Oct 2026
A flood, a song, and a second life
Randy Newman’s portrait of the Great Mississippi Flood found new meaning decades later.
Louisiana 1927
Randy Newman
On his 1974 album Good Old Boys, Randy Newman looked back at the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 — one of the most destructive river floods in American history — through the eyes of the people who lived it.
The arrangement is stately and orchestral, the lyric simple and devastating. For years it was a beloved deep cut among Newman’s fans.
After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the song took on a second life as a lament for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, performed and recorded again by Newman and many others. It is a reminder of how a well-made song can wait for its moment.
