Buttkickin’ Halloween Songs: “Down By The Water” — PJ Harvey (1995)

That blue-eyed girl
She said “no more”
That blue-eyed girl
Became blue-eyed whore…

The song equally intrigues me and freaks me the hell out, which by any measure makes for one buttkickin’ Halloween song, hence how we end up here.

Down By The Water was my introduction to PJ Harvey well over two decades ago, back when (entering Old Fart Mode in 3..2..1…) MTV used to play actual music videos, especially for burgeoning indie artists in targeting programming for those looking well outside the Top 40 norm. The song (and accompanying video) wormed its way into my permanent memory, and with good reason. It’s utterly brilliant.

Harvey’s haunting vocal delivery, along with the rich discordance combining orchestrations and electronica, conspired to craft a chilling masterpiece. She wove a tale of a woman who, convinced her beautiful, beloved daughter had degraded herself into a “whore”, drowned her daughter in a river.

The protagonist murders her daughter, convinced that the whore was gone. Now she simply waits by the riverbank, for her beautiful daughter to return. The whore is gone. It should be that simple, right?

Down By The Water is terrifying and disturbing and will hold you solidly in place as you drown underneath its captivating enchantment.

Little fish, big fish, swimming in the water.
Come back here, man, gimme my daughter.
Little fish, big fish, swimming in the water.
Come back here, man, gimme my daughter.

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