Friday Five: Songs About Drowning

There’s a great song called Three Weeks In July on singer-songwriter Casey Kessel’s album Ripple In The Water, which has an attempted rapist being classified as a suicide by drowning after the girl has semi-accidentally killed him fighting him off.

I once came across a real-life 19th century guy who had the same trouble as Hank’s character in Long Gone Lonesome Blues – he jumped in the river (or it may have been a canal in his case) to try to drown himself having been spurned by a girl, but found it was only three feet deep just there, and pathetically asked passers by to tell him where it was deeper. (He survived.)

Hmmm…. this is a good list, but I’m wondering where Brad and Allison’s “Whiskey Lullabye” is.
Just saying, that one tops all for me.

“Hmmm…. this is a good list, but I’m wondering where Brad and Allison’s “Whiskey Lullabye” is.”

They drowned themselves in alcohol, not water, but it might get in on a technicality.

Ooh, I forgot about the Old 97′s “Here’s to the Halcyon.” A guy survives a shipwreck, finds himself surrounded by nothing but water and starts bargaining with God to get him out of the mess.

Awesome list. I especially love your commentary on the Garth and Hank songs.:)

There’s “The River” by Chely Wright that is pretty damn good.

The great Paul Williams recorded a song called “Deep River” at a split session with his boss, Jimmy Martin, back in the early 60s that fits the bill pretty well:

“I’m feeling low down, deep river
I can’t go on, I’ve had enough
Gonna dive to your bottom, deep river
I’m diving down, but I’m not coming up”

And then there’s a great Harlan Howard song called “The Water’s So Cold” that Marty Raybon recorded on his The Grass That I Grew Up On album from just a couple of years ago.

For drowning songs don’t forget Bobby Gentry’s “Ode to Billy Joe” since poor Billy jumped off the Tallahatchee bridge after all…

To me the spookiest drowning song is “I Will Never Marry”, an old Carter Family song I first encountered on the Peasall Sisters fine album titled “Home To You”. I would hope no heartbroken person with suicidal tendencies would ever listen to that song!

Also Aussie Slim Dusty wrote a great cowboy song titled “Saddle Boy” about a boy and his horse who both drown while trying to cross a storm swollen creek on his way home from school. Kasey Chambers’ family band “The Dead Ringer Band” sang an awesome cover version for a Slim Dusty tribute album.

Tied Together With a Smile
chorus

hold on, baby you’re losing it
the waters high, your jumping into it
and letting go and no one knows
that you cry, but you don’t tell anyone
that you might not be the golden one
and your tied together with a smile
but your coming undone

Take that Floyd Cramer piano-crooner and throw it in the trash, replace it with Ferlin Husky’s “Draggin’ the River” in the #2 slot and you’re in business.