Old Man Blues - It's Raining It's Pouring
Our Version of It's Raining It's Pouring
Albert King, who was an influential blues guitarist in America in the 1960s said that “Bad luck and trouble are always present in the Blues…relentless rhythms repeat the chants of sorrow and the pity of a lost soul many times over.”
We put a blues slant on “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring” because the old man is down on his luck. It’s lashing rain outside and he doesn’t want to get out of bed. To add insult to injury the poor fellow bumps his head!
The musical links and instrumentals that “repeat the chants of sorrow” are played by banjo, fiddle and clarinet. The banjo playing sounds like the beginning of a heavy rain shower on a tin roof or drops of water falling into buckets from leaks in the ceiling. The fiddle and the clarinet add a mournful sound to this song.
Classroom Ideas for It's Raining It's Pouring
Social, Environmental and Scientific Education: Introduce children to climate and the weather. Is it a cloudy, sunny, windy or rainy day? Explain the water cycle: Evaporation (occurs on sunny days), condensation (clouds), precipitation (rain, hail, snow, etc) and collection (rivers, lakes, seas, etc)
Mathematics: Count the number of rainy days in the month. Represent this data on a bar chart. Which month had the most rainy days? Which month had the least?
Art: Illustrate the elements of the water cycle: The sea, sun, clouds, wind, mountains and rain.
Lyrics for It's Raining It's Pouring
It’s raining it’s pouring
The old man is snoring
He went to bed and bumped his head
And couldn’t get up in the morning
