Good Fortune Down By The Water Man-Size PJ Harvey

Good Fortune Album: Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000)
Down By The Water Album: To Bring You My Love (1995)
Man-Size Album: Rid of Me (1993)
by PJ Harvey

Good Fortune is about falling in love with a special person. In a 2001 issue of Q magazine, Harvey said: "I wanted everything to sound as beautiful as possible. I want this album to sing and fly and be full of reverb and lush layers of melody. I want it to be my beautiful, sumptuous, lovely piece of work."

Harvey confessed to Mojo magazine January 2008 that in retrospect, the Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea album didn't satisfy her: "I felt like I got lost around that record. I wanted to try writing lots of perfect pop songs. It's great to set oneself projects, but they also have to ring true to your heart and soul. Pop music isn't where my heart is at."

In the music video, Harvey wears a low-cut black dress and dances through the streets at night until she reaches a coffee shop at the end. Sophie Muller, who would later direct the singer's "A Place Called Home" and "This Is Love," helmed the clip.

Good Fortune was used in the 2001 comedy Shallow Hal, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black.

PJ Harvey's mainstream breakthrough in the US was Down By The Water, about a woman who drowns her daughter and returns to the scene of the crime, whispering, "little fish, big fish swimming in the water, come back here, man, gimme my daughter." The first part of the haunting refrain was taken from Lead Belly's blues rendition of the folk standard "Salty Dog Blues."

Harvey was hesitant to reveal the meaning behind Down By The Water, saying it was "a song I didn't want to put a label on too much, like this isn't a song about some woman drowning her baby. To be quite honest, I don't really know what it is for me, myself, yet - which I don't mind because I'd much rather leave it for other people to do what they want with anyway."

She does point out, however, that her songs aren't strictly autobiographical, especially this one. She lamented in a 2005 Spin interview. "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."

The music video, directed by Maria Mochnacz, features Harvey's over-the-top glam look she dubbed "Joan Crawford on acid." Wearing a flowing dark wig, false eyelashes, a slinky red dress, and bright red lipstick, the singer embodies the song's murderous mother as she swims through green waters searching for her dead daughter. Harvey said the exaggerated makeover reflected her love of dressing up and trying new styles, but she admitted to The Guardian, "There was confusion with myself at that time as to who or what I was, and it was a way of looking for answers."

Harvey's new duds were nearly her downfall. She told MTV: "Making that video was very scary for me. I think it was most frightening because the wig was so heavy that when I went under the water, it really was hard to get to the surface again. Especially after spending the whole day of jumping in and out of the pool, and it was cold and I was wearing clothes and high heels trying to swim around. It was pretty scary."

The video got lots of airplay on MTV, which helped boost the single to #2 on the Modern Rock chart.

Harvey co-produced the track with U2 producer Flood and her former Automatic Dlamini bandmate John Parish, giving the song a bluesy electronica treatment with a synthesized organ and string orchestra.

Down By The Water was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance in 1996, but lost to Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know."

Down By The Water video was nominated for Best Female Video at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards, but lost to Madonna's "Take A Bow."

This was used in the 1995 movie The Basketball Diaries, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Down By The Water was used on several TV shows, including CSI: NY in the 2008 episode "Like Water For Murder," Numb3rs in the 2009 episode "Trouble In Chinatown," and My Mad Fat Diary in the 2014 episode "Radar."

PJ Harvey adopted her look in the song's video of a red satin dress with a large wig and excessive make-up for touring To Bring You My Love. Director Maria Mochnacz told Uncut magazine:

"The key is to set a stage for Polly. Down by the water, like 'Man-size' and '50ft Queenie' is basically a performance video. For 'Down By The Water' she asked me to find her something red and strappy and I went to TK Maxx in Bristol and got her a nightgown. It was an image she liked and felt comfortable with, and that became what she wore every night on stage."

The songs on Rid of Me were performed by Harvey's eponymous trio, consisting of Harvey on guitar and vocals, Rob Ellis on drums and backing vocals, and Steve Vaughan on bass guitar. Most of the songs on the album were recorded by Steve Albini, and it was the last album they recorded as a trio before disbanding in late 1993. Rid of Me was met with critical acclaim, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of the 1990s and of all time, ranking at number 153 on the 2020 version of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Track 10 is Man-Size.

PJ Harvey Trio

PJ Harvey – vocals, guitar, organ, cello, violin, producer
Steve Vaughan – bass
Rob Ellis – drums, percussion, backing vocals, arrangement, producer