The KLF (also known as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords, Kopy… Read Full Bio ↴The KLF (also known as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords, Kopyright Liberation Front and other names) were one of the seminal bands of the British acid house movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s, best known worldwide for their various stunts such as burning copies of their album "1987: What The Fuck is Going On?" on a bonfire in a Swedish field, firing machine gun blanks into the audience, writing a book on how to make a number one hit, dumping a dead sheep at the afterparty of the BRIT Awards and most infamously, burning £1,000,000 on an island off the coast of Scotland.

Beginning in 1987 in London, England, Bill Drummond (alias King Boy D) and Jimmy Cauty (alias Rockman Rock) released hip hop-inspired and sample-heavy records as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu and, on one occasion (the British number one hit single "Doctorin' the Tardis"), as The Timelords. As The KLF, Drummond and Cauty pioneered the genres "stadium house" (rave music with a pop-rock production and sampled crowd noise) and "ambient house". The KLF released a series of international top-ten hits on their own KLF Communications record label, and became the highest internationally selling UK band of 1991. The duo also published a book, The Manual, and worked on a road movie called The White Room.

From the outset, they adopted the philosophy espoused by esoteric novels The Illuminatus! Trilogy, gaining notoriety for various anarchic situationist manifestations, including the defacement of billboard adverts, the posting of prominent cryptic advertisements in NME magazine and the mainstream press, and highly distinctive and unusual performances on Top of the Pops. Their most notorious performance was at the February 1992 Brit Awards, where they horrified the formal audience with a hardcore thrash version of "3 A.M. Eternal" (performed with the justifiably named Extreme Noise Terror) that also included Drummond spraying the crowd with blanks from an automatic rifle and the post-performance announcement, "The KLF have left the music industry." Topping their already extreme actions, Cauty and Drummond delivered the carcass of a dead sheep -- plus eight gallons of blood -- to the lobby of the hotel after-party. In May 1992 the duo deleted their entire back catalogue.

With The KLF's profits, Drummond and Cauty established the K Foundation and sought to subvert the art world, staging an alternative art award for the worst artist of the year and burning a million pounds sterling. Although Drummond and Cauty remained true to their word of May 1992—the KLF Communications catalogue remains deleted—they have released a small number of new tracks since then, as the K Foundation, The One World Orchestra and most recently, in 1997, as 2K. Cauty has provided remixing services for bands as diverse as Hawkwind and Placebo, under the name Scourge of the Earth.

The KLF catalogue remained absent from digital platforms until January 1, 2021, when an 8-track compilation of their 7" hit singles 1988-1991 - Solid State Logik 1 was released on streaming platforms, marking the 1st installment of a series called Samplecity Thru Trancentral.

Make It Rain
The KLF Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I been waiting
You been waiting
We been waitin'
But the rain don't come
Rain won't come
Rain won't come
You been waiting
I been waiting

And we been waitin' so long
But the rain won't come
Rain won't come
The rain won't come

Hay, make it rain
Hey, make it rain

Pump, pump a little harder
Pump, pump a little harder

Say yeah
Say yeah

Say yeah
Say yeah

Hey, hey yeah, make it rain
Hey, make it rain

Pump, pump a little harder
Pump, pump a little harder

Pump, pump a little harder
Pump, pump a little harder
Pump, pump a little harder
Pump, pump a little harder

Say yeah
Say yeah

Rain, oh won't you make it rain
Oh, won't you rain
Rain, make it rain

Pump, pump a little harder

I been waiting
You been waiting

Overall Meaning

The KLF's song "Make It Rain" has a strikingly simple but powerful message. The opening verse speaks of a prolonged wait for rain that hasn't come, which may either signify the metaphorical yearning for a change or an actual wait for a rain that hasn't happened. The repetition of "rain won't come" creates an underlying tension that parallels the frustration of waiting for a positive change that never arrives. Subsequently, the chorus emerges, where the singer implores someone to "make it rain," which may symbolize an appeal to a higher power, political or social change or a call to take action to bring forth a positive transformation.

The lyrics "pump, pump a little harder" could signify the effort required to bring about change. As if to say, we must put in more effort to achieve the change we want to see. The repetition in the second verse enforces the urgency and the shared desire for a change. It's as if the singer is saying, "we're all in the same boat, let's work together to make things better." The song ends with a final plea for rain to come, with the repetition of "make it rain" and "pump, pump a little harder" becoming more intense as if the stakes are higher, and the urgency to bring forth change is stronger.

Line by Line Meaning

I been waiting
I have been patiently waiting for something to happen

You been waiting
You have also been patiently waiting for the same thing to happen

We been waitin'
Both of us have been waiting for quite some time now

But the rain don't come
The thing we have been waiting for, the rain, is not happening

Rain won't come
Despite our waiting, the rain is still not happening

Rain won't come
We reiterate that the rain is not happening

You been waiting
We remind ourselves that you have been waiting just like me

I been waiting
Again, we remind ourselves that I have been waiting too

And we been waitin' so long
We emphasize that we have been waiting for a long time already

But the rain won't come
We repeat that the rain is still not happening despite our waiting

Rain won't come
We repeat it again to drive the point home

Hey, make it rain
We finally come up with a request for the rain to happen

Pump, pump a little harder
To make the rain happen, we urge someone to exert extra effort

Pump, pump a little harder
We ask for the extra effort to continue

Say yeah
We cheer ourselves up and encourage one another with a positive exclamation

Say yeah
Once again, we repeat the positive exclamation

Hey, hey yeah, make it rain
We use different words to convey the same request for the rain to happen

Hey, make it rain
We repeat our request for the rain to happen

Pump, pump a little harder
Again, we urge someone to exert extra effort to make the rain happen

Pump, pump a little harder
We repeat the same request for the extra effort to be exerted

Pump, pump a little harder
Still, we request for more effort to make the rain happen

Pump, pump a little harder
We once again request continued extra effort to make the rain happen

Say yeah
We repeat our positive exclamation to keep ourselves motivated

Say yeah
We repeat the same positive exclamation to keep the positivity high

Rain, oh won't you make it rain
We appeal directly to the rain to happen

Oh, won't you rain
We repeat our appeal to the rain to happen

Rain, make it rain
We make a direct request for the rain to happen

Pump, pump a little harder
We once again request for extra effort to make the rain happen

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: James Cauty, William Drummond, Ernest Drummond

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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