Happy Mother’s Day to all swim Mothers, Mums, Mammas, Moms, Maes, Muttis, Mors, Máthairs, Madre Mias and all other expressions of the same around the world. As strategists work out ways to to ease lockdowns in COVID-19 season and pools plan to reopen in safe ways, swim mothers the world over may well be wondering what it will be like to get up at 4.30am again on a regular basis. We know two things: they will; and they will because they love it that you love swimming (many are swimmers themselves, of course).
Here are 100 songs about water for our maternal parents to mark a day worth singing about. All of them are related to water and its hidden meaning in folklore, music, art and literature.
If there’s one way to sum up most of the themes, it would be the ‘mysterious and ever – shifting quality’ of water. Swimmers understand that and this extract from a book of poems I’m penning:
Water that’s heavy
Water that’s light,
Water washed black
Water washed white
Water that’s playful
Water that’s might
Water your friend
Water your fight
100 Songs In Your Element (in no particular order):
- What the Water gave Me – Florence + The Machine
- Under Ice – Kate Bush
- “Water Under the Bridge” – Adele
- “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” – B.J. Thomas
- “Rain”- The Beatles
- “Black Water” -Doobie Brothers
- “Down By the River” – Neil Young
- “The River of Dreams” – Billy Joel
- “Madman Across the Water” – Elton John
- “Beyond the Sea” – Bobby Darin
- “Purple Rain” – Prince
- “Hold Back the River” – James B
- “Cry Me a River” – Justin Timberlake
- Never Let me Go – A thousand miles out to the sea bed – Florence + The Machine
- “Bridge Over Troubled Water” – Simon and Garfunkel
- “Smoke on the Water” – Deep Purple
- “The River” – Bruce Springsteen
- “Water” – The Who
- “Down to the Waterline” – Dire Straits
- “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” – Otis Redding
- “Rock Me on the Water” – Jackson Browne
- “Wide Sargasso Sea” – Stevie Nicks
- “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
- “When the Levee Breaks” – Led Zeppelin
- “I Go Swimming” – Peter Gabriel
- “I Sat By the Ocean” – Queens of the Stone Age
- “Ocean” – Martin Garrix featuring Khalid
- “Don’t Fight the Sea” – The Beach Boys
- “Across the Sea” – Weezer
- “Back to the River” – The Pretty Reckless
- “Ocean of Noise” – Arcade Fire
- “The Ocean – Mike Perry featuring Shy Martin
- “Take Me to the River” – Al Green
- “Grown Ocean” – Fleet Foxes
- “Walk on the Ocean” – Toad the Wet Sprocket
- “Down By the Seaside” – Led Zeppelin
- “Children of the Sea” – Black Sabbath
- “Yellow River” – Christie
- “Head Above Water” – Avril Lavigine
- “I Am a River” – Foo Fighter
- The River” – Garth Brooks
- “Fire Lake” – Bob Seger
- “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” – Ella Fitzgerald
- “Told My Troubles to the River” – Tom McRae
- “Into the Ocean” – Blue October
- “At the River” – Groove Armada
- “Cold Water” – Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber and MO
- “Ocean” – Lou Reed
- “Where the River Goes” – Stone Temple Pilots
- “The Wreck of the Edumnd Fitzgerald” – Gordon Lightfoot
- “Ocean Rain” – Echo & the Bunnymen
- “Down By the Water” – PJ Harvey
- “Mighty River” – Mary J. Blige
- “Ocean Breathes Salty” – Modest Mouse
- “Ripple” – Grateful Dead
- “Come On Down to My Boat” – Every Mother’s Son
- “River of Love” – George Strait
- “Oceania” – Bjork
- “Following the River” – The Rolling Stones
- “Cake By the Ocean” – DNCE
- “Girl and the Sea” – The Presets
- “Across the River” – Bruce Hornsby & the Range
- “Big River” – Johnny Cash
- “Ocean Avenue” – Yellowcard
- “Lake by the Ocean” – Maxwell
- “Walk on Water” – Thirty Seconds To Mars
- “Sea of Love” – Phil Phillips with the Twilights
- “River” – Eminem
- “Sea Within a Sea” – The Horrors
- “Ocean” – Goldfrapp
- “Kern River” – Emmylou Harris
- “Oceans” – Pearl Jam
- “Don’t Drink the Water” – Dave Matthews Band
- “Cool Water” – Jack Scott
- “Ocean Eyes” – Billie Eilish
- “The River” – Good Charlotte featuring M Shadows and Synyster Gates
- “Once in a Lifetime” – Talking Heads
- “Meeting Across the River” – Bruce Springsteen
- “Edge of the Ocean” – Ivy
- “The Ocean” – U2
- “River of Deceit” – Mad Season
- “Lake of Fire” – Meat Puppets
- “Don’t Go Near the Water” – The Beach Boys
- “Aqueous Transmission” – Incubus
- “Like a River” – Carly Simon
- “God of Ocean Tide” – Counting Crows
- “Something in the Water” – Carrie Underwood
- “Pool Party” – Julia Jacklin
- “Oily Water” – Blur
- “Tenerife Sea” – Ed Sheeran
- “Ocean Blue” – Willow Robinson
- “Oceans” – Jay – Z
- “From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea” – The Cure
- “Many Rivers to Cross” – Jimmy Cliff
- “Swimming” – Kero Kero Bonito
- “Black River” – Paul Weller
- “The Ocean”- Led Zeppelin
- “Deep River” – John Oates
- “Black Lake” – Bjork
- “Ocean Spray” – Manic Street Preachers