Welch: Texas rivers of note
Name a song about a river.
Didn’t take you long, did it? Rivers lend themselves to song. If you’re a river and nobody’s written a song about you, you’re not much of a river. Or maybe you’ve got a name that’s off-putting. Consider the Snake, up in Idaho. If there’s a Snake River song, I’ve not heard it.
RESEARCH.
Sure enough, there’s a website for that. Lyrics.com says:
"We've found 1,106 lyrics, 120 artists and 50 albums matching Snake River.” Over a thousand? I think they’re counting songs about other rivers too, including “Shall We Gather at the River,” but all the songs at the top of the list are indeed about the Snake, including “Snake River Blues.” I’d forgotten Even Knievel tried to jump the Snake. Some of the songs are about him.
If you’re a daredevil motorcycle stuntman and nobody’s written a song about you, chances are you’re not Evel Knievel.
Over his lifetime Evel broke 433 bones. We digress.
When I was a child I thought Gene Autry was singing “Red River Valley” about the river I could almost see from our house. I thought that until about 10 years ago.
Yep, there’s a Red River that flows between North Dakota and Minnesota up into Canada. At least one Canadian folklorist believes “Red River Valley” dates from the end of the 1870 Woolsey Expedition to the northern Red River Valley in Manitoba. By 1896 it seems to have been a popular song in at least five Canadian provinces, presumably British Columbia to Ontario.
"Red River Valley” has since reached an amazing degree of global notoriety. Both Czech and Estonian versions exist. Here at home the next thing you know “Red River Valley,” despite the wistful lyrics, will be edging out “You Are My Sunshine” in the television pharmaceutical commercial theme song category, i.e., the music that’s background for all the upbeat footage dedicated to counteracting all the narrator’s warnings regarding the possible bad side effects of whatever product is being pitched.
Who says medicine shows are a thing of the past? They’ve been reborn. Music is as important as ever.
Either way, I think it’s OK for all of us in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana to claim Red River Valley as our song. Sue us.
Only the best songs get widely shared, copied, parodied, stolen and translated. Through time, “Red River Valley” has been more famous than any other Texas river song, including “We Crossed the Brazos at Waco” and Johnny Rodriguez’s “Down on the Rio Grande.”
Can you name any other Texas river songs? I can’t think of any except one written by my late friend Ron about “swimmin’ naked in the Brazos” somewhere around “Seymour town.”
Or how about “I loved you mucho, down on the Concho”?
Yeah, I just made that up, but I like it.
"You swam that river just to be with me.”
Two more lines and we’ll have a hit.
Will it play in Peoria? Who cares? We’re aiming for Estonia.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Welch: Texas rivers of note
