Fire and Rain Lyrics
Just yesterday morning, they let me know you were gone
Suzanne, the plans they made put an end to you
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song
I just can't remember who to send it to
[Chorus]
I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again
[Verse 2]
Won't you look down upon me, Jesus
You've got to help me make a stand
You've just got to see me through another day
My body's aching and my time is at hand
And I won't make it any other way
[Chorus]
Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you again
[Verse 3]
Been walking my mind to an easy time, my back turned towards the sun
Lord knows when the cold wind blows it'll turn your head around
Well, there's hours of time on the telephone line to talk about things to come
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground
Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain
I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I'd see you baby, one more time again, now
[Outro]
Thought I'd see you one more time again
There's just a few things coming my way this time around, now
Thought I'd see you, thought I'd see you, fire and rain, now
About
James Taylor explained the song in an interview with David Mikkelson this way:
“Fire and Rain” has three verses. The first verse is about my reactions to the death of a friend. The second verse is about my arrival in this country with a monkey on my back, and [Won’t you look down upon me,] Jesus is an expression of my desperation in trying to get through the time when my body was aching and the time was at hand when I had to do it. The third verse of that song refers to my recuperation [beating the heroin addiction] in Austen Riggs which lasted about five months."
The “Flying Machine in pieces on the ground” is a reference to the depression he’d been in about the demise of his band, The Flying Machine.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Suzanne Schnerr was a friend Taylor met while performing with The Flying Machine in 1967. In his own words, “I knew Suzanne well in New York, and we used to hang out together and we used to get high together; I think she came from Long Island. She was a kid, like all of us.” Taylor described her death in his biography written by Tim White:
[Suzanne] committed suicide sometime later while I was over in London. At the time I was living with friends, and all three of them were really close to Susie Schnerr. But Richard and Joel and Margaret were excited for me having this record deal and making this album, and when Susie killed herself they decided not to tell me about it until later because they didn’t want to shake me up. I didn’t find out until some six months after it happened. That’s why the ‘They let me know you were gone’ line came up. And I always felt rather bad about the line, ‘The plans they made put an end to you,’ because ‘they’ only meant ‘ye gods,’ or basically ‘the Fates.’ I never knew her folks but I always wondered whether her folks would hear that and wonder whether it was about them."
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