What does No Rain mean?

Blind Melon: No Rain Meaning

Album cover for No Rain album cover

Song Released: 1992


Get "No Rain" on MP3: Get MP3 from iTunes

No Rain Lyrics

All I can say is that my life is pretty plain
I like watchin' the puddles gather rain

And all I can do is just pour some tea for two
and speak my point of view
But it's not sane, It's not sane

I just want someone to say to me oh,oh, oh,...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 11th 2008 !⃝

    Not about drugs! It's about depression. The bass player of the band- I think his name is brad??? wrote this about his girlfriend. She was always complaining that there was not raining. Raining would mean that she would have an excuse to stay in. But it never rained so she had no excuse, she was depressed and stayed in anyway.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    username
    click a star to vote
    Jul 10th 2005 !⃝

    Despite its cheery uplifting beat this song is pretty depressing. The bassist wrote this about a beautiful girl who seemed to have the world at her feet yet was never happy. One night he asked to take her out and she declined saying that she was too depressed. In frustration, he penned the beginning of the song and noticed he was also subconciously writing about himself. They had this in common and thus "had it madddeeeee..."

    This song also makes a referance to the Pink Floyd song "Time" the part about how the guy likes to watch puddles gather. In "Time" Waters talks about how he "stays at home to watch the rain" this song kinda went down in 90's pop culture as the "Bumble - Bee Girl song," watch the video.

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Feb 13th 2008 !⃝

    Okay... first of all it is not about drugs! I swear, interpreting every song to be about drugs must have some psychological representation!

    take the song at face value, it means alot

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Aug 19th 2019 !⃝

    This is a total pedophile song! Listen to the words of the song and then look at the video. There's no reason to have a prepubescent girl dressed up as a bumblebee among grown men with those lyrics. You all are wrong! This is a pedophile song!

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  5. anonymous
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    Dec 5th 2018 !⃝

    it could be possible its their inner tears, ripping them away., loved the band the songs the people too bad that had to leave

  6. anonymous
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    Jan 10th 2018 !⃝

    I think the song, and the accompanying video, has overtones of depression but also offers an inspiring message: that every has their "weird" tendencies that make them feel different and isolated, but someone out there, weird is normal and you're never really alone. The tap dancing bee girl is laughed at and cast out by people she meets on the street, often how people internalize their feelings of depression. When she finds the park with people just like her, it would be those that aren't tap dancing bees that would be the weird ones, wouldn't it?

    I used to teach gifted students and tell them that this is our class' theme song.

  7. anonymous
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    Oct 26th 2013 !⃝

    I can directly relate to this song, as I do literally everything in it. Reading is an escape, but it's such an escape I start to question reality and wish I was in the book, but not normally. It gets to the point where I refuse to believe that what's real is real, and that rips up my life. But the reason I love rain is because then I can go outside, no one else is out there so is love going out in the rain. Seeing as I'm 70-ish percent sure I'm clinically depressed( I don't want to see someone) I do believe this song is about depression

  8. dman
    click a star to vote
    Nov 4th 2012 !⃝

    I thought the song was about a guy who had a boring, plain, midwestern life who tried different things to stay preoccupied and add meaning to his life. Thus, the line about reading books being a great escape. I thought rain was metaphor for turmoil in his life. In that sense, he is so bored that he wishes there was rain.

  9. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 31st 2012 !⃝

    I wholeheartedly disagree with the analysis that depression is even a remote contributive factor to this amazing song. Even when an artist presents a song in third person perspective, I think it often times is a fair representation of what they, themselves understand to be true than to none other than...themselves.

    We, the audience, can grapple with...ourselves...perpetually over what it is the artist is trying to reveal and in doing so miss the value and true meaning, one that only can be felt if you...yourself...can relate. It is meant for no other than that intimate connection between the relative experience of the artist and...yourself. Music is a healing experience and by relating with the artist, one is able to use a mallet to beat out the dents and reshape your internal infrastructure...and THAT is the power of music! It has nothing to do with anyone but...yourself...and the world in which you exist which obviously Hoon did an amazing (not an appropriate word for his greatness) job of relating in ways that perhaps not many can relate, obviously. And I am not meaning to subtract from others own personal experience with this song, in particular, my views are just private, yet not-so-much now. Oh, well...this song really jives with me deep in my soul and makes me want to dress up as a bumble bee and tap dance...not on stage though...never!

  10. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 24th 2012 !⃝

    Saying the bassist wrote it about his girlfriend, or a girl he knew, does not lead way to the meaning of the song. The song is not about that, it is simply what inspired it.

  11. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 4th 2012 !⃝

    I've had numerous people tell me its about shrooms. No Rain = No Shrooms.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  12. anonymous
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    Jun 21st 2011 !⃝

    Also it puts towards the comfortably numb theory. You are depressed, as a child you want to stay depressed, to not fail in whatever task is ahead of you. Rain stops the whole day, you can't go outside. Thus a reason to not go outside and be embarassed. (Judging by the overweight Bee Girl) Great song though, great great great great great great song. A legend in their own right. If the lead never OD'd, I honestly feel there would be a new Lennon. He was one of a kind.

  13. anonymous
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    Jun 21st 2011 !⃝

    Just because the lead singer died from an OD, doesn't really mean it was about drugs. It's obviously depression, and beyond some metaphorical enterprise of slurs. Blind Melon was a pretty straight forward band. When he says a book, I'm sure he meant a book. I cannot prove that, as well I did not know him, and he's dead. When you are depressed, clinically. You have a tendency to enjoy rain, because of how it washes the world away. It's cold, barren, and yet to revitalizing. You want the world around you to feel as deep as you. It's a pretty straight forward expression for a depressed person to speak of rain. As depression was huge in the early 90's rock. Rain was a very very over used term. So, in short. A straight forward band. It really shows the character of the band. Peace and completion(of ones self) is the master subject of most songs.

  14. southerngirl86
    click a star to vote
    Dec 18th 2008 !⃝

    I agree with the depression interpretation 100%, but I've always believed that the line about reading a book to stay awake and it rips my life away but its a great escape, was definitely about getting high and leaving reality for a little while, we all know they were into drugs, and if were talking about an escape, well what else could it mean.. reading a book is metaphorical because its another way of escaping reality.. drugs are a way of dealing with depression, and it does rip your life away, but it is a great escape.

  15. Danielle
    click a star to vote
    Dec 13th 2008 !⃝

    I think this song is about someone that is terribly unwell and unsatisfied with themselves and their life. They want someone, that they either cant have or cannot get through to, or they want and refuse to do anything about. Its a very depressing song, and it reminds me of someone that is in an attempt to hide and laugh off their problems.

  16. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 14th 2008 !⃝

    Drugs!! LOL "All that I do, is read a book to stay awake..)
    Books aren't drugs. If it was about drugs it would say "All that I do is 5 fat lines to stay awake!" lol
    Puddles are a gathering of depression; reasons to stay inside, while at the same time realizing that even depression is depressing. "but it rips my life away"

  17. anonymous
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    Feb 28th 2007 !⃝

    First off, I must say that Blind Melon is, in my opinion, ont of the most under rated bands of all time. This song, No Rain, was their biggest hit, but they had so many other songs that were even better.
    I hate to give another interpretation of drugs, but for this song I must. When he speaks of the "Puddles gathering rain", he's talking about the water going into the spoon. Also the phrase "it rips my life away but it's a great escape" refers to drugs ruining his life. Some of the lyrics refer to him missing someone, but probably because his addiction has drove them away.


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