Why Don't it Rain?

Bob Nolan
Original copyright: Undetermined

I don’t ask very much of life. I’m satisfied it seems
To work and slave each long day thru
And spend each night in dreams.
There’s one thing I can’t understand
And it don’t seem quite fair
For days the plains have needed rain
Is something wrong up there?

Blazin’ sunshine every day, open ranges seem to say
Soon we’ll wither and decay our life away
Why don’t it rain?
See that little creature hurry to the shade.
He don’t know. I see him there,
Tiny feet all blistered, but he don’t seem afraid.
Guess I better tell him to beware
There’s a vulture in the sky, and he knows the reason why
Everything will surely die, and so will I.

Calin Coburn, Bob Nolan's grandson, unearthed a green metal box filled with hundreds of 8½”x11” sheets of heavy paper or light card. Each card held typed lyrics to one song and these were the songs the Pioneers sang in the early days of their career. Lloyd Perryman, Tim Spencer and Roy Rogers each had a similar box.

Bob lived through the Great Depression years of the 1930s. He saw the devastation of farms and animals, felt the hunger and hopelessness of dispossessed people. The killing dust of those drought years gave birth to songs like Cindy Walker's "Dusty Skies" and books like The Grapes of Wrath. Bob was often hungry and when he finally found steady work and could eat regularly, he very nearly gave up any thought of earning a living with his music.

Key of B♭ is designated so we know it was a song and not just a poem but now the melody is lost to us. Only the lyrics remain. Wayne Austin Shrope volunteered to recite them for us.

We do not have any sheet music for this song.