Don’t Forget the Songs-365: Mach Tres: Day 015
Sat, Feb 9, 2013
“I Am the Rain”
Peter Doherty
2009
“♫ I am
the rain/ who’s
held in disdain/
the truth is
I’m ruthless/ I
can’t be
contained ♫”
When am I gonna learn my lesson, just when I think I’ve given up on former Libertines literary wunderkind Peter Doherty, I hear one of his song and the promise of his poetic genius woos my lyrical heart again. Yes, it happened last night, in the middle of making dinner, with the Lakers game on TV, it began to drizzling and I just needed a breath, something to lift me out of this momentary sense of over-burdened malaise and then as the showers fell outside I began singing “I Am The Rain” Peter’s lovely song from Grace/Wastelands and bloody hell, if Messer Doherty didn’t just lift my spirits.
It happens, periodically to me, when I think I’ve written off good ol’ Pete but then I revisit Grace/Wastelands or Babyshambles’ “Albion” or The Libertines’“Music When The Lights Go Out” and then I remember why I championed Doherty as the savior of British Pop music. We’re still waiting for Pete’s magnum opus. Just ask his old band mate from The Libertines, Carl Barat, still discoverers reasons to give his former partner-in-crime Pete another chance like the time he reminisced, “He’ll think of the tiny details only a poet thinks of. He used to phone me up when he’s miserable or when he’s upset about some other drama and I’d say, “Ok, Pere, its fine. Alright, where are you?” And he’d go [dramatically] “In the rain.” It’s just that sort of thing. So Endearing. So Beautiful.”
So endearing and So beautiful best describe “I Am The Rain,” Doherty’s personification of precipitation comes to life like raindrops, before you know it, Pete has drenched you with his crooner charm. But Doherty will be first to admit that his friend from The Bandits actually wrote “I am the Rain” as he told The Clash Magazine, “John Robinson – late of The Bandits – an amazing fella, actually, as it goes. Got a great voice. Stephen Street had him quite low down in the mix, the last I heard. He’s had a song for a while called ‘I Am The Rain’, which we used to play backstage and in hotel rooms and at bus stops back in the days when The Bandits used to play with The Libertines. I always wanted to do it, so we worked on it a bit together, changed a word, nicked a third...”
Even though Peter didn’t pen “I Am The Rain” his poetic love of showers brought his fascination to life on Grace/Wastelands. It’s this unbridled creative enthusiasm that keeps bringing me back to the music and lyrics of Peter Doherty. And today, “I am The Rain saved me. Pete’s 2009 ode to precipitation is one of the best gems on his first official solo album since departing from The Libertines. Re-experienced the promise of Peter Doherty, his “Rain” will make you a believer once again.
Don't Forget The Songs 365 