Originally Posted By: HearToLearn


If you were to say instead...

"Do you remember when I held your hand down by the river"

It relates to anyone who held hands down by ANY river!

If you were to say instead...

"Do you remember when I held your hand down by the water"

It relates to anyone who held hands by a river, lake, ocean, lagoon, puddle...you name it.

It relates to A LOT more people!

And the thing is, people tend to fill in THEIR own imagery and really make the song their own. When the singer sings "Do you remember when I held your hand down by the water" the audience more than likely isn't think of the singer and their significant other down by the water. They are thinking of themselves! That can be very powerful!

If you are telling a story, imagery can be whatever you want it to be.

If you are trying to relate, sometimes "vague specifics" work well.

If you are writing pop, sometimes the right vowel sound is enough! Sad, but true!

So which is "right?" It all depends.

Just my thoughts, I would be curious every one else?

To be clear, I'm not disagreeing with Floyd or the video. I am agreeing! There are also other techniques.

Man, I feel I'm going to get jumped on for this post! eek


"water" will mean nothing to most people, whereas a river can conjure up a lot more imaginary, a living dynamic fast moving, full of life, dangerous, you name it entity in my opinion.

"Way down upon the Swanee River" Old Folks at Home the song in question I believe.

Originally Posted By: 90 dB

Being a big fish in a little pond has it's charms, but true success can only come from jumping in the big pond and competing with the really big fish. Anything else is just delusion. grin


Probably comes a time in a persons life when its safer to stay in small pond at least for me, who wants aiming for the big time or taking big risks or chances when nearing sixty?

Musiclover

Musiclover

My music https://www.youtube.com/user/donegalprideofall

Windows 10 (64bit) M-Audio Fast Track Pro, Band in a Box 2025, Cubase 14, Cakewalk and far too many VST plugins that I probably don't need or will ever use smile