Musically, 'Rainmaker' is an excellent fast piece, a typical "Murray-style" rocker that is also a taylor-made single for Maiden. Although the lyrics are somewhat repetitive, the chorus is really remarkable and sticks to you mind long after the song is over. The instrumental part is also great, with a brilliant solo by Dave Murray, and should certainly have been longer. An instant classic in any case.
The song itself has nothing to do with the 1995 novel of the same name written by John Grisham that was made into a courtroom drama in Francis Ford Coppola's 1997 film. It has nothing to do either with the Vanden Plas song of the same name, which can be found on the German band's 1997 album The God Thing. This is in fact once again an allegory of life, with the desert portraying our existence. When it rains in desertic areas, the vegetation comes out extremely rapidly and the whole landscape is changed, making it more adapted to life as we know it. The metaphoric rain in the song probably tries to render this impression and the message may be that, at times of rain or happiness as the case may be our life changes and feels more enjoyable. Who is this character who can start the rain and that the lyrics seem to blame for not doing it? This is a bit of a mystery.

Rain droplets on a leaf Can we actually start the rain, and can this life-supporting rain flow more often? It seems doubtful that this rain can fall on our lives on its own accord, and this address to an external person seems futile. Why count on others and wait for good times to roll our way whereas we could take measures to find happiness ourselves? The cracks in our lives, like the cracks on the ground that are washed away by the pouring rain, can be healed only by our own doing. Some say that "Time is a great healer", but Time itself needs sometimes a little help that we can only provide ourselves. After all, we should all try to find whatever can make our personal "garden of life" flourish and we should be our own rainmakers.