Love Reign O'er Me

Only love
Can make it rain
The way the beach is kissed by the sea
Only love
Can make it rain
Like the sweat of lovers
Laying in the fields.

Love, Reign o'er me
Love, Reign o'er me, rain on me

Only love
Can bring the rain
That makes you yearn to the sky
Only love
Can bring the rain
That falls like tears from on high

Love reign O'er me

On the dry and dusty road
The nights we spend apart alone
I need to get back home to cool cool rain
I can't sleep and I lay and I think
The night is hot and black as ink
Oh God, I need a drink of cool cool rain


Covers are tricky. Live, they're almost always fun, but if you're going to take the time to record one in the studio they're not often worth the time unless the artist is doing something new and different with the song. Otherwise it's essentially the same song with a different singer's vocals. If a cover is a loving tribute it may be worth listening to, and it could be fun, but it'll almost always pale next to the original.

Love Reign O'er Me is a remarkable cover insofar as it manages to change the nature of the song while still remaining faithful to the original. Not many cover songs are able to do that. Musically it sounds the same as the original, although there is a richness and a fullness to the music that the original is lacking. The original is supposed to have a rich, full sound (the echo effects on the vocals really ram this home), but it ends up sounding a little empty to me, diffuse instead of tight, incomplete instead of explosive. Clearly the music wants to envelop you. The song is meant to be an experience, but it doesn't quite pull it off. Pearl Jam's version has a depth to it that The Who's version kind of lacks. I don't hear the empty spaces that I do in the original.

But the real difference is the vocals. The Who's version of this song is assertive. The singer is demanding love, almost like it's an entitlement. It cuts the emotional core out of the song. Eddie gets the mood to this exactly right. Eddie's vocals are exhausted and weary in the verses, punctuated by desperate bursts of ragged energy. He sounds like he's been dragged through hell, and this is a last, final, go for broke plea. it's the sound of a bleeding heart that refuses to die, steeling itself for one last push for salvation. There's no expectation here, no entitlement. There's something much more primal here, whereas there is something surprisingly perfunctory about The Who's version, and it makes the song much more affecting. Compare the way Mike's guitar wails over the deep tones of the piano going into the final chorus to the original. Listen for the fire and ice in Eddie's voice, the way he's simultaneously being burned alive while freezing to death, compared to Daultrey, who sounds like he's throwing a temper tantrum.


Sometimes another artist gets your song more than you do, and that's what happened here.

I can't give this 5 stars since it's a cover, but it's close.

it should probably be noted that i'm not a very big fan of The Who.

Nice job nailing Pearl Jam's take on the song. Horrible take on The Who.

I like The Who, but I've never been a huge fan either. I've tried. I remember hearing Ed talk about how the band saved his life, and I expected something truly life changing. They seem very standard rock to me. They have some good songs, don't get me wrong, but nothing to write home about from here.

As for "Rain," I had never heard the song before PJ released the cover. After seeking out the Who version, I am glad I didn't. Stip, I like how you describe PJ's version as "explosive." That's exactly what is, especially matched up against The Who's jangly mess. It took me a while to warm up to Ed's ragged vocals, but it serves the song well energy-wise and passion-wise. The music is great, and harkens back to the the thick-sounding, controlled solos that I wish Mike would do more often. I remember people saying that an orchestra would never work behind Pearl Jam (I think I was one of them), but this certainly proved us wrong. I love the mix of elements. It's one of the best endings to any PJ song and it's one of the hardest songs to sing along with in the PJ catalog.

4 stars.

I love The Who, but I actually like this version better than theirs.

As a fan of the Who from before I ever heard a note of Pearl Jam (my dad was a fan, so I heard them a bunch when I was growing up), I can't behind this review at all - sorry, stip.

LROM is my least favourite cover that they play, it was okay for the TV tribute but I think they should've left it there. I think their covers of Baba O'Riley and The Real Me are more successful, though still just a nice tribute - I don't think either comes close to bettering the original.

1 star. Ah, okay 2. It's not as if they do a bad job with it, it's a fair cover, but it just feels entirely redundant - at least Baba and The Real Me are fun and fit more organically into a Pearl Jam set; LROM just sticks out like a sore thumb, it's nothing like the rest of their catalogue.

I rate this 4 stars, but I don't like it that much live.

Agreed. I think the song is more suited to EV's vocal style than Daltrey's.

4 Stars, great cover

i just think the song sounds better in the context of the Who album. on its own, it just sounds too overblown or something. its ok i guess, just not a song i want to get at a show.

Whatever way you feel about it, hopefully it's a well played, better than the original, glorious full stop to Pearl jam's mining of the Who's catalogue.

I am not a Who fan, either, but I loved the original the first time I heard it way back when on classic rock radio, and have listened to it quite a lot over the years. So I was pretty excited about the prospect of the Pearl Jam cover when it was first announced. They didn't disappoint me. It's quite obviously a Pearl Jam take on it, so it makes some sense that it's not too different from the original, given the obvious Who influences on the band and Ed.

Stip's take that the song is "fuller" is spot on- it was the first thing I noticed when listening to Pearl Jam's version the first time. Not sure I agree with the opinions on the different vocal takes, but I've no interest in debating those particulars as they don't particularly interest me either way.

The studio take is the definitive version in my view (even over the Rock Honors performance), but they do a lot better with it live than I thought they would do. Hearing it at Bonnaroo was amazing.

Wow i love the studio version of this song....4 stars to me.

But i do agree that i've never really liked this song live outside of that Who Rock Honors show.

I know exactly what you mean, and I agree. Stripped of its context, the song is a little over-the-top.

The "fullness" that Stip hears in the PJ cover that is absent from the Who original has a lot to do with the hollow-sounding 70s production.

[quote="Vitalogy1994" But i do agree that i've never really liked this song live outside of that Who Rock Honors show.[/quote]

Totally agree. It's all or nothing on this tune, once you half-ass it and stick in the middle of a set, it loses its luster.

It's a good cover...definitely gives it what you'd expect it to get from Pearl Jam...but the song just belongs in Quadrophenia. It's one of maybe 20 or so records I consider better than anything Pearl Jam has ever done, and hearing LRoM outside of the context is like hearing Another Brick in the Wall on classic rock radio. And I would agree, Stip, with the assertion that you're pretty heavily missing the mark on the original.

I'm kinda the same. It's probably one of my favourite classic songs. I was very psyched when I heard the recorded version. Psyched when I heard it debut in Copenhagen 2007. Psyched when I heard it again in Rotterdam last year. But the only place this song really belongs, is on Quadrophenia. Nowhere else.

it sounds like I should listen to quadrophenia.

You haven't heard Quadrophenia? It's the Who record every self respecting rock fan should own. You could own that and never have another Who record and it'd be ok. It's a great record. Well maybe Who's next as well

Yeah really, stip. Listen to Quadrophenia. I'm not the biggest Who fan either, but that album is nothing short of incredible.

As for the cover, I gave it 4 stars because I think PJ did as good a job as possible with it. But the song really does belong on the album, and I also agree with whoever said it sticks out like a sore thumb in concert. Not nearly as fun as Baba. I'm glad I've seen it played, but now I'm done with it.

Eddie should've jumped in when it seemed pretty obvious that Roger was struggling on this at the Royal Albert Hall tonight.

Ohhhhhhhhhh yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh