Waters of March

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"Waters of March" (Portuguese: "Águas de Março") is a bossa nova song composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim. Jobim wrote both the English and Portuguese lyrics. When writing the English lyrics, Jobim endeavored to avoid words with Latin roots resulting in the English version having more verses than the Portuguese. Another way in which the English lyrics differ from the Portuguese is that the English version treats March from the perspective of an observer in the northern hemisphere. In this context, the waters are the "waters of defrost" in contrast to the rains referenced in the original Portuguese, marking the end of summer and the beginning of the colder season in the southern hemisphere.^[1].

In 2001, "Águas de Março" was named as the all-time best Brazilian song in a poll of more than 200 Brazilian journalists, musicians and other artists conducted by Brazil's leading daily newspaper, Folha de São Paulo.

The song lyrics, originally written in Portuguese, do not tell a story, but rather present a series of images that form a collage; nearly every line starts with "É..." ("[It] is...").

In both the Portuguese and English versions of the lyrics, "it" is a stick, a stone, a sliver of glass, a scratch, a cliff, a knot in the wood, a fish, a pin, the end of the road, and many other things, although some specific references to Brazilian culture (festa da cumeeira, garrafa de cana), flora (peroba do campo) and folklore (Matita Pereira) were intentionally omitted from the English version, perhaps with the goal of providing a more universal perspective. All these details swirling around the central metaphor of "the waters of March" can give the impression of the passing of daily life and its continual, inevitable progression towards death, just as the rains of March mark the end of a Brazilian summer. Both sets of lyrics speak of the water being "the promise of life," perhaps allowing for other, more life-affirming interpretations, and the English contains the additional phrases "the joy in your heart" and the "promise of spring," a seasonal reference that would be more relevant to most of the English-speaking world.

The inspiration for "Águas de Março" comes from Rio de Janeiro's most rainy month. March is typically marked by sudden storms with heavy rains and strong winds that cause flooding in many places around the city. The lyrics and the music have a constant downward progression much like the water torrent from those rains flowing in the gutters, which typically would carry sticks, stones, bits of glass, and almost everything and anything. The orchestration creates the illusion of the constant descending of notes much like Shepard tones.

The song was used by Coca-Cola for a television commercial in the mid-1980s, and is currently the track for a 2008 British Gas advert in the UK and in Italy.

Composer-guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves^[2] relates that Jobim told him that writing in this kind of stream of consciousness was his version of therapy and saved him thousands in psychoanalysis bills.

Prof. Charles A. Perrone, an authority on contemporary Brazilian popular music (MPB), wrote about the song in his doctoral dissertation (1985), an abridged version of which was published in Brazil as Letras e Letras da MPB (1988). He notes such sources for the song as the folkloric samba-de-matuto and a classic poem of pre-Modernist Brazilian literature.

[edit] Renditions

The definitive, though not first, recording is considered to be the duet sung by Jobim and Elis Regina, from the 1974 album Elis & Tom.
João Gilberto's recording (from his landmark 1973 album João Gilberto) is known for its considerable deviation in rhythm and meter from the original.
David Byrne and Marisa Monte recorded the song for the "Red Hot + Rio" Sampler.
Bilingual version on Susannah McCorkle's album From Bessie to Brazil.
Oscar Castro-Neves also has recorded the English version.
Art Garfunkel, of the singer-songwriter duo Simon & Garfunkel, recorded the song on his solo album Breakaway album released in 1975. His recording has a striking similarity to the composer's inflection, rhythm, and evocation of the song recorded on the 1973 album, Jobim, MCA Records MCA-350.
Jazz singer Jane Monheit recorded a critically acclaimed version in English.
The Japanese group Cibo Matto performed the song in Portuguese for their 1997 EP Super Relax.
Basia recorded a version that was later included on the release of Clear Horizon: The Best of Basia.
Jazz singer Emilie-Claire Barlow performed an English version with partial Portuguese lyrics in her 2001 Tribute album.
Japanese female singer Akiko recorded an English-language version as a duet with jazz-pop act Swing Out Sister in 2002, and released it as a single.
The Jobim/Elis version was performed by Marco and Debbie, respectively, in an episode of Sealab 2021. This is mostly a pun on Marco's name.
Argentinan pop/rock artist Fito Páez recorded a live version of the song, which can only be found on the Internet.
Irish singers Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan recorded their version of "Waters of March" in Portuguese for the movie Goldfish Memory.
Filipina bossa nova singer Sitti Navarro recorded her version of "Waters of March" on her Sitti Live! album.
Al Jarreau recorded this song on the album A Twist of Jobim (1997) (by various artists, for Polygram Records).
Holly Cole recorded this song on the album Holly Cole (2007).
Mark Murphy recorded this song on the album Stolen Moments (2007).
Israeli singers Gidi Gov and Mika Karni recorded a Hebrew version of the song titled "Ve Ha-Geshem Yavo" ("And the rain will come").
Sérgio Mendes & Brasil '77 recorded this song on the album Vintage 74 (1974) (Bell Records - Catalog #1305).
Cassandra Wilson recorded the English version in her Album Belly of The Sun
John Pizzarelli recorded the song three times, first in a duet with Rosemary Clooney on her 2000 album "Brazil", then on his 2004 "Bossa Nova" album, and then in a duet with his wife Jessica Molaskey in a version which combines the song with Joni Mitchell's "Circle Game" on her 2007 "Sitting in Limbo" album
Brazilian singer Luciana Souza recorded the English version on her album "The New Bossa Nova"
Michelle Mailhot[1] recorded the English version on "Happy Madness," released in 2006.
Georges Moustaki recorded on the Declaration album in 1973 as "Les Eaux de Mars".
Nachtzuster [2] recorded a Dutch version as "Stortbui in Maart" (2007).