Drinking This Rain

full interpretation:<br /> <br /> <br /> This song seems like he is waiting for a girl to come and meet him but she hasn't come..<br /> <br /> ''With the cornfields as my witness<br /> I've run out of brain<br /> Come on down to the place where I'm drinking<br /> Come on down like the rain''<br /> <br /> Here he is saying he's going to the cornfields and the 'cornfields' know he's not thinking straight. He asks the girl to 'come on down to the place where I'm drinking, come down like the rain' he means come and see me, come really quickly. You can see he's asking her to come quickly because he says 'come like the rain' and the rain comes down quickly.<br /> <br /> ‘And it's coming to me<br /> Like a baseball to a bat<br /> I'm only hitting 1.18<br /> And I'm wondering where you’re at’<br /> <br /> I think the first bit of this verse is about him realising really quickly that the girl isn’t there and that he has the thought that she might not come. You can see he is saying he got this thought quickly because he says ‘and it’s coming to me’, as if the thought is coming to him, and ‘like a baseball to a bat’ because the ball comes really quickly when you have to bat it away. So he’s saying the thought is coming to him really fast like when the ball comes at you in a game of baseball. 'I'm only hitting 1.18 and I'm wondering where you're at'. He's saying it's only 1 O'clock but he's already wondering where she is and why she isn't with him. He says if she doesn't come soon he’s going to be really sad, you can see this when he says 'And if you don't come quick I'm gonna dry up in this world'.<br /> <br /> ‘And the oak on the bar<br /> Is like the oak in my heart<br /> And like the oak buried deep down in the sand<br /> I got water at heart...’<br /> <br /> I think here he is saying his heart is like oak; it is hard on the outside but soft on the inside. He used oak to compare the hard bit to because oak is generally a hard substance, but he used water as the soft bit because he is saying water is soft. I think here is trying to tell the girl that it may look like he has a hard heart but in the middle he is soft. It is same as telling her he looks like he is cold-hearted but really he is warm-hearted. <br /> <br /> ''And it goes in through my mouth<br /> And it slides into my veins<br /> And it takes away my head<br /> I don't have to feel the same<br /> <br /> And my eyes go red<br /> And my skin goes warm<br /> And at the end of the night<br /> I'm just cryin' in my bed''<br /> <br /> But this bit, I think he's talking about drugs, just because he says 'it slides into my veins' and 'it takes away my head I don't have to feel the same'. He's saying it (the drug) takes away the pain so he doesn't have to feel how he's feeling. When he says 'and my eyes go red and my skin goes warm' I think he's just describing what the drug is doing to him. But when he says 'and at the end of the night I'm just cryin' in my bed', He means at the end of the night the drug has worn off and the effect has too, he's just left there feeling hurt like he did at the beginning of the night.<br /> <br /> ''Some call it sick<br /> Some call it pain<br /> Some just laugh at it<br /> But honey, it's like the rain<br /> It's like when thirsty<br /> And there's none in the well''<br /> <br /> I think this verse is saying that he knows some people think drugs are bad but he wants to explain why he does it. When he says 'some call it sick, some call it pain, some just laugh at it’ he’s describing different people's attitudes to drugs. 'But honey, its like the rain, its like when you’re thirsty and there's none in the well', here is explaining to the girl that taking the drug is just a substitute for something else he wants, probably the girl in this context. He's saying he wants her but she isn't there so he'll just have to create happiness by using the drug. He's comparing the feeling to 'drinking the rain' because he means it is the same as being thirsty but there isn't any water so you have to drink the rain. In his position, he needs the girl but the girl isn't there so he has to take the drug. A very clever metaphor.<br /> <br /> 'It's like bringing darkness<br /> When darkness has already fell<br /> It's like breaking dreams of a broken man<br /> And nothing makes it come on down<br /> Like the rain came... '<br /> <br /> Here he is just explaining what the drug is like again. When he says 'it's like bringing the darkness when darkness has already fell' he's saying the darkness is sadness, he means it's as if you're bringing sadness but sadness is already there, so it doesn't matter that he is bringing the ‘sadness’. It is the same kind of thing with the line 'it's like breaking dreams of a broken man', he means he is making himself feel broken but he already feels like a 'broken man', so it isn't as bad a thing to do. I think he is telling her and other people not to judge him for taking the drug because he was already hurt before. He believes it doesn’t matter if he hurts himself anymore because he was already like that in the first place. <br /> <br /> I think the whole song is about him waiting for a girl to come and meet him but she doesn't. He obviously feels really strongly about the girl because he says he is hurt that she hasn’t come, he even ends up taking drugs to numb the pain. At the end he finds out that the drug only stops the pain for a while and then he's left feeling hurt all over again.<br />

S'mattafack, I believe there isn't a reference to drugs here. He just means the alcohol.<br /> <br /> Personally, I hear this instead of the above:<br /> <br /> And the oak on the bar<br /> is like the oak in my heart<br /> And like the oak buried deep down in the sand<br /> I gotta water it hard<br /> <br /> And it goes in through my mouth<br /> And it slides into my veins<br /> And it takes away my head<br /> And I don't have to feel the same<br /> And my eyes go red<br /> And my skin glows warm<br /> And at the end of the night,<br /> I'm just cryin in my bed"<br /> <br /> I take this to mean that he feels the pain is so deep in him that he has to drink a LOT in order to achieve any dulling effect at all. And then, of course, thanks to the nature of alcohol, he still ends up crying at the end of the night. Oh, liquor. <br /> <br /> Consequently, I hold that the above interpretation isn't necessarily wrong, just applied to the wrong substance. He is talking about substance abuse, but I think it's very clear that it's just alcohol in this case. I also think the song title, and a few other little references in the song, point to the actual weather having an effect on his mood. "Nothing makes it come on down/Like the rain can," is, to me, speaking to the heartbreak he's already experiencing and how it's intensified on this night, thanks to the rain, and perchance some painfully choice memories that are triggered by it.