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Bottom Of the River Lyrics
Hold my hand
Ooh, baby, it’s a long way down to the bottom of the river
Hold my hand,
Ooh, baby, it’s a long way down, a long way down
If you get sleep or if you get none
The cock’s gonna call in the morning, baby
Check the cupboard for your daddy’s gun
Red sun rises like an early warning
The Lord’s gonna come for your first born son
His hair’s on fire and his heart is burning
Go to the river where the water runs
Wash him deep where the tides are turning
And if you fall
And if you fall
Hold my hand
Ooh, baby, it’s a long way down to the bottom of the river
Hold my hand,
Ooh, baby, it’s a long way down, a long way down
The wolves will chase you by the pale moonlight
Drunk and driven by a devil’s hunger
Drive your son like a railroad spike
Into the water, let it pull him under
Don’t you lift him, let him drown alive
The good Lord speaks like a rolling thunder
Let that fever make the water rise
And let the river run dry
And I said
Hold my hand
Ooh, baby, it’s a long way down to the bottom of the river
Hold my hand,
Ooh, baby, it’s a long way down, a long way down
Hold my hand
Ooh, baby, its a long way, a long long long way
Hold my hand
Ooh, baby its a long way down, a long way down
Ooh, baby, it’s a long way down to the bottom of the river
Hold my hand,
Ooh, baby, it’s a long way down, a long way down
The cock’s gonna call in the morning, baby
Check the cupboard for your daddy’s gun
Red sun rises like an early warning
The Lord’s gonna come for your first born son
His hair’s on fire and his heart is burning
Go to the river where the water runs
Wash him deep where the tides are turning
And if you fall
Ooh, baby, it’s a long way down to the bottom of the river
Hold my hand,
Ooh, baby, it’s a long way down, a long way down
Drunk and driven by a devil’s hunger
Drive your son like a railroad spike
Into the water, let it pull him under
Don’t you lift him, let him drown alive
The good Lord speaks like a rolling thunder
Let that fever make the water rise
And let the river run dry
Ooh, baby, it’s a long way down to the bottom of the river
Hold my hand,
Ooh, baby, it’s a long way down, a long way down
Hold my hand
Ooh, baby, its a long way, a long long long way
Hold my hand
Ooh, baby its a long way down, a long way down
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It's about a demon, pretending to be a helpful spirit, coming to a woman in the middle of the night. It's saying to the woman that she needs to save her son from God's wrath because her son is not baptized yet. Under the influence of this demon, she proceeds to "baptize" her son in the river but, in reality, she is drowning him without realizing it.
Seems to me like a song describing the Salem witch trials, despite popular beleif no one was burned, most if the deaths were by drowning during one of their tests. In the video it shows a woman being dragged out of her house to a river and they wore what appeared to be colonial clothing. All the times it said the lord is coming it seems to me like its refering to the fact that the witch hunters claimed it was the Christian god's will that they be killed.
Wow, they did that without auto-tune... there is hope for the human race!
IMHO it demonstrates the power of emotionally-charged religious speak to get people to do evil things. Sounds like she is being helpful, but the song makes a desperate plea to commit the worst kinds of evil. Lyrics sound like they could be straight from the Old Testament.
Interesting. It counts on the religion though. 'Cause even stuff like Atheism & Evolution are technically religions too. Think about it, people put their faith in something like theories. They're only theories so weren't proven. So people have "faith" in them therefore generally they become religions although they aren't define as them.
Interesting. It counts on the religion though. 'Cause even stuff like Atheism & Evolution are technically religions too. Think about it, people put their faith in something like theories. They're only theories so weren't proven. So people have "faith" in them therefore generally they become religions although they aren't define as them.
If one religion says that there are many ways in to Heaven and another says there is only one way, what does that mean? Doesn't that mean one of them can be wrong? So if there is a wrong answer that automatically makes a right answer. Try...
If one religion says that there are many ways in to Heaven and another says there is only one way, what does that mean? Doesn't that mean one of them can be wrong? So if there is a wrong answer that automatically makes a right answer. Try Christianity. And none of that wishy-washy kind either! The Bible statistics are awesome! The Bible is the only book that has predicted the future and events have come true! Yes, it's a STUDY book, but get the basics down first. Look up "the Gospel" please!!!
Thanks for the undesired proselytizing, Meekliniz. Since you started, I will return the favor.
Thanks for the undesired proselytizing, Meekliniz. Since you started, I will return the favor.
No doubt you are trying to be helpful, but let me give you a few things to think about and study. Then I will tie your comments back to my original comment and the song.
No doubt you are trying to be helpful, but let me give you a few things to think about and study. Then I will tie your comments back to my original comment and the song.
Odds are, you were born into your religion--lucky you, born into the One True branch of the One True denomination of the One True religion. Odds are, you accepted it as a child before learning any critical thinking skills. Odds are, as an adult, you only value confirming evidence....
Odds are, you were born into your religion--lucky you, born into the One True branch of the One True denomination of the One True religion. Odds are, you accepted it as a child before learning any critical thinking skills. Odds are, as an adult, you only value confirming evidence. Odds are, you are aware of inconsistencies but brush them aside because that is easier than challenging your long-held indoctrinated-from-birth beliefs. Odds are, you get your science from non-scientists. Odds are, you accept what others tell you about the Bible on faith. Odds are, you haven't read the Bible straight through cover-to-cover. I could be wrong on a point or two, but the odds are on my side.
Faith is belief based on insufficient or non-existent evidence. Your "faith" seems to color your conceptions of what knowledge is, and you falsely apply that standard to science. There is no room for faith in science. Science is driven by evidence, reason, and intellectual honesty. Science doesn't esteem faith by calling faith a virtue, because there is no virtue in believing things with insufficient evidence. It's dishonest to knock science down to the epistemological level of religion by saying "it's only a theory." The Theory of Electricity has brought you the Internet; Germ Theory has brought you better health and sanitation; various aerodynamic theories brought us airplanes. Even the most humble of technologies have a theory behind it. Science would have died on the vine had it not produced meaningful knowledge.
Theories are models. Good theories--proven theories--are backed by evidence, and eventually, stuff that works. Evolution is a theory that has been proven repeatedly by multiple lines of independent evidence. And that knowledge is quite useful in our endeavors in agriculture, animal husbandry, protecting endangered species, and medicine to name a few. Science wins because it works.
Atheism is not a "religion". It's a polite way of saying all those stories about all those all-powerful genies are fake. You don't believe that Zeus, Vishnu, Allah, Odin, FSM, or thousands of other gods described by people over the centuries are real. But you wouldn't call your disbelief in those gods "a religion." Add Yahweh to that list and that disbelief still does not achieve the status of "religion." That is called "special pleading" if adding any single god changes the argument. You make the claim God is real, it's your burden to prove it.
How does God work, BTW? He must have been so busy helping everybody's team win 50% of their games, and getting rid of their headaches after they took an aspirin, that he just didn't have time to cure childhood leukemia, or to help all the victims of that plane crash. Believers always make excuses for the so-called all-powerful. Odds are, I will read an excuse soon.
You are partially correct about not all religions being right. Their contradictory claims means that--at most--only one might be right. That doesn't prove yours is right, or that any of them are right. Most likely, none of the thousands are true. If you follow their arguments, they all come down to special pleading, "The evidence we have is the same as they have, but ours is true and their isn't".
You esteem faith, but faith has no method, it doesn't rely on evidence or reason. It all comes down to guessing what some so-called god wants people to do. If you rely on faith, you have no argument when God/Zeus/Allah/etc. tells someone to drown their babies in a bath tub; or to fly planes into buildings; or to protest the funerals of fallen soldiers; or conduct war against other Christians, as Catholics and Protestants did; or for parents to withhold medicine from their own children that prevents their death. Do I need to go on?
Here's the problem: Endorsing faith implicitly endorses the same thought processes that justifies all kinds of evil. So getting back to the lyrics and my original comment... You made that religion-speak sound so sincere and helpful, while unknowingly supporting evil.
I love this song, it has such powerful voices and, such a unique sound and feeling to it. just awesome =)
I believe that in this song they're actually singing about rebelling against God and escaping his wrath.
The river reference in this song could be about either baptism or the drowning of witches: redemption and damnation. The religious references to God in this song seem to portray him as an antagonist... a burning creature coming for your 'first born son.' For those that are familiar with the story of Moses, this is referring to the 10th and final plague of Egypt, a punishment by God towards the Pharaoh for disobeying his commandments, where he killed all the firstborn children of the land.
By fleeing to the river (where the tides are turning), you're given the idea that she might be able to save her son from God's wrath. By plunging him deep into the river, he will be 'washed clean.' Then....
"Don't you lift him, let him drown alive....Let that fever make the water rise And let the river run dry"
Ultimately, I think they're singing about her bringing her son down to the bottom of a river to 'wash him clean' of his 'sins,' so that God can't touch him anymore. Also, the river could serve as a symbol that the son's 'sickness' (his fever) burns away and dries up.
i agree with TheWiccanPoet to an extent. Some of the lyrics combined with imagery in the video suggest that the song could have something to do with the salem witch trials. another possibility is that it could be detailing an old voodoo ritual (or even an old christian ritual) where, in order to cure an illness (present in the song through the mention of fever) mothers would submerge their children in the water, which was believed to purify the body and spirit. not sure about holding them under until they drown though. also, the lyrics "the lord's gonna come for your first born son, his hair's on fire and his heart is burning" could be in reference to the fever, or it could be in reference to the appearance of 'the lord' who is this case could either be the christian god, the devil, or papa legba from voodoo. just some theories.
IN* this case. (wish there was an edit button)
IN* this case. (wish there was an edit button)
I think this song is sung as a conversation from a woman accused of being a witch to a woman about to be accused of the same. I've seen people reference the Salem trials, but I don't think it's referencing those events, at least not directly. The clothing in the video is more reminiscent of 1800's than late 1600's, and the setting of the deep South rather than Massachusetts. But there is a supernatural element suggestive of witchcraft right in the opening moments of the video, when men burst into the home of a young woman combing her hair and she turns towards them--and her reflection does not. Although the idea that the woman is a witch is not made explicitly, men coming for a woman who is not what she seems combined with the demonic imagery in the form of masks and men with black eyes would strongly suggest something like an accused witch or devil worshiper.
Now to the actual song. Starting with the verse "If you get sleep...", the two lines about the cock calling is a warning from the singer that some momentous event is about to happen, regardless of whether you are ready for it or not. This is followed in the next two lines by a warning that signs indicate a threat approaches, so you should prepare to defend yourself. The final lines in the first verse suggest that the threat will bring gods holy vengeance. The line about first born sons being a reference to the plagues of Egypt and "His hair's on fire" suggestive of gods seraphim, or "fiery ones", angels. In other words, the men who come for you bring, or believe they bring, god's wrath.
The next lines about going to the river evoke the concept of baptism, as others have pointed out. But there's a little more to it, I think. Witches were seen as concubines of the devil. The devil, in turn, was seen as the opposite of god, and much of the imagery about worshiping the devil involved the twisting or perversion of elements of faith. In this case, the song references baptism in the river, but explicitly defies the act of purification by twisting it into something hateful and defiant, suggesting that you should "Drive your son like a railroad spike" under the water and make the act one of murder instead. It gets even more angry in the next verse, comparing the men bringing god's judgement to drunken wolves and suggesting that if the wolves are at your door, you defy them instead of accepting their judgement and drown so many of them without mercy that the waters of the river rise.
Finally, the refrain of "Hold my hand" is what makes me think that the singer is singing the song for another woman about to face the same treatment. The bottom of the river, I suspect, is a reference to drowning, a common "test" for witches. But it could also be your fall from god, and the singer is offering the listener a guide. She will hold your hand all the way down, comforting and guiding you to your vengeance and damnation at the bottom.
My Christian interpretation of "Bottom of The River" By: Delta Rae: The song itself is dark and sounds like an old soldier's beat. Aka: everything in this song is serious. Reminds me personally of reality.
"If you get sleep or if you get none The cock's gonna call in the morning, baby Check the cupboard for your daddy's gun Red sun rises like an early warning" --> We humans are slaves to time; eventually we will die. Whether you live every moment to count or not, the next day comes until your time has come. The "gun" is preparing for how cruel the world can be and protecting yourself from the devil's schemes.
"The Lord's gonna come for your first born son His hair's on fire and his heart is burning So go to the river where the water runs Wash him deep where the tides are turning" --> God seeks for your heart and wants a relationship with you. His "hair" and "heart" is burning; God's love is passionate and it's showing. When it talks about the river it means "conversion" referring to "baptism". It is the parent's responsibility to teach their children the ways of God and how they can receive redemption and be saved. "Wash him deep where the tides are turning" means prepare his/her faith so when reality really starts coming for them, they are prepared. Aka: the Gospel.
"And if you fall If you fall" --> Once you've received God completely, life doesn't get any easier. You WILL fall whether or not you let God into your heart (mention later with the "wolf").
"Hold my hand Ooh, baby, it's a long way down to the bottom of the river" --> Means, "I've been through tough times and it's hard from the start of diving in to the bottom." Even if you reach the "bottom" you're still under; Satin is trying to make everything easier for you just if you follow his ways so you won't have to deal with doing the right thing. And the right thing is staying under the "water" and staying strong, God is with you.
"The wolves will chase you by the pale moonlight Drunk and driven by a devil's hunger" --> Even if you weren't taught the Gospel ("Good News"), you will be chased in darkness by wolves (Satin and reality) on an endless run trying to seek truth aka, the moon's light. Sad thing is though, there is a Heaven and Hell; there is none in between. So if you've chose the wolf's path, after years of them nipping at your heels, they will devour you once you cannot run any further (aka: you died).
"Drive your son like a railroad spike" --> So if you don't want your child to get on the wolf's game, you better tell them the Gospel and make sure they understand it. Whether they choose to believe or not, make sure they know.
"Into the water, let it pull him under Don't you lift him, let him drown alive" --> Let reality pull him under, he/she has to face the decision him/her self. You can hold their hand, but it is their responsibility to where their soul ends up.
"The good Lord speaks like a rolling thunder Let that fever make the water rise And let the river run dry" --> Once you have let God enter your heart, the Holy Spirit is in you in every second of your life; you now know better and have no excuse. So "let that fever make the water rise". Aka, through your obstacles and deeper "water" attitude should be "bring it on! I am God's child and NOTHING can separate Him from me." So "let that river run dry"!
"And I said
Hold my hand Ooh, baby, it's a long way down to the bottom of the river" --> God's got you through all of this and that their are other Christians praying for you so they and God are, "holding your hand".
The Gospel is "Good News". The only way to be saved is through Jesus Christ alone. Jesus died for our sins so that we could have a relationship with God and enter Heaven. Sin is anything we say, do, or think that displeases God. Anything from gossiping, lying, cheating, etc. Romans 3:23 (NIV) says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Meaning we cannot save ourselves. That's where Jesus comes in. Jesus is God's Son so part human, part God. Jesus lived a sinless life, but was tempted by even Satin himself! Because Jesus didn't sin, we have a connection with God. If you confess that you are a sinner and that Jesus died for your sins, you are saved (John 3:16). It doesn't matter if you did "good things" and are considered a "good person", you are going to hell. Jesus took your sin to the cross so that He took your punishment. All you have to do is accept His gift. A gift of mercy, forgiveness, and love.
If you'd like people to take your interpretation more seriously, you might want to spell Satan correctly! After all, he is the primary antagonist of the book you're citing.
If you'd like people to take your interpretation more seriously, you might want to spell Satan correctly! After all, he is the primary antagonist of the book you're citing.
@Aj204832
@Aj204832
Good point about the spelling. There is a world of different between the so-called Prince of Darkness and those sheets that are so nice and cool in the summer, tempting as they might be.
Good point about the spelling. There is a world of different between the so-called Prince of Darkness and those sheets that are so nice and cool in the summer, tempting as they might be.
But Satan isn't the primary antagonist, he only makes a handful of appearances. The two most notable being as a talking snake with legs, and later when God allows Satan to kill 10 of Job's family members as part of a bet God makes with Satan.
But Satan isn't the primary antagonist, he only makes a handful of appearances. The two most notable being as a talking snake with legs, and later when God allows Satan to kill 10 of Job's family members as part of a bet God makes with Satan.
Guess which Biblical character kills millions, if not billions, of people, and untold numbers of kittens and koala bears, and...
Guess which Biblical character kills millions, if not billions, of people, and untold numbers of kittens and koala bears, and elephants and...
@meekliniz I agree with you. This song speaks to me because recently my 22 year old first born son was diagnosed with cancer. We are both christians but that doesn't take away the trials. Even if the writers meant something different, I feel your explanation fits perfect.
@meekliniz I agree with you. This song speaks to me because recently my 22 year old first born son was diagnosed with cancer. We are both christians but that doesn't take away the trials. Even if the writers meant something different, I feel your explanation fits perfect.
@meekliniz @Mattapult I don't know maybe Satin is a creation of Satan ... the feelings of sin between the sheets??
@meekliniz @Mattapult I don't know maybe Satin is a creation of Satan ... the feelings of sin between the sheets??
To me this song seems about slavery and the misery of it, the sun will rise an another day will come. So you try to escape or even die to end it.
Looks like a mother who try to escape with their children and want for then a painless death.
I think that she had a baby she couldn't abort. She's schizophrenic. Voices in her head are giving her instructions on how to get rid of her unwanted baby.