Friday, June 25, 2010

Singapore Floods: Dylan: Early Morning Rain

Orchard Road 1960's
8.1.18 (8 January 2018) News Flash:

This morning there was a deluge and a few areas in Singapore was flooded. Bedok, Eunos and Paya Lebar were some of the affected areas.

But it's an auspicious day, so I thought I would just sound a paragraph about what had happened this morning. What's a little rain and being a little wet if you get that 4D number 8118 (fart yart yart fart) as it's read in Cantonese dialect and means, Good Luck, Everyday Good Luck?

I never buy 4D but this rare combination of early morning rain, heavy flooding, stalled vehicles and water in buses is definitely unique. No need to go looking for vehicle number plates. Good luck readers; spare me some if you win...
😊 Showers of blessings!
Peter Chan, 70s music man and current businessman, sent me some pictures of floods in Singapore. Here's one (image above) that occurred at Orchard Road in the 60's. No, it wasn't the first time the recent flood devastation happened at glamorous Orchard because since recorded statistics there had been floods on our island since the 1950's onwards.

So why is a 60's music blog discussing floods you ask. While looking at Peter's photographs and reading the papers about the recent deluge, I remember a late 50's 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.
Johnny Cash Sleeve Cover
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.

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.
 A flooded street in Singapore 2010.
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.

Image 1: Peter Chan Collections.
Image 2: Johnny Cash from Google.



Songs about Rain and Floods:

Singing in the Rain - Gene Kelly
After the Rain - John Coltrain
All I Needed Was The Rain - Elvis Presley
Ain't No Sunshine - Jose Feliciano

Black Summer Rain - Eric Clapton
Coloured Rain - Eric Burdon n The Animals
Early Morning Rain - Bob Dylan
Fool In The Rain - Led Zeppelin
8th January 2018 (from Straits Times, Singapore)
Riders On The Storm - The Doors
Money for Floods - Joan Baez
Down in The Floods - Blood, Sweat and Tears
Texas Flood - Willie Nelson

High Water - Bob Dylan
Have you ever seen the rain? - CCR
Here Comes The Flood - Peter Gabriel.
When the Levee Breaks - Led Zeppelin

Just a taste of the floods. Carry on to contribute if you can.
8th January 2018 Bus Stop.
Disclaimer:

There is no intention of making fun of the people involved in the rain and floods that have affected these areas in Singapore. Water-logged vehicles, wet commuters, pedestrians and hospitalised individuals suffer much during these inclement weather conditions. It's always looking for the silver lining that's important.

Original article: Andy Lim.
Images: Google and The Straits Times Press.

60 years later today - 10 of November 2021.
IMAGE - https://www.edf.org/climate/why-fighting-climate-change-so-urgent

12 comments:

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

This year 2017, we had two days continuous rain but no floods, I mean not the type that causes damage like the one in 2010.

But if citizens don't keep the monsoon drains clear of debris then the floods may just come back to devastate our island.

Listen to Johnny Cash. A song of impending flood warning.

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

This morning's flood coming from a Whatsapp video could be frightening. So here's another warning. Keep the monsoon drains clean.

Or could it be another reason this time?

Anyone with some flood songs or rain songs to contribute?

RICHARD RAJOO said...

Gosh...if this is just the beginning of the global warming weather and this is just a one morning storm, I dread to think if the rain persists!

We'll be like our neighbouring countries. Wading through water every day.

HORACE WEE (GUITAR LEGEND, PROFESSIONAL MUSICIAN) said...

Nothing much to say. There'll always be floods somewhere on this island even if the biggest deepest drains are built. My opinion is that the island is overbuilt and no amount of engineering can compensate for nature's ying and yang balance.

The topography of the island has changed and areas that previously were not flood-prone, are now attracting larger volumes of water.

Additionally, some areas are not much above sea level. In future, rising sea levels may make the situation worse. Engineers cannot play God nor are they able to outsmart nature.

I'm looking at you HDB and PUB.

CORNELIA DENNINGER (YOUTUBE) said...

It is again a Texas Theme song in those days. After hurricane Harvey... I´m so sorry for the people who are going to lose everything.

WOOFER32 (YOUTUBE) said...

"Lovely to hear this again, I had it on an English Philips label back in the early sixties and can't have heard it since then. Thank you very much for posting this, it brought back such memories (2013)."

STEPHEN HAN FB said...

Have you ever seen the rain?

ROSE KHOO FB said...

Big showers of blessings!

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

Thanks, Stephen, I shall include it.

Yes, Rose how true. Another title for the list. Thanks very much.

And the others Kwandy, Horace and Richard for your immediate responses.

MERLIN LIM (FORMER 'SILVER STRINGS' RHYTHM GUITARIST) said...

Today's flooding at Bedok caught me and many others by surprise. It's strange, funny, with a sense of disbelief at all that has happened at Bedok - my home base.

To all those whose properties that were damaged by water, hope you are covered by insurance and without them using this statement, ACT OF GOD.

STEPHEN HAN FB said...

How about “Raindrops Falling On Head,Singing In The Rain and I Love A Rainy Night”

Anonymous said...

yes, I still remember the flood in my childhood days in tanglin. my dad's car was like the ones you see in the pics. as i used to say, "when i was little dad had a big car, all of us 9 .. driver , mom, dad , 4 kids and 2 servants could pile into it!"
to which my mom laughed, "of course, you were all tiny then!"
jokes aside, andy, vancouver just got missed being hit by a tsunami 2 weeks ago or so. and lots of people think all they need is get ready with warm clothings. these dudes equate a tsunami to a mere monsoonal flood of our childhood days in singapore.
they think those overpriced 6 million dollar wretched mansions built in the days of expo or even before, will survive the tsunami. go figure, when they could afford a brand new mansion east of the land where real estates are more realistic.
but nooooo, "we don't like snow!". well, snow is better than 50 feet of water.