Lanegan began his musical career in 1984 with Screaming Trees, with whom he released seven studio albums and five EPs before their disbandment in 2000. During his time with the band, he also started a solo career and released his first solo studio album, The Winding Sheet, in 1990. He subsequently released a further 10 solo albums, which received critical recognition but only moderate commercial success. Following the end of Screaming Trees, he became a frequent collaborator of Queens of the Stone Age, and was a full-time member between 2001 and 2005 during the Songs for the Deaf and Lullabies to Paralyze eras.
Lanegan collaborated with various artists throughout his career. In the 1990s, he and Kurt Cobain recorded an album of Lead Belly covers that was ultimately never released. He also joined Layne Staley and Mike McCready in the band Mad Season, and formed the alternative rock group The Gutter Twins with Greg Dulli in 2003, as well as contributing to releases by Moby, Bomb the Bass, Soulsavers, Tinariwen, The Twilight Singers, Manic Street Preachers, and Unkle, among others.
Lanegan struggled with addiction to drugs and alcohol throughout his life, but had been sober for over a decade at the time of his death. Encouraged by his friend Anthony Bourdain, he released the memoir Sing Backwards and Weep in 2020. He followed this up in 2021 with the memoir Devil in a Coma, which focused on his near-death experience with COVID-19. He and his wife Shelley Brien left the U.S. in 2020 and settled in the Irish town of Killarney, where he died two years later at the age of 57. No cause of death was revealed.
Studio albums
The Winding Sheet (1990)
Whiskey for the Holy Ghost (1994)
Scraps at Midnight (1998)
I'll Take Care of You (1999)
Field Songs (2001)
Bubblegum (2004)
Blues Funeral (2012)
Imitations (2013)
Phantom Radio (2014)
Gargoyle (2017)
Somebody's Knocking (2019)
Straight Songs of Sorrow (2020)
The River Rise
Mark Lanegan Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And it's a mile high
Is this worth tryin'
Is this worth tryin'
Cause I could fall
Like a tear
Well there's nothing else I can do
When I'm not alone
Nothings beside me
What one eye sees
The other's blind in
Well I could fall
As if I was young
With a lifetime to think of you
Fire one for losing
And two for hiding
Keep river moving
Movin' right by me
I could fall
And there's nothin' else I can do
Ah the river rise
And it's a mile high
Has this world turned
Has this world tried
'Cause I could fall
Like a tear
well there's nothin' else I can do
Up on the river rise
She's a mile high
The lyrics of Mark Lanegan's song The River Rise are full of emotions and introspection. The central theme of this song is that the river represents the flow of life, and the singer is caught in it, unable to control it or avoid it. The first verse starts with "Oh the river rise, and it's a mile high is this worth tryin'," which suggests that the singer is questioning the value of the struggle he's facing. He is pondering whether it is worth trying when he knows that the river would rise again and again, and he would be unable to stop it. In the second verse, he continues his melancholic musings, reflecting on the fact that he is not alone, but nothing is beside him to help him. He compares himself to a young person who has "a lifetime to think of you" but is still susceptible to falling.
Moving onto the chorus, Lanegan sings of "fire one for losing and two for hiding." The fire here could represent the something hidden or unspoken, like regret or fear. The two fires for hiding could represent the fact that we often try to hide our weaknesses from ourselves, and from others. But the river is always moving and relentless, and the singer admits that he could fall, and there's nothing else he can do.
In the final verse, he repeats the earlier verses but ends with a question, "has this world tried?" It could be interpreted as the singer questioning the purpose of life, and whether the world is trying to help us, or whether we are just caught in this unavoidable flow of events.
Overall, The River Rise is a thought-provoking song that beautifully captures the feelings of helplessness and vulnerability in the face of life's relentless flow.
Line by Line Meaning
Oh the river rise
The water in the river is rising
And it's a mile high
The water has risen to a great height
Is this worth tryin'
Is it worth attempting to do anything in this situation
Is this worth tryin'
Is it worth attempting to do anything in this situation
Cause I could fall
There is a risk of failure or harm if I try to do something
Like a tear
I could fall in a way that is similar to how a tear falls
Well there's nothing else I can do
There are no other options available to me
When I'm not alone
When I am with someone else
Nothings beside me
There is no one else there with me
What one eye sees
One set of my senses perceives something
The other's blind in
Another set of my senses is unable to perceive something
Well I could fall
I could be vulnerable or suffer harm
As if I was young
In a way that reminds me of my youth
With a lifetime to think of you
With plenty of time to remember or regret something related to you
Fire one for losing
Drink one drink to acknowledge a loss
And two for hiding
Drink two drinks to hide from problems or emotions
Keep river moving
Let the river continue to flow
Movin' right by me
Moving on past me
I could fall
I could experience a letdown or setback
And there's nothin' else I can do
There is nothing more I can do to change things
Ah the river rise
The river is still rising
And it's a mile high
The water has risen to a great height
Has this world turned
Has the world changed or become unstable
Has this world tried
Has the world made an effort to change something
Cause I could fall
There is a risk of failure or harm if I try to do something
Like a tear
I could fall in a way that is similar to how a tear falls
well there's nothin' else I can do
There are no other options available to me
Up on the river rise
On the elevated river bank
She's a mile high
The water has risen to a great height
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: MARK LANEGAN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind