It’s a Blue Sky Don’t Hold No Rain

And I’ll try and try and try and try to get to you
And I’ll try and try and try and try again
And I’ll try and try and try and try to get to you
And I’ll try and try and try and try forever
Forever…

We came across some bones of men
Scattered in the rust
So many good souls turned to dust
Within their shattered husks
And these people had worn jewels
And their heads had been held high
Speckled foreheads touched the sky
Behold the sparkling in their eyes

Don’t you know it’s a blue sky don’t hold no rain
Don’t hold your love in vain
Cos we’ve still got some loving to do

Some time ago the white man came
Bringing Bible books and swords
Bound them up in twining cords
In the name of their great Lord
They slew down the Aztecs
Inca, Ebu, Maasai
Now we hide in concrete lies
To my Mammon side I cry

What have we done to the Mother Goddess Gaia?
Why can’t we nestle in her warm aching bosom?
Aah aah aah aah aah aah aah aah

Just a little drop of rain
Just a little drop of rain
Just a little drop of rain
Come bless this land again
Just a little drop of rain
Just a little drop of rain, rain, rain, rain
Just a little drop of rain
Come bless this land again
Just a little drop of rain
Just a little drop of rain, rain, rain, rain
Just a little drop of rain
Come bless this land again

Don’t you know it’s a blue sky don’t hold no rain
Don’t hold your love in vain
Cos we’ve still got some loving to do

Now the world’s a spinning ball
Two thirds with none to eat
While we chew our scrawny meat
Can you hear those big bells beat?

What have we done to the Mother Goddess Gaia?
Why can’t we nestle in her warm aching bosom?
Aah aah aah aah aah aah aah aah

Lyrics by Simon Miller.
Copyright ℗ 1983 Pok Songs / Explicit Music.

It’s a Blue Sky Don’t Hold No Rain

Music and lyrics by Simon Miller.

Copyright ℗ 1983 Pok Songs/Explicit Music.

This arrangement by Pok, Fedax Si-Hulmin, Josh Reynes, Maxx Damage and Sven Stiglund.

Performers:
Pok the Bard – lead vocal, electric guitars, acoustic guitar
Fedax Si-Hulmin – electric guitars, acoustic guitar, acoustic 12-string guitars, backing vocals
Josh Reynes – upright piano, B3x organ, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, synths
Maxx Damage – bass, bongos, whisperings
Sven Stiglund – drums, shaker

Pok’s guitars and voices recorded at Wud Records Studio One, Exeter, 2017.
Josh’s keyboards recorded at Wud Records Studio One, Central Europe, 2025.
Everything else recorded at Wud Records Studio One, Central Europe, 2020-4.
Engineered, mixed, produced and mastered at Wud Records Studio One, Central Europe, 2025.

Copyright © 2025 Wud Records.

FUN FACTS
* This was one of the very first songs that Pok ever wrote.
* There are probably not many 17-year-olds who would write such a thoughtful lyric as this.
* Pok said that the original idea for it came from listening to Cortez the Killer by Neil Young.
* Pok once described the song as being about “the loss by genocide of the native Americans and general early eco lament directive for that generation.”
* The very first time we heard this song was when it was played by Pok, on a 12-string acoustic with only six strings, late one evening.
* He was sitting on a public bench by a footpath in the dark, just a short way down Church Hill from St Michael’s church in Honiton.
* Its first proper live performance was at the Sidmouth International Folk Festival in the summer of 1983.
* It’s a Blue Sky Don’t Hold No Rain was subsequently performed by Laughing Sun, the Spacegoats and Alchemeon.
* You can hear their versions at Bandcamp, SoundCloud and the Wud Records website.
* One of the most definitve moments of this song are the three riffs that are repeated during the instrumental section.
* In early versions of the song, these riffs were repeated four times each, but from Alchemeon onwards each riff was repeated only twice.
* It’s a Blue Sky Don’t Hold No Rain is in the key of E minor and begins and ends with a big glorious Em7 chord (O22O3O).
* The chords in the verses are Em7 – Am7 – C/G – B11#9.
* There is a rather wonderful key change in the “What have we done” section, which is C7 – D7 – Gm7 – C7 – Am – C/G – Em7.
* Most of the instrumental section is Em7 – A7 repeated.
* The tempo varies between 65 and 77 BPM.
* There were several tracks and of guitar, drum, bass and keyboards which were scrapped and re-recorded during the course of creating this recording.
* Pok’s acoustic and electric guitars are on the right side of the stereo mix, with Fedax playing Ibanez electric and Yamaha acoustic to the left.
* There are three guitar solos in the song – the first and third are Fedax on the Ibanez Roadstar.
* The second is Pok on Marsha, a different Ibanez Roadstar, which falls between the riffs section and the rain section.
* Pok plays electric rhythm on Broken Horn, a rather magnificent Gibson SG, and his Tanglewood acoustic.
* Josh constructed his keyboard parts from studying several Alchemeon recordings to find out what Jim had done, and attempted to pay homage to him while adding his own character.
* A number of different instruments were used, including a plonky old upright acoustic piano treated with much reverb and delay, a B3x organ, a Fender Rhodes and a Wurlitzer.
* There are also some VST instruments – DSK’s Analog Matrix, Kriminal’s Twilight and the Waldorf Electronics A1.
* Fedax did most of the backing vocals, but was unable to reach some of Jim’s higher notes so again added his own spin to things.
* It’s a Blue Sky Don’t Hold No Rain is the song’s proper title, although we generally refer to as simply ‘Blue Sky’.