Origin [edit]
In 1923, ‘the Red-Headed Music Maker’, aka, 'the Pineapple Picador’, aka, singer and instrumentalist Wendell Hall, wrote and recorded a catchy, upbeat novelty song entitled, “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo.” The tune’s clever lyrics and controversial chorus lines were a culturally revolutionary welcome to a young Jazz Age generation just breaking free from the staid Victorian Age generation—celebrated because they were deemed morally unconscionable by those still trapped in society’s humble prudishness.
Hall, inspired by a burgeoning mass media, next married the song with moving pictures, and thus created the world’s first music video. Shot on black-and-white 35mm stock and filmed around 16-18 frames per second rather than the usual 24, the sped-up, comical Charlie-Caplinesque jerky images animated the riotous lyrics.
Content [edit]
Oh, it ain't gonna rain no more, no more
It ain't gonna rain no more
How in the heck can I wash around my neck
if it ain't gonna rain no more
[Video: a studly, sweaty, bulked-up laboring-type wearing bib overalls looks into an empty corrugated wash tub and rubs a dirty red bandana across the back of his neck]
A bum sat by the sewer
And by the sewer he die
And at the coroners inquest
They called it 'sewer side'
Oh, it ain't gonna rain no more, no more
It ain't gonna rain no more
How in the hell can I wash my gal
if it ain't gonna rain no more
[Video: the studly, sweaty bulked-up laboring-type, his bib overalls unsnapped to the waist revealing his ripped shoulders, stands beside the dry wash tub and is now stroking the bandana seductively across the back of a pretty, full-bosomed, apparently nude bombshell wearing only platinum blonde bobbed hair, a spiked leather choker and 6-inch stilettos]
A peanut sat on the railroad track
It's heart was all a-flutter
Along came the 4:15
Toot toot, peanut butter
Oh, it ain't gonna rain no more, no more
It ain't gonna rain no more
How in the hell can I wash around my pal
if it ain't gonna rain no more
[Video: the studly, sweaty bulked-up laboring-type whose bib overalls are now around his ankles, stands dejectedly beside the wash tub stroking the bandana seductively across the back of another studly, sweaty bulked-up laboring-type sitting in it wearing only a World War I sailor’s cap and doughboy army boots]
My father built a chimney
He built it up so high
He had to take it down each night
To let the moon go by.
Oh, it ain't gonna rain no more, no more
It ain't gonna rain no more
How in the **** can we wash our duck
if it ain't gonna rain no more
[Video: the studly, sweaty bulked-up laboring-type is now apparently naked and sitting in the dry wash tub across from his apparently naked pal. The two men look forlornly at their little yellow bath toy marooned on the tub’s dry bottom ]
Mary had a little lamb,
Her father shot it dead
Oh, she still takes it off to school
But on a slice of bread.
Oh, it ain't gonna rain no more, no more
It ain't gonna rain no more
Feeling blah we can’t have a soapy ménage-a-trois
if it ain't gonna rain no more
[Video: the two apparently naked studly, sweaty, bulked-up laboring-type are now joined in the dry wash tub by the apparently naked gal]
Peter was a rabbit
A rabbit he is no more
For what he thought was a rabbit hole
Was a hole in the outhouse floor
Oh, it ain't gonna rain no more, no more
It ain't gonna rain no more
There ain’t water to ruin our powder
If it ain't gonna rain no more
[Video: the tub trio cut out cocaine lines on a rusty washboard and snort it with a hundred dollar greenback]
I never saw a purple cow
I never hope to see one
But I can tell you anyhow
I'd rather see than be one.
Oh, it ain't gonna rain no more, no more
It ain't gonna rain no more
Dry and gritty, in time inspiring Diddy
If it ain't gonna rain no more.
[Video: an apparently naked white guy wearing black face, gold chains, and sunglasses joins the fun]
Legacy: [edit]
Although “Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo’” sold over two million copies in the United States, was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America, and was deemed the first hit pop song on radio, the music video bombed miserably since films with a soundtrack and television had yet to be invented.
Hall’s celluloid master recording of this entertainment touchstone whose visual subject matter became de rigueur for MTV music videos many decades later is stored in a climate-controlled vault at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
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