Losing Your Way in the Rain (1979) – Mike Batt

Posted on May 24, 2023 by observationblogger — Leave a comment

I was writing just a few days ago the post about Christina Perri’s Bluebird and how underrated she is as a singer – songwriter. I had the same battle in the 80’s about Dylan.
Now we come to the undisputed western-world champion of ‘underappreciated’ music. Mike Batt’s 1979 album Tarot Suite (with the London Symphony Orchestra) is one of, if not my most beloved album, but is scarcely known. You might be more familiar with Mike Batt’s popular hit ‘Bright Eyes‘ performed by Art Garfunkel.

Today’s featured track Losing Your Way in the Rain is the sixth song on Tarot Suite as seen above on the back cover of this monumental album. ‘Losing Your Way in the Rain‘ tells you there is an easy path to falling into the abyss. I know it only too well. To find yourself in a ditch you just can’t get out of. And then you prefer the ditch because that’s the routine which makes you feel some semblance of being human or for just getting up in the morning and crawling out from.

When the colours of mourning have faded away
And you don’t know where the road is leading
The edge of the sky turns from blue into grey
And there’s nothing to ease the pain
When you’re losing your way in the rain

Oh, sometimes I’m right
Oh, and sometimes I’m wrong
But I’aching now and sinking slowly
And I know in my mind that we have to keep on

But it just doesn’t seem the same
When you’re losing your way in the rain
Don’t want to go back there again
When you see how far you’ve come

The music which opens Losing Your Way in the Rain is representative of the whole album’s mystical ‘tarot’ feel and fantastical journey. I know it’s widely expressed, but I have to reiterate ‘they don’t make music like this anymore‘. It’s a respectfulness for the listener. It’s not telling you how and what to think, instead letting you go along for the journey. Everything is just smooth, and it lets you inculcate the meaning even with a mystical padded ending that gives you time.

It’s hard to believe that Tarot Suite is now 40+ years old. No other album was played as often in our house during my youth than this one. Tarot Suite was inspired by the 22 major arcana trump cards of the tarot deck.