Life Is Fine

by Viq

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	1.	Life Is Fine 02:31	lyrics	buy track
	I went down to the river, I set down on the bank. I tried to think but couldn’t, So I jumped in and sank. I came up once and hollered! I came up twice and cried! If that water hadn’t a-been so cold I might’ve sunk and died. But it was Cold in that water! It was cold! I took the elevator Sixteen floors above the ground. I thought about my baby And thought I would jump down. I stood there and I hollered! I stood there and I cried! If it hadn’t a-been so high I might’ve jumped and died. But it was High up there! It was high! So since I’m still here livin’, I guess I will live on. I could’ve died for love— But for livin’ I was born Though you may hear me holler, And you may see me cry— I’ll be dogged, sweet baby, If you gonna see me die. Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!

about

“Life Is Fine” is a short, moving poem about love and death by Harlem Renaissance author Langston Hughes. I immediately thought it could be turned into a song. This song was composed and recorded over two sessions in late January 2019 in Paris, and mixed with headphones in various noisy coffee houses in Paris and London.

credits

released February 1, 2019

Text: Langston Hughes
Bass, guitar, voices: Viq

The cover features a detail of Édouard Manet's “Homme mort” (1864, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.)

Special thanks to Sarah.

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about

Viq Paris, France

Congolese rumba dork. I like forklifts and abandoned loos.

I also do music with Flora Hibberd:

flora-hibberd.bandcamp.com

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