Thank Fabinho it’s Friday.
That means another music competition.
With water levels dropping back to normal after heavy rainfall this week, this is a good time to ask: What’s your favourite song whose lyrics or title refer to a river.
Here’s mine.
Reply below to be in with a chance of winning a €20 voucher redeemable at any Currys PC World branch.
The winner will be chosen by my AI clone.
Lines MUST close at Saturday 11am.
Nick says: Good luck!
Last week’s winner here.
Sponsored Link
When the levee breaks – Led Zep – turn the intro all the way to 11………..
Winner winner chicken dinner!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOEQTJV_3-w
Brian Eno & John Cale – The River.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Nri_0SSt4Y
-have a great Friday,sunny here,one my crew, a bio-terrorist is due back at office today,he tested positive,so im ehm working from home:)
Into the Mystic by Ivan Morrison
Before I turned my back in him for the crime of getting ‘too big’ and having the audacity to play Slane (I was a very angry teenager at the time) this was always a favourite of mine from The Boss:
https://youtu.be/5LqOgFrfuJY
It took me up to about three years ago to finally admit that I should let it go…..
H, Did you mean to choose the song The River? There’s no references to rivers in The Ties That Bind?
Fair play Nick if you can tell one Bruce song from another
Hahah
+1 :)
D’oh! I was doing it in a rush, hopefully this one is right….
https://youtu.be/y7BUXRsTbvI
H, for Homer?
I’ll go with something simple and just for my own pleasure
‘Fall in a River’ by Badly Drawn Boy from the most excellent The Hour of Bewilderbeast
In fairness though it works best when you start from the preceding track – ‘Bewilder’ and let it play through to the next track ‘Camping Next to Water’.
Actually, whit not listen to the whole album? Probably not done so in years and it is fantastic.
https://youtu.be/RpaD8iy_47M
Great album
A song that I have loved from the moment I heard it and love it more today, beautiful vocals, it’s been covered 100’s of time but none better then,
Julie London – Cry Me. River,
https://youtu.be/SwheXIa8Cl0
Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?edufilter=NULL&v=yMim0D0dqLk
A Stomping tune by Rory Gallagher for a Friday.
If The River Was Whiskey
Lovely choice
Radiohead – How to Disappear Completely
I walk through walls
I float down the Liffey
I’m not here
This isn’t happening
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZq_jeYsbTs
Ethereal brilliance, with a beautifully obscure Dublin reference.
Good choice!! +1
From one of the best movies , this is a memorable scene and memorable track from the movie,
Down In The River To Pray
https://youtu.be/ZCnmYSIzZBc
Enjoy!
They’re sireeens andy – top choice
Little did ye know John Denver was a ‘dah Banks man
With a bitta help from Brendan Grace
Siamsa Cois Laoi, down dah Pairc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUYec1C5TuY
Hon Cork
in fairness, its as good as you’ll hear on the train back from Heuston
or in the Burlo around 5am ish
TOLKA GAUN, By Manisha Rai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN3rnBb7jIk
Selecting this so that I can relate the strange tale of the Dublin Corporation Outdoor Baths and win the non-segway-sequitur of the year award.
Photo taken just before the official “opening”, or closing, you were female.
https://twitter.com/PhotosOfDublin/status/440160452195393536/photo/1
The locally known Cabra Baths swimming pool was built by Dublin Corporation. It was an outdoor swimming pool situated on the banks of the Tolka River, the water from which was used to fill the pool. When it was originally opened it was for the use of both boys and girls. On the day of its official opening however the Parish Priest of Cabra West declared that the pool was for the use of boys only. Girls were banned from swimming in the pool and also from going inside the boundary walls that surrounded the area. They were urged to use the river that ran parallel to the pool.
https://youtu.be/jZEPIpTpoPs
Pussycat Mississippi
Do Waterfalls count?
Waterfalls – TLC
https://youtu.be/8WEtxJ4-sh4
Rio – Duran Duran (Not to be confused with the Mike Nesmith song of the same name which only mentions the city, not the river)
Great pop song, silly video, killer bassline!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTizYn3-QN0
Very 80’s vibe Daisy, great choice.
Ohio Riverboat Song – Palace Bros / Bonnie Prince Billy
https://youtu.be/oqpoLeacy24
Just checking in to make sure that’s mentioned.
Its almost as if there is an effort to shoehorn Palace Bros into as many of these competitions as possible in an effort to get them more widely appreciated…ahem ! The recent releases from Bonnie PB are well worth checking out. His best in quite a while.
Carry Me Ohio – Mark Kozelek et al
https://youtu.be/AKRA7weVyLs
https://youtu.be/8-zDI5GD7co
Down River David Ackles.
Broad Majestic Shannon – Pogues
https://youtu.be/4QFYP9Dhmwg
Tremendous choice
A criminally underrated song
It really is a beaut, alright. Arguably their finest. I recall quoting a few lines to an English colleague a few years back and his reaction along the lines of ‘whoa, is that Yeats?’ !
I had to look up the lyrics after that comment… and ad I did :)
……..
The last time I saw you it was down at The Greek
There was whiskey on Sunday and tears on our cheeks
You sang me a song as pure as the breeze
On the road leading up Glenveagh
I sat for a while at the cross at Finnoe
Where young lovers would meet when the flowers were in bloom
Heard the men coming home from the fair in Shinrone
Their hearts in Tipperary wherever they roam
Take my hand, and dry your tears Shane
Take my hand, forget your fears Shane
There’s no pain, there’s no more sorrow
They’re all gone, gone in the years Shane
I sat for a while by a gap in the wall
On a rusty tin can and an old hurling ball
Heard the cards being dealt, and the rosary called
And a fiddle playing Sean Dun Na Ngall
And the next time I see you we’ll be down at the Greeks
There’ll be whiskey on Sunday, tears on our cheeks
But its stupid to laugh and it’s useless to bawl
About a rusty tin can and an old hurling ball
Take my hand, and dry your tears Shane
Take my hand, forget your fears Shane
There’s no pain, there’s no more sorrow
They’re all gone, gone in the years Shane
[Instrumental]
So I walked as day was dawning
Where small birds sang and the leaves were falling
Where we once watched the row boats landing
By the broad majestic Shannon
Where we once watched the row boats landing
By the broad majestic Shannon
^glad I did :)
Sounds like Fairytale of NY
I have got to share this with you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4kUir_w3EY&ab_channel=MarkKnopfler-Topic
River Towns · Mark Knopfler
Steel River by Chris Rea, great song, poignant but the live version picks up to a romping tempo towards the end to me signifying hope.
https://youtu.be/GMzK2Sh2jXg
Somewhere down the Crazy River – Robbie R.
https://youtu.be/4KP9PNSUME4
Beat me to it. This was my No. 1 choice.
Sexy AF!
Great one , thank you
‘You like it now, but you’ll learn to love it later…’ Amen to that.
Texas River Song – Townes van Z.
https://youtu.be/d6IE-6dP6BQ
In the River – The Call
Underexposed chest-thumpingly good anthem
https://youtu.be/mVoFfC_l9ZI
Tina & Ike – Proud Mary
https://youtu.be/TwpVpUYO3MM
Roll on
Jimmy Cliff – Many Rivers to Cross
https://youtu.be/fjW5f7i5EwE
Happy Friday
JOHN LEE HOOKER – BAD LIKE JESSE JAMES
Or as he is known in Ireland Sean Lee Hooker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_ZVrR6lD4s
Ocean Colour Scene – Riverboat Song
https://youtu.be/brzzM31G4x8
Love the Guitars + the vocals
back to the grindstone now.
Zambezi from The Piranhas
I’m on me way….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg4Po07SEmM&ab_channel=DesRutter
Beat me to it. This was my No. 1 choice.
Beat me to it. This was my No. 1 choice. (Somewhere down the crazy River)
Down by the Banks of the Ohio – Olivia Newton John (pre Grease) or Dolly Parton or whoever – but I only knew it played by some in-house “ballad band” – 1970’s on holidays my parents would find a bar (only time they ever really did this) with a bit of “music” and over flat cokes and taytos (me), pint of stout (Da) and a port and lemon (my mother – and one would be all she had all evening) they would sway and sometimes sing along and almost always this song came on. Good times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lQPVrn8Om8
Love it and your evocative story! Always thought it was Down by the banks of the old Hiyo. Quite strong lyrics should really be in the “woman killer” category…
Has to be Talking Heads doing Take it to the river. Here is an early live version that captures the same vibe as their recorded version.
https://youtu.be/3RHZEzVUBPk
Una Keane on her album Collaborations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjQDnj2xNzU
Rivers (track 4) with Liam Ó’Maonlaí’s on vocals and Lōwli live from the Dublin’s Pepper Canister Church .
https://unakeane.bandcamp.com/
Battle of the Boyne. Available at all good music shops for €16.90
A Lad In Seine ;)
https://youtu.be/q2y9inP4CqE
Simple Minds – Waterfront
One of the best opening riffs ever, and an absolute monster of a track.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE51zPBHa1M
How about this little known Righteous belter? Perfect comedown after an afternoon of Zoom calls.
That lucky old sun – Righteous Brothers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRzOddXupFQ
“Oh Spread me over the Liffey and sing me off to sleep …”
Pillow Queens – Liffey
https://youtu.be/ZxHQbL11gzM
the nearest river to my gaff is the Dargle, so here’s the Pogues with a song that’s not actually about the Dargle (not directly anyway):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WFBC-PEnTI
Lisa Hannigan & The Chieftains – My Lagan Love
https://youtu.be/eNKfX9_4c5I
Alternatively, Kate Bush has a go…
https://youtu.be/8Ki_8_D7huM
bit of Johnny Cash “Big River” (the Mississippi, not the Shannon)…
Look at the quality of that quiff!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_21p14TAXM
Fog on the Tyne – Lindisfarne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm_KZSYSiGc
This was later murdered by Gazza, but enjoy the original.
Over nine minutes long and played on a 1953 Gibson Les Paul bought in for $50.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Down by the River
https://youtu.be/KflCXmEX6BY
Down By The Water: The Decemberists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR9DjdMrpHg
The Waterboys – This is the sea
https://youtu.be/LJo8IoAme5Q
Madness – Night Boat To Cairo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLLL1KxpYMA
“It’s just gone noon half past monsoon
On the banks of the river Nile”
Virgil’s Aeneid VI tells the tale of a journey to the afterworld and references Charon, the ferryman of Hades, who carries souls of the newly deceased across the river Styx. Within Seamus Heaney’s translation of Aeneid is the poem Elsewhere Anchises. It was put to music by David Holmes and Jon Hopkins with Stephen Rea reciting the words. On a glorious Spring evening take a few minutes to bathe in its loveliness.
https://youtu.be/ljA6xWiazVQ
I was going to list a song that mentions
“between the Guadalquivir river and old Seville”
but out of respect for my fellow monobrow midget hating compadres, I will refrain
Not even ‘don’t pay the ferryman’?
Elvis Costello and the Attractions – Oliver’s Army
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrjHz5hrupA
Several rivers mentioned in one song.
I have to list it
Boney M – Rivers Of Babylon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta42xU2UXLA
There’s no truth in the rumour that the Boney M lad is the dad of the Milli Vanilli boys (or went to the same singing teacher)
This for later with your preferred tipple, gorgeous cover of a Byrds song,
Ballad Of Easy Rider,
https://youtu.be/H2kHYF4s5zo
Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/AYqJtqyeilE
‘And It Stoned Me’ by Van Morrison. You’d be dripping wet even listening to this tune.
There are many songs that refer to rivers but this one is on fire
This is a great track, Tina Turner’s blistering vocals on :-
River Deep Mountain High
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de5Xauv99QM
Good choice Harry.
Galliano – Blood Lines
This one takes me back to a time of speaker stacks throbbing in golden sunsets,
pulsing in the silver moon and general carefree abandon.
On that basis it could be a favourite
https://youtu.be/nhMEqD2tmzQ
RDF – Riverwise
https://youtu.be/RfqQ6ubajYA
Get back down……..
Lost a lot of sleep skanking to these fellows over the years.
Neil Young : “Down by the River”. With a refrain that laments somewhat alarmingly “Down by the river, I shot my baby” it appears at first listen lyrically to be one to file under the “Hey Joe” don’t try this at home. The ditty was penned whilst Young was bedridden & delirious with a 39.5 degree fever in a Californian log cabin. He later clarified in less than gender neutral terms that “No, there’s no real murder in it. It’s about blowing your thing with a chick. It’s a plea, a desperation cry”. Others have suggested a Class A substance reference. Whatever it’s a bona fide stoner classic and climaxes with old Neil launching into one of his epic trademark staccato guitar solos which meanders menacingly building into a hulking pile of snarling riffs before reaching the sea safely just like a pure freshwater river
Down by the River (2009 Remaster) – YouTube
Dennis Wilson – The River Song
https://youtu.be/LHCzTLnFpLE
‘Sweet Thames Flow Softly’, Ewan McColl And Peggy Seeger
https://youtu.be/zmn5pOxb2iM
Gorgeous tune.
Beautiful I was going to pick that
REM at their most beautiful, the closing song from Automatic for the People…Find the River
https://youtu.be/KIJGlTu5sEI
A beautiful song. I would go back to 1986’s Life’s Rich Pageant and “Cuyahoga” – a song about what was once one of America’s most polluted rivers – there was so much oil in it the river would burn.
+1
Excellent choice. Always liked their Whistle Test medley of Moon River / Pretty Persuasion.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x386qu
On the DVD extras Hepworth has some good anecdotes about seeing them at their outset and being blown away by how good they were even then.
Octave One – Blackwater
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x_aYSPZWINc
‘London Calling’ by The Clash. There’s a reason this tune gets nominated every week..
AH LIVE BA THA RIEVAAAAHHH!!!
RDF- Riverwise
https://youtu.be/kZUWARUHWlo
Turn up the bass, that’s my preference anyhow.
Many great versions of this to be found, this one however was the first one I sang along to as a callow youth.
Boney M – rivers of babylon
https://youtu.be/l3QxT-w3WMo
A surprising choice from me this week. The people who brought you “ain’t no love (ain’t no use)” with Melanie Williams reformed and took a serious right turn to become Doves
They released this beautiful track, caught by the river, and it’s lyrics reasonate in these strange times even more so
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lrsMpTgWnHk
Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue,
Where The Wild Roses Grow
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lDpnjE1LUvE
nice one, lush
Great choice +1
From the first day I saw her I knew she was the one
She stared in my eyes and smiled
For her lips were the color of the roses
That grew down the river, all bloody and wild
On the third day he took me to the river
He showed me the roses and we kissed
And the last thing I heard was a muttered word
As he knelt above me with a rock in his fist
The Standells – Dirty Water
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5apEctKwiD8
Sang along to this many a warm summer evening in Fenway park watching the Red Sox, watching them pound the old enemy from the Bronx – the Yankees. The same with crisp autumn evenings during the playoffs in October – good times, and we’ll get back to them soon.
Yankees suck!
Riverside by Agnes Obel. Her haunting, ethereal voice and finger-light piano have ushered me off to dreamland many a night.
https://youtu.be/vjncyiuwwXQ
https://youtu.be/L5V9nK7-OkM
Wouldn’t be Friday without some Credence – ‘Green River’
By the Banks of Red Roses – De Danann
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FEPPzz7htw
https://youtu.be/875eB2tU2TU
It wouldn’t be a competition about river songs without this either; Audrey Hepburn, ‘Moon River’.
Rivernan – Nick Drake
https://youtu.be/idcaRTg4-fM
Its probably the melancholia of the end of another stifled week, finally taking a breath and starting to unwind, but this track hits harder now than it otherwise might. Could be on repeat for a while before this night is out.
Going to see the river man
Going to tell him all I can
About the ban
On feeling free.
If he tells me all he knows
About the way his river flows
I don’t suppose
It’s meant for me
*Riverman, ffs
I was beaten to Boney M, so I changed tack.
I offer you Lubbick Lou and his Jug Huggers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf2YrrhtZIs
Or maybe some Billy Connelly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1ILDH_44g0
“Powderfinger” originally I loved Neil Young from when I first bought “Rust Nevers Sleep” but these days I’m torn between him and The Cowboy Junkies.
“Look out, Mama, there’s a white boat coming up the river
With a big red beacon, and a flag, and a man on the rail”
https://youtu.be/tdPs5YXQTSw Neil Young
https://youtu.be/jPQcTs9w1ko Cowboy Junkies
“I’m looking at the river but I’m thinking of the sea”. The most disturbing and most sublime song. Every time we’re at a Freddie White concert and he asks “Any requests”, she shouts loudly “In Germany Before The War”, Freddie demures then beautifully sings this Randy Newman song.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YNThC_Otw94
If you’re fond of sand dunes and salty air…
Groove Armada – At the River
https://youtu.be/m-uztVX6QFQ
Criminally underrated Wicklow fella pens sweet tune, which may or may not be about the confluence of the Avonmore and Avonbeg rivers.
Video features all-round decent skin, BBC 6 Music presenter and Corkman, Cillian Murphy.
Fionn Regan – The Meeting of the Waters.
https://youtu.be/AzUZhdVHSUo
The theme from True Detective is a decent slice of gothic Americana.
The Hat – The Angry River
https://youtu.be/tAkHE4Y-uOk
The Twilight Sad – Floating on the Forth
https://youtu.be/cxDxfEQzyYY
One for my old Man, gone but not forgotten
https://youtu.be/NnmEgmugnCg
He sang this plenty, music works like a flux capacitor sometimes .
Can’t believe no-one has mentioned this classic from the Reverend Soulmeister himself.
Many moons ago I was hitchhiking across the States and was stranded somewhere outside Billings, Montana waiting for a ride on a warm mid-summer evening with dusk approaching.
I fired up a doobie to pass the time and just as the good stuff hit home a car appeared in the distance – a black ’64 split-screen ‘Vette.
After exchanging pleasantries and another three skinner the driver – a kindly old hippy – cranked up the radio and on came this song.
Fabulous horn section, great Hammond organ and a voice to die for.
What.a.groove.
I remember it as if it was yesterday.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9FBUgdhxe9M
You refused to sit in the child seat, never thanked me for the lift, then left “chocolate stains” all over the ‘Vette after you got out. And it wasn’t yesterday bud, it was 2019. Magnificent.
Mississippi Blues – Rory Block
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7EtyBSUDw08
Not part of the competition:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fhRmCMWdRqM
Hard Time Killing Floor Blues – Oh Brother Where Art Thou Soundtrack.
Can’t believe no-one has mentioned this classic from the Reverend Soulmeister himself.
Many moons ago I was hitchhiking across the States and was stranded somewhere outside Billings, Montana waiting for a ride on a warm mid-summer evening just as dusk was approaching..
I fired up a doobie to pass the time and just as the good stuff hit home a car appeared in the distance – a black ’64 split-screen ‘Vette.
After exchanging pleasantries and sparking up another three skinner the driver – a kindly old hippy – cranked up the radio and on came this song.
What.a.groove.
I remember it as if it was yesterday.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9FBUgdhxe9M
You refused to sit in the child seat, never thanked me for the lift, then left “chocolate stains” all over the ‘Vette after you got out. Also, it wasn’t yesterday bud, it was 2019. Also, it wasn’t Billings Montana, it was Billings method. Magnificent.
I’ll offer up some musical nihilism with Tom Waits’ Misery is the River of the World
https://youtu.be/UDjEDmgytOA
Misery’s the river of the world
Misery’s the river of the world
Misery’s the river of the world
Everybody row
Everybody row
Everybody row
Everybody row
Need more be said?
;-)
“Deep as the river, all desire the ashes and the fire…”
Shriekback – This Big Hush
https://youtu.be/A4U0KBvzi7g
Van Morrison – You Don’t Pull No Punches, But You Don’t Push the River (1973)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRnFg3ltxgE
People are so stupid.
Referring to a river means referring to an actual river – not the word river.
Was going to mention it earlier, but, decided to leave someone else make that point – 120 comments in, not one person did.
So, there you have it.
‘What’s your favourite song whose lyrics or title refer to a river.’
Nowhere does it say that lyrics or title have to refer to a river by name – Nick’s own choice doesn’t.
There’s only one stupid on here as far as I can see. It might have been two but you forgot to change your username again.
100% agree Bro and just for you,
https://youtu.be/08083BNaYcA
Enjoy!
Cheers Andy, right back atcha
https://youtu.be/H-gV-2kSzbc
You may agree with him, Andy, but, technically, you’re wrong.
Love your song choices – sometimes – but your appreciaton for The National – Bloodbuzz Ohio, endears me to you.
I knew someone would have to respond to defend their own stupidity and double down on that stupidity.
I should be on Wall Street.
Define – A River?
You’re wrong silly billy.
silly billy doesn’t compute, please define ‘A River’.
Capital ‘S’ and capital ‘B’, please – at least.
Silly Billy.
Please delete this post if/when corrected.
Thanks, Bodger/Admin.
https://youtu.be/wnrhJO-qzdw
Weile Weile Waile – The Dubliners
Why not
Pixies – “River Euphrates”
is an upbeat, distorted track about a man’s unusual excursion through the Middle East and one of its most famous rivers. GREAT beat and GREAT lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdzoK5jwESM
Pixies – River Euphrates – a long river in the Middle East. GREAT music GREAT lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB8jB6kh3CE