Playlists: songs about fountains

By Marconius7

While this topic soaked up fewer songs than some other topics, the quality of those nominated were outstanding. So much so that instead of my usual 13-song playlist, I’ve expanded it to 15.

While there are a lot of figures of speech about fountains and lots of actual famous fountains in the world (fountains, as our Landlord noted in his excellent introduction last week, date from antiquity), the nominations revealed that in song, fountains strike a deep emotional chord covering a range from loneliness and sorrow to exaltation and celebration. And several were very reflective and philosophical.

Love and romance featured significantly, so let’s start off with songs where fountains are a reminder of love found and love lost. 

Jackie Wilson sings about the universal longing to find The Fountain of love. “Love me! Touch me! Trust me!” he sings. “And mean it deep within.” And Peter Perrett tells his love, “I drink the juice at the Fountain of You. It's what I live for.” Al Green pledges his love as he sings: “Come and walk with me. Let us drink together from the Fountain of Love.” 

Tossing a coin in a fountain and making a wish is an age old tradition with Rome’s Trevi Fountain being probably the most famous example. But as the old saying goes, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. Wishes do not always come true and the next few songs reflect that.

“I dreamt of The Fountain and the coin that we tossed,” sing Echo and the Bunnymen. “Now I'm just counting the dreams that were lost.” Jackson Browne had what he thought was the perfect love, but something was missing for her and she left him. “The loneliness seems to spring from your life like a fountain from a pool,” he sings.

“Fountain of Sorrow, fountain of light.” Can they reconcile? Maybe not. He’s a year or two behind her “in my lessons at love's pain and heartache school.” Alec Benjamin mourns the loss of the love of a girl he met at the Water Fountain. “I should've built a home with a fountain for us the moment that she told me that she was in love,” he reflects. But they were both too young.

Several songs were deeply reflective and philosophical. Tracy Chapman reflects on tossing a coin in a fountain, but for her, it represents hope. Hope for a better world. “I'll toss my coins in the fountain, cross my fingers and dream on,” she sings. She knows she may be Dreaming on a World “that may never be.” But “We must always keep dreaming of a world with equality and justice, thinking there could be a world without poverty and sickness.”

Lady Gaga and Grandmaster Melle Mel have similar hopes and dreams in Fountain of Truth. A world “Free from famine or disease. Free from the gun and the knife. Free from all the mistakes that we made in the past.”

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever reflects on the Fountain of Good Fortune that we are blessed with. But the singer on this number Joe White (this Australian band has three lead vocalists) wonders if he is a child of privilege and if it’s all ephemeral. White sounds a bit like Paul Kelly. 

The Indigo Girls also offer reflections on life. Happiness may simply mean taking life less seriously. Easier said than done. “Darkness has a hunger that's insatiable and lightness has a call that's hard to hear,” they sing. They went to mountains and drank from the fountain of wisdom, even sought out philosophers for the answer. But “the less I seek my source for some definitive, the closer I am to fine.” Closer to Fine tells us not to overthink things, something I often do. 

Next we have a few songs where fountains reflect a place and time. A waystation on the path of life. Nino Ferrer is nostalgic for the old homestead, La Maison Près de la Fontaine (The House Near the Fountain). A house now displaced by the factory and the supermarket. But “C'n'est pas si mal et c'est normal. C'est le progrès.” (It’s not so bad. It’s normal. It’s progress.)

Jackie Leven is The Wanderer and a fountain in the square is just a waystation on his journey. “And I am lonely in the cold morning rain,” he sings. “I walk in sorrow but I do not complain.” He’s on a quest for a lost love. “Everywhere I search for you. I search the world blindly. Nothing do I see.” 

The most unusual song this week is about a very specific place and time. Siouxsie and the Banshees sing about a golden fountain, golden and fiery and dangerous. Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD destroying the towns of Pompeii, Herculaneum and others. Cities in Dust. 

There were a number of religiously inspired songs that struck a chord with me. Although I am an atheist, certain kinds of religious music are a celebration of life. Religion has a dark side, with a focus on sin and contrition and retribution and punishment. But it also has an uplifting side, songs of joy and celebration, of redemption and eternal life. So we end our playlist with some gospel music.

Charlotte Church is a Welsh singer who started out singing classical arias as well as traditional and gospel numbers on her first album, Voice of an Angel. Here she sings Guide Me Oh Thou Great Redeemer which is both a Welsh song as well as a powerful gospel number. “Open now the crystal fountain, where the healing waters flow,” goes the song (though that line is sung by the choir, not by Charlotte here.) What struck me was the luminous expression on her face as well as her gorgeous voice, truly the voice of an angel. 

But my find of the week and the song that blew me away was Fountain by Judikay. Judikay is a Nigerian gospel singer with an incredible voice. For her, Jesus is “the fountain that won’t run dry”. Towards the end of the song she has now absorbed that power and she is the river that won’t run dry. Both Church and Judikay display what religion describes as rapture. Pure joy. 

Aqua and Other Fons A-List Playlist:

1. The Fountain - Jackie Wilson (Uncleben)

2. Fountain of You - Peter Perrett (DiscoMonster)

3. Fountain of Love - Al Green (Nicko)

4. The Fountain - Echo and the Bunnymen (PAF!)

5. Fountain of Sorrow - Jackson Browne (BanazirGalbasi)

6. Water Fountain - Alec Benjamin (Naguchi)

7. Dreaming on a World - Tracy Chapman (severin)

8. Fountain of Truth - Lady Gaga & Grandmaster Melle Mel (Vikingchiild)

9. Fountain of Good Fortune - Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever (Uncleben)

10. Closer to Fine - Indigo Girls (Naguchi)

11. La Maison Près de la Fontaine - Nino Ferrer (pejepeine)

12. The Wanderer - Jackie Leven (TatankaYotanka)

13. Cities in Dust - Siouxsie & the Banshees (Vikingchild)

14. Guide Me Thou O Great Redeemer - Charlotte Church (severin)

15. Fountain - Judikay (Fred Erickson)

Bubbling Up B-List Playlist:

1. Ripple - Playing for Change (Chris7572)

2. Three Coins in the Fountain - Frank Sinatra (severin)

3. Fountain - Sweet (PAF1)

4. Fountain of Youth - Arrested Development (Loud Atlas)

5. Sodajerk - Buffalo Tom (BanazirGalbasi)

6. The Fountain is Red, The Fountain is White - Doll By Doll (TatankaYotanka)

7. Dans l’Eau de la Claire Fontaine - Georges Brassens (TatankaYotanka)

8. Fountain of Love - Elvis Presley (Song Bar Landlord)

9. Why I Came to California - Leon Ware & Janis Siegel (pejepeine)

10. Woman at the Well - Sufjan Stevens (Uncleben)

11. Lady of the Dancing Water - King Crimson (TatankaYotanka)

12. Blooming Heather - Kate Rusby (Suzi)

13. Royal Tea - Joe Bonamassa (Fred Erickson)

14. Wasn’t Born to Follow - The Byrds (tincanman)

15. Dread in the Mountain - Black Uhuru (Nicko)

16. Jive After Five - Carl Perkins (Uncleben)

17. Let England Shake - PJ Harvey (TarquinSpodd)

18. Crystal - Fleetwood Mac (Fred Erickson)

19. The King Beneath the Mountains - Clamavi de Profundis (Naguchi)

20. A Fone de Paulus V - Jorge Ben (pejepeine)

21. Baptised - Jah9 (DiscoMonster)

22. Der Alte Brunnen Dort Im Park - Rolf Stimson Und Das Fröhlich-Quartett (TatankaYotanka)

23. Fountain of Youth - Grant-Lee Phillips (Fred Erickson)

Instrumental C-List: 

1. Fountain - Tom Harrell (BanazirGalbasi)

2. Roman Sketches, Op. 7: The Fountain of the Acqua Paola - Carol Rosenberger (BanazirGalbasi)

3. Soda Fountain Rag - Duke Ellington (BanazirGalbasi)

4. La Vieja Fuente - Los Pekenikes (pejepeine)

5. Fuente Y Caudal - Paco de Lucia (BanazirGalbasi)

6. There is a Fountain - Cyrus Chestnut (ajostu)

7. The Fountain - Lyle Lovett (Fred Erickson)

8. Fountain Jumping - Laurence Juber (Fred Erickson)

9. Manneken Pis Rock - Mad Unity (TatankaYotanka)

10. Fountain in the Circle - Lloyd McNeil Quartet (TatankaYotanka)

11. Danish Fountain - Geffion (TatankaYotanka)

12. The Fountain - Franz Schubert (TatankaYotanka)

Guru’s Wildcard Picks:

I was surprised nobody nominated the traditional French song A la Claire Fontaine. But that lets me list it as my pick. The song is especially popular in Canada where it “has a hidden political meaning of resistance against British invasion of Quebec, and it was sung by the Québécois as a sign of resistance: the Rose representing the British, the clear fountain representing the St. Lawrence River, and the sentence "I've loved you for a long time, I will never forget you" is intended for France and the French land of Quebec. There are many versions. I picked one from the 2006 movie, The Painted Veil and a Quebecois version. 

My second pick is Fontaine de Lait by Camille which I A-Listed for Songs With Double Entendres. 

1. À la Claire Fontaine - Shang Wen-Jie & The Choir Of Beijing Takah

2. À la claire fontaine (Anthem of Nouvelle-France) - Les Cailloux

3. Fontaine de Lait - Camille

These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: Join another jet set: songs about fountains. The next topic will launch on Thursday after 1pm UK time.

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