Songs for Saturday: The River

[mdlbear]

Yesterday I wrote about the "River" posts, and said that I would say more about the song that gave its name to the tag, "The River" [ogg] [mp3]. That would be this post.

I have, of course, written about "The River" before -- I posted a link to the lyrics the morning after I wrote it, and full lyrics and a first cut at the audio almost exactly 12 hours later. (If you look closely you'll see that some of the lyrics have changed since then, and I'm not sure what became of the original recording.) But that was 2008, and I didn't start the "Songs for Saturday" series until 2011. So I get to do it again. Some people think it's my best love song, but you should probably listen to "Eyes Like the Morning" first and make up your own mind.

This song is perhaps the purest example of me chasing a metaphor wherever it leads me, and having no idea where I'm going until I get there. I started out thinking about my deepening friendship with N (this was about a month before we chose one another as siblings), and one line:

It's a river so deep that we can't see the bottom...

... but eighteen hours later it ended up applying even more strongly to my relationship with Colleen, to whom I was able to present it on a CD of (mostly) love songs on Valentine's day. I'm usually too close to my songs to tell whether they're any good, but if I get choked up or cry while I'm writing them, I have a pretty good idea.

The River Copyright 2008-02-12 Stephen Savitzky. CC by-nc-sa/4.0 We met in a place that was crowded with people I was lonely and lost, and in search of a friend. You seemed to be someone I needed to talk to We started a journey not seeing the end. Time passed and our paths crossed more and more often Not completely by chance, nor precisely by plan. I sang you my songs and you told me your stories; We loved without noticing when it began. Now I feel that I've known you for most of forever; Old friends from the time before cities were made: We walked in the sunlight beside the wild rivers, Slept in the quiet of a deep forest glade. And love is a river that flows through time's forest Smooth in the shadow, and sparkling in sun; Over the stones it goes singing by starlight To pools of deep silence the clear waters run. When you're cold and alone in high hills of spent passion Or lost in dark valleys of grief and despair Remember clear water runs down to the river And follow your friendship to lead you back there. It's a river so deep that we can't see the bottom, A river so long we can't walk to the end; We'll journey together beside the clear water; As deep and as long as the love of a friend. And I feel that I've known you for most of forever; Old friends from the time before cities were made: We walked in the sunlight beside the wild rivers, Slept in the quiet of a deep forest glade. And love is a river that flows through time's forest Smooth in the shadow, and sparkling in sun; Over the stones it goes singing by starlight To pools of deep silence the clear waters run. And love is a river that flows through time's forest Smooth in the shadow, and sparkling in sun; Over the stones it goes singing by starlight To pools of deep silence the clear waters run.