{"id":163245,"date":"2023-02-10T11:01:01","date_gmt":"2023-02-10T16:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=163245"},"modified":"2023-02-13T08:09:55","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T13:09:55","slug":"love-songs-water-sign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/02\/10\/love-songs-water-sign\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Songs: \u201cWater Sign\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_163246\" style=\"width: 695px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-163246\" class=\"wp-image-163246\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pisces.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"685\" height=\"489\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pisces.jpeg 640w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pisces-300x214.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-163246\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mosaic in Maltezana. <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Mosaic_in_Maltezana_at_Analipsi,_Astypalaia,_5th_c_AD,_Pisces_Astm26a.jpg\">Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, licensed under CCO 3.0.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>This week,<\/em> <em>the<\/em> Review<em> is publishing a series of short reflections on love songs, broadly defined.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Parliament\u2019s \u201c(You\u2019re a Fish and I\u2019m a) Water Sign\u201d is an unabashed ode to passion, to the base and the sensual, to the possibilities of love in the juiciest ways it can exist between people. The song moans into being, a beseeching follows, then there\u2019s a bass so low you can\u2019t possibly get under it, and finally the central question is posed: \u201cCan we get down?\u201d In true Parliament fashion, the tune doesn\u2019t follow a traditional verse-chorus-bridge structure; it consists of an ever-evolving chorus that departs from the lines \u201cI want to be \/ on the seaside of love with you \/ let\u2019s go swimming \/ the water\u2019s fine.\u201d The arrangement is magnificent and the execution velvety, and the soulful, overlapping ad-libs of George Clinton, Walter \u201cJunie\u201d Morrison, and Ron Ford are just romantic lagniappe. Add the production of the track itself, with its big band-y rise of horns and whimsical flourishes atop the funky bassline, and the song is a liquid love affair that pulls you under and takes you there. It\u2019s orgasmic.\u201cWater Sign\u201d is the B side to the much more well-known \u201cAqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop),\u201d from Parliament\u2019s 1978 hit album <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Motor Booty Affair. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While \u201cAqua Boogie\u201d is told from the point of view of a person who is afraid of water, having never learned to swim, \u201cWater Sign\u201d shows us how beautiful and liberating it can be to get swept away.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Addie E. Citchens is the author of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/fiction\/7954\/a-good-samaritan-addie-e-citchens\">A Good Samaritan<\/a>,\u201d out in the<\/em> Review<em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s Winter Issue.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIt\u2019s orgasmic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2323,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1187],"tags":[67827,17993,7564,6382,68606],"class_list":["post-163245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-music","tag-featured","tag-love-songs","tag-parliament-funkadelic","tag-valentines-day","tag-water-signs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Love Songs: \u201cWater Sign\u201d by Addie E. Citchens<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"February 10, 2023 \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s orgasmic.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2023\/02\/10\/love-songs-water-sign\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Love Songs: \u201cWater Sign\u201d by Addie E. 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