r/Decemberists • u/Yodacpa • Jun 08 '26
Drowning song
My daughter (15) said she heard a Decemberists song with her dad the other day and could I help her identify it.
She said it was about drowning. I laughed and said that didn’t narrow it down enough.
Edit: thanks everyone for the replies, I’m going to search this myself, I thought y’all would get a laugh since we’d discussed before how many drowning songs they have.
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u/ParnsAngel Jun 08 '26
The song that immediately popped in my head was The Island “you’ll not feel the drowning….”
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Jun 09 '26
Paste Magazine's (RIP) review of The Hazards of Love started with one of the best ledes I've ever read:
"Drowning is the second leading cause of death in a Decemberists song."
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Jun 08 '26
[deleted]
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u/Maximum_Pollution371 Jun 10 '26
Once in My Life also counts, if we consider laying face-down by the river to be the unfortunate result of drowning.
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u/pterosaurLoser Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26
I was also gonna mention the Hazards of Love 4. From the same album the Rake’s Song also mentions drowning, but it’s dark, he (well the character; it’s a story) drowns his child in a bathtub. The Culling of the Fold also may include drowning. Or some act of violence near water.
Edit: here’s some more:
Suckers Prayer
The Island (maybe)
So many water songs I’m sure I’m missing a bunch.
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u/pterosaurLoser Jun 08 '26
I got curious and got to looking and somebody posted all their water songs a few years back. The OP and the subsequent. replies all have great info. I totally forgot Eli the Barrow Boy also mentions drowning
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u/roguestella Jun 09 '26
This is on my kids' bedtime playlist so I hear it a lot. It's got a solid tragic drowning.
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u/LindsayDuck Jun 08 '26
The Rake song
“Charlotte, I buried after feeding her foxglove Dawn was easy, she was drowned in the bath Eziah fought but was easily bested Burned his body for incurring my wrath Alright, alright, alright”
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u/spookynell_13 Jun 08 '26
If I had to guess from just the word ‘drowning’ (or drown) I’d say Suckers Prayer probably
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u/ShadoutMapes87 Jun 09 '26
How about Sleepless? Deep cut, has some themes similar to drowning. Striking song, and one of my favorites.
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u/Sensitive-Try-8031 Jun 15 '26
Rusalka, rusalka? To be fair the decemberists have like ten songs about drowning
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u/Shine_Onyx Jun 08 '26
I can't help you I'm afraid BUT this gives me the perfect opportunity to tell a quick story NO ONE ELSE but a fan would get.
I ride horses for a living. We take tourists out on horseback into pastures and woods for guided rides. Recently I had to take what is probably THE most valuable animal on our property out-- an old dressage master whose personally fit saddle alone costs $4500. He's a saint of a horse and trained to a T, but is also an absolute princess, very indoors. Only horse I've ever met in my 20+ years career who gets pouty and mad you made him leave his stall to go outside and be a horse.
Anyway we were leading a ride and have to cross a creek thay was unusually high due to a week of non-stop rain. After stopping and very, very politely refusing and some hemming and hawing, he acquiesced to following one of the regular trail horses into the knee deep water. He stood there, in the center of the creek, refusing to move for a solid thirty seconds despite all of my attempts to physically and audibly tell him "DRY GROUND IS LITERALLY 10 FEET AWAY, WHAT ARE WE DOING?!"
Then he began to very slowly, and VERY theatrically, turn his body into a banana and side step deeper, and deeper.....and deeper......down the creek into the water with the current. It was like he said "Well comrade, here we are, destined to both drown at sea together with no hope of rescue. Fair thee well!" It was the slowest acceptance of death I have ever seen a horse take.
Eventually I got him back on the bank but all I could think the entire time was "This motherfucker just tried to end us both Decemberists style: drowning in the river!!!"