Drowning Man

Album: Desperate Man (2018)
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Songfacts®:

  • Eric Church concludes his Desperate Man album with this blue-collar drinking song. He laments, with the help of $50 worth of whiskey, what he sees as the state of our times.

    We put the smoke in a stack
    Put the seed in the ground
    While Lady Liberty turns her back
    And Uncle Sam just turns around
    No I don't wanna think about it
    Oh tonight I don't wanna think about it


    "I've seen it happen," Church told Rolling Stone. "I've seen people who lost their jobs, lost their homes, who felt like they didn't have a voice. So when the [2016] election happened, I was not as surprised as maybe other people were."
  • "Drowning Man" addresses overlooked America and the ways musicians have (or haven't) responded. "If you go to any bar or concert in America, there are whole groups of forgotten people who are very much alike, who have more in common than not," said Church. "There's a lot of madness in the world that makes no sense, and it's not all high tides and yachts."
  • Producer Jay Joyce secretly set up a microphone under Church's foot when he was recording this song. The tapping forms the main kick on the final drum track.

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