Orchard Road Floods And Johnny Cash In 60s

Peter Chan, 70s music man and current business man, sent me some pictures of floods in Singapore. Here's one (image) that occurred at Orchard Road in the 60s. No, it wasn't the first time the recent flood devastation happened at glamorous Orchard.

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So why is a 60s music blog discussing floods you ask. While looking at Peter's photographs and reading the papers about the recent deluge, I remember a late 50s song about "rising waters" by Johnny Cash and managed to retrieve it from a website called, starcasm.net It's got that unique Cash beat that our Man In Black specialized in.

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The singer who had never feared "death, darkness and such apocalyptic things as floods" had put on vinyl, Five Feet High and Rising for his 1959 concept album Songs of Our Soil. Much like his gallows countdown 25 Minutes To Go, this song is an "hourglass ballad, measuring time with the rising waters of the Mississippi River flood of 1937." From historical data, waters from the massive river rose 15 feet above flood stage after 21 consecutive days of rain.

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There are many C&W songs about floods and the more popular ones are, When It Rains It Pours by Merle Haggard, High Water by Bob Dylan, Rainy Day Blues by Willie Nelson and Steady As The Rain by Dolly Parton.

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So to all Singapore music lyricists today, writing ditties about our achievements on this beautiful, sunny island can be a little cliched, so why not write about our recent floods at our most celebrated shopping street? Might make it to the Top 10 Singapore Song Chart, if there's any.

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Image: Peter Chan Collections.
Information: http://starcasm.net/archives/46507
Original article: Andy Lim.