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Obsessed with the weather?

There’s an interview somewhere (that I haven’t tracked down yet) where Justin (Harwood, Luna’s first bassist) accuses Dean Wareham of being “obsessed with the weather” and accuses him of watching The Weather Channel. Dean denies this… but, let’s look at the evidence?

The Weather Channel by Dubs (2021)

Exhibit A - Dean’s choice of cover versions

• Rain - The Beatles (covered by Galaxie 500).

• Ride Into The Sun - The Velvet Underground (covered by Luna).

• Everybody’s Talking - Fred Neil (covered by Luna).

  I'm goin' where the sun keeps shinin'
  Thru the pourin' rain,
  Goin' where the weather suits my clothes.
  
  Bankin' off the northeast wind,
  Sailin' on a summer breeze,
  Skippin' over the ocean like a stone.

  Everything's Swirling (Fred Neil)

• Hear The Wind Blow - Opal (covered by Dean & Britta).

  Hear the wind blow
  Blow through every tree
  Inside every house
  If you're listening

  Hear The Wind Blow (Roback / Smith)

• Two different songs called Indian Summer - Beat Happening (covered by Luna) / The Doors (covered by Dean & Britta)

• One Fine Summer Morning - Evie Sands (covered by Britta and Dean)

  One fine summer morning
  When the dawn is softly calling
  To a day that's showing promise
  Of a lovely summer evening

  One Fine Summer Morning (Gorgoni)

• She Went Walking in The Rain - Cheval Sombre (covered by Dean Wareham)
• Snow is Falling in Manhattan - Purple Mountains (covered by Dean & Britta with Sonic Boom)
• Listen, The Snow is Falling - Yoko Ono (covered by Galaxie 500)

Exhibit B - Galaxie 500

• Summertime - Galaxie 500 “The heat is just delicious”.

• Snowstorm - Galaxie 500

  Well I listen to the weatherman
  He's changed his tone of voice
  And he can see it on the radar
  Only seven hours away
  Well there's gonna be a snowstorm
  When the t.v has gone wild
  And they got nothin else to think of
  And they're letting me go home

  Snowstorm (lyrics by Dean Wareham)

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfWWY_Z1bO

• Sorry - Galaxie 500

  Well I'm sorry about the weather
  And I'm sorry that the drive was much too far
  Seems like everything is business
  And were sorry all the time
  
  But when we're home (all alone)
  What is home (on your own)
  Home is home (all alone)
  Where we love the weather

  Sorry (lyrics by Naomi Yang and Damon Krukowski)

  I know that these lyrics weren’t written by Dean but the lyric is definitely that we love the weather so, I think he’s included!

• Oblivious - Galaxie 500 “Rain coming down and I couldn’t see much”.

Dean in the snow (photo: Franck Dewannieux)

### Exhibit C - Luna

• Sideshow by the Seashore - Luna “an electrical storm has caught us in a trap”.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MugwxCqCRO4

• Speedbumps - Luna “It’s raining rain, it’s raining snow”.
• Romantica - Luna “It’s cold in the autumn, It’s warm in the freezer”.
• Motel Bambi - Luna “Where has all the sunshine gone?”.

Exhibit D - Dean & Britta

• The Sun is Still Sunny - Dean & Britta “Your daddy is drinking a toast to the rain”.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk-2nSieKr4

Exhibit E - Dean Wareham

• Love Is Not a Roof Against the Rain - Dean Wareham
• The Cloud is Coming - Dean Wareham
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ-8R29UffU

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So the evidence seems to suggest that Dean may indeed be “obsessed with the weather” - although the weather isn’t always nice to him. At the 1997 Benicassim Festival in Spain the weather turned against its biggest fan…

It was a warm and muggy afternoon, and it rained for a while, but then the rain abruptly stopped.

This was the proverbial calm before the storm, a storm that roared in off the Mediterranean. I was standing at the back of the stage, starting to take my guitar out of its case and get my pedals ready, when I noticed the extraordinary wind. I looked up at the huge metal scaffolding that held the lights above the stage, and the big canvas sign with all the sponsors' names on it blowing in the wind. It didn't look quite right to me. I thought of Curtis Mayfield, who was paralyzed in 1990 when a lighting rig fell on him at an outdoor gig in Brooklyn.

Then came the rain. It came in horizontally, and Urusei Yatsura's drum kit started to move. Those brave/stupid Scottish kids kept playing their song even as the wind blew the drum kit clean off the stage. Ten seconds later I saw the entire scaffolding come crashing down, and the stage col-lapsed and everyone was running and screaming.

Dean Wareham - Black Postcards

Here’s a clip of those “brave/stupod Scottish kids”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOvBUGHcaHM