Coverinfo
The album was anounced with the single
Do I love you ( indeed I do ). Do I love you ( indeed I do ) is the leading single from
Only The Strong Survive album. It was released on digital platforms on 29 Sep 2022, the same time the album was officially announced. A
music video for the song was simultaneously released on Bruce Springsteen's YouTube channel. The video was directed and edited by Thom Zimny. Only The Strong Survive is Bruce Springsteen's twenty-first studio album. It is officially released on 11 Nov 2022 on Columbia Records. It consists of 15 tracks, all of which are covers. This marks the second time that Springsteen releases a cover album following We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions in 2006. The album is "a collection of fifteen soul music greats," as described in the press release. It "celebrates soul music gems from the legendary catalogues of Motown, Gamble and Huff, Stax and many more." Springsteen commented: "I wanted to make an album where I just sang. And what better music to work with than the great American songbook of the Sixties and Seventies? I've taken my inspiration from Levi Stubbs, David Ruffin, Jimmy Ruffin, the Iceman Jerry Butler, Diana Ross, Dobie Gray, and Scott Walker, among many others. I've tried to do justice to them all and to the fabulous writers of this glorious music. My goal is for the modern audience to experience its beauty and joy, just as I have since I first heard it. I hope you love listening to it as much as I loved making it."
The announcement was made by Springsteen himself who addressed fans in a pre-recorded video posted online.
In anticipation to the announcement, Springsteen dropped hints on his social media accounts over the course of the previous three days. On 26 and 27 September, he shared each morning a photo of a road and of a steering wheel respectively, without any caption or comment.
On 28 September, he posted a 26-second
promo clip of a vintage car FM radio dial turning to different stations and listening in for a few seconds, each station playing a different song from the upcoming album.
Media:
Songinfo
"
I Wish It Would Rain" is a 1967 song recorded by the Temptations for the Motown label (under the "Gordy" imprint) and produced by Norman Whitfield. The song is one of the most melancholy in the Temptations repertoire, with lead singer David Ruffin delivering, in a pained voice, the story of a heartbroken man who wants to hide his sorrow. His woman has just left him, and he wishes that it would start raining, to hide the tears falling down his face because "a man ain't supposed to cry". Accompanying Ruffin's mourning vocal are the vocals of his bandmates (Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, and Otis Williams) alongside the subdued instrumentation of The Funk Brothers studio band, and, courtesy of Whitfield, sound effects depicting the "sunshine and blue skies", with the sound of chirping seagulls, and the sound of thunder and rain described in the song. More so than a number of other Motown songs, there is real sentiment and pain behind the song's words. Lyricist Penzabene had just found out his wife was cheating on him with another man. Unable to deal with the pain and unable to stop loving his wife, Penzabene expressed his pain in the lyrics of this song and its follow-up on the Temptations' release schedule, "I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)". The distraught Penzabene committed suicide on New Year's Eve 1967, a week after the single's release.
Bruce on the artist
Bruce Springsteen to Andy Greene in Rolling Stone:
"You’ve gotta be nuts to try and sing that song after
David Ruffin sang it. But I found my own little part of it… I found the hurt and the center of human emotion in it."
The finished track is one of Bruce’s favorites on the album. "I just felt great," he recollected to Greene. "It came out great, so we used it."
Lyrics
Hmm-mm-hmm (oh)
Sunshine, blue skies, please go away
My girl has found another, and gone away
With her went my future, my life is filled with gloom
So day after day, I stay locked up in my room
I know to you it might sound strange
But I wish it would rain
(Oh, how I wish that it would rain)
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah
'Cause so badly I wanna go outside
(Such a lovely day)
But everyone knows that a man ain't supposed to cry
Listen, I got to cry, 'cause crying
Eases the pain, oh yeah
People, this hurt I feel inside
Words, they, could never explain
I just wish it would rain
(Oh, how I wish that it would rain)
Oh let it rain, rain, rain, rain
(Oh, how I wish that it would rain)
Oo, baby
Let it rain (rain, rain)
Oh yeah, let it rain
Day in day out, my tear-stained face
Pressed against the window pane
My eyes search the skies, desperately for rain
'Cause rain drops will hide my teardrops
And no one will ever know
That I'm crying (crying) crying (crying)
When I go outside
To the world outside
My tears I refuse to explain
Oo, I wish it would rain
(How I wish that it would rain)
Oo, baby
Let it rain, let it rain
I need rain to disguise
The tears in my eyes
Oh, let it rain
Oh, yeah, yeah, listen
I'm a man and I've got my pride
'Til it rains I'm gonna stay inside
Let it rain