“Fire And Rain” – James Taylor

Just yesterday morning, they let me know you were gone.
Suzanne, the plans they made put an end to you.
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song,
I just can’t remember who to send it to.
I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain. I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end.
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always thought that I’d see you again.

Won’t you look down upon me, Jesus, You’ve got to help me make a stand.
You’ve just got to see me through another day.
My body’s aching and my time is at hand and I won’t make it any other way.
Oh, I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain. I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end.
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always thought that I’d see you again.

Been walking my mind to an easy time, my back turned towards the sun.
Lord knows when the cold wind blows it’ll turn your head around.
Well, there’s hours of time on the telephone line to talk about things to come.
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.

Oh, I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain. I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end.
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend,
but I always thought that I’d see you baby, one more time again, now.

Thought I’d see you one more time again.
There’s just a few things coming my way this time around, now.
Thought I’d see you, thought I’d see you, fire and rain, now.

The passing of somebody important to our lives is something that’s immensely painful. There may not be words to describe them, but the pain is so real, it’s physical. Every day that pass seems like a hazy buzz. Nothing seems to matter. The intense burden that’s shouldered upon the loved ones left is maddening and will surely leave an indelible scar in one’s heart. Their lives will never be the same again. If it’s any consolation, the thought of having the deceased loved one close to other family members by means of a cremation service is, perhaps, a good choice as any.

This desperation that’s caused by losing someone is poignantly captured in the classic country song Fire and Rain by the legendary James Taylor. The song begins with the news of the loss and the speaker’s impetus to write a song about it, just that he didn’t know who to send it to, probably because he can’t think clearly because of the shock. This then is reinforced by the chorus that says the speaker has seen all there is to be seen in life, just that he didn’t expect the sudden loss, and this realization gets repeated throughout the song.

The second verse takes us to what must have been the daily suffering of the speaker when dealing with the pain of this loss. His call to, “…look down upon me, Jesus, You’ve got to help me make a stand. You’ve just got to see me through another day”, is both a sign of desperation and a cry for help.

And of course, with all the pain, what better to do than to find a sort of escape? This is what the third verse has for us. Here, the speaker talks about going back to an “easy time” a time of long phone conversations and dreams and plans for the future. This was presumably something happy to think about and thus, may have soothed the pain, if not for a little bit, for the speaker.

Then the song just practically ends there, a person making his way thru the day-to-day struggles of grief, coping and dealing with the pain.

Fire and Rain can be the funeral song you can most relate to. The struggles of grief is a short process if you count it in months but the pain it delivers can feel like forever.  What’s important is that as with everything in life, this pain would also end one day, though the memories and the relevance of that lost person will remain with us for good.