Music of my youth: Doug and the slugs' Tropical Rainstorm

I didn't have any specific taste in music and so drifted where friends and coaches led. One swim coach, who shared a last name with me but probably wasn't related, was a huge Doug and the Slugs fan and played his music while we swam.
I absorbed it while I swam and only later, when I knew the name of the group realized I'd heard their songs on the radio.
 D & S was the first concert I went to on my own, using a friend's ID to sneak in underage. Although this is not a bar or live favorite, D & S was the best bar band I can think of.



Anyway, this is not a love song but a wreckage-after-love-is-over song.

We're nothing more than friends gone their separate ways, no longer parallel lines.

The song has a bitter edge,

Hearing your master call, you finally turned to home
Back to what you see as real

but is more about the recovery

A bond broken, then repaired.

The imagery fits the song perfectly,

Oh, I heard the small-craft warning long before they came
Ah the gales oo were blowing for days
Clearing the pathway of the branches from the storm
I realized that you had made your place
Swept away by a tropical rainstorm on the lower mainland

Full lyrics here.