"Fire and Rain" features a somewhat generic refrain, with lines like, "I've seen fire and I've seen rain / I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end," being applicable to many different life moments. But as it turns out, each of the song's three verses refers to a very specific moment in singer James Taylor's life (via NPR). According to the outlet, "one is about a friend who committed suicide, another is about Taylor's addiction to heroin, the third refers to a mental hospital and a band Taylor started called 'The Flying Machine.'"
Of the death of his friend Suzanne Schnerr (which inspired the first verse), the Grammy-winning artist told NPR that it was months before he actually learned of her passing, because his friends had purposefully withheld the news to keep from distracting him. "My friend Richard Corey told me about it, but he had known about it for a month or so ... so that's where 'they let me know you were gone' comes in." The second verse refers to Taylor's struggle to quit hard drugs, which he described as a period where he was "physically very uncomfortable and having a rough time." Lastly, the third verse alludes to Taylor's "recuperation in Austin Riggs [Stockbridge's mental hospital], which lasted about five months," Taylor told Rolling Stone (via SongFacts).