Happy Holidays! And to celebrate the season, a gift for you: an all-new h2o mp3 from Steve Anderson, the water world’s funniest singer-songwriter and an advocate for free-flowing pipes and sewers everywhere!
In his newest original wastewater hit O Christmas Grease we are reminded that the FOG is rolling in this holiday season, and that there’s a right and wrong method to dispose of the nasty by-products of high-fat Christmas cookery. Read more
And the fun just keeps coming from Steve Anderson, among the great hidden talents in the water business. We’re pleased to present his newest original wastewater hit, Don’t Flush the Baby (Wipes)! (Side note: Ignore that “flushable” label you’ll see on some packages; I learned the hard way, they most certainly are not.) Read more
You likely know singer-songwriter Jewel for her impressive musical talent; many also know her as a champion for water issues. During her June 2010 concert in Kansas City (I didn’t get to go!) she and collaborator Steve Poltz wrote and performed an exclusive song about Kansas City’s fine tap water (and barbeque!) and lucky for us, I’ve come across an mp3!
While you’re listening, check out Project Clean Water, a foundation that Jewel established in 1997 that aims to improve the quality of life for millions of people by helping to provide clean water on a global scale. That’s music to our ears! According to her official website, she became interested in water issues when…
I was 18 and lived in my car. I had sick kidneys and had to drink 2 gallons of purified water a day. I could not afford to buy much bottled water, and it dawned on me that if it was this hard to get clean drinking water in the United States, then it was probably a huge global issue. Boy, was I right.
Lyrics:
If I was gonna have a glass of tap water
Where would it be do you suppose
Maybe St. Louis or old Chicago
I have to say that the answer is no
City of Fountains
City of Chiefs
City of Royals
City of Beef (?)
KC water taste like Champagne
Kansas City, Paris of the Plains
Today we raise (or lower?) our glasses to the king of sewer workers, Ed Norton, as portrayed by Art Carney in the iconic fifties teevee classic The Honeymooners. The versatile Carney also recorded prolifically in the 1950s for Columbia Records, including the 1954 hit “The Song of the Sewer” sung in character as Norton.
Lyrics
I work in the sewer,
It’s a very hard job.
You know they won’t hire
Just any old slob.
You don’t have to wear
A tie or a coat.
You just have to know
How to float.
Chorus:
We sing the song of the sewer
Of the sewer we sing this song.
Together we stand
With shovel in hand
To keep things rollin’ along.
I work down the manhole
With a guy named Bruce.
And we are in charge
Of all the refuse.
He lets me go first
While he holds the lid.
I’m telling you, sheesh…
What a sweet kid.
A funny thing happened
To Bruce yesterday.
The tide came along
He got carried away.
He come out in Jersey.
But it’s O.K. now.
Cause that’s where
He lives anyhow.
My father he worked
In the sewer Uptown.
I followed his footsteps
And worked my way down.
That’s how I began
In this here industry.
I just sort of fell into it.
Sheesh, lucky me.
We’re tickled to present you with a world premiere of sorts! The parody song “Dope In the Water” (sung to the tune of “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple) was written and performed by Steve Anderson, Water Resources Analyst at Clean Water Services, Portland, Oregon. This is of course a timely issue since the release of the 2008 Associated Press study that claims at least 41 million Americans may be getting a bonus of drugs and pharmaceuticals in their water supply.
Steve Anderson
The song (which is awesomely hysterical, in my opinion!) came to the fore as part of a forum discussion about the use of humor in public communications. The bottom line: no clear consensus. Some communications professionals believe in the power of humor to communicate, some are mildly uncomfortable with the risk and others believe it is often misleading to a misinformed public.
I think everyone knows where I stand! As I wrote on the discussion thread,
I think the point of the song is to change behavior and to promote the safe disposal of pharmaceuticals, which in turn, reduces the treatment burdens. This is the part that the public can control, and thus, an effective message to send.
So thanks, Steve, and we hope lots of people are humming this when they refrain from bad habits that add “Dope in the Water!”
Play the track
Download Dope in the Water by Steve Anderson (mp3)
Lyrics
We flush them down our toilets
We wash ‘em down the drain
We take ‘em when we feel bad
We take ‘em for the pain
They come to us in the sewers
We’d treat ‘em all but we can’t
When they show up at the headworks
They pass right through the treatment plant
Dope in the water
Hormones in the creek
Dope in the water
And what about them birth control pills?
At the outfall where the effluent swirls
Makin’ changes in the wildlife
Little boy fish look a lot like girls
And then we have our Prozac
Discharged by the very best
Don’t know how the fish like that
At least I guess they’re not depressed
Dope in the water
Hormones in the creek
Dope in the water
My coffee in the morning
Can keep a fish awake at night
Painkillers might make ‘em feel good
But you know it just ain’t right
Cosmetics and perfumes, well
Just add to this witch’s brew
It’s high time to figure it out
Just what the hell this stuff can do
Dope in the water
Hormones in the creek
Dope in the water
I suspect that this graphic artist/DJ/rapper is using “fresh water” as an analogy for art, music and creativity…more specifically, the struggle to create, keep one’s soul intact and be heard through economic, commercial and societal pressures.
But on the eve of World Water Day 2010, let’s don’t get carried away with analysis. It’s still a strong message taken literally. (Visit Bisco Smith on MySpace.)
Play the track
Download Fresh Water – Bisco Smith (Blockhead Remix)
Support the people who make music! Buy the track on Amazon.com or iTunes.
Lyrics Snip
Sip it slow
Let it settle and bake
these are freshwater flows
Yea its safe for you to drinkthis one goes out to all the young ones growin up in the world we know
where the hustle gets sold on radios and television shows
but what you chase most of the time you can’t hold
and most of these people ain’t real
but you still there
cause you chasin the next meal
well we got fresh water for you
somethin clean with nutrients and vitamins, brand new
so swallow it, sip it, feel good
This talented Canadian singer-songwriter provides us a perfect track for National Groundwater Awareness Week (a great idea since most of the populace has enough to worry about with the things that they CAN see.)
Water in the Ground is from MacLellan’s third 2009 release and is a melodic, clean, pure folk-influenced song that gets better with every listen. (Visit Catherine MacLellan’s website here.)
Play the track
[audio:http://thirstyinsuburbia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/1-02-water-in-the-ground.mp3]
Download Water in the Ground – Catherine MacLellan
Support the people who make music! Buy the CD at amazon.com or from True North Records.
Lyrics
All the snow will melt into the stream
leading me back to where I want to be
right by your side
watching as the leaves pour out of the trees
everything’s alive, everything’s alive
never could guess you’d be the one
you said the world’s coming undone
tie em up together round and round
water from the heavens pouring in the ground
Water and electronica fans, today is your lucky day! Thanks to @canadianwater on Twitter (led by Water Canada editor and Renaissance woman Kerry Freek) for pointing us to this terrific track.
Pit Er Pat is an L.A.-based duo (Butchy Fuego and Fay Davis-Jeffers) who use vocals, guitar, synthesizer, drums, MPC, melodica, conga, cuica, and heaven knows what else to produce their arty-modern sound.
This track, premiered on Stereogum, was part of an song collection they wrote specifically for a European tour that has morphed into the about-to-be-released album The Flexible Entertainer.
Lyrics (My own transcription, so no guarantees!)
Drip drip drip, drop drop,
Drip drip drip, drop drop,
Tic a tic a tock you ask alot
Tic a tic a tock go ask a God
Tic a tic a tock ask a clock
tic toc it’ll make your body stopI’ll tell you what it is to me
You show me what it is to be greedy
Do we have to wait and see
Or will you give up what’s free?Drip drip drip, drop drop
Drip drip drip, drop drop
Tic a tic a tock you ask alot
Tic a tic a tock go ask a clock
tic toc it’ll make your body stopI can see you dressed up for (?)
But me I’m not goin’ go easy?
I’ve seen your snake in the grass
clock says you’re not going to last
Play the track
[audio:http://thirstyinsuburbia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/pit-er-pat-water.mp3]Download Water – Pit Er Pat
Low-fi 64kbps file for sampling.
Like it? Support the people who make music. Buy The Flexible Entertainer here (Released 1/26/10)
A retro musical tribute to water’s most festive form! Rosemary Clooney’s 1951 version of Suzy Snowflake is an enduring and popular holiday tune. Break into your own acapella rendition of this song if you need to shake someone out of a crabby mood…works every time!
Lyrics
Here comes Suzy Snowflake
Dressed in a snow white gown
Tap, tap, tappin’ at your window pane
To tell you she’s in town
Here comes Suzy Snowflake
Soon you will hear her say
Come out everyone and play with me
I haven’t long to stay
If you want to make a snowman
I’ll help you make one – one, two, three
If you wanna take a sleigh ride (whee!)
The ride’s on me.
Here comes Suzy Snowflake
Look at her tumblin’ down
Bringing joy to every girl and boy
Suzy’s come to town
Play the track
Download Suzy Snowflake – Rosemary ClooneyLike it? Support the people who make music – buy this album or track at amazon.com.
Bonus animated Suzy! If you’re from the Chicago, Illinois area you might also be familiar with a 1953 cartoon-short based upon the song. Made with super-cool-at-the-time stop-motion animation, the film became a treasured annual Christmas tradition for countless children who grew up in the Chicagoland area.
This Boston-based college-rock band School of Fish made a splash with their first 1991 effort but were less successful with their second 1993 album Human Cannonball, from which Drop of Water comes. The band disbanded in 1994. Even sadder–frontman Josh Clayton-Felt then released a solo album in 1996 before succumbing to testicular cancer in 2000 at the age of 32.
Lyrics:
It’s too quiet in my head
I’m not dead, I’m alright
And nothing makes much sense
It was immense to sleep tonight
There’s a rope hanging from the sky
I don’t know why I hold on
The place I used to know
It’s all gone
Hold my breath til I don’t need it
It’s only true if I believe it
To disappear at any minute
In a drop of water
In a drop of water
In a drop of water
In a drop of water
Play the track
[audio:http://thirstyinsuburbia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/09-drop-of-water.mp3]
Download Drop of Water – School of Fish
Like it? Support the people who make music – buy this album or track at amazon.com