Song Lyric Sunday – Bodies of Water

Good Morning! I have been away from my blog for a few weeks. Working, traveling and now with a head cold so I need to get back in the flow with today’s perfect prompt of River/Stream/Creek/Brook suggested by our friend Di of the blog Pensitivity101. Thanks to Jim Adams, as always, for hosting Song Lyric Sunday. I am including two songs today as both deserve to be here. The first is the beautifully written ‘River’ by Joni Mitchell. The second is ‘Blue Bayou’ by Linda Ronstadt. I hope you enjoy them both.

The Song

At the start of 1970, Joni Mitchell’s relationship with her boyfriend Graham Nash was crumbling. On top of this, she was feeling increasingly uncomfortable with the mass adulation her recordings were receiving. The songstress needed to get away, so she took off on a trip to Europe, metaphorically skating away on a river to escape the crazy scene. While Mitchell was in Crete, she sent Nash a telegram to tell him their romance was over. On “River,” the Canadian singer gives her perspective on the doomed relationship as she yearns to escape the emotional bonds. She admits to being “hard to handle” and blames herself for losing “the best baby I ever had.”

The song, set in the holiday season, finds Mitchell feeling sad that she won’t be sharing the Christmas period with Nash. The piano accompaniment to the vocal, which borrows heavily from “Jingle Bells,” adds to its festive feel. Though “River” has become a modern holiday standard, it is actually a Christmas song that isn’t about Christmas (as is “Jingle Bells”).

Because of the song’s link with Christmas, it has been covered by numerous artists on holiday albums. Indeed, “River” is the second-most-widely recorded song in Mitchell’s oeuvre behind “Both Sides Now.” Well known covers include those by Barry Manilow (in 2002), Sarah McLachlan (in 2006) and James Taylor (also in 2006). McLachlan’s version peaked at #71 on the Hot 100.

Ellie Goulding released a cover of “River” exclusively on Amazon Music in 2019. Her version is accompanied by a David Soutar-directed video, which highlights the excessive use and disposal of single-use plastic. Filmed along the UK coastline near Dungeness, it sees Goulding and her friends gathering beach litter and recycled objects to make a zero-waste Christmas tree.

Goulding’s cover climbed to #1 on the last UK singles chart of 2019. It was the English singer’s third visit to the summit, following “Burn” (2013) and “Love Me Like You Do” (2015).

The Lyrics

It's coming on Christmas
They're cutting down trees
They're putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh, I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
But it don't snow here
It stays pretty green
I'm going to make a lot of money
Then I'm going to quit this crazy scene
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
Oh, I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I made my baby cry

He tried hard to help me
You know, he put me at ease
And he loved me so naughty
Made me weak in the knees
Oh, I wish I had a river

I could skate away on
I'm so hard to handle
I'm selfish and I'm sad
Now I've gone and lost the best baby
That I ever had
Oh, I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
Oh, I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I made my baby say goodbye

It's coming on Christmas
They're cutting down trees
They're putting up reindeer
Singing songs of joy and peace
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on

Writer/s: Joni Mitchell
Publisher: Reservoir Media Management, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Song

“Blue Bayou” was originally recorded by Roy Orbison on his legendary 1963 album In Dreams. While it only scored as high as #29 in the US (despite scoring #1 in Ireland and #10 in Norway), Linda Ronstadt took it to far greater fame as her only gold-selling single and her signature song. Linda Ronstadt has been called “the most successful and certainly the most durable and most gifted woman rock singer of her era” in Andrew Greeley’s book God in Popular Culture.

Simple Dreams was Ronstadt’s fourth album with producer Peter Asher, half of the British Invasion duo Peter & Gordon, who had a #1 hit in 1964 with “A World Without Love.” Under Asher’s guidance, Ronstadt became a bonafide rock star with her breakthrough album, Heart Like A Wheel (1975), and pop-rock makeovers of classic songs like Dee Dee Warwick’s “You’re No Good,” the Everly Brothers’ “When Will I Be Loved” and – of course – Orbison’s “Blue Bayou.”

“I feel really good about ‘Blue Bayou’ being the single,” she told Sounds magazine in 1978. “I used to sing it’s so easy to have a hit, all you have to do is recycle it.’ Really. And you can quote me on that.”

Ronstadt also had the help of JD Souther and Glenn Frey when it came to choosing songs for the album, who simultaneously suggested she record the Orbison tune. “We sat up all night talking like mice at incredible speeds, playing and singing half the songs we knew, all of us singing in different keys. I’ve got a tape of it and it’s the fastest tape I’ve ever heard. It sounds like the R2D2,” she said, referencing the chirpy droid from Star Wars.

Asher didn’t think this would be a hit and tried to convince Ronstadt to reconsider. “If we disagree on something, I really re-examine it and if I still think I’m right, I go ahead,” she told Playboy in 1980. “I remember ‘Blue Bayou’ – Peter was afraid it wouldn’t be a hit. He said we should shop around for some insurance. I said, ‘OK, get the insurance.’ But I knew it was a hit and it was the biggest single I’ve ever had . Sometimes he is real wild about stuff and I say, ‘Oh, no. That will never go.'”

In a 2018 Songfacts interview, Asher explained his method of reworking already established songs: “The arrangement is a framework for how the artist does it. So, it’s all based on Linda singing the song, so we would always sit with the guitar or piano or something and try out the song. And then I’d start thinking and bounce the ideas off Linda, who has brilliant ideas herself of how to do it.”

Ronstadt grew to resent the songs that made her famous, to the point where she can’t bear to listen to her Greatest Hits collection. “I hated those records,” she confessed to the San Francisco Chronicle in 2006. “I never thought of myself as a rock singer. I was interested in songs like ‘Heart Like a Wheel’ and I liked the others for about 15 minutes. But it wasn’t until I found Nelson Riddle that I had music I could live with.” Ronstadt teamed with the legendary arranger in the 1980s to release three successful albums of traditional pop standards, starting with What’s New in 1983.

The Lyrics

I feel so bad I got a worried mind
I'm so lonesome all the time
Since I left my baby behind
On Blue Bayou

Saving nickles, saving dimes
Working til the sun don't shine
Looking forward to happier times
On Blue Bayou

I'm going back someday
Come what may
To Blue Bayou
Where the folks are fine
And the world is mine
On Blue Bayou
Where those fishing boats
With their sails afloat
If I could only see
That familiar sunrise
Through sleepy eyes
How happy I'd be

Gonna see my baby again
Gonna be with some of my friends
Maybe I’ll feel better again
On Blue Bayou

Saving nickles saving dimes
Working til the sun don’t shine
Looking forward to happier times
On Blue Bayou

I’m going back someday
Come what may
To Blue Bayou
Where the folks are fine
And the world is mine
On Blue Bayou
Where those fishing boats
With their sails afloat
If I could only see
That familiar sunrise
Through sleepy eyes
How happy I’d be

Oh that boy of mine
By my side
The silver moon
And the evening tide
Oh some sweet day
Gonna take away
This hurting inside
Well I’ll never be blue
My dreams come true
On Blue Bayou

Writer/s: Joe Melson, Roy Kelton Orbison
Publisher: Barbara Orbison Music Company, Orbi-Lee Music, R-Key Darkus, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

As always, thanks to Songfacts.