Last Days Of The Rainmachine

by Adrian Borland

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about

copyright all songs Adrian Borland

Last Days of the Rain Machine is a posthumous solo-CD from the ex-Sound mainman who died in 1999 and who was a master at the art of writing introspective, melancholic songs. Here he adds another 17 to his already impressive songbook, all recorded with no more than an acoustic guitar, 2 microphones and a 4 track recorder. The songs date from the years 1994 - 1998, including demo versions of seven heard on the second White Rose Transmission album, 700 Miles Of Desert, the band that Adrian started together with Carlo van Putten (The Convent). Songs with sadly revealing titles such as "Running Low On Highs" and "Love Is Such A Foreign Land" indicate that life was not always gentle with Adrian.

He begins hopefully with, "My spirit's free, you won't get me," in "Walking In The Opposite Direction", but by the second song "Inbetween Dreams", he already sings: "Passing time/Mocking time/Killing time/Inbetween dreams", and; "Sometimes dreams are all you need". All are very beautiful and revealing as is also the title-track; "We thought we could force nature's hand/But she turned her guns on us". Impressive lyrics, with strong, sober melodies. The singer has gone, hopefully to a better place, but he lives on in many wonderful, sad songs.

credits

released January 12, 2001

Posthumous release with acoustic demo's that were recorded by Adrian Borland in 1997 in Germany and the UK. The CD was released with kind permission of Adrian's parents.

Adrian Borland: Guitars, Vocals

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tags: alternative new wave post-punk singer-songwriter United Kingdom

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Adrian Borland Greater London, UK

Although it is primarily for the 1979-1987 group THE SOUND that Adrian Borland is remembered. THE SOUND, who released several records between 1979 and 1987 that deserved the popularity of Echo & the Bunnymen but failed mostly due to the lack of a marketable image. Nonetheless, the Sound were the missing link between Joy Division and Echo; perhaps time will help acknowledge this. ... more

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Track Name: Walking In The Opposite Direction
My spirit's free, you won't get me
Into the box your life is locked in
Your value system's broken down
I see it blocks the road it stopped in

And every day the things you crave
Make a play for my affection
I tell you straight, I won't be swayed
I'm walking in the opposite direction

They scream at me from flashing screens
They hassle me from city walls
But these are other people's dreams
They don't resemble mine at all

And every day the things you crave
Make a play for my affection
I tell you straight, I won't be swayed
I'm walking in the opposite direction

The stuff that you hold dear and high
How does it warrant such devotion?
I think you've lost the reason why
Though you still carry on the motion

And every day the things you crave
Make a play for my affection
I tell you straight, I won't be swayed
I'm walking in the opposite direction
Track Name: Inbetween Dreams
The waking hours are the wasted hours
In your scheme of things
You're waiting for the night to fall
With the sleep it brings
You say you're tired of everything
That there's nothing new to see
A great slab of day gets in the way
Of where you want to be

Breathing out, breathing in
It's light again, inbetween dreams
Passing time, marking time
Killing time, inbetween dreams
Breathing out, breathing in
It's light again inbetween dreams
It's all too much to contemplate
This struggle to get by

You like to cancel out the day
When you close your eyes
And drift into another world
It´s a line you've often crossed
You tried to keep a balance
But it is a war you've fought and lost
Breathing out, breathing in
It's light again, inbetween dreams

Passing time, marking time
Killing time, inbetween dreams
Breathing out, breathing in
It's light again inbetween dreams
The real world just makes you sad
Sometimes dreams are all you had
Now you think that dreams are all you need
Track Name: Valentine
I've got your present in my hand
I can't pretend to understand
There is no reason I can find
Valentine, valentine, valentine
A fragment of your life in mine
Valentine

Now in the mirror I see clear
There's someone different standing here
Something's changed I can´t define
Valentine, valentine, valentine
A fragment of your life in mine
Valentine

I can't forget the words I've read
unwelcome lodgers in my head
I was safely dying on the vine
Valentine, valentine, valentine
A fragment of your life in mine
Valentine

So tell me what gives you the right
To disturb a peaceful night
And set on fire this sleeping mind
Valentine
Track Name: Wild Rain
Oh my sweet one where have you been
- I've been walking to the driving wild rain
Oh my sweet one what have you seen
- I saw nothing I was blind in the wild rain
Stay with me now where it's safe and warm
- I don't belong here, I belong to the storm
Oh my sweet one why do you treat yourself this way
- My crime was of the heart and my sentence the wild rain
Track Name: Snakebitten
Look into this face
Wonder where it's been
Look into these fractured eyes
There's not much they've not seen
In this world without walls
There's nowhere I don't go
My head's been somewhere in the clouds
And somewhere very low

I'm snakebitten
Snakebitten, yeah
I'm snakebitten
Corrupted to the core
And all I want is more

Temptation's not a word
That means a lot to me
I've got no time for guilt
Or freedom's other enemies
The things that make you smile
Will only bring you down
Many came and failed before
To suck this poison out

I'm snakebitten
Snakebitten, yeah
I'm snakebitten
Corrupted to the core
And all I want is more

How much is too much
I haven't found out yet
you say I should have learned by now
Yet I've only learned to forget
I've got your desires
Down chapter and verse
You're like an open book to me
And I've read the last page first
Track Name: Excavacation Bones
You took the steps down to my heart
You shone a torch to pierce the dark
It let you see where you were going

And in a corner cold and dank
Propped up beside a storage tank
You found the feelings that weren't showing
And if you dig deep enough
You hit the darker stuff
Excavation bones, excavation bones

So you peeled away the skin
Past the ribs straight to the sin
To find out what I'm really made of

Then you turned your face away
As you eat the words you're used to say
I am afraid you've found what you are afraid of
And if you dig deep enough
You hit the darker stuff
Excavation bones, excavation bones

Find a little plot of land
Put a spade into your trembling hands
Dig a hole as wide as it is deep

Then take the love you used to feel
Lay it in that gash of field
Tell yourself it is only gone to sleep
And as the dirt begins to rise
Wipe the anger from your burning eyes
The sweat will dilute the tears you weep
Track Name: Running Low On Highs
I know the ground 'round here too well
Every crack and corner of my cell
Seems my world has been reduced in size
And I´m running very low
Running very low on highs

I took my pleasures one by one
Hovered closer to the sun
Until my melting wings fell from the sky
Now I´m running very low
Running very low on highs

I remember how it was
I was like a soldier to the cause
But in the end you pay a heavy price
It leaves you running very low
Running very low on highs

I stumbled through the day
Floated through the nights
Where life is measured by
The brightness of the light
But it is gone before you even finished

Saying your goodbyes
I won't take back the things I did
I am not ashamed of how I lived
I've never needed any alibis
But I´m running very low
Running very low on highs

So if you think that life is cruel
To me it is like a tank of fuel
And I used up mine
By the time I was thirty-five
Yes, I´m running very low
Running very low on highs
Track Name: Last Days Of The Rainmachine
The lies made holes for the truth to escape
As the engine hissed its defeat
Looks like we'll have to walk she said
Then took the first strange steps in the heat
The last days of the rainmachine
The last road we'll ride
The last days of the rainmachine
The last tears you'll see me cry

So walk we did on sand turned glass
Our heads bent by the wind
And looking back, reflecting sun
Was a useless scrap of tin
The last days of the rainmachine
The last road we'll ride
The last days of the rainmachine
The last tears you'll see me cry

We sucked this world down to its brittle bones
Now our throats are dry as dust
We thought we could force nature's hand
But she turned her guns on us
The last days of the rainmachine
The last road we'll ride
The last days of the rainmachine
The last tears you'll see me cry

Wiping the smile off the face of the earth
Letting it all slide away
Kicking the teeth of the world at our feet
And wondering why these are our last days
Track Name: Four Lonely Hours Away
Waiting for the early trains
Kicking cans in the square
Funny how it always rains
On people going nowhere
There is something you don't understand
This city used to be your friend
You're wondering where the life has gone
When did the party end?

Seems so far to the morning light
So long until the dawn
You're a lifetime away from another day
You wonder will it ever come
It's four lonely hours away
The night has lost its shine
The neon's fading glow

It's no time to be caught standing still
At the chill hits four below
The city's gone to sleep
A million dreams removed
Suddenly all the emptiness
Is bearing down on you

Seems so far to the morning light
So long until the dawn
You're a lifetime away from another day
You wonder will it ever come
It's four lonely hours away
Track Name: Dead Guitars
As the chance is disappearing
And the future is looking tired
In my head there's all the contradictions
in my hands a mess of splinters, chrome and wire
Dead guitars, dead guitars

Well I played her like a song
But now the song is gone
And I sung every one of her praises
Oh, she left me on empty phrases
On dead guitars, dead guitars

Well I see all these new faces
And they look to me like a row of trees
Of all the friends that have now departed
You're still the one that means the most to me
Dead guitars, dead guitars

Let the silence steal the moment
Let it gain the upper hand
And I will surrender to that language
It's the only one I really understand
Take a life in all its glory
All its sweetness rare and dear
Now I know that all that noise was just a cover
You came and went so that we might hear
Dead guitars, dead guitars
Track Name: Hallucinating You
Was it a trick of light
By the blood red moon
Was it lack of sleep
Dreams come to soon
When I turned to speak
You passed right through me
was I hallucinating you (3x)

Was it alcohol
Or a failing mind
Too many loveless days
Too close behind
Where you conjured by the fumes
Of too many smoked filled rooms
Was I hallucinating you (3x)

You walked like a ghost
With silent steps
Shimmered like a fire
Heat-haze at your edge
Were you protecting me
From something I couldn't see
was I hallucinating you (3x)
Track Name: Scales Of Love And Hate
Dreams crashing down, the balance is lost
There's no neutral ground, see the fire or frost
And those extremes, collide it all inside
Tomorrow holds the key, it passes me the gun
I'll aim it at the way I feel, pull the trigger
And be done with all that pain

We're on the scales of love and hate
But which way will they fall?
Between a life of doubt and faith
It's just too close to call
We're on the scales of love and hate
But which way will they fall?

Seems like we've shut and locked every door
The deeper the cut, the colder the war
But I think it's sad and strange
How love can change
Tomorrow holds the key, tomorrow in the sun
I'll raise my face towards its race
And dry my tears, one by one
And I'll start again

We're on the scales of love and hate
But which way will they fall?
Between a life of doubt and faith
It's just too close to call
We're on the scales of love and hate
But which way will they fall?
Tomorrow holds the key, to which way we will go
Will we be enemies, or will I find a feeling show
Like a beacon in the rain
Track Name: Love In Such A Foreign Land
You're not easy to forget
But you're no reason to get upset
I've met you a hundred times
And you never know the score
You've got one eye on the door
You keep me down, when I should be high
Love is such a foreign land to you
Love is such a foreign land to you

As the angels packed and left
They winked at me and said
Hey Adrian, why don't you give it up?
There's a thousand ways to live
There's a million ways to give
You've got to learn when you've taken enough
Love is such a foreign land to you (3x)
Love is, love is, love is ....
Track Name: Weekender Berliners
I'm just a moment in your life
And you're just a flicker in my mind
I didn't need you, as much as I needed sleep
So how can such a passing thing, seem to go so deep
We were just weekender Berliners
We were just weekender Berliners

Throwing coins into the pool
Making wishes out of fools
I'm just a moment in your life
And you're just a flicker in my mind
Maybe I see you again, maybe I never will
But I'll always have this picture that I hold very still
When we were just weekender Berliners
We were just weekender Berliners

Throwing coins into the pool
Making wishes - mine was just for you
I'm just a moment in your life
And you're just a flicker in my mind
Maybe I see you again maybe I never will
But I'll always have this picture that I'll hold very still
When we were just weekender Berliners
We were just weekender Berliners
We were just weekender Berliners
Weekender Berliners
Track Name: Falling Of Your Horse
Balance lost, fire frost
When I stretched my arms out wide
Then I paid the cost
Trying to be strong
Hold that smile and pose
But you buck and twist
And the feeling comes and goes

I'm falling off your horse now
I'm falling off your horse now
a sideways glance, a broken chance
the final mile, a fractured smile of course
I'm falling off your horse (4x)

From dawn to dusk, and back again
Every day I run the course
That you don't dare to plan
I've tried to ride your dark wild eyes
Took a breath of air twelve feet up there
And then I tasted sand

I'm falling off your horse now
I'm falling off your horse now
a sideways glance, a broken chance
the final mile, a fractured smile of course
I'm falling off your horse (4x)
Track Name: Downtown
I'm in that flashing window
I'm in that passing car
I'm on a mission for you
So tell me where you are

Don't you find it maddening
When you think what could be happening
La da da da down town
Down town, let's go

See there's a million friends
I've not had time to meet
I've got this crazy fever
I'm married to the street
Junkies with purple hair
Waiting for buses that go nowhere
La da da da down town
Let's go down town

Let's drink in the city
The life under the sky
Let's get some sun into our hearts
Let's forget to cry
Flies die laughing in my wine
And I die laughing all the time
La da da da down town
When I go down town, let's go

A young thought in an old head
I hope you understand
I could be the ocean
Crashing into your land
Get you out of that small space
And put a big smile on your face
La da da da down town
We go down town

I'm in that flashing window
I'm in that passing car
I'm on a mission for you
So tell me where you are
Tell me who you are
La da da da down town
Down town
Track Name: Tired Man
Don't forget it, what's yours and mine
I will be strong for you, some other time
I'm a tired man, give me just a kiss tonight
I'm a tired man, say it's all right, all right?
Don't forget it, I've got nothing to say

These eyes are closing now
I've got nothing to say
Here comes the other world
I'm this tired man, give me just a kiss tonight
I'm this tired man, say it's all right, all right?
Don't forget it, what's yours and mine
I will be strong for you, some other time