The Thunder Rolls by donnica59

donnica59 - The Thunder Rolls

donnica59

Apr 23, 2024 12:58pm

<img src="https://singsnap-cdn.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/message-board/threads/CH4B/a4d3fc46db_I94S_media.gif"> ROUND 2. SONGS FROM 1980-2000-NO GENDER BENDER AT ALL 1991 <ul><li>Garth Brooks was a struggling songwriter when he got together with the Nashville writer Pat Alger and wrote this song. </li><li>In a 2012 Songfacts <a href="https://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/pat-alger-the-thunder-rolls-unanswered-prayers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">interview with Pat Alger</a>, he said: "That was based on a song I'd written with another guy. I'd written a song with Mark Sanders, who's a great songwriter, and he's a good friend. </li><li>We'd written a song called '<a href="https://www.songfacts.com/facts/kathy-mattea/like-a-hurricane" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Like A Hurricane</a>' that Kathy Mattea had recorded.</li><li> It was the B-side of '<a href="https://www.songfacts.com/facts/kathy-mattea/eighteen-wheels-and-a-dozen-roses" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses</a>.' </li><li>There's a line about thunder rolling in the song. Garth had been listening to that song - he'd been listening to stuff that (producer) Allen Reynolds had given him. He came in and said, 'What if we write a song about somebody who's cheating on his wife, and every time he does it, the thunder rolls.' </li><li>And I kind of laughed.</li><li> </li><li>I thought it was kind of a joke. </li><li>And as most of my co-writing goes, we sat and talked a while about it. </li><li>And then we started to develop a scenario and it became less of a joke and more of a cool thing. </li><li>Because, again, here's a song that has a repeating thing right outside the verses, 'and the thunder rolls, the thunder rolls.' </li><li>That thing is sort of on its own. </li><li>And then you go to the chorus. </li><li>And I thought, Wow, that's interesting, too. </li><li>And when we wrote it, I really did think it was kind of different. </li><li>And of course we were trying to pitch that song immediately. We were trying to get Reba McEntire and Tanya Tucker to record that."</li><li>Tanya Tucker was the first to record this song. </li><li>In the world of country music, songwriters are constantly pitching their songs to established artists in hopes of getting them recorded, and it's common practice for artists to claim a song by putting a "hold" on it, meaning no one else can record it. </li><li>This is what Tucker did, but as is often the case, her version didn't make her album - she was working on a greatest hits album and decided to use "The Thunder Rolls" for her next one instead. </li><li>By this time, Brooks was establishing himself as an artist, so he asked Tucker for the song back, and she obliged. Garth recorded it for his second album, No Fences, which went on to sell about 18 million copies.</li><li>Similar to "<a href="https://www.songfacts.com/facts/garth-brooks/friends-in-low-places" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Friends In Low Places</a>," this song has an extra verse that Brooks would include in live performances. </li><li>Unlike "Friends...," the extra verse in this case adds a darker tone to the song - the wronged woman goes to get a gun to kill her cheating husband. </li><li>To make the song commercially viable, that verse was left out.</li><li> </li><li>This extra verse was written for Tanya Tucker, and can be heard in her version of the song. </li><li>When Brooks and Alger pitched it to Tucker's producer Jerry Crutchfield, he informed the two songwriters that he didn't consider their song finished. "Alger, as sweet as he could, looked across that desk and [said], 'What the hell you mean this ain't finished?'" Brooks recalled. </li><li>"[Jerry] said, 'I wanna know how it ends.' </li><li>Alger looked at him and goes, 'No, you don't.' </li><li>They had a great rapport with each other. I'm mortified. I'm sitting there going, 'Well, there goes my first cut out the window."</li><li> </li><li>A version of the song with the missing third verse can be found on Brooks' live album, Double Live.</li><li>Garth Brooks was focused on songwriting when he teamed up with Alger to write this, but he was playing small shows from time to time, which is where Alger saw him for the first time. </li><li>Alger told us: "He was just a guy from Oklahoma. </li><li>The day that I met him, he was playing a show on his own at some place, it was the dive-iest place that I'd ever been in Nashville, actually. </li><li>I didn't really want to go down there, because I didn't like that side of town at night, but I decided to go down and watch it and watch his show just to see what it's all about. </li><li>It's always enlightening to do that instead of listen to tapes of people's songs. </li><li>I think you get a better idea of who somebody is by listening to them perform, and he really delivered. </li></ul>