Chocolate Rain

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History

It’s July 28th, 2017. Night Six of Phish’s Baker’s Dozen run. You’re sitting in the Garden with your friends, vibrating with anticipation. Every night of the run so far, Phish has been playing a donut-themed setlist full of deep cuts, fan favorites, and some cool covers making Phish debuts. On Coconut Night they played “Shake Your Coconuts.” On Strawberry Night, they played “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Strawberry Letter 23,” and on Powdered Night, “Powderfinger.” 

Tonight is Chocolate Night. You and your show buddies are discussing what song they might play. One of your friends suggests “Chocolate Jesus” by Tom Waits. Someone says “Chocolate Town” by Ween. Someone else thinks they’ll get a little abstract with it and play “You Sexy Thing” by Hot Chocolate or a song from Willy Wonka. One of your buddies says, half-joking, “what if they play ‘Chocolate Rain’?” Everyone laughs at how unlikely, but awesome, that would be. 

Now, you may be asking yourself “Grandma, what is ‘Chocolate Rain’?” Fair point. Let’s go back a little. It’s 2007. You’re on your dad’s computer looking at videos on a new website called “YouTube.” Earlier that day, during gym, your buddy told you to look up a video called “Chocolate Rain.” So you watch this nearly five minute video of a song by a guy named Tay Zonday.

Tay Zonday “Chocolate Rain”

And there is a lot to enjoy about this video. The first thing that stands out is Zonday’s distinct voice- the kind of resonant bass you don’t really hear in music these days. Then you start to notice other things. Zonday suddenly moves away from the microphone, followed by text that clarifies “I move away from the mic to breathe in.” The fact that the video is basically one stationary shot of Zonday with a couple cuts to short clips of him playing piano. The lyrics all begin with the line “Chocolate Rain.” It is a simple and perfect internet video–beautiful in a deeply 2007 kind of way. 

Tay Zonday, stage name of Adam Bahner, is a singer originally from Minneapolis and a graduate of Evergreen State College. Zonday was a regular at many local open mics, but in 2006, he decided to start posting his songs to the then-new website YouTube. In 2007, having already achieved some success, he posted “Chocolate Rain.” 

Musically, “Chocolate Rain” is a very repetitive song, and I use that word neutrally. The main piano riff and drum part repeat for the length of the song. The main melody that Zonday sings is unchanged throughout, with every line beginning with the words “chocolate rain.” It works. It’s catchy. You will find yourself humming it after reading this article. 

Lyrically, “Chocolate Rain” has a lot more going on than its status as a “meme song” would imply. Take a look at the words between the phrases “chocolate rain,” and you’ll get lyrics like “Some stay dry while others feel the pain,” and “The school books say it can’t be here again / the prisons make you wonder where it went.” In case this is still a little too abstract, Zonday later sings lines like “Chocolate rain raised your neighborhood insurance rates / Chocolate rain makes us happy living in a gate.” And, it’s at this point you’ll find yourself asking, “is he… is he singing about redlining?” 

Yes, in case you don’t know, “Chocolate Rain” is about racism. No, I’m not kidding. Primarily, the song is talking about the racism experienced by Black Americans. There are direct references to the public denial that racism “still exists,” Black people receiving harsher prison sentences than white people, and The Bell Curve, a book that suggests that Black people are less intelligent because of genetics. Zonday even takes an international look at times, referencing racism in both France and India. 

Zonday himself was initially coy about explaining the song’s meaning, simply encouraging people to read the lyrics to the song and think about it. But in 2017, he confirmed that “Chocolate Rain” is about the experience of Black Americans, and the hardships they face due to structural racism. 

A few months after the video was posted, someone shared it on Digg.com. From there, the video took off. It was shared on forums like Digg and 4chan. The song was so popular it was featured on television–on important news programs like The Daily Show, Tosh.0, Maury, and Jimmy Kimmel Live! It was parodied on adult animated shows like South Park and Robot Chicken, even a network sitcom like The Office. It was covered by famous musicians like John Mayer and Tre Cool of Green Day. As of Dec 2023, the original “Chocolate Rain” video has been viewed over 137 million times.

Let’s jump back to July 28th, 2017. The lights at the Garden go down. The crowd roars with excitement as Phish takes the stage. The members of the band don’t walk to their instruments, but rather to the barbershop mic. Page holds a small keyboard in his hands. He hits a button, and out of the keyboard plays the backing track to “Chocolate Rain.” Some of the crowd begins to cheer as they recognize the song. You turn to your buddy, you yell “no way!” Then they sing the first two words. It’s all they need to do. The Garden erupts. You high five your buddy, and you yell right along with the crowd. Because oh my god–they’re actually playing “Chocolate Rain.” 

Phish “Chocolate Rain” – 7/28/17, New York, NY. Video by LazyLightning55a

Do they do the song justice? No, probably not. But are they having an absolute blast with it? Unquestionably. Everyone is singing in the lowest range of their registers, even if they don’t quite have the notes. Trey is visibly beaming, he can barely get through his lyrics without cracking up. They even move away from the mic to breathe in. 

Phish didn’t play the whole song, only going for the first half or so. And with that, they were off. Night Six of the Baker’s Dozen was underway, complete with a monster “Chalk Dust Torture,” and, just to prove your other buddy right, the Phish debut of “You Sexy Thing.” You have a great time. And on the walk out of The Garden, stepping into the overwhelming light of midtown Manhattan, you and your buddies keep saying one thing over and over to each other: “I can’t believe they actually played ‘Chocolate Rain.’” 

As of the writing of this article, this is the only time Phish has performed “Chocolate Rain.” It’s in that weird limbo of “they’ll probably never play it again, but you never know?” But, we’ll never forget the electricity in that crowd at the Garden when Phish sang those two magic words. 

Last significant update: 12/12/23

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