# When the Levee Breaks
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-levee-breaks/319730
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 2, 2005, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-levee-breaks/319730 "2005-09-02T13:25:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2005, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-levee-breaks/319730/21 "2005-09-02T20:52:03Z")
Dylan “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall”
The Greatful Dead album ‘Wake of the Flood’
Johnny Cash “Five Feet High and Rising” and “Big River”
(plus the De La Soul album ‘3 Feet High and Rising’)
Stevie Ray Vaughn “Texas Flood”
Talking Heads "Take Me to the River "(Dip me in the water)
Anything by Muddy Waters
“Gonna Wash that Man Right Outta My Hair”
---
### Author:  [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2005, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-levee-breaks/319730/22 "2005-09-02T21:14:02Z")
Lord, here comes the flood
We will say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again the seas are silent
in any still alive
It’ll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you’re running dry.
When the flood calls,
You have no home, you have no walls
In the thunder crash
You’re a thousand minds, within a flash
Don’t be afraid to cry at what you see
The actors gone, there’s only you and me
And if we break before the dawn, they’ll use up what we used to be.
\*Here Comes The Flood \* by Peter Gabriel
---
### Author:  [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2005, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-levee-breaks/319730/23 "2005-09-02T22:29:35Z")
Mary, grab the baby. The river’s risin’
Muddy water takin’ back the land.
The old frame house, she can’t take one more beatin’
Ain’t no use to stay and make a stand.
**Muddy Water** , covered by **Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds** , but almost certainly a cover.
---
### Author:  [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2005, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-levee-breaks/319730/24 "2005-09-02T22:34:05Z")
> [@kelly5078](#):
>
> Any prohibition on Dylan’s “Down in the Flood” yet?
I have deleted all but the first verse; you can’t give more than a bit of a song, that exceeds the fair use copyright standards.
Please don’t do this again, although I’m sure you were well intentioned.
your humble TubaDiva
---
### Author:  [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2005, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-levee-breaks/319730/25 "2005-09-02T22:37:36Z")
Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans
And miss it each night and day?
I know I’m not wrong… this feeling’s gettin’ stronger
The longer, I stay away.
Miss them moss covered vines…the tall sugar pines
Where mockin’ birds used to sing.
And I’d like to see that lazy mississippi…hurryin’ into spring.
The moonlight on the bayou…a creole tune… that fills the air.
I dream… about magnolias in bloom…and I’m wishin’ I was there.
Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans
When that’s where you left your heart?
And there’s one thing more…i miss the one I care for
More than I miss New Orleans.
☹
---
### Author:  [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2005, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-levee-breaks/319730/26 "2005-09-02T23:27:47Z")
What has happened down here is the winds have changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain
Rained real hard and it rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline
The river rose all day
The river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood
Some people got away alright
The river have busted through clear down to Plaquemines
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline
Louisiana, Louisiana,
They’re tryin’ to wash us away
They’re tryin’ to wash us away
---
### Author:  [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2005, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-levee-breaks/319730/27 "2005-09-03T00:11:30Z")
I was trying to think of what other songs might make the ‘insensitive’ lists, and I stumbled across “City Of New Orleans” by Arlo Guthrie (at least I think it’s by Arlo Guthrie, I’ve been wrong about these kind of things before:)). I know it’s about a train, but it does say “…City of New Orleans, I’ll be gone 500 miles…”
Totally out of context, I know. But then, none of the other songs here are actually about what happened, either.
---
### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2005, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-levee-breaks/319730/28 "2005-09-03T00:18:34Z")
> [@thwartme](#):
>
> I was trying to think of what other songs might make the ‘insensitive’ lists, and I stumbled across “City Of New Orleans” by Arlo Guthrie (at least I think it’s by Arlo Guthrie, I’ve been wrong about these kind of things before:)). I know it’s about a train, but it does say “…City of New Orleans, I’ll be gone 500 miles…”
>
> Totally out of context, I know. But then, none of the other songs here are actually about what happened, either.
Arlo made it famous but “Obscure Folky” Steve Goodman wrote it.
I wouldn’t call it insensitive. It is complimentary of New Orleans.
---
### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2005, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-levee-breaks/319730/29 "2005-09-03T00:39:05Z")
> [@thwartme](#):
>
> I was trying to think of what other songs might make the ‘insensitive’ lists, and I stumbled across “City Of New Orleans” by Arlo Guthrie (at least I think it’s by Arlo Guthrie, I’ve been wrong about these kind of things before:)). I know it’s about a train, but it does say “…City of New Orleans, I’ll be gone 500 miles…”
>
> Totally out of context, I know. But then, none of the other songs here are actually about what happened, either.
Trains had names, some of which became famous in their time. The _name_ of the train is the City of New Orleans. Its destination, and presumably terminal, is in New Orleans, but its route is up and down alongside the Mississippi River.
And it’s [still in existence](http://www.amtrak.com/timetable/apr05/P58.pdf) perhaps [in part to the song](http://www.songfacts.com/detail.lasso?id=2878).
---
### Author:  [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2005, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-levee-breaks/319730/30 "2005-09-03T01:58:20Z")
Any song by Katrina and the Waves has GOTTA be _verboten_.
---
### Author:  [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2005, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-levee-breaks/319730/31 "2005-09-03T05:35:03Z")
Bah! I will play _nuffink_ but Katrina & the Waves!
---
### Author:  [@Carm6773](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carm6773)
#### Post date: [September 3, 2005, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-levee-breaks/319730/32 "2005-09-03T11:35:51Z")
“I Love a Rainy Night”, “Islands in the Stream”, and “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” have probably made the Don’t Play list. My favorite Country station usually plays Garth’s “The Thunder Rolls” at least once while I’m at work. I haven’t heard it recently.
**ArchiveGuy** , Harry Connick, Jr performed that song last night during the Relief Concert. It was really touching.
---
### Author:  [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-levee-breaks/319730/33 "2005-09-05T07:57:49Z")
> [@Nutty Bunny](#):
>
> And I was just joking last night that I wondered if Clear Channel was going to have a “no play” list like they did after 9/11 (yes, I know this was debunked by [snopes.com](http://snopes.com)).
I forget what the rationale was for **not** creating a “no play” list, but I recall that the purported list had at least fifty songs on it. And there were even some that were not on the list, that I did hear after 9/11, that seemed eerily inappropriate. Such as “I Am A Rock”, by S&G: “I build walls/A fortress deep and mighty/That none may penetrate…”
Also, for what it’s worth, I recall, and Mr. Rilch backs me up on this, saying on 9/12, “You know, I think that new Enya song is going to become the theme for this. The way “What a Wonderful World” was the theme for Desert Storm.” It had only been out for a very short time; I don’t even know how I made the connection. But I was right!
---
### Author:  [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-levee-breaks/319730/34 "2005-09-05T10:58:26Z")
I’ve been humming (growling, really) Tom Waits under my breath all day.
…and I wish I was in New Orleans
I can see it in my dreams
arm-in-arm down Burgundy
a bottle and my friends and me
New Orleans, I’ll be there…
It was on my iPod as I walked to work, sunk into my brain without me realising.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-levee-breaks/319730.md?page=1)