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gord's water imagery - Printable Version

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gord's water imagery - johno - 04-19-2007

i posted this topic a few years ago and people really got into it, so i think it's time for an update now that a couple hip and gord solo albums have come out: what's with gord's persistent water imagery in so many songs and rants. i'll only list one obvious one to start with, and people can chime in with the others, as well as their theories as to what might be going on in that feverish brain.

1. nautical disaster

the sea, the ship, the lifeboats, the beach. i've heard it's about a cold break-up, but when gord reaches for a metaphor, it's often the sea and all it's denizens and vehicles. he seems to be invoking the sinking of the nazi flagship (damn i forget the name) "off the coast of france". while the british sailors saved some of the germans from the water, others were certainly left to drown on purpose, payback for the 2000(?) british sailors who perished on the hms hood. sounds like a harsh rejection, eh?
would gord have been so harsh in real life? did he kick some girlfriend off his lifeboat? he seems too nice (or mature or something), and i don't always assume a song in the 1st person is necessarily about the singer.
anyway, every story must be told, and this is a good 'un. i read one review where the writer marvelled at how everyone at a hip show really knows this one and belts it out with the band, even though it has no chorus, and is really such a downer. but what i'd like to know is if anyone out there has any theories about this re-occurring maritime theme. i'd love to be his therapist.

- longpond69 - 04-19-2007

I have longed for the chance to write something scholarly about this. A good post. Where do you start? "Swim, honey, swim!"

- nohochin - 04-19-2007

"not to me, and not to HIM!"

hehe...

better watch out for the 6 foot dorsal fin too...

- Daryl24 - 04-19-2007

Those are all great but i love the last "swim" gord cries out in NOIS :thumb: never gets old :thumb:

- tth_fan - 04-19-2007

The Water's on fire! The Water's on fire!

- daylight - 04-19-2007

I knew this had come up before. Hard to find on the search, though!

See here.

- johno - 04-19-2007

you know, i thought it was this site that i brought this up on about three years ago, but it might have been some kind of chatlist or post or whatever you call it. i think the two sites shared some posts or something. it's now defunct i think. ancient history...

what about: "laminar flow"? i think that's the physics term he brings up in his description of the killerwhale, although maybe not in the main killerwhale version.

do you think he purposely sticks to this theme, or does he really have water on the brain all the time? i mean, dire wolf, three pistols, the membership, fiddler's green. these are all more disasters on the water. can't think of any from the last two albums though.

water reference - barny0055 - 04-20-2007

i dunno what about fly

Seventy days to cross the ocean
Seventy nights where no one’s gonna hear me fall
Freddie Mercury, “I’ve sometimes wished
I’d never been born at all”

pretty strong water reference here!!!
Cheers
Aaron

- Chris Tanz - 04-20-2007

I think Yer Not the Ocean may have some water imagery in it too.

ct

- laliber - 04-20-2007

Water covers 70% of the earth and makes up 65% of our bodies.(1)

So I would guess that Water imagery (directly or indirectly) just might = 67.5% of the lyrical content of the Hip
Give or take a few percentiles as per the Lake Ontario effect….?


(1)Quick Google Search

- Daryl24 - 04-20-2007

and then
of course
there's the dorsal fin
closing in that you can't outswim"

"It's not him that I gotta outswim" you said,
"just you"
you said,
"just you"

- Chris Tanz - 04-20-2007

don't go swimming past the drop-off
and their women are swimming from half an ocean away
the women gotta make it that'll make it by swimming
swimming on a bit, stop treading water

ct

- borgs - 04-20-2007

"the river takes and takes and takes and takes, it doesn't change and only changes"

sounds an awful lot like something anceint greek philosopher hericlitus said in 500bc(ish).

"in the same river different and different waters flow"

- blimpmen - 04-20-2007

``waters`not just a purity, waters`not just a pee,
It`s the melody of panic......``
Gord is honestly the greatest poet/songwriter who even lived- obviously not because of this but i mean, i`m just having a moment lol - sorry
regards
daken

- rocketsan22 - 04-21-2007

Well tonight the winter may have missed its mark...
You can see your breath in Springside Park...
Coffee coloured ice and peeling birch bark...
Sound of rushing water in the dark...