Songfacts®:

• "Cold Rain" is a quietly evocative song that captures Crosby, Stills & Nash's more mature, lushly arranged sound in their post–Woodstock years. By this point, the group had settled into a groove that combined tight harmonies with a kind of wistful, weather-beaten introspection.
• Graham Nash wrote "Cold Rain" painting a scene of urban melancholy and longing. The song opens with the image of cold rain falling on his face as people hurry home from work. It proceeds to explore themes of alienation, memory, and the search for connection in a city environment.
• Nash penned the song in a moment of gratitude that he joined David Crosby and Steven Stills, shaded with survivor's guilt. "I'm stuck in a hotel in Manchester in the rain, watching these people walk by who hate their bosses and their work and I think, 'Why me?'" he remembered to Mojo magazine. "My mother once told me, 'Follow your heart. Your heart knows what's good and what's bad.' I've always done that."
• The song's reflective tone and urban imagery are typical of Nash's songwriting during this period. On both "Chicago (We Can Change The World)" and "Prison Song," for instance, he merged personal experience with social commentary, sometimes angrily, sometimes gently, but always with intent.
• Crosby, Stills & Nash recorded "Cold Rain" for CSN. The album turned out to be a major commercial and artistic success, peaking at #2 on the Billboard chart and eventually going 4x Platinum. The most popular song from the album is "Just A Song Before I Go."
• "Cold Rain" is one of several tracks on CSN that incorporate elaborate string arrangements, a first for Crosby, Stills & Nash.