The River
by Live

Album: Songs From Black Mountain (2006)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Live frontman Ed Kowalczyk on the meaning behind this tune from the band's eighth studio album: "It's really a story about a guy who's longing or feels incomplete or sort of on fire and that the woman presence in the chorus is really 'let my love in, ease your pain.' In other words, let's come together and sort of complete each other."
  • This was the album's first single, but it wasn't available for purchase in the US. It failed to chart on the Hot 100 Airplay tally but peaked at #33 on the Adult Top 40 Tracks chart.
  • Songs From Black Mountain was the last album to feature Kowalczyk, who left the band in 2009 to pursue a solo career but rejoined in 2016.
  • The album reunited the band with their Birds Of Pray producer, Jim Wirt.
  • In the music video, directed by Nathan Cox (Disturbed, Linkin Park), the band performs the song in the desert. Kowalczyk walks off alone and somehow falls into a body of water that mysteriously exists amid the barren surroundings. He meets a woman underwater, and they kiss. After he wakes up on dry land, the same woman drives up in a truck and they ride off together.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull

Ian Anderson of Jethro TullSongwriter Interviews

The flautist frontman talks about touring with Led Zeppelin, his contribution to "Hotel California", and how he may have done the first MTV Unplugged.

Lou Gramm - "Waiting For A Girl Like You"

Lou Gramm - "Waiting For A Girl Like You"They're Playing My Song

Gramm co-wrote this gorgeous ballad and delivered an inspired vocal, but the song was the beginning of the end of his time with Foreigner.

Edie Brickell

Edie BrickellSongwriter Interviews

Edie Brickell on her collaborations with Paul Simon, Steve Martin and Willie Nelson, and her 2021 album with the New Bohemians.

Loudon Wainwright III

Loudon Wainwright IIISongwriter Interviews

"Dead Skunk" became a stinker for Loudon when he felt pressure to make another hit - his latest songs deal with mortality, his son Rufus, and picking up poop.

Dick Wagner (Alice Cooper/Lou Reed)

Dick Wagner (Alice Cooper/Lou Reed)Songwriter Interviews

The co-writer/guitarist on many Alice Cooper hits, Dick was also Lou Reed's axeman on the Rock n' Roll Animal album.

Bass Player Scott Edwards

Bass Player Scott EdwardsSong Writing

Scott was Stevie Wonder's bass player before becoming a top session player. Hits he played on include "I Will Survive," "Being With You" and "Sara Smile."