Audiogrammes

Photo © Karen Kalou. Check out her Rain Series. This has been Beirut for the last 2 weeks…


I can’t stand the rain
Against my window
Bringing back sweet memories

Hey window pane
Do you remember
How sweet it used to be





When we was together
Everything was so grand
Now that we’ve parted
There’s just one sound
That I just can’t stand

Hey rain,
Get off my window…


I think we’re gonna have a “rain post trilogy”. This is officially number 2, after I like Rain.
I love this song. It was Ann Peebles biggest (only hit?) but was also covered by Tina Turner and I originally discovered it in Alan Parker’s The Commitments (yet another northern blue eyed soul discovery…).
Download her whole album here.

There are a lot of songs about rain and tears. The most obvious being Aphrodite’s Child‘s track of the same name. Useless trivia: this psychedelic one hit wonder band launched the careers of 2 of Greece’s biggest musical exports: Demis Roussos and Vangelis!!!!





Rain and tears, are the same
But in the sun
You’ve got to play the game

Rain and tears, are the same
But in the sun
You’ve got to play the game
Game…


And so we go back to Motown and the Temptations who are actually wishing for rain.





Sunshine, blue skies, please go away.
My girl has found another and gone away.
With her went my future, my life is filled with gloom.
So day after day, I stay locked up in my room.
I know to you it might sound strange.
But I wish it would rain. (Oh how I wish that it would rain)
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

‘Cause so badly I wanna go outside. (Such a lovely day)
But everyone knows that a man ain’t supposed to cry, listen.
I gotta cry ‘cause cryin’ eases the pain, oh yeah.
People this hurt I feel inside, words could never explain.
I just wish it would rain (Oh how I wish that it would rain)

Oh, let it rain.
Rain, rain, rain. (Oh how I wish that it would rain)
Oh baby. Let it rain.
(Let it rain) Oh yeah, let it rain.

Day in, day out, my tear-stained face, pressed against the window pane.
My eyes search the skies, desperately for rain.
‘Cause raindrops will hide my teardrops.
And no one will ever know.
That I’m cryin’, (crying) cryin’ (crying) when I go outside.
To the world outside my tears, I refuse to explain.
Oh, I wish it would rain. (Oh how I wish that it would rain)
Oh baby.

Let it rain (Let it rain), let it rain.
I need rain to disguise the tears in my eyes.
Oh, let it rain.
(Let it rain) Oh yeah, yeah listen.
I’m a man and I got my pride.
‘Til it rains I’m gonna stay inside.
Let it rain (Let it rain) …

The instrumental bit reminds me so much of their best know track My Girl. No?

Since we’re talking about the weather, The Velvet Underground are right to ask Who Loves The Sun?





Who loves the sun
Who cares that it makes plants grow
Who cares what it does
Since you broke my heart

Pa Pa Pa Pa
Who loves the sun
Pa Pa Pa Pa
Who loves the sun
Pa Pa Pa Pa
Not everyone
Pa Pa Pa Pa
Who loves the sun


Well it seems that Irma Thomas does.





It’s raining so hard
Looks like it’s going
To rain all night
And this is the time
I’d love to be
Holding you tight
I guess I’ll have
To accept the fact
That you are not here
I wish tonight
Would hurry up and end
My dear

I’ve got the blues
So bad
I could hardly
Catch my breath
The harder it rains
The worst it get
This is the time
I’d love to be
Holding you tight
I guess
I’ll just go
Crazy tonight…


And I’m gonna end this post with Karen Dalton tearing you heart out.
(Expect another rain post very soon… it’s probably going to be longer than a trilogy if the weather stays as bad this year in Beirut)





If I should leave you
Try to remember all the good times
Warm days filled with sunshine
And just a little bit of rain

If I should leave you
Try to remember all the good times
Long days filled with sunshine
Just a little bit of rain