musicisti provenienti dal Mississippi, il chitarrista Roger Stevens ed il bassista Brad Smith. Si aggiunse presto, alla voce, il carismatico Shannon Hoon.

Gli esordi

Dopo le prime difficoltà, nel 1992 la band pubblica con la Capitol Records il primo lavoro dal titolo omonimo. Il sound proposto è un meltin' pot di sonorità folk, blues, funky, con una particolare attenzione e gusto per le melodie, l'improvvisazione e l'interplay. L'album Blind Melon riscuote subito un grande successo in tutto il mondo, trascinato dal singolo e dal videoclip No Rain, un brano costruito su un tema orecchiabile che dona atmosfere folk ad una tipica ballad blues rock.

Nel 1995 la band pubblica Soup. Questo disco, rispetto al precedente, è caratterizzato da una maggiore attenzione per il processo compositivo a scapito di quello improvvisativo. "Soup" colpisce per la sua compattezza e varietà (una zuppa, appunto), le soluzioni geniali (vedi brani come "S. Andrew's fall", "Vernie" e altri), l'intensità emozionale ("New Life", nella quale Shannon parla della sua paternità).

Poco tempo dopo Shannon Hoon viene ritrovato morto per overdose. Il decesso di Shannon decreta, tragicamente, la fine della band. Nel 1996 la Capitol Records pubblica Nico, compilation postuma con brani inediti registrati nel periodo trascorso in tour tra il 1991 ed il 1995.