Al Green wrote this one, a preacher-in-waiting caught between the nightclub and the church. Talking Heads took it, made it twitchy and nervous, and David Byrne sang like a man who badly needs a baptism and knows it. That’s the honest part. The song is torn between temptation and cleansing, which describes most Saturday nights and every Sunday morning I’ve ever had. The good news is the river doesn’t care how muddy you show up. Wash me in the water, the man says. Not a bad prayer.
“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.” Ezekiel 36:25
— JC
