Time flies as they say and 40 per cent of the month is over... yes today is 12th Ramadan... the hottest Ramadan we have had in a long time. This unbearable heat and long fasting hours make us extremely thirsty and even food addicts are much concerned about drinking, daydreaming of water while fasting. No matter how hard I try, I can't stop myself from thinking about songs about water – to be more precise, songs that mention water even in their titles. I have a long list of tracks that keep ‘flowing' on my mind like a ‘stream' and of course it's always nice to ‘float' on such tunes and... I guess being witty is not the right thing to do while fasting. Was Andy Gibb into physics? I don't think so but still that didn't stop him from revealing a fascinating fact – he declared that ‘(Love is) Thicker than Water'. Which tool did he use to reach that conclusion? I have no clue but I know that the song was one of many great tracks the young brother of the Bee Gees gave us. Incidentally, it had a rock feel to it, which wasn't traditional for a Gibb song. Anyway, this would not be a proper article without mentioning a Bee Gees song. They had a hit single called ‘Still Waters (Run Deep)' and, in case that was not enough, the track was taken from an album entitled ‘Still Waters'. There must have been so much water in there. Paul Anka confirmed that fact – he said that ‘Water Runs Deep'. Do some artists work as lifeguards in the morning or not? Maybe not, but I'm sure that some artists work as Waterboys. At least members of the Waterboys do. It's amazing to think about the amount of water they provided in one song. We shouldn't be surprised because on that track they sing “That was the river, this is the sea", and the song itself is called ‘This Is the Sea'. That's... interesting! Let's go back to the way water runs. It could run deep and it might also run dry because Boyz II Men told us ‘Water Runs Dry'. This number was written and produced by Babyface, whose real name is Kenneth Brian Edmonds. First, I must say that I'm a huge Boyz II Men fan. Their wonderful singing and amazing harmony add a lot to any song. As for Babyface, he has worked with countless artists and most of them are heavyweight ones, like Eric Clapton, for whom he wrote ‘Change the World'. Before the song was recorded, Babyface was thrilled that Eric Clapton knew him and his work, but Eric was a bit worried... he didn't know if he was supposed to call the producer ‘Mr Face'! It's a true story by the way. Sir Paul McCartney gave us a beautiful song called ‘Waterfalls'. Although I love that song a lot, there is a specific part that I find extra special because it reminds me of a friend... Paul sings, “Don't go chasing polar bears in the great unknown, some big friendly polar bear might want to take you home". I always compare my friend to bears and, because I don't want to be killed, I will not reveal my friend's identity! Forget about polar bears and the South Pole, where we can find a lot of frozen water (snow). To add insult to injury, ‘Pole' McCartney included in ‘Waterfalls' another bar that says “And I need love like a raindrop needs a shower". Just a drop of water will do, thank-you very much. It's such a waste to just sit there and watch that ‘water' as it ‘falls'! Another ‘Waterfalls' was introduced to us by female trio TLC. Some say the three letters stand for ‘tender loving care', but actually the name consists of the founding members' initials – Tionne ‘T-Boz' Watkins, Lisa ‘Left Eye' Lopes and Rozonda ‘Chilli' Thomas. Sadly, Left Eye died in a car crash ten years ago. Rivers have a lot of water as well, especially when they are deep. Legendary producer Phil Spector gave us a remarkable song called ‘River Deep – Mountain High', which was supposedly performed by Ike and Tina Turner. I don't have a clue why Ike took any credit and his name was as usual mentioned before Tina's, when he was paid to stay away! I guess it's because he was still married to Tina at the time and wouldn't have approved of her recording a solo single. This is one of the timeless classics. If you ever wondered why they call Bruce Springsteen ‘The Boss', it's because he is a true rock icon. His lyrics drove many people to compare him to Bob Dylan, who is considered to be one of the best songwriters ever. Although I'm not a Dylan fan, I do like Bruce a lot. One of his most popular songs is ‘The River' and... thank-you Bruce. As if we needed another reminder! Let's go back to the Bee Gees who wrote ‘Islands in the Stream'. This was meant to be a rhythm and blues song for the remarkable Diana Ross, but instead it landed in the lap of country legends Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, who had a gigantic hit with it. ‘Islands in the Stream' was taken from Kenny's album ‘Eyes That See in the Dark', which featured the writing talents of Barry Gibb on all tracks, while some of them were co-written by others... like his brothers Robin and Maurice. This album was a big hit in 1983. As for Diana Ross, I'm sure she wasn't upset at all because, only two years later, she had the Bee Gees, as well as their brother Andy and also Michael Jackson, write her an album called ‘Eaten Alive'. Of course this doesn't meet our criteria this week, because we are not talking about ‘eating'. Let's stick to fluids and mainly water please. Did you know that there is a band called Wet, Wet, Wet? Send me bottles of water to: thisisamrhussien@gmail.com
