4/4/07: Johnny Cymbal “The Water Was Red” (1961)

We’re not kidding about this upcoming vacation. Our thoughts are already filled with visions of sun and surf and fun. More specifically, we’re typical conservatives with thoughts of sun and surf and fun and violent revenge and generally molesting Gaia.

Which brings us to “The Water Was Red.”

This was an early single from what would become the long career of Johnny Cymbal. Strangely, the touching tale of love gone wrong wasn’t a hit. It begins with Johnny telling us about a boy meeting a girl on a lonely beach, and soon they’re holding hands. They fall in love and kiss on the silver sand. They often go back to the beach and swim at night.

But then they’re out at night swimming where the water is deep, and a white fin comes into sight. The shark strikes and leaves the boy’s sweetheart dead. He pulls her remains to the shore, and the mooring waves are red. At least he might still be holding her hand.

Now, if this were a modern song, our narrator would start bemoaning how we’ve ruined the planet and made the poor sharks so hungry that they’re reduced to eating a poor innocent girl. Remember the big media hype about the non-existent shark invasion of the Summer of 2001? It would kind of be the same idea. In fact, there’s almost an Australian version with polar bears.

Johnny Cymbal, however, is presenting a tale of action. Here’s the happy ending to this teenage tragedy:

        He looked towards the water and he saw the fin
        So he gently put her on the sand
        He walked to the water with a tear in his eye
        And a gleaming knife in his hand

        And the water was red once again
        Yes, the water was red
        As he walked toward his sweetheart
        With the fin in his hand

The song ends there, but we’re pretty sure that fin made for some really good soup. And such be the fate of all Gaia’s greedy minions who interfere with the course of teenage events.

Johnny Cymbal would become a popular songwriter, but he didn’t come up with “The Water Was Red.” That honor goes to Jeff Barry, who—like Jan Berry—had a birthday yesterday. Fortunately, the pop genius who co-wrote hits such as “Hanky Panky,” “River Deep, Mountain High,” and “Sugar, Sugar” is still with us. We’ll soon be eating some kind of morally wrong seafood in his honor.

Make it your own: Sadly, Johnny Cymbal’s back catalogue is criminally neglected. It’ll cost you big bucks just for a CD compilation that doesn’t even have this inspiring moment.

 

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