Raining in Baltimore Lyrics
The big top is crumbling down
It's raining in Baltimore, fifteen miles east
Where you should be, no one's around
I need a phone call, I need a raincoat
I need a big love, I need a phone call
These train conversations are passing me by
And I don't have nothing to say
You get what you pay for
But I just had no intention of living this way
I need a phone call, I need a plane ride
I need a sunburn, I need a raincoat
And I get no answers, and I don't get no change
It's raining in Baltimore, baby, but everything else is the same
There's things I remember and things I forget
I miss you, I guess that I should
Three thousand five hundred miles away
But what would you change if you could?
I need a phone call, maybe I should buy a new car
I can always hear a freight train, baby, if I listen real hard
And I wish, I wish it was a small world
Because I'm lonely for the big towns
I need a phone call, I need a raincoat
I really need a raincoat; I really, really need a raincoat
I really, really, really need a raincoat; I really need a raincoat
About
Adam Duritz explained that “Raining In Baltimore” was written about feeling lost. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, but his family moved away when he was three years old. Though he would visit his grandmother in Baltimore over several summers in his youth, his family moved so often he felt he wasn’t from any specific place:
When I’m 50 miles east of Baltimore, it’s is like 50 miles east of where I come from, which is blank to me. It’s a way of being lost. Somehow, in all these years of traveling around the world, I’ve only managed to be 50 miles east of the place I was born, and I don’t even know what it means to be there.
Duritz originally wrote “Raining In Baltimore” intending for Bonnie Raitt to perform it.
“Raining In Baltimore” is frequently played at shows in the middle of Round Here.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Adam Duritz shared:
I had a friend (Bonnie Simmons) who was close friends with Bonnie Raitt. She used to go thru all the cassette tapes fans sent Bonnie Raitt and find songs for Bonnie on the thousands of tapes. She actually found “Something To Talk About” in one of those boxes and, when I was younger, I used to help her with that. Bonnie Raitt was one of the first professional musicians I met and she was very kind to me. I actually wrote “Raining In Baltimore” to give to Bonnie Raitt.
- 1.Round Here
- 2.Omaha
- 3.Mr. Jones
- 5.Anna Begins
- 7.Rain King
- 9.Ghost Train
- 10.Raining in Baltimore
- 11.A Murder of One