Handful of Rain is a heavy metal album by Savatage that was released in 1994. The first album since the death of their lead guitarist, Criss Oliva, the music is often dark in reflection of brother Jon Oliva's loss.
The title track was originally released as an abridged version, missing its second verse. Some editions of the album (for instance, the "Rock Masters" version released on the iTunes Store) include the omitted piece, referred to by the band and fans alike as "The Barmaid Verse". "Chance" is about Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania during World War II who defied government orders by signing exit visas for thousands of Jewish refugees. "Castles Burning" is about Giovanni Falcone, an Italian magistrate killed by the mafia in 1992. "Alone You Breathe" is a tribute to Criss which reuses the chord progression (albeit in a different key) and lyrics from the Streets song "Believe" in its long coda, and also part of the ending chorus in the Gutter Ballet song "When The Crowds Are Gone", although the lyrics do not mirror his death and the songs are not literally about him. The tour in support of this album was documented in the live release, Japan Live '94, which was released in 1995.
The night is growing dark
From somewhere deep within
It shelters like an ark
That always takes you in
The barmaid walks on over
And pours another round
For a lost soul at the corner
Who prays he¹s never found
And the mind goes numb
Until it¹s feeling no pain
And the soul cries out
For a handful of rain
Wash your women
In your Whiskey
When your future¹s
In the past
And your staring
Up at heaven
From the bottom
Of a glass
And you need some insulation
From the years you¹ve
Had and lost
And you feel the perspiration
As you¹re adding up the cost
And the night rolls on
Like a slow moving train
And the soul cries out
There¹s a land beyond the living
There¹s a land beyond the dead
If it¹s true that God¹s forgiving
Of the lives that we had led
In the distance there¹s a thunder
And the air is thick and warm
And the patrons watch with wonder
The approaching of the storm
And the night rolls on
Like a slow moving train
And the soul cries out
For a handful of rain
There¹s an old man in the corner
And he¹s smoking all the time
An the smoke is drifting upward and it¹s
Twisting in my
Twisting in my
Mind
In my mind
The whiskey¹s getting deeper
And I use it like a moat
There¹s a blues man in the distance and he¹s
Lost inside his
Note
His note
The night is growing dark
From somewhere deep within
It shelters like an ark
That always takes you in
And the night rolls on
Like a slow moving train
And the soul cries out