TURN TO THE RAIN AND THE WIND
“Percy’s Song” is a song written by Bob Dylan. It was an outtake from October 1963 sessions for Dylan’s third album, The Times They Are A-Changin’. It was not officially released until 1985, on the compilation Biograph. In the notes to that album, Dylan credits Paul Clayton for the song’s “beautiful melody line”. He had played “The Wind and the Rain” to him, a variant of “The Twa Sisters”, Child ballad 10. (More from Wikipedia)
Two of my favorite topical songs by Bob Dylan, “Who Killed Davey Moore” (a live performance) and “Percy’s Song” are included on John Birch Society Blues. “Percy’s Song” – identified on John Birch Society Blues as “Turn to the Rain and the Wind” – has the singer learning that a good friend had been involved in an auto accident and had been convicted of “manslaughter in the highest of degrees”, resulting in a 99-year sentence. Interspersed with a recurring refrain, “Turn, turn, turn again / Turn, turn to the rain and the wind”, the singer tries to get to the bottom of what happened and argues to no avail with the judge that the sentence is too harsh, closing with “But he ain’t no criminal / And his crime it is none / What happened to him / Could happen to anyone”.
(September 2017)
