Hole in the River

Album: Crowded House (1986)
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Songfacts®:

  • A track from Crowded House's debut album, "Hole in the River" was written by lead singer Neil Finn along with Eddie Rayner, who played keyboards with Finn in his previous band Split Enz and contributed production work to Crowded House.
  • Unfortunately, this song was based on a real story, and in the opening lyric, "There's a hole in the river where my auntie lies," Finn really was singing about his aunt. He explained to Goldmine in 1998: "That actually was a rare occasion where I sat down and had a story to tell. I'd just been told over the phone by my father that his sister had committed suicide. I was playing the tune on the piano before he rang me, and then he rang me and I just repeated it, basically, to the melody."

Comments: 1

  • Martha from Knoxville, TnI have loved this song since 1997 . So raw. I thought of it as I came to terms with a very similar suicide by someone I knew only through a co-worker about 5 years ago.
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