Laying in the back seat listening to Little Willie John
Yeah, that's when time stood still
After the refrain, Robertson segues into the bridge by contrasting sanity and madness:
I'm a man with a clear destination
I'm a man with a broad imagination
You fog the mind, you stir the soul
I can't find, no control
The slow percussion returns the listener to the story, with the old flame making comments tinged with sexuality. "There's one thing you've got to learn / Is not to be afraid of it,” instructs the woman. When the narrator protests that he does indeed like “it,” she replies, "You like it now. But you'll learn to love it later." He utters this last line with a slight wink in the voice, yet keeping the subject teasingly vague. Over BoDean's vocals, Robertson half sings the phrases “I been spellbound, falling in trances, as the song gradually fades, the swirling drums still figuring prominently.
Today, “Somewhere Down the Crazy River” still leaves listeners scratching their heads. What is that song really about? Has Robertson based it on some real incident? Or is he simply playing the role of a narrator, telling someone else's story? Is it supposed to be a poem? Its steamy video, featuring Maria McKee (Lone Justice) and Robertson in a passionate clinch, further complicates the song's meaning.
To me, the mark of a great song is that it stays with you, whether it be for pleasant or unsettling reasons. With its exotic beat, abstract lyrics, and gravelly vocals, the song stood out from the 1987 pop landscape, and remains an anomaly. The rest of the album fell into relative obscurity (except for Robertson fans, of course), but the single has cemented its status as one of the stranger — yet compelling — singles to emerge from the 1980s.
Article comments
1 - steve
good enough article, but shouldn't you know Sammy's last name?