Pop's most weather-obsessed star? The answer is blowing in the wind

by Colin Fernandez | Daily Mail | 7 July 2015

* 30 per cent of Bob Dylan's 542 songs contain references to the climate 
* Scientists from five leading universities collected the weather-related data
* The team hoped to find out how well weather is represented in pop music
* Just 7 per cent of Rolling Stone magazine's best songs mention weather

He is one of the most influential musicians of his generation.

And yet Bob Dylan seems to have found a great deal of inspiration in that most mundane of subjects - the weather.

Research has found that 163 of Dylan's 542 songs reference the climate - almost a third - making him the musician most likely to mention weather.

Dylan famously sang Blowin' in the Wind, while the song Subterranean Homesick Blues includes the lyrics: 'You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.'

It took climate scientists from five leading universities, including Southampton, Oxford, Newcastle, Nottingham and Reading to come up with the findings.

The Beatles came in at number two, mentioning the weather in 48 of the 308 songs they wrote or sang - 16 per cent - including Good Day Sunshine and Rain.

'Rain' by John Lennon and Paul McCartney was inspired by a trip to Melbourne when Lennon said 'he had never seen rain like that except in Tahiti and was inspired by 'people moaning about the weather all the time'.

George Harrison wrote 'Here Comes the Sun' after he left a business meeting in April 1969 on what he said was the 'first sunshine of the year'.

The scientists note that April 1969 had 189 hours of sunshine, a record not surpassed until 1984.

Researchers suggest Dylan may have been so influenced by weather because he grew up in the harsh climate of the northern state of Minnesota.

The researchers - who were working in their spare time - analysed database KaraFun, which stores 15,000 songs.

They found 419 songs about the weather - 190 times as a main theme and 229 where it was a theme, repeated line or chorus.

But only 7 per cent of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time for example compiled by Rolling Stone magazine mention the weather.

Lead author Dr Sally Brown, from the University of Southampton, said: 'We were all surprised how often weather is communicated in popular music, whether as a simple analogy or a major theme of a song, such as Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind or the Hollies' Bus Stop, where a couple fall in love under an umbrella.'

Sun and rain featured in 37 per cent of the references to weather, with wind in third place.

The researchers found more extreme weather, such as tornados and blizzards, barely feature.

The researchers said they found the sun 'portrayed positive feelings and is more likely to be in a major key, whereas rain could frame either good or bad emotions, so has a higher likelihood than sun of being in a minor or mixed key'.

And many of the songs with secondary references in the database had little or nothing to do with the weather, such as Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice, Daddy Cool by Boney M, and Benny and the Jets by Elton John.

No one has taken nearly as much inspiration from the weather as Dylan or the Beatles, meaning there is not a number three, four or five in the list.

But other songwriters who refer to climate include Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen and the Beach Boys.

The researchers found that 30 bands had weather-related names, such as Coldplay and Wet Wet Wet.

They wrote: 'Sun is the most popular weather type, appearing in seven band names, followed by cold (four) and heat (three).'

Most songs are about emotions, particularly falling in love and break-ups, the researchers found.

The researchers concluded: 'Taken together, these findings suggest that there is a universal and strong effect of weather and popular musical culture.

'Further research could include a deeper analysis of weather-related music.'

The researchers are keen for readers to add any songs about weather they may have missed to the online database here.