We all know the story of Noah’s Ark, and how it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. That happened a long time ago, and over in the Middle East. It is different here in North Central Colorado. Here, it has been 40 days and 40 nights since we have had any rain.1 It is about time for some sympathetic magic.
According to Merriam-Webster.com, sympathetic magic is defined as ” magic based on the assumption that a person or thing can be supernaturally affected through its name or an object representing it.” The term was introduced to most Muggles2 by Sir George James Frazer in the Golden Bough (1889), where he summarized the concept as “like produces like.”
An example of sympathetic magic is the Voodoo doll, or poppet. That is a sort of effigy used to represent a particular person. Voodoo practitioners believe that manipulating the effigy can physically affect the person it represents.
Some archaeologists believe that Paleolithic cave paintings, which date from more than 35,000 years ago, are other examples of sympathetic magic. Those scholars postulate that shamans (assuming those early hominids had shamans) would withdraw into the darkness of a cave, visualize a successful hunt, and then draw a representation of that vision on the cave wall.
Right now, we are going to participate in some sympathetic magic. I say “we” because I would ask that as you listen to this week’s Song of the Week, you visualize falling rain.
The Song of the Week is, of course, “Rainmaker.” There are quite a few songs with that title, and I considered using the song by Traffic because the “Rainmaker, rainmaker/Rainmaker, rainmaker” chorus has sort of a shamanic flair to it. I decided, though, to choose the “Rainmaker” written by Harry Nilsson and William “Bill” Martin.
Nilsson was a talented musician and songwriter. His best known songs include a cover of Fred Neil’s “Everybody’s Talkin'” that he performed in the movie Midnight Cowboy; “One,” which was a huge hit for Three Dog Night; and “Coconut (“put de lime in de coconut and drink ’em both up” – sort of sympathetic magic because the [witch]doctor prescribes the same concoction to cure a stomach ache as that which caused it). In 1968, the Beatles (at least John and Paul) told the press that Nilsson was their favorite American performer.
1968 was also the year that he wrote the song “Rainmaker” with William “Bill” Martin. Martin was best known as an actor and writer. He was one of the screenwriters for the movie Harry and the Hendersons, and for awhile he did the voice of Shredder on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. Martin was a friend of the Monkees’ Michael Nesmith, and he wrote a song or two for that group.
“Rainmaker” has been recorded by a wide variety of musicians, ranging from Nilsson (of course) to Bobbie Gentry (of “Ode to Billy Joe” fame) to The 5th Dimension. The version here is by Bill Martin’s old buddy, Michael Nesmith, and his later group, The First National Band. The repetition of “rain” at the end of the song serves as enough of a shamanic hook that I don’t feel too bad for not using the song by Traffic.
Well, thank you in advance for your help in bringing us some needed moisture. Visualize it. I am also getting out my Native American flute to play some rain on it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5jIbUiDRZw