Single Song Sunday: The Water Is Wide
(A Valentine’s Day tribute to the song which brought us together)
February 13th, 2011 — 09:36 pm
Twenty years ago this fall my wife-to-be and I broke into a deserted chapel at our college to sit by the piano and make this song our own, staking our claim for the future and for each other through natural harmony and a shared sense of adventure. And now, if we have a song, it is this: a traditional English ballad which we knew before we met, that jumped out at us from the page that sunny afternoon, and, in doing so, guided us to forge ourselves as something more than the sum of our parts.
It’s an unusual choice, despite common inclusion as a tender love song in the broad canon of modern culture. Though the first verses of The Water Is Wide stake a claim for love as the only way across the deep waters of our lives, its subsequent narrative moves on from romanticism to disillusion, becoming a litany of potential pitfalls: faithlessness, and the waxing of love, until love falls away like a sapling, or fades like summer dew.
And yet, and yet. The history of this song in modern culture is such that most of its many performances return to that first verse as a coda. Depending on its mood, the repeated stanza becomes either a wistful reminder of the false promise of love at its inception, or a renewed commitment to the work that we must undertake if we are to live deep inside our love forever. And though the third and fourth verses are couched in absolute terms, clearly, those of us who take this song to be our own together have made our choice to see them as a warning, not an inevitability.
Hallmark would have it that love is made of candy hearts, and a thousand other gifts that mimic thoughtfulness: lingerie and chocolates, bright cards and flowers, diamonds and chains. But love has no shortcuts. To be honest with love is a prerequisite for its success and its permanence. As I’ve written about in previous Valentine’s Day posts, flowers are nice, but if we are to make love stay, time and attention and respect must be a daily absolution.
So here is your oar, my darling, my love. Here is mine, beside. Come, row with me into the setting sun, to the eternal shoreline. May we never stop singing our way home.
- Eva Cassidy: The Water Is Wide
(from American Tune, 2003)
- James Taylor: The Water Is Wide
(from New Moon Shine, 1991)
- Mary Black: The Water Is Wide
(from Without The Fanfare, 1985)
- Fred Neil: The Water Is Wide
(from Bleecker & MacDougal, 1965)
- Jane Siberry: The Water Is Wide
(from Hush, 2000)
- Catherine Merrigan: The Water Is Wide
(from The Water Is Wide, unknown date)
- The Beers Family: The Water Is Wide
(live from the 1963 Annual Florida Folk Festival)
- Indigo Girls, Sarah McLachlan, Jewel: The Water Is Wide
(from Lilith Fair: A Celebration of Women in Music, 1997)
- Darol Anger w/ Bela Fleck, David Grisman, Tim O’Brien, et. al.: The Water Is Wide
(from Heritage, 1997)
- Unknown pipers: The Water Is Wide
(source unknown, circa 2006)
Looking for something a bit more romantic? We’ve had six Valentine’s Day posts in four years here at Cover Lay Down, and all remain relevant and live – so whether you’re looking for a dozen songs about roses or one of several sets of sweet songs about love, don’t forget to head back in time for the following previously posted tributes to the ones we love.
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