lyrics big fish little fish swimming in the water
Down by the Water The song's lyrics tell the story of a woman committing filicide. The woman drowns her daughter "down by the water" and "won't see her again." The final coda features Harvey whispering the lines: "little fish, big fish swimming in the water / come back here, man, gimme my daughter." The refrain was based on Lead Belly's rendition of the traditional American folk song "Salty Dog Blues." In 2005, Harvey used the song's lyrics in a Spin interview as an example to demonstrate that her songs were not autobiographical: "Some critics have taken my writing so literally to the point that they'll listen to 'Down by the Water' and believe I have actually given birth to a child and drowned her."[2]