Married to the Mob Archives

Album: I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got
Year: 1988

. . .

I almost put Married to The Mob Soundtrack as the album where to find “Jump in the River,” because that soundtrack — to a Jonathan Demme film starring Michelle Pfeiffer & Matthew Modine — was the first place I ever heard it, almost two years before it turned up on the back half of I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got

In fact, Sinéad O’Connor’s “Jump in the River” led off that soundtrack, which was closed by Brian Eno’s utterly transcendent take on “You Don’t Miss Your Water,” which if you’ve never heard, you need to hear it right this second.

Album: Married to the Mob Soundtrack
Year: 1988

If I’m not mistaken, Eno’s surprise version of “You Don’t Miss Your Water” was his first lead vocal in over a decade. Sure, you could hear him singing on various Talking Heads and U2 tracks (especially the “Pride” b-side “Boomerang II,” which is clearly an Eno track in all by name), but the fact that he decided to cover an old soul classic for a film soundtrack was pretty mind-blowing.

Even more mind-blowing: just how gorgeous it was.

Featuring a rhythm guitar sound that wouldn’t sound out of place on Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) or Before and After Science and a ghostly some-might-say-“ambient” keyboard underneath, a heavenly chorus of Brian Enos slowly sing William Bell’s near perfect lyrics about losing a love through your own jackassery.

In the beginning you really loved me
But I was blind and I could not see
But when you left me, oh, how I cried
You don’t miss your water, till your well runs dry

There are some songs – “Indian Summer,” “Train From Kansas City” come to mind – for which it is impossible to record a bad version. Something about the song renders it impervious to destruction. “You Don’t Miss Your Water” is one of those songs. And though it’s been covered countless times – including by Otis Redding and The Byrds – since it was written in 1961, Eno’s is my favorite.

Maybe because the summer of 1988 was a weird and terrible time for me in the girl department, and I hadn’t really heard this song before this version, something about it completely resonated with me.

“You Don’t Miss Your Water”

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Married to the Mob

Certain Songs #2227: Sinéad O’Connor – “Jump in the River”

Certain Songs #132: Brian Eno – “You Don’t Miss Your Water”