Friday March 11, 2022 “Fisherman’s Blues” The Waterboys

Waterboys founder Mike Scott, a native of Edinburgh, first became involved in music as the creator of the fanzine Jungleland and later played in a series of local punk outfits. 

After college, where he studied English and philosophy, Scott and his band Another Pretty Face recorded some unsuccessful demos in London and following that group's breakup in 1981, he formed the Waterboys, so named after a line in the Lou Reed song "The Kids" …’I am the Waterboy the real game is not over here’.

According to bandleader, lead singer and main songwriter Scott,the lyrics to “Fisherman's Blues” were partly inspired by the W.H. Auden poem The Night Mail, which he remembered from reading at school. 

"It was about how the mail train would roll through the night and the poem itself replicated the feeling, the rhythm, the speed of the train. So when you read the poem either out loud or in your mind, it conjured the movement of the train. Certainly when I wrote the second verse of 'Fisherman's Blues,' I was trying to get that effect."

Stylistically The Waterboys have a variety of sounds many of which can be attributed to the constantly changing band members and not all of them are successful in my humble opinion but when they hit it just right it’s always worth listening to, as is true with “Fisherman’s Blues”.

Stay safe and well…and although I never wished to be a fisherman, the allusion is lyrically rich, much like Auden’s poetry.

I wish I was a fisherman

Tumblin' on the seas

Far away from dry land

And it's bitter memories

Castin' out my sweet line

With abandonment and love

No ceiling bearin' down on me

Save the starry sky above

 With light in my head

With you in my arms

 I wish I was the brakeman

On a hurtlin' fevered train

Crashin head long into the heartland

Like a cannon in the rain

With the feelin of the sleepers

And the burnin of the coal

Countin the towns flashin by

And a night that's full of soul

 With light in my head

With you in my arms

 And I know I will be loosened

From the bonds that hold me fast

And the chains all around me

Will fall away at last

And on that grand and fateful day

I will take thee in my hand

I will ride on a train

I will be the fisherman

 With light in my head

You in my arms

 Light in my head

You in my arms

 Light in my head

You

 With light in my head

You in my arms