FISH - Raingods With Zippos (1999)

Raingods occupies an interesting place in the Fish pantheon.  It's a one-time major label release between the indie records, with a short-lived relationship with metal label Roadrunner Records.*   It's even more all over the place than usual with regard to who plays on what - guitarists and guest vocalists drop in and out of the record like mad.  Mickey Simmonds is back, but only on some of the songs!  Steven Wilson is back, but only on some of the songs!  And I have not gotten a clear sense of Raingods's reputation among the Fishheads.  The ranking lists I saw when first learning about Fish - usually individual bloggers and forum posters and the like -  tended to list this one as amongst his middling period, and it tends to get passed over for big rereleases and retrospectives.  The record was the only pre-2020 Fish record not to have its own Wikipedia page until late 2024, but it has a page now, and whoever wrote it says that Raingods is "often hailed as one of Fish's greatest solo achievements."  By whom?  Citation needed.

As usual, one track at a time, here's how it sounds.

Track One:  "Tumbledown"

Whether it's Tony or Mickey who's responsible, the keys play an outsized role on this record, clearly signalled by the very nice minute-plus piano intro (and shorter reprise at the end) that manages to be both haunting and lively.  When it abruptly drops into the song, the track is a bit of a rocker that like "Johnny Punter" on the last record is build on a simple, very repetitive riff.  "Tumbledown" has a lot that's likeable about it, especially the throw-everything-against-the-wall approach to distortion and electronic sound effects during the "solo."  The overall sound is upbeat but minor key, which makes sense once one realizes that it's a tune about not just being down, but being in an unwinnable situation.

Track Two:  "Mission Statement"

One comment I make from time to time about my strange nerd music is that "this shouldn't work, but it does."  I get a few vibes like that on the likes of "Big Wedge," but those feelings are extremely strong with "Mission Statement."  I've liked "Mission Statement" from day one, despite it always "feeling" like somehow a weaker track.  The combination of jazzy instrumentation and a wordy/chatty Fish vocal continues to pay dividends.  The song is easy to sing along to in general, though let me specially emphasize the "I've got no more patience" part as a big soaring hook.   Lyrically I'll allow the simplicity - a working schmoe comes to the shocking revelation that a little more love and looking out for others would be in humanity's best interest - because it's not presented as a full solution to the world's problems.  It's an opening statement.

As has been discussed exhaustively (mostly by Fish), some of the songs on Raingods came out of some sessions that he did at a sort of songwriter's workshop held at Château de Marouatt, triggering some interesting collabs and co-writing credits.  That's how come Rick Astley, of "Never Gonna Give You Up" fame**, is a credited songwriter on a record by prog-rock weirdo Fish.

"Have you ever sensed the storm before it arrived on your horizon?"  Well, hold that thought, listener.

Track Three:  "Incomplete"

Another crumbling relationship from the pen of the guy who's quickly becoming thoroughly versed in showing the slow process of a marriage deteriorating.  This time, we get a viewpoint of those who insit on staying together, and where that goes.  Elisabeth [Liz] Antwi (sometimes credited as "Elisabeth Troy," sometimes not, and usually introduced to crowds as being "from Ghana and London") is clearly someone that Fish likes working with, as she ended up in the touring band a few different times over the years.  Here she appears on two tracks, singing backup on "Tumbledown" in a clearly supporting role, and on "Incomplete."  More than even perhaps any other of the relationship duets, "Incomplete" is a legit duet, giving both voices nearly equal weight as they go back and forth.  (Liz is one of three credited writers for the track too.)  They play off each other nicely.  The song is a bit on the placid side and does lack the big hooks that'd make it essential rather than merely quite good.  It makes me sad the way it's supposed to, though.

Track Four:  "Tilted Cross"

And right off the other dueling-vocalists ballad, here's another soft ballad.  I kind of appreciate the fact that it sounds breezy, until the lyrics hit and one realizes that it's about fields of graves.  We've gone through this before with other songs, but I don't know if it's a problem that TC sort of relies on the listener coming in with knowledge (or half-remembered knowledge).  Specifically, I've been led to believe that it was inspired by post-war Bosnia and its fields full of abandoned landmines that its inhabitants are just at this point scrambling to get marked properly to maybe reduce the number of ongoing meaningless deaths.  But, I mean, I've always really liked the song even before I heard that explanation, and that appreciation has just gotten deeper.  I love Fish putting on his folky troubadour hat from time to time, and it helps that the vocal melody and the acoustic guitar track are both quite pretty.  "Tilted Cross" is able to get really dark by keeping the tone deceptively light and sweet.  The language isn't flowery, because it's just a matter of fact that in the tour the narrator is giving "[his] child" that "one false step and all is lost."  Like in the best folk ballads, one takes a sort of solace in shared tragedy, such that I'm somehow stirred by the almost triumphant final refrain of "I left my love in a grave, and I marked it with a cross that stands so straight and so true."

Nicola King seems to be the main supplier of female vocals both on this track and on the rest of the record.  "Tilted Cross" kind of has them singing counterpoints a few steps apart.  Anyway, her voice harmonizes great with Fish's too!  Are duets fast becoming his thing?

Track Five:  "Faith Healer"

Aaaand... now a cover*** of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band's "The Faith Healer."  Fish had been performing the song live since the very start of his solo career (and before he did the other Harvey song on Songs From The Mirror).  Why finally a studio version?  Honestly, I think he probably didn't have enough hard-rockers, and math says that you need to throw a rock track in there between the two soft songs that precede it and the soft song that follows it.  Makes sense.  I don't see an obvious way that the track order could have been any different: "Tumbledown" is clearly an opener, "Mission Statement" only works coming within the first couple tracks, and both of those two introduce lyrical ideas that'll be picked up by "Plague Of Ghosts," so they clearly have to be tracks one and two.  And then you have to get three slow/soft songs that are basically the record's non-"Plague Of Ghosts" highlights, all needing crammed into the first half of the record.  So, okay, fine, whatever.

And how's "Faith Healer" itself?  It's fine.  It has energy.  It's pretty one note.  I always enjoy hearing it, while never having once paid attention the whole way through or not ready to move onto something else by the time it ends.

Track Six:  "Rites Of Passage"

It took the live version on Communion to turn me around on "Rites Of Passage," actually a song that I disliked for a long time.  I still wish it had a little more life to it for something so long, although I can't argue against the idea that the subject matter calls for a stripped down arrangement and a single vocalist clearly enunciating the words.  I think I reacted at first to the first half of the chorus without absorbing the second, and it took some time.  That bit starts with:

You knew that it was wrong
You think that saying sorry is gonna make it seem alright

Combined with the unique simile about parking violations that comes in the second verse, this at first sounds like bitter recrimination.  Another narrator belittling a woman in the name of a "heartfelt" song.  Is this "A Gentleman's Excuse Me" all over?  What I wasn't appreciating properly is where that lyric goes:

Maybe in this song you will hear me for the first time
And you'll start to see the light

Can't you see what I'm trying to say?  The narrator has been trying to "reclaim [his] heart" for a long time, and is using this rite of passage as one last attempt to explain the level of misery he's been in, why this drastic step is the only option.  After all the denial that there's a problem at all, all the shadowplay, all the saying nothing whilst saying it with flowers, all the feeling so incomplete, it's time.  "Rites Of Passage" isn't just another failing relationship song; it's the grand finale of the failing relationship songs.  

 

I still do wish it had more of a melody or weren't quite so long.  Although part of the reason for the track's length is a long instrumental outro, with more nice keys amongst other players.  I wouldn't call that part especially memorable, but at least it's nice and pleasant, drawing a clear line on the ground between the first half of the record and the second.  

 

So, as clearly laid out on the album's track list, Raingods is divided between individual tracks - the first six - and a six-song suite, basically half a concept album, which is of course the famous "Plague Of Ghosts."  And - spoiler alert! - "Plague Of Ghosts" does end with its narrator seeking to build a new connection with a "you" and repeating "forgive, forget, forever means today."  Is the one half of the record meant as a response to the other, or are they totally separate?  You gotta love music that makes you think.

Anyway, our big concept thing begins with...

Track Seven:  "Old Haunts"

I like the distorted electronic sounds that introduce "Plague Of Ghosts," sounding like a mix of static and an impending storm.   On its own, "Old Haunts" is kind of a nothing song that mostly repeats "home in the darkness" over.  But it's not to be taken on its own as anything more than an overlong intro.

Track Eight:  "Digging Deep"

"This is the season of the rains.  This is incoming."  Nice groovy baseline over what's almost a bizarre dance beat; a weird collection of sounds to come together into a rock n' roll track, yet can one deny that "Digging Deep" kinda rocks?  I don't think the track "should" work as well as it does.  Fish saves the spoken word for the important moments and as a result that device retains its punch with the portentious statements.  The narrator in the darkness obviously knows the answer to the insistent repeated question (from Nicola's backup vocals) of whether he's happy now, clearly seeking his distance as the storm approaches.  Yep, as is so common for our favorite performer, he's questioning whether he even knows who he is (again), and coming up with a very musically creative process of working it out (again).  At just under seven minutes, DD is the longest part of "Plague Of Ghosts," making me go back and forth on whether or not it's a little too long or just right.  It has such energy, but it's far from as good as the suite is going to get.

Track Nine:  "Chocolate Frogs"

Really pushing the "shouldn't work but does" mantra, we get four minutes of ambient noise and mix of spoken word and a capella poetry.  How very prog.  I don't totally dig "Chocolate Frogs."  it has its moments.  Here we suffer just a little from Fish throwing around random bits of Fish-lingo that don't make nearly as much sense if you're not in his head.

Track Ten:  "Waving At Stars"

Okay, finally some melody again.  The main melody is melancholy and soft but it's set over this relentless electronic drum beat that adds energy to the proceedings.  Is this rock bottom?  Switching to "you" form, the lyrics don't paint an optimistic picture of where the protagonist's isolation has left him.  Stars make for a great metaphor for an uncaring universe, and they're deployed to exactly that purpose here:

You called out her name as the darkness hit home

Raised up your Zippo and opened the skies till the crowd melts away

At the end of the day, you ran out of light
Praying for rain, praying for signs, praying for time

Praying for endless night

Might as well be wishing on stars

Indeed.  Hard hitting and to the point, barely topping three minutes including the outro.  A piano part hinting at part six of the suite pops in briefly, then leads us instead into:

Track Eleven:  "Raingods Dancing"

Huge shout out to Tony Turrell, by the way, whose keys provide the most memorable melodies of the end of the suite and who seems to have written, from an instrumental standpoint, most of the skeleton of POG.  Adore this piano part.  The keys frenetically lead the song through its depiction of a metaphorical world of desolation into its big soaring singalong of a chorus.  "Raingods with Zippos" is a really weird turn of phrase that I still don't totally understand, except that that paticular phrase (and also the tin man) is used both in "Tumbledown" and in "Raingods Dancing" to depict a situation in which hope is meaningless.  The long promised storm is here, and it actually seems welcome.  Whether one feels happy or sad about it, the old world (inside this character's head) needed this - to be completely washed away.

I guess I'll convey how great this part of the song is by quoting a few favorite lyrics, but keep in mind that one, they're all favorites, and that two, the poetry has power when sung in this way to this melody that just the words don't convey.

Leave behind a life that died, a victim of a plague of ghosts
I was wrapped up in my guilt buried deep within my memories

A shelter of self-pity
That I know the rain will wash away

I sense the storm arriving

And then with a sigh of relief, we wake up.

Track Twelve:  "Wake Up Call (Make It Happen)"

How can it be that the piano part for this song is even better than the one for the song before?  I get such feels, as the kids say,**** when the "wah wah" descending guitar comes in to resolve the question posed by the ascending piano, and then Fish's vocal comes in as a rested, confident narrator reassuing the listener that we can make it happen.  "Make It Happen" is the cathartic finale of the whole "Plague Of Ghosts" thing not by being big, but by being a moment of calm, finally finding refuge from the storm.  At the particular moment I can't think of any two moments in music that sound like more perfect catharsis to me than two separate parts of WUC(MIH):

In the end I found beginnings

Not a vision; a wake up call

 

Goosebumps.  Topped barely a minute later by

If we can take our lives slowly, step by step
We can be dancing in the rain

I feel a little cheated when the "we can make it happen" refrain too soon starts to fade away.  I want to bask in this cathartic moment a little longer.  Way too short!

Look, clearly I've made it known that certain things push my buttons, musically speaking, and one of them is Fish composing a long-form story that goes through all sorts of different musical modes on the way to taking its protagonist to the depths and out the other side.  Yes, in broad strokes "Plague Of Ghosts" recapitulates some of the themes of Misplaced Childhood.  I think one could call that the story that Fish was born to tell.  Is it possible that "Plague" is every bit as good as Misplaced.  Yup.  Depending on my mood, you may catch me on a day in which I claim that "Plague" is actually even better, though I don't think I can quite go that far consistently.  At least, there are definitely days in which pretty much all I want to do is listen to "Plague Of Ghosts" over and over.

Non-album tracks:

"Chasing Miss Pretty" at first made me wonder if it would have fit on the record as another upbeat poppier number... oh, it's those lyrics... and oh gods, that chorus.  Ugh, hard pass.  If Fish were a pop songwriter and cranked out records that sounded this insipid, I'd spend a lot more time listening to something else.  For a while it was driving me crazy that I couldn't figure out which song it was basically trying to copy; I think what was lodging in my head is that CMP is basically poor-man's R.E.M. covering Cornershop's "Brimful Of Asha."  I can't say I totally get "Mr. Buttons" either, a sketch of a (web)-"surfing highwayman."  Sounds like one of those songs about computers that old computer-illiterate musicians tended to write in the mid-to-late '90s.  Musically it's a pleasant one that would fit in a little better with the record.  Raingods is probably better off without both CMP and MB, though.

Final thoughts:

We do have live recordings in which the band are introduced, so I can say that for the laryngitis-marred and financially disastrous tour, the lineup was Fish along with Liz Antwi on vocals, John Wesley on guitar (no, not Robin or Frank or Steven), Tony Turrell on keys, Steve Vantsis on bass, and a succession of drummers.  Raingods was Steve's first record and tour with Fish, and of course would be very far from his last. 

Speaking of live recordings, can I even begin to describe how much joy I get from the extended live ending of "Plague Of Ghosts?"  The studio version concludes so close to perfectly but then cuts off its happy ending a little too quickly for me.  The way the band performed it live fixes that, and turns the catharsis into a moment of celebration, giving each band member his or her due as they drop off one by one and the crowd comes together in singing "we can make it happen, we can make it happen."  Check out both live versions included on the deluxe - the Polish show is ultimately the better recording because of the considerably stronger vocal performance (of the piece as a whole) from Fish, but the Philadelphia show has such a great crowd and an even more extended outro.

So, by whom is Raingods With Zippos hailed as a Fish all-timer?  Well, as explained at great length in the track by track reviews, I hail it as such.  Irrespective of whatever the consensus is or isn't.  I'm calling it Fish's best solo record, full stop.  In all its shaggy, proggy excesses, Raingods is a stone-cold classic.  I actually have exactly the same reaction as to Misplaced Childhood in that I considered "rating" it a tad lower because it has uneven moments, bits that don't totally work, things to find fault in.  The record is far from perfect, yet it so perfectly stirs my soul that no score other than five out of five makes any sense.

Favorite track:  "Wake Up Call (Make It Happen)"

Runner up:  "Raingods Dancing"

Least favorite track:  "Faith Healer"

Rating:  5/5

Definitive running list of records by Fish/Marillion that I have profiled so far, in order of what I have decided is unambiguously their quality 

1)  Clutching At Straws

2)  Misplaced Childhood

3)  Raingods With Zippos

4)  Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors

5)  Internal Exile

6)  Fugazi

7)  Market Square Heroes (single)

8)  Sunsets On Empire

9)  Script For A Jester’s Tear

10)  Suits

11)  Songs From The Mirror

 

We continue with Fellini Days whenever I get around to it!

*The name brings back such memories since I was following Jerry Cantrell's short-lived relationship with Roadrunner a few years later.

*Yes, besides having a long career and a fanbase and such, Astley had several other mainstream pop hits besides that RickRoll song.  No, nobody remembers them.  Or at least I've never heard any of them.

**Unless I'm forgetting one, the final non-original song that will ever land on a Fish record 

 

****or were saying a few years ago.  I'm sure I'm behind the lingo