Song #358: "Black Water" by The Doobie Brothers

Date: Mar 15, 1975
Weeks: 1

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I don't like relaxed songs like this one. I have no use for them. Give me a song that's full of energy and enthusiasm, and I'm happy. Give me a song that tells me to relax and do nothing and I have no use for it. Sure, that can be good background music, but this song has some flaws that keep it from even being good at that.

I don't care for the overly gentle and strummy guitars that open the song. I don't like the singer's pinched, tense, unpleasant vocals. I don't like the overall thinness of the sound for the first minute and a half. It's really unpleasant during that first part. Eventually the bass and the fiddle join in, and the song is much more enjoyable from that point on. It's still not a great song, and the vocals aren't any better, but it's at least pleasant background music. I think if I heard that part while I was having a conversation, or driving, or eating, or had my brain engaged in some other activity, I would enjoy it well enough.

Then the music fades out for an a cappella verse, and it's weird. The fade-out is an odd choice, and doesn't feel remotely natural. The a capella section is okay, but it seems utterly out of place right after a lengthy instrumental section. And then the music fades back in, and once again it's not remotely natural. That a cappella section is so weirdly out of place that it ruins whatever pleasure I was starting to derive from the fiddle. Admittedly, most of that pleasure was because it reminded me of Firefly, but the point stands that just when I was starting enjoy it, the song took a strange and sudden turn.

The lyrics seem like a lazy excuse for the song to not be purely instrumental. "Old black water, keep on rollin'. Mississippi moon won't you keep on shining on me." It's the story of a guy with nothing better to do than float on a raft down the Mississippi and admire the scenery. Part of me wonders if he even really has a raft or if he just decided to sit by the river. The lyrics are repetitive and minimal, and seem ideally situated for a lazy sing-along while you sit in the hot weather and drink.

My verdict: Don't like it. Some people like this kind of relaxed music, but it's just not for me, and this song doesn't even seem particularly well made.