Now here’s the weird thing. Williams had released three straight albums that I really loved and had written at least a couple of songs I consider among my very favorites, and yet in 2003 when she released her next album, Beauty of the Rain, I didn’t get it. And two years later she released an album called My Better Self and I didn’t get that either.
That’s quite unlike me. I’m always looking for the next album by artists I enjoy. Maybe it was because I was suddenly sharing my house with a 1-year-old, though I don’t think I stopped buying music altogether.
Maybe I was caught up in some other new find and Williams somehow slipped by my radar. But whatever the reason, there are two albums of Dar Williams material out there that are a mystery to me. And for all I know they contain the next ‘When I Was a Boy’ or ‘After All.’
To represent those two albums, I’m highlighting the first song I could find on YouTube, the title track of The Beauty in the Rain. And if this song is any indication, I guess I should seek out those two albums right away. It’s another slow acoustic beauty, this time about a failed relationship. It appears the man, to whom the song is addressed, backed out when things got scary.
I don’t quite know what to make of the chorus, “the beauty of the rain is how it falls,” but she seems to be gently scolding this man for retreating to the safety of his metaphorical dry room and not braving the storm of this woman he loved and their relationship.
You’re just two umbrellas one late afternoon
You don’t know the next thing you will say
This is your favorite kind of day
It has no walls, the beauty of the rain
Is how it falls, how it falls, how it falls
And there’s nothing wrong, but there is something more
And sometimes you wonder what you love her for
She says you’ve known her deepest fears
Cause she’s shown you a box of stained-glass tears
It can’t be all, the truth about the rain
is how it falls, how it falls, how it falls
But when she gave you more to find
You let her think she’d lost her mind
And that’s all on you
Feeling helpless if she asked for help
Or scared you’d have to change yourself
And you can’t deny this room will keep you warm
You can look out of your window at the storm
But you watch the phone and hope it rings
You’ll take her any way she sings,
Or how she calls, the beauty of the rain
Is how it falls, how it falls, how it falls
How it falls, how it falls, how it falls
Meet Me In Montauk 
I think your interpretation is spot on. It’s a lovely song. As for why you didn’t buy this or that album, I guess there’s no way to know for sure. Were they even on your radar? Did you make a specific decision NOT to get them or did you just never know they were around to get?
Or did you feel as though you had enough Dar Williams’ songs to satisfy any Dar yen that might come your way, so you didn’t feel a need to get more? I’ve said many times how overwhelming I find it how many songs are out there in the world. If I love hundred I rarely get to listen to, then why should I go out and search for more that will fight for that same limited play time? That would have been my reason for not buying them. Still, I know you don’t buy into that philosophy 🙂
No, I don’t buy into that philosophy at all. 🙂 I certainly have more Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan albums than I ever have time for but I’d never consider not picking up their next releases.
Another beautiful song. Shame on you for not buying this album!:) Now go return that ridiculous Bob Dylan Christmas CD and exchange it for this one.:)