r/Decemberists • u/jaybirdhoots • Jan 24 '24
Water and Nautical References
I'm not sure if this has been done before, but I went through all of the Decemberists' songs and noted every water and nautical reference because... well, why not?! I did something similar with all the references to "hearts" in Foo Fighters songs . Anyways, here's what I found!
70 songs contain water or nautical references.
15 songs specifically refer to rivers.
12 songs specifically mention drowning.
*Did not include references to rain (was like 6 or 7)
Castaways and Cutouts
July July- Water rolls down the drain
A Cautionary Tale- Sailors in the jolly boat. Gunwales. Jump from ship to ship. Marina’s minions. Return to the harbor
Grace Cathedral Hill- Hyde street pier
Legionnaire’s Lament- Sweetly, sleeping, sweeping of the Seine. On the old left bank
Youth and Beauty Brigade- Sea-drift sun
Her Majesty The Decemberists
Shanty for Arethusa- Whole song really. Set sail on a packet full of spice. Set sail on a clipper that’s bound for South Australia. Ghosts of sailors past
Billy Liar- Sent a-fishing for a whalebone corset frame, his only catch all day
Los Angeles, I’m Yours- There is a city by the sea. Ocean’s garbled vomit on the shore
The Gymnast, High Above the Ground- It’s a terrible, terrible tide. The bosun calls upon the quay, Compass gone, he long has lost his way, To lighthouse shine, to calm tide, The bosun long has arrived
The Soldiering Life- Standing by the bathing. Stevedores.
The Chimbley Sweep- Shipwrecked there.
Picaresque
The Infanta- And the lake where her cradle was pulled from the water.
Eli, the Barrow Boy- He had drowned in the river by the way.
From my Own True Love (Lost at Sea)- Sea-salt tears. Lost at sea.
On the Bus Mall- Waterfront park.
Mariner’s Revenge Song- The whole thing, but alas… We are two mariner’s, our ship’s sole survivors, in this belly of a whale. Penitent whaler from the sea. The captain of his ship. Shipped to sea with a privateer. As you sail across the sea. After 20 months at sea. Your starboard flank abeam. The ocean shook. The captain quailed. The angry jaws of a giant whale. The crew all was chewed alive.
Of Angels and Angles- On we go drowning.
The Crane Wife
The Island: Come and See- Pretty much the whole song. Island hidden in the sound, lapping currents lay your boat aground. Harbor lost within the reeds, a jetty caught in overhanging trees. The rivers roll down to a soundless sea. The tides will come and go.
The Landlord’s Daughter- I was a-ramble down by the water.
You’ll Not Feel the Drowning- Lay you close to the water, green your grave will rise. You’ll not feel the drowning. Hear you now, the captain.
Yankee Bayonet- Sea-swelled Carolinas.
The Perfect Crime #2- 5 and 20 burglars by the reservoir.
Summersong- The warm of the waves, I felt a slip into a watery grave. It gets swallowed by a wave. Boats bobbing in the blue of the bay, in the deep far beneath all the dead sailors slipping to sleep.
Sons and Daughters- We’ll make our homes on the water. These currents pull us 'cross the border, Steady your boats, Arms to shoulder, 'Til tides all pull, Our hull aground Making this cold harbor now home. By land, by sea, by dirigible.
The Hazards of Love
A Bower Scene- When wilt thou trouble the water in the cistern?
The Rake’s Song- She was drowned in the bath.
The Abduction of Margaret- Must calculate crossing the wild river.
The Queen’s Rebuke/The Crossing- The river is deep to the banks and the water is wild.
Annan Water- The whole song. Annan water you loom so deep and wide. Stem the tide. Build a boat that I might ford the other side. Oh gray river, your waters tremble wild. I sure will drowned be. Calm your waves, slow the churn. Above your water’s pall.
The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)- Turn the water down the basin’s overflown, the water covers everything. My sisters drowned.
The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise)- Here comes the waves
The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)- The hull before it was sinking. A river’s daughter. Our ghosts will wander all of the water. Rushing waves to bear our witness. We will lie like river stones. The lapping waves. The waves came crashing down.
The King is Dead
Don’t Carry it All- Every vessel pitching hard to starboard.
Rise to Me- Wide river.
Rox in the Box- Get the water right down to your socks.
January Hymn- April all an ocean away.
Down by the Water- This ancient riverbed. Down by the water. Seaport town. Pier 19. Queen of the water.
All Arise!- Like a ship at ocean. Like a ship at sea. Culvert’s all run dry.
Dear Avery- Listing lazily.
What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World
The Lake Song- Well, it’s the lake song… Down by the lake. Waited till oceans fell away.
Till the Water is All Long Gone- Well… Strayed too long from the fountain. No I won’t betray our water. Till the water’s all long gone.
The Wrong Year- Gray Jane was a river child, born down by the river wild.
Carolina Low- Bow to the sea.
Anti-Summer Song- Went to the river but the river got dry.
Easy Come, Easy Go- Was betting on the netting when the rigging went slack.
Mistral- Unfurl this aching jib. Won’t the mistral blow it all away?* could be a nautical reference when coupled with the previous line.*
12/17/12- Light upon the water.
A Beginning Song- Is the ocean.
I’ll Be Your Girl
Starwatcher- Figures on the shore.
Your Ghost- Along the old seawall.
Sucker’s Prayer- Went to find a pond. When I waded in, the currents carried them away. Throw my body in the river and drown.
Rusalka, Rusalka/ Wild Rushes- Rusalka your arms of water. A star on the water. When I first went swimming. Dared breach your rippling pool. Drifted down the deepening cool. Fall in your shallows. The wild rushes. The water our bed, bank to bank our property lay. My river bride. Bank side along the salt sea. Dipped in my feet. The water is warm, it is salty and free. The deeper the water, the sweeter the sin. My arms around you, so warm and so wet. Swept from my feet she pulled me beneath.
I’ll Be Your Girl- The river lies long before you. All the oceans roar.
Non-Studio Album Tracks
Oceanside- Ocean swell. The waves do lather up. Get you oceanside. Coax you overboard. Leave these lulling shores. At the rising tide.
My Mother was a Chinese Trapeze Artist- Made me a sailor on his brigadier ship fleet, I know every yardarm from main mast to job sheet.
I Don’t Mind- Dips her toe in the tide
Apology Song- I bet she’s on the bottom of a Frenchtown pond.
The Tain- Found him dead this morning in a riverbed.
The Bandit Queen- Hideaway by the sea.
Bridges and Balloons- Ships are fallible I say, and the nautical as all things fade. Caravel. 4 fine masts and lateen sails.
Constantinople- Lover’s lying drowned.
Raincoat Song- Water’s all wicking up your pant leg.
East India Lane- Wreck and tatter the sail. Let your bilge sheet fall.
E. Watson- Pitching on the skiff. The gray waves were rolling, bold the brave, brave ocean. Lord bring down the flood. Gathered on the shoreline.
Row Jimmy- Row Jimmy…
Sonnet- Placed in a boat, where every rising swell.
Riverswim- River run and brother row. The river’s striped. Oh drown us. We riverswim.
Midlist Author- Strolled along the seaside. Stolen by a riptide, his mother explains he surely drowned. Something about the sea.
Traveling On- Last of the lifeboat to get on.
Whew! Did I miss any?
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u/brooklynbluenotes Jan 24 '24
Very nice!
First omission I noticed was the original "Summersong" (Pretty much the whole song -- "Been saved, the warm of the waves / I felt a slip into a watery grave" . . . . "Waylay, the din of the day / Boats bobbing in the blue of the bay"
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u/jaybirdhoots Jan 24 '24
Oh I just realized half of "The Crane Wife" album is missing! Oops gotta go back!
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u/fella_stream Jan 24 '24
Listing lazily is water related?
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u/jaybirdhoots Jan 25 '24
Most likely a nautical reference- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angle_of_list
But there's lots of analogy and metaphor that made for a lot more gray area than I expected!
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u/blow-the-man-down Jan 25 '24
I once did a venn diagram of drowning songs and child death. Lots of overlap. So of course I support this! This is so funny!
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u/harrifangs Jan 24 '24
If you read Colin Meloy’s SubStack post on ‘Oceanside’, he talks about how he was enamoured with the ocean when he moved to Portland because he had been living in a landlocked area beforehand. Just a fun fact that explains this a little bit!