Weather is the broad theme for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday – a little more specifically perhaps, bad weather.
Leaving aside the more obvious selections – ‘Hard Rain’, say, or ‘It’s Rainin’ Men’ – for me it came down to a choice between Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Thunder Road’ or this, a Hunter/Garcia song that was certainly played on numerous occasions by the Grateful Dead, but perhaps even more frequently, as here, by the Jerry Garcia Band.
I’ve been fortunate enough to visit San Francisco on a number of occasions (indeed, it’s probably my second favourite city – after Liverpool, of course), so I’m aware that this particular ‘Mission’ is an area of downtown rather than an ecclesiastical building that features in any number of spaghetti westerns, so the lyrics make more sense.
I turn and walk away then I come ’round again
It looks as though tomorrow I’ll do pretty much the same
I must turn down your offer but I’d like to ask a break
You know I’m ready to give everything for anything I take
Someone called my name you know I turned around to see
It was midnight in the Mission and the bells were not for me
Come again, walking along in the Mission in the rain
Come again, walking along in the Mission in the rain
Ten years ago, I walked this street my dreams were riding tall
Tonight I would be thankful Lord, for any dream at all
Some folks would be happy just to have one dream come true
But everything you gather is just more that you can lose
Come again, walking along in the Mission in the rain
Come again, walking along in the Mission in the rain
All the things I planned to do I only did half way
Tomorrow will be Sunday born of rainy Saturday
There’s some satisfaction in the San Francisco rain
No matter what comes down the Mission always looks the same
Come again, walking along in the Mission in the rain
Written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter
the only deadhead in the hameau 
Great choice! I am not a Deadhead so just about any song you play would be somewhat new to me. This is a terrific song; it left an impression.
It was really nice to hear this song today, as it is a great match for the theme. The Mission District in San Francisco, got named after the Spanish Mission Dolores which was located on Dolores Street between 16th and 17th streets. Jerry Garcia said that this song was about him being in San Francisco, that it is an autobiographical part of his life, being the place where he first met Hunter and they both grew up around the Bay Area, and lived in San Francisco. Robert Hunter said that ‘Mission in the Rain’ was where he used to live when he first starting writing lyrics for the Grateful Dead full time. This may be the saddest Grateful Dead song ever written and that is reflected in these two lines, “Ten years ago I walked this street, my dreams were riding tall, Tonight I would be thankful Lord, for any dreams at all”, as this guy’s life is down in the dumps.
I am afraid Jerry would be quite disappointed in what the Mission has become. I had never heard this song before but it gives me the impression it might be mourning The Mission.
Wonderfully written song…I’ve been listening to his debut Garcia album recently.
sing it jerry! … so much yearning in his voice. thanks for sharing!