We're gonna lean this ladder up against the water tower
July 28, 2010 2:38 PM Subscribe
Help me find more great songs about water towers.
My friend is doing research on water towers, and I made idle threats about a mix tape. Problem is, I have...two. Time After Time (Annelise) by REM, and Constructive Summer by the Hold Steady.
Anything you will vouch for as a good song, I'll gladly take. Please help me pull this off!
My friend is doing research on water towers, and I made idle threats about a mix tape. Problem is, I have...two. Time After Time (Annelise) by REM, and Constructive Summer by the Hold Steady.
Anything you will vouch for as a good song, I'll gladly take. Please help me pull this off!
The House in the Clouds is an awesome converted water tower. The House in the Clouds is also a song by Perry Blake.
You're desperate. I'm stretching for you here, buddy.
posted by MuffinMan at 2:56 PM on July 28, 2010
You're desperate. I'm stretching for you here, buddy.
posted by MuffinMan at 2:56 PM on July 28, 2010
There's a band called Save Ferris. "Save Ferris" was written on a water tower in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off..."
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:04 PM on July 28, 2010
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:04 PM on July 28, 2010
"Jacky Don Tucker," Toby Keith ("a water tower poet class of '73")
"My Town," Montgomery Gentry ""just up the road a pale blue water tower/with i love ginny painted in bright green")
"Picture of Love," The Frames ("I had to strain to understand/your swimming in the water tower")
"Amen," Paula Cole ("I drive into the night, to the hill, to the water tower")
"Only a Whisper," Mindy McCready ("You can paint our names on the water tower/for half the county to see")
I've gotta go--more here: http://lyrics.filestube.com/ --just enter "water tower." (I've touted this before as an invaluable resource. You can do it!)
posted by dlugoczaj at 3:13 PM on July 28, 2010 [2 favorites]
"My Town," Montgomery Gentry ""just up the road a pale blue water tower/with i love ginny painted in bright green")
"Picture of Love," The Frames ("I had to strain to understand/your swimming in the water tower")
"Amen," Paula Cole ("I drive into the night, to the hill, to the water tower")
"Only a Whisper," Mindy McCready ("You can paint our names on the water tower/for half the county to see")
I've gotta go--more here: http://lyrics.filestube.com/ --just enter "water tower." (I've touted this before as an invaluable resource. You can do it!)
posted by dlugoczaj at 3:13 PM on July 28, 2010 [2 favorites]
"can't ignore the train" by 10000 Maniacs starts with a line about water towers.
posted by rongorongo at 3:15 PM on July 28, 2010
posted by rongorongo at 3:15 PM on July 28, 2010
Best answer: The great Jimmie Rodgers song "Waiting For a Train," ca. 1930, and covered by any country artist of note ever since, begins "All around the water tower/waiting for a train."
posted by fourcheesemac at 3:25 PM on July 28, 2010
posted by fourcheesemac at 3:25 PM on July 28, 2010
Me and Jiggs, by Josh Ritter
"Sitting on the porch playing Townes Van Zandt play guitar to burn off the hours
Till we climb the fences at the edge of town and paint our names on the water towers"
posted by Bearman at 3:34 PM on July 28, 2010
"Sitting on the porch playing Townes Van Zandt play guitar to burn off the hours
Till we climb the fences at the edge of town and paint our names on the water towers"
posted by Bearman at 3:34 PM on July 28, 2010
Slobberbone's "Josephine" contains the line 'And he climbed the tower and he painted "I Love You"/ In the brightest color I've ever seen'
It doesn't specifically say watertower, but what else would one climb to paint upon?
posted by richyoung at 3:36 PM on July 28, 2010
It doesn't specifically say watertower, but what else would one climb to paint upon?
posted by richyoung at 3:36 PM on July 28, 2010
Well I guess I should add that "John Deere Green" is all about a water tower. Billy Bob climbs up the water tower and paints in three foot tall letters "Billy Bob loves Charlene" so all the town can see and he uses paint in the color John Deere Green but everyone thought he should have used red paint or something like that.
I bet the video would be awesome, but all youtube has are creepy tribute videos to tractors. John Deere Green! Crappy early 90s honky tonk water tower music, yee-haw!
posted by vincele at 3:38 PM on July 28, 2010
I bet the video would be awesome, but all youtube has are creepy tribute videos to tractors. John Deere Green! Crappy early 90s honky tonk water tower music, yee-haw!
posted by vincele at 3:38 PM on July 28, 2010
Best answer: The Replacements -- "Can't Hardly Wait" -- the "Tim" version has a water tower lyric!
I'll be there in an hour
Take half an month there on foot
Watering-hole scummy water tower
Sitting on the porch if I could
Actually it sort of sounds like "waterin' tower," now that I'm listening again. But that's all I've got.
posted by kittyb at 3:53 PM on July 28, 2010
I'll be there in an hour
Take half an month there on foot
Watering-hole scummy water tower
Sitting on the porch if I could
Actually it sort of sounds like "waterin' tower," now that I'm listening again. But that's all I've got.
posted by kittyb at 3:53 PM on July 28, 2010
Looks like there are some decent hits for
posted by adipocere at 3:55 PM on July 28, 2010
"water tower" -"water tower string band" -"water tower bucket boys" site:lyrics.com in Google. You'd better call this mix All Along the Water Tower, though.posted by adipocere at 3:55 PM on July 28, 2010
Also! Jakob Dylan's "Will It Grow" -- "Boarded mansions and ghost filled yards / There's a boy in a water tower counting cars"
posted by kittyb at 3:55 PM on July 28, 2010
posted by kittyb at 3:55 PM on July 28, 2010
correction to my rec above, It's waterTANK in JR's original K archaic for a railroad water tower. Many subsequent versions use 'tower.'
posted by fourcheesemac at 5:45 PM on July 28, 2010
posted by fourcheesemac at 5:45 PM on July 28, 2010
Theme song from "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?", ( part of the plot of the movie revolves around Arnie (Leonardo DiCaprio) climbing up a watertower.) And a list of other songs from the same movie.
At a bit of a stretch, the alien vehicles in "War of the Worlds" look a bit like water towers, so music from the soundtrack may be appropriate.
That 70s Show had an episode titled "Water Tower", with a track listing.
There's also the Watertower Bucketboys to consider. And Foxy Shazam has penned a song called Wife's Juice and Watertower Wine.
Spectral Voices is harmonic overtone singing, recorded IN a water tower.
posted by metaphorical at 10:19 PM on July 28, 2010
At a bit of a stretch, the alien vehicles in "War of the Worlds" look a bit like water towers, so music from the soundtrack may be appropriate.
That 70s Show had an episode titled "Water Tower", with a track listing.
There's also the Watertower Bucketboys to consider. And Foxy Shazam has penned a song called Wife's Juice and Watertower Wine.
Spectral Voices is harmonic overtone singing, recorded IN a water tower.
posted by metaphorical at 10:19 PM on July 28, 2010
Perhaps the "Man with the Harmonica" theme from "Once Upon a time in the West" - since it is used with a water tower related shoot out.
posted by rongorongo at 1:43 AM on July 29, 2010
posted by rongorongo at 1:43 AM on July 29, 2010
Whoops. Missed "Magick" by Ryan Adams ("water tower burned/up to the ground/zombies running all around").
And these days, you just can't forget the zombies.
posted by dlugoczaj at 10:18 AM on July 29, 2010
And these days, you just can't forget the zombies.
posted by dlugoczaj at 10:18 AM on July 29, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks so much, this is great! I was intending to pick the songs matching my friend's taste, but I think there's a whole bunch more that will make him laugh, which is my secondary aim (number one being making good on my big talk). Best answers to the two I'm kicking myself for not remembering, but they're all the bestest, really.
posted by carbide at 2:24 PM on July 29, 2010
posted by carbide at 2:24 PM on July 29, 2010
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posted by vincele at 2:49 PM on July 28, 2010 [2 favorites]