Love, Reign o'er Me

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"Love, Reign o'er Me"

Single by The Who
from the album Quadrophenia
B-side(s)	"Water"
Released	October 23, 1973
Format	7" single
Recorded	May 1972 at Olympic Studios, London with additional tracks recorded at "The Kitchen" June 8, 1973
Genre	Rock
Length	3:07
Label	Track Records/MCA
Writer(s)	Pete Townshend
Producer(s)	The Who
Chart positions
#76 (U.S.)
The Who singles chronology
"5:15" (1973)	"Love, Reign o'er Me" (1973)	"The Real Me" (1974)

"Love, Reign o'er Me" is the final song from The Who's second rock opera, Quadrophenia, and has been a concert staple for years.

The single release is shorter than the album track, missing the introductory rolling surf sound and the first piano intro, slightly different sequence of the lyrics and ends on string synthesizers with piano rather than the drum solo, guitar, gong and brass explosion as on the album.

The song concerns the main character, Jimmy, having a personal crisis and stealing a boat to go off to a small island.

As Pete Townshend described the song:

“

[It] refers to Meher Baba's one time comment that rain was a blessing from God; that thunder was God's Voice. It's another plea to drown, only this time in the rain. Jimmy goes through a suicide crisis. He surrenders to the inevitable, and you know, you know, when it's over and he goes back to town he'll be going through the same shit, being in the same terrible family situation and so on, but he's moved up a level. He's weak still, but there's a strength in that weakness. He's in danger of maturing.^[1]

”

[edit] Homage

The song "Windswept Thumb" on Marillion's album Misplaced Childhood includes the line (not included in the official lyrics) "Rain on me". Misplaced Childhood includes numerous musical references, and this line almost certainly refers to "Love, Reign o'er Me".

Pearl Jam recorded a cover of the song for the movie Reign Over Me, starring Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle. The film was released in the U.S. on March 23, 2007. The cover was released by the band on the 2006 edition of their annual 7" Holiday Single vinyl sometime in late February, 2007. The cover is also available as a download from iTunes.