DESCRIPTION:
After the dissolution of Mike & The Ravens in 1963, Mike Brassard was signed by Bob Devere to a personal management contract. Devere was grooming Brassard to replace Dion at Laurie after the latter moved to Columbia in late 1962. A demo was recorded at WPTR in Albany, NY in March 1963 by Doug Cole for use to convince the powers that be at Laurie that Brassard was a solo artist with potential. All that survives of the recording is a tape cassette, which was transferred from a reel-to-reel back in the '70s. Despite the low audio fidelity, the historical content is of interest.

Of further interest is the song that Brassard committed to tape, "Black Rain," which was a bastardization of Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," a song that was not released until May 1963. Brassard explained the circumstances.

"I saw Dylan in late 1962. I was in the Village, seeing a show put together by Dave Van Ronk. He introduced this scruffy hillbilly character. I had no idea who it was. It was Bob Dylan. He wasn't famous yet. He played this song and it stuck with me. By the time I recorded it several months later, I couldn't remember all the words so I just had to wing it," Brassard said a half century later.