I've mentioned before how much I like the Rainmakers, especially their lyrics. Here's a great example of packing a lot of story and meaning into a few words. From their album The Good News and the Bad News.

We Walk The Levee

In the '51 flood the river got mean
The levee broke at a town downstream
Up on our levee where the county lines meet
Caught a couple of their boys with some TNT

Something had to give and it gave down there
My thoughts are with you but my family's here
It was you this time it was us before
Nothing's fair in flood and war

(chorus)
And blood's thicker than water
But thin and cold in the flood
The mud and the guilt and the gun get heavy
We do what we gotta
We walk the levee

My sisters married brothers from the neighboring town
My cousin and his boy farm his father's ground
I'm a Christian man with a bible and a gun
Just praying to God ain't gotta shoot no one

And blood's thicker than water
But thin and cold in the flood
The mud and the guilt and the gun get heavy
We do what we gotta
We walk the levee

Now I'm just a man protecting his home
Why do I feel like a dog out killin' his own
Itchy on the trigger, quick on the draw
Shined the flashlight in the face of a twelve year old kid
Who started cryin' for his ma

(spoken) I told him to get on home

I saw him in church on Sunday, heard the minister speak
About Noah and the ark and the other cheek
And Jesus' love and Judas' kiss
I'll think of that tonight on the graveyard shift

And blood's thicker than water
But thin and cold in the flood
The mud and the guilt and the gun get heavy
We do what we gotta
We walk the levee

And blood's thicker than water
But thin and cold in the flood
The mud and the guilt and the gun get heavy
We do what we gotta
We walk the levee

Yes we do what we gotta
We walk the levee

Damn good albums if you can find 'em.

Posted by: Ted at 05:54 AM | category: Waxing Lyrical
No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 377 words, total size 2 kb.