I have always liked this song, the simple piano intro, and the powerful voice of Elvis telling a universal human story.  Durable relationships are hard.  Both parties are challenged to go “all in,” to show the hand each is holding.  This must be done if the relationship has a chance of enduring.  We typically walk through life concealed from others as well as from ourselves.  Disclosure is a terrifying prospect.  “He/she is my ideal, the only one for me.  If he or she knew my thoughts, the burdens that I carry, he/she could never love me…”  Perhaps you’ve had that monologue with yourself?  The prospect is so unnerving does one break off the relationship to avoid the pain?.

As a consequence the forsaken partner has a long walk, searching in a cold rain.  That is the only option if the future is to be made jointly, together.  The image is meant metaphorically, but every bit as real as a wet and cold, walk alone down a country road.

I’ve loved you much too long
And my love’s too strong
To let you go, never knowing
What went wrong…

With the rain in my shoes,
Searchin for you
In the cold Kentucky rain,
In the cold Kentucky rain.

It is a magnificent song, one of Elvis’s first hits in 1970.  The lyrics tell the story of an anxious lover as he walks and drives through the “cold Kentucky rain” in search of his missing love. The single was certified Gold by the RIAA in March, 1992.   — wikipedia

Kentucky Rain

By Elvis Presley

Seven lonely days
And a dozen towns ago
I reached out one night
And you were gone
Don’t know why you’d run,
What you’re running to or from
All I know is I want to bring you home

So I’m walking in the rain,
Thumbing for a ride
On this lonely Kentucky backroad
I’ve loved you much too long
And my love’s too strong
To let you go, never knowing
What went wrong

Kentucky rain keeps pouring down
And up ahead’s another town
That I’ll go walking thru
With the rain in my shoes,
Searchin for you
In the cold Kentucky rain,
In the cold Kentucky rain

Showed your photograph
To some old gray bearded man
Sitting on a bench
Outside a gen’ral store
They said “Yes, she’s been here”
But their memory wasn’t clear
Was it yesterday,
No, wait the day before

So I fin’ly got a ride
With a preacher man who asked
“Where you bound on such a cold dark afternoon?”
As we drove on thru the rain
As he listened I explained
And he left me with a prayer
That I’d find you

Lyrics written by Eddie Rabbitt and Dick Heard