Track 06
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Auspicious Rain
This dates back to my trip to Jinan in China in October 2008. As we crossed the plain of the Yellow River the sky got duller and the pollution haze thickened. Arriving at the station we were whisked across the city to our destination. Just as we arrived the heavens opened and our host waxed lyrical about how auspicious it was that it rained as we arrived. And indeed, the rain washed out the pollution and by the following morning the skies were clear and bright.
I liked the phrase so much I composed the song within the week but it's taken two years to get it recorded. And when I went back to Jinan this autumn I bought a BaWu - so I thought I might as well use it.... (though it needed the odd tweak as it's single octave pentatonic.)
This was originally going to be the CD title too - then the monkey with the mirror turned up...
Auspicious Rain
words and music by Martin Stirrup 2010
intro: D A G
verse
D F#m Em D
Hiding from the drizzle, gliding through the mist
D F#m A
Climbing that winding stairway to the gate of heavenly bliss
D F#m G D
Wishing for the future thinking of the past
D D4 A 6 A
Pluck the rose’s stalk you can start that walk
G6 G
Knowing you’re on the road at last
chorus
D (Em slide) F#m G D
Auspicious rain let it wash away your sins
Bm G A
Auspicious rain it’s the loser’s chance to win
D6 D D6 D
And when the sun breaks through burns away those blues
Em F#m G D
Absolution still remains… Auspicious rain
Fill the air with incense fill your heart with joy
Use every way to ease your day your invention can deploy
As the flowers strew the boulders as the creeper climbs the tree
Your can send it all o’er the waterfall
If you walk this way with me
Take a pace for silence drink the morning dew
Say a silent prayer for the thoughtless there
For they know not what they do
Though the season’s ripe for harvest and the winter’s almost due
We can pause a while in our mirrored smiles
Tell the world we’re breaking through
D A G
We can make it through together safe beneath auspicious rain…
D
auspicious rain