# Blind Melon's "No Rain" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 13, 2010, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335 "2010-03-13T08:00:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PeacePlease](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@PeacePlease](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeacePlease)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/1 "2010-03-13T08:00:01Z")
So I downloaded this song from iTunes and it came with one of those obnoxious explicit labels. Can my fair dopers please explain this to me? Lyrics: \*All I can say is that my life is pretty plain I like watchin’ the puddles gather rain And all I can do is just pour some tea for two and speak my point of view But it’s not sane, It’s not sane… \* I’m stumped!!! ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/2 "2010-03-13T08:10:01Z")
Thw whole album might have been labled, or it might have to do with some belief that the band was advocating drug use. The decisons as to what gets labeled are not very rational. Frank Zappa once got an explicit language sticker for an album that was completely instrumental, not a sung or spoken word on the album. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/3 "2010-03-13T08:12:51Z")
The word “insane” in the lyrics might cause people to go insane. We can’t let that happen, now can we? We must be ultra-careful with these things, you know. (It’s probably the “cheeks” reference.) ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/4 "2010-03-13T08:18:10Z")
PMRC- Gotta love Tipper Gore. ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/5 "2010-03-13T08:53:28Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Thw whole album might have been labled, or it might have to do with some belief that the band was advocating drug use. > > The decisons as to what gets labeled are not very rational. Frank Zappa once got an explicit language sticker for an album that was completely instrumental, not a sung or spoken word on the album. **Jazz from Hell** is the album. PMRC’s way of stuffing it up his ass after the Congressional hearings where he made fools of the commitee. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/6 "2010-03-13T09:38:09Z")
In fairness, one of the songs was titled “G-Spot Tornado”. (Great song in studio, mind-blowing played live.) That’s weak to be sure, but defendable grounds for an explicit content warning. ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/7 "2010-03-13T10:28:22Z")
Explicit content? The content is music. Period. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/8 "2010-03-13T11:02:33Z")
Uh, no. If the cover art included boobies that would also merit an explicit content rating. Just an example to show the flaw in your simplistic logic. ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/9 "2010-03-13T11:05:29Z")
And G-spot tornado isn’t a song, its a piece of music. Songs are the kind of crap you here on the radio, American Idol and at a restaurant on your birthday. Puke. Sounds like you are familiar with this particular piece anyway. Was that a giant whoosh? ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/10 "2010-03-13T11:38:45Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Uh, no. If the cover art included boobies that would also merit an explicit content rating. Just an example to show the flaw in your simplistic logic. Anyway the cover of **Jazz from hell** has no boobies. Its an image of a jazz club. just a building, no people at all. No boobies. ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/11 "2010-03-13T11:46:37Z")
You remind me of Elias from clerks 2. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/12 "2010-03-13T11:59:39Z")
Just a reminder: From the rules of Cafe Society, which are based on the registration agreement: > [@](#): > > It is okay to post a small snippet of song lyrics or poems or whatever, and include a link to another site which contains the complete text. But posting any material completely and verbatim is a violation of our rules and a potential violation of copyright laws. If someone would like to post a link to the complete lyrics as posted elsewhere, please do, but don’t quote the whole thing (or a too-substantial chunk) here. twickster, Cafe Society moderator ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/13 "2010-03-13T12:15:23Z")
> [@Claude\_Remains](#): > > And G-spot tornado isn’t a song, its a piece of music. Songs are the kind of crap you here on the radio, American Idol and at a restaurant on your birthday. Puke. Dial back the pretension around 9 notches. > [@](#): > > Sounds like you are familiar with this particular piece anyway. Was that a giant whoosh? I am familiar with it; I physically bought around 40 different Zappa CDs, which are currently sitting in a duffle bag at my feet. I have his complete library in mp3 form. And no, it was not a whoosh. “G-Spot Tornado” is not a G-Rated song title, no matter how much you wish “piece of music” titles weren’t part of the artistic content of an album. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/14 "2010-03-13T12:27:14Z")
My band has an album up on iTunes, and while three songs indeed have a bit of explicit language, the entire album and each song individually got the Explicit tag. I’m not happy at all with that policy, either, but it was that or not being on iTunes. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/15 "2010-03-13T15:59:25Z")
> [@Claude\_Remains](#): > > And G-spot tornado isn’t a song, its a piece of music. Songs are the kind of crap you here on the radio, American Idol and at a restaurant on your birthday. Puke. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this argument recently. I’m curious where this is coming from. Whatever the technical arguments (and technically, a song is far more than what you describe), song is a perfectly correct colloquial English word in this context. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/16 "2010-03-13T16:46:03Z")
I have the Blind Melon CD right here, with the Bee Girl on the cover, and there was no “Parental Warning” on it back then. Or had Tipper Gore not started that yet? The song was also extensively played on the radio. I’m as confused as the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/17 "2010-03-13T17:16:11Z")
> [@Claude\_Remains](#): > > **Jazz from Hell** is the album. PMRC’s way of stuffing it up his ass after the Congressional hearings where he made fools of the commitee. I bought the album at the time, partially because I was going through a bit of a Zappa phase, but also to stick it back to the PMRC. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/18 "2010-03-13T17:23:38Z")
> [@Tamex](#): > > I have the Blind Melon CD right here, with the Bee Girl on the cover, and there was no “Parental Warning” on it back then. Or had Tipper Gore not started that yet? The song was also extensively played on the radio. I’m as confused as the OP. The PMRC hearings took place in the mid-80s and the album in question came out in 1993 so there’s no real association between the two except for the warning. I suspect, although I’ll never be able to prove it, that Blind Melon is getting the warning because Shannon Hoon overdosed on drugs, therefore the music became suspect for drug euphemisms and references. As you said, the copy I got when the album came out had no warning on it, and while it’s been a long time since I heard it the whole way through I don’t remember anything particularly explicit. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/19 "2010-03-13T17:54:19Z")
The Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream was sold in an explicit and non-explicit version…the only difference being the non-explicit version didn’t have the tracklisting printed on the back of the jewel case, one of the songs being named “Silverfuck”. No swear words on the album. The explicit version didn’t carry the PMRC sticker though. This was apparently a “business decision” by Virgin Records not to offend certain retailers (WalMart). For the Mellon Collie album, a song called “Fuck You (An Ode to No One)” carried only the parenthetical title on the back of the case to avoid this “problem”. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335/20 "2010-03-13T20:28:11Z")
Hilariously, in the iTunes store songs like “King Herod and the Cock”, which refers to a rooster and is an olde timey Christmas song, get spelled “C\*ck”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blind-melons-no-rain/532335.md?page=2)