“Backwater Blues” (Song)
In “Backwater Blues”, the writer retells the incidents surrounding the flooding of Nashville in 1927. It also deals with how said flood displaced several victims and led to the loss of hundreds of lives.
The narrator, who presents himself as a victim describes how it rained continuously for five days in the area, causing the water to rise to 56 ft and subsequently causing a disaster. Like most of the victims, he wakes up to discover that the whole place is flooded and he is trapped indoors because of the calamity. The writer continues to recall how people had to rescue him by rowing small boats across the floods.
As the incident turned out, thousands of victims lost their homes and could only pack a few clothes along with them. Since they virtually couldn’t move freely, they had to spend some time on a hill above the flood till it subsided. The writer intensely reflects on how traumatizing it was for victims to look down from the hill to see their homes destroyed overnight by the disaster.
Who wrote “Backwater Blues”?
It was composed by one Bessie Smith.
Notable Covers
Below are some of the most prominent covers of “Backwater Blue”
- Lonnie Johnson in 1927
- Lead Belly in 1940
- Bob Dylan in 1961
- B.B. King in 2008
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927
Even almost a century later, the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 stands as the greatest, i.e. most-destructive, river flooding the U.S. has ever experienced. It affected almost 10 states altogether, with nearly 30,000 square miles of land being submerged in many feet of water. The states that were most adversely affected were Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi. Moreover about 500 people lost their lives as a result of this natural disaster. In its aftermath, the United States constructed the longest flood-control system in the world. Moreover the Flood contributed significantly to African-Americans from the affected regions migrating north.
