By Nicko
It was as if the whole tide country was speaking in the voice of the Poet: ‘life is lived in transformation’ – Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide
What was left on the strandline from my listening was on the quieter side. It seems that ‘tide’ generally means slower, quieter songs and my mind floated there. Perhaps because relatively speaking tides are an insistent but relative gentle natural force (unlike an earthquake or volcano). I am somewhat surprised by the A-list.
There were songs about literal tides; songs about setting sail on the tide, both literally and metaphorically; songs of warning and conversely benefit of swimming against the tide (the latter metaphorically only, as swimming against a real tide is always tiring).
Metaphorically, there were receding tides (love retreating like the tide) and erasing tides (writing or castles in the sand). Returning tides for a second chance or redemption, but not as many. More ebb tide than flood tide in the relationship sphere.
Songs about flowing like the tide or being carried along by the tide, as in things being out of one’s control, with riptides quite favoured. And always the relentlessness of the tide (time and tide wait for no-one).
Past The Wrack And Samphire Tide A-List:
Riptide – Al Bowlly with Lew Stone and His Band (severin)
Riptide, caught in a riptide, torn between two loves
The old and the new
Riptide, lost in a riptide
Where will it take me what shall I do?
Five very varied ‘Riptides’ nommed. Al is torn between two lovers, the old and the new, swept along by a riptide, thus outside his control.
Riptide – Laura Veirs (tincanman2010)
Riptide pulls me out into the open sea
My toes dangle for a place to stand and be.
To be honest, I am not sure if Laura is referring to a riptide or a rip current which isn’t tidal, but no matter. It’s an example of an impressionistic tide/ocean song.
You Hung The Moon – Elvis Costello (Fred Erickson)
The shore is a parchment
The sea has no tide
Since he was taken from my side.
This one for the moon and the parchment image and the way Elvis channels a Frank Sinatra style in the vocal delivery. I don’t think I would have picked Costello if I just heard the song.
The Brean Lament – June Tabor (treefrogdemon)
The waters they washed them ashore, ashore
And they never will sail the seas no more
We laid them along by the churchyard wall
And all in a row we buried them all
But their boots we buried below the tide
On Severnside.
Here June details superstition about the sea. The tide line divides realms. Sailors lived on land but worked on the dangerous sea. Even the bodies of the drowned at sea were not buried in the church, but on the tideline until the 1870s, according to June.
Nothing On The Dry Land – Tom McRae (tincanman2010)
Lost my kids, I lost my wife
Now I'm leaving on a tide
Nothing on the dry land was ever worth the price.
Setting sail on the tide is a common theme. After losing his family on land, Tom sets sail. To more tragedy, but also to a kind of freedom.
Morecambe Bay – Christy Moore (Suzi)
Out beyond the streetlamps where the calliopes roar
Past the wrack and samphire, beyond the shore
I've seen them walking through the tide as rain cuts through the spray
Chinese cockle-pickers on the sands of Morecambe Bay
More folk, more tragedy. This time real, about at least 21 Chinese cockle-pickers who didn’t know about the fast tidal race in Morecambe Bay and were drowned. There the tide is the devil, it will run you out of breath.
It’s the humanity in this song, not just the tidal reference. The dead were illegally trafficked immigrants, chasing something better.
And The Tide Rushes In – The Moody Blues (Fred Erickson)
Then the tide rushes in
And washes my castles away
Then I'm really not so sure
Which side of the bed I should lay
I should lay
I should lay
The tide doesn’t rush everywhere, it depends on the tidal range and topography. But it does tragically in Morecambe Bay and here metaphorically for The Moody Blues.
One of a number of songs about the tide washing away sandcastles and certainties. I seem to like them all, somehow. Life in transformation. Usually not welcome.
Pleamar De Águilas – Invisible (Maki, translation: High Tide of Eagles)
From where the boat will sail, slowly at high tide
With the sun to windward
High tide, high tide
High tide of eagles
Argentinian prog from the 70s. Hardly needs anything more to be said! This one did intrigue with its high tide of eagles, as well as the more familiar boat sailing on the tide reference.
No Other – Gene Clark (Uncleben)
All alone you say
That you don't want no other
So the Lord is love
And love is like no other
If the falling tide
Can turn and then recover
All alone we must
Be part of one another
Gene picks up on the fact that the tide recedes, but then returns. It can come back, so can love. An antidote to the songs about the tide just taking away. It’s a great sound too.
Time And Tide – Paul Kelly (BanazirGalbasi)
Time and tide wait for no-one
And they won’t wait for you or me
You got to know
When to stay and when to go
When to do, when to be.
Lots of possibilities on ‘time and tide’, but this one is a favourite mature PK song. With Vika and Linda Bull with one of their routinely exemplary contributions.
To Paul, time and tide sometimes hurry, sometimes move so slow but the force is still there. Hence the proverb.
High Tide Or Low Tide – Bob Marley & The Wailers (Uncleben)
In high seas or in low seas
I'm gonna be your friend,
I'm gonna be your friend.
In high tide or in low tide,
I'll be by your side,
I'll be by your side.
This is sea and tide as reassurance. Regardless of the state of the tide, he will be your friend. In other words. no matter what.
Sandwriting – Chris Rea (philipphilip99)
Sandwriting
Write your lover's monogram
Upon the cool damp
White gold grain
Say this is who I am
Another writing in the sand song, here washed and blown away with the memory of your name. With a bit more detail about the sand.
I Can See The Sun In Late December – Roberta Flack (Fred Erickson)
I can see the sun in late December
I see forgotten treasures 'neath the sea
Tides that defeat identity
Washing away the beauty that was in your mind
A Stevie Wonder song, extended out to nearly 13 minutes. Roberta repeats and repeats the lyric. A lament for someone who has lost sight of what is important. Tides washing away the beauty in his mind. But she can see and hear what he has lost and wants to communicate that.
The Flotsam Or Is It Jetsam Tide B-List:
A grab bag of just some songs…
Gapu - Yothu Yindi (IsabelleForshaw)
Gapu translates as ‘water’ in the Yolŋu language of Arnhem Land in northern Australia. But evidently this song is a song of the Gumatj Clan of North East Arnhem Land about the salt water. It talks about the tide turning as it gathers the foam and brings the life of the sea.
Sweet Thames, Flow Softly – Rufus and Martha Wainwright (OliveButler)
A few versions of this intriguing Ewan McColl song were nommed. It very nearly made it to the A. Now, alas, the tide has changed. My love has gone from me.
Broadside – The Elizabethan Sessions (Suzi)
A good story and such classy delivery. The tidal reference is to the ‘Queen Of The Tides’ Irish pirate queen Grace O'Malley/Gráinne Ní Mháille who met Queen Elizabeth I in 1593. Grace is believed to have carried herself the dignity of meeting an equal.
Just As The Tide Was Flowing – 10,000 Maniacs (Suzi)
Perhaps three other versions of this one was nommed. This version is more up-tempo than the pure folk plays, too much so for the A.
The Second Hand – Peter Hamill (TatankaYotanka)
It’s the Canute reference. And it sounds good and intriguing. Plus the sea of time reference. Late exclusion from the A.
Vanishing Tide - Omar Rodriquez-Lopez (ajostu)
It was the vanishing tides return to bother that intrigued me.
Riptide – Lou Reed (BanazirGalbasi)
The closest to the blues listed this week. Only really one blues nom. It’s a fine sound.
Riptide – Vance Joy (AltraEgo)
Up and poppy, cute and coy lyrics. Millions of Gen Zers can’t be wrong, can they?
Tide Is High – Blondie (OliveButler)
I do like this cover. It was the most upvoted nom. The original by The Paragons is zedded. A John Holt version was also nommed.
Move Me No Mountain – Love Unlimited (Fred Erickson)
Not much on the soul and funk trip this week. Love Unlimited say that superhuman efforts are not needed (Move me no mountain/turn me no tide/swim me no ocean), just a long and true love. King Canute would have nothing to prove here.
Both Sides Of the Moon – Celeste (Loud Atlas)
‘Breathe’ from Dark Side of the Moon was nommed and I like it. But Celeste trumps it with Both Sides Of The Moon, not just the dark side. Moody.
La Marea – Rubén Blades (magicman)
Two songs called La Marea nommed. Too fast, but fab. The other by Manu Chao was up-tempo too. Your love like the tide, it comes and it goes, my love like a ship is trapped in the sand.
Spoot Ebb – Erland Cooper (megadom)
The spoots are shellfish collected from Scottish shores on spoot ebb tides. Apparently in March! This classy electronica was on the A for a time, so is here.
Black Tide - Dirty Three (megadom)
The only instrumental other than ‘Spoot Tide’ on the B because it was on the A for a time too. Links to the Bad Seeds. Atmosphere.
Water’s Edge – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (amylee)
A Nick Cave story of boys and girls. It’s the water’s edge as the place for the drama to unfold. The ‘restless tide’ image is for scene setting, as done by other songs too.
Tides – The xx (DiscoMonster)
A few songs called ‘Tides’, but somehow they couldn’t fit. The ‘leave with the tide’ line is strong and repeated enough to carry it. It’s a good sound. There was a bit of rock nommed. I listened but would have liked to explore it more.
Red Tide – Foxboro Hot Tubs (ShivSidecar)
I liked the sound. What this ‘red tide’ is was up for discussion, but it is usage of the term ‘tide’. Perhaps not the algal blooms known as red tides. The shoehorn rep, I guess.
Surfing Moon – The Beach Boys (amylee)
I would have loved to find a place for this one. Moon, tides, surf. Surfing missed out, despite the tides helping out there, along with the swell of course.
Ebb Tide – The Righteous Brothers (TarquinSpodd)
This song was nommed in perhaps seven versions. Is it the most covered ‘tide’ song? Oh, the drama. A bit of a lottery on versions, but some do get a bit overwrought. It was one I expected would go in before starting, but no...
Surfin' The Severn Bore – The Bad Detectives (happyclapper)
It’s fun and it’s about a tidal bore. The Severn bore, created because the Severn Estuary has a 15 metre tidal range. That’s big. That’s Severn bore, not severin bore. No way is severin a bore.
Natural Science – Rush (philipphilip99)
I like the idea of going out on a long tune. Rush detail some features of the rocky tidal pool. And more – the comparison is with our artifice. A ‘simple kind of mirror/to reflect on our own’.
‘Stuck in the Mangrove Mud’ Guru’s Tide Pick List:
Time And Tide – Paul Kelly and Paul Grabowsky
Sound familiar? It’s PK’s ‘Time And Tide’ from the A-list with pianist Paul Grabowsky. Kelly does like to reframe some of his songs and works with lots of people. Grabowsky, nominally jazz, has open borders musically.
Love Letters In The Sand – Majestic Dance Orchestra with vocal chorus by Helen Rowland
The first version (slightly debatable) from 1931 of what became a schmaltzy standard eg Pat Boone, but then a sweet foxtrot.
Yes, yet another writing in the sand song. On those, special mention to Tim Buckley for the line: ‘Their sham sandcastles dissolve in the tide’ from ‘Hello And Goodbye’ (nommed, not listed). And Jimi’s ‘Castles Made of Sand’, of course.
Bombora – The Atlantics
A bombora or ‘bommie’ is an offshore submerged rock or shoal where waves break with a big enough swell on a small enough tide. Hence the surfer’s interest and thus twangy surf guitar in 1963.
One of the biggest waves in Australia forms on Cow Bommie off the coast of Western Australia, attracting those daredevil/insane big wave surfers when it is pumping. It seems bombora is an Australian term from an Indigenous language. Why a group from Sydney called themselves The Atlantics, I don’t know.
He Can Surely Turn the Tide – Johnny Osbourne
He being Jah, of course. Only the Almighty has the power to turn the tide or push the tempest by.
There seem to be few proverbial references to tides in the Bible. My guess is that the tidal range in the Mediterranean is so small (a few cms) it didn’t figure much in the thinking.
The dub version by Scientist called ‘Plague Of Zombies’ (!) was blistered recently in Zombie week.
Eventide Fire A Disaster – Barrington Levy & General Echo
There was a terrible fire in the Eventide Home for the Aged in Kingston in 1980. The conditions prior to the fire were horrible and the response was allegedly slow or worse. Hence reggae singers (Yellowman also) talk of the shame and disgrace, not just the tragedy.
Nothing to do with the astronomical tides, but the early usage of ‘eventide’ for evening. I like how way back, as detailed by Uncleben, time (of the day) and tide were etymologically entwined. It’s a bit off to call an old person’s home ‘eventide’ to me though.
Against The Tide – Fish & Goat At The Controls ft. Aba Shanti
A dubby instrumental, perhaps referring to swimming against the tide. The futility of doing so perhaps, or more likely, advocating independent thinking, not going along with the usual flow.
Tide – Not Drowning, Waving
A sort of pertinent band name and a longish instrumental to finish. Aussie chamber pop group, but this one isn’t typical of all their output – it’s more The Necks territory, although the percussion that comes in takes it a bit away from there. Oddly, it is on an album called The Little Desert.
Ebb and Flow Instrumental Tide I-List
Various instrumentals (or near instrumentals) were nommed. None made it to the A-list. Some are great. Here is a good few of them.
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations from last week's topic: Highs and lows: songs about the tide. The next topic will launch on Thursday at 1pm UK time.
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