Breaking down the lyrics of 'Down By The River' from Baldur's Gate 3

Baldur's Gate 3 has so many wonderful tunes, in fact, I'd say Borislav has done such a phenomenal job showcasing a whole style of music that many many people wouldn't either a. expose themselves to or b. fully even understand if it wasn't for his compositions. This was really fun to take a deeper look at it and break it down from a vocal perspective. Hope it helped you! go sing it!

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[damnedwl]

This song is harder to get out of your brain than an illithid tadpole. It's so perfect for the game, I love it

[inspector_beyond]

This song is simple, yet it's so iconic, after hearing it, you hear the same notes in almost every BG3 theme.

THIS is the main theme of Baldur's Gate 3 to me, period.

[KatyWhitekavkj]

That ending is eerie. It's perfect for implying that there's darkness behind the beauty - that we hear in the song and we see in the game. This track lived rent free in my head for days after I first heard it.

[SuperPhoenixFrog]

From another commentator on another video analysis of this song:

The "down down down by the river" melody is a leitmotif that gets used throughout the game's soundtrack. It is cut content so not a spoiler anymore but this song was originally intended as being "sung" by the parasite in the character's brain. It was trying to seduce them into letting go and giving up control. Coming to sit down by the river in your mind with the entity and lose yourself forever. The leitmotif shows up in other songs and its often always just in the background as a way of the parasite's presence constantly being felt. That story line was cut though so now its just songs with a connecting leitmotif that no longer have that original intention behind them.

[TheElholm]

It's "haunting". Simple and effective. Reminds me of lost/missed loves, and the potential for new ones.

Especially since this track was made before they changed the story of the tadpole. Originally the tadpole/dream visitor would try to lure you to give in to it etc. That plays so well with this song.

[GabrielBadwolf]

This song is all about a deleted character. It’s about the original dream companion Daisy who was really your tadpole trying to get you to let go and stay with them down by the river where the dreamscape happens. That was eventually superseded by the Emperor plot line. This song is essentially about giving in and becoming a mind flayer.

[Exxyo]

It is understandable why this theme is so known, when you play for the first time you spend some time in character creator, and just like that, you start hearing the late motiv everywhere in the game.

It's hard to describe how BG3 made me love singleplayer games again. BG3 was required to set a standard.

[andrzejbishop]

It's a cut content song. MC's illithid tadpole singing it, her name is Daisy btw. And she is persuading you to turn into full illithid.

[majid__jafari]

This song and your analysis proves that you don't need to hit crazy high notes and runs to sound impressive. Sometimes it's all about the right dynamics and proper use of stress on the correct words. Loved your analysis man 👌🏻

[chrispowell]

This song is the perfect representation of the tadpole and what it represents. The lyrics present the image of perfection, an elysium like setting. If it were the lyrics alone, this would fit as a hopeful romance song. And yet, with the cadence the singing is in, along with the haunting quality of the harp that many other commenters have called out, there is just a hint of something wrong. It's just enough to generate the cognitive dissonance to remind you something is wrong with this ideal picture the tadpole presents. This song is more befitting the sweet, siren song of power the tadpole represents, with just the tiniest crack reminding you that giving in is wrong.

[Fazeshyft]

This song is such an earworm and it almost immeduately became my daughter's favorite bedtime song. We've listened to this on repeat more times than one should endure in a lifetime.

And I still love it.

[aldofigaro]

I can't express how much I love this song's leitmotif throughout the entire game

[ookami-chan]

The fact that it plays at the character creation is one of the best things about it! Makes you invested in the game before even starting! (just finished my first playthrough and started the 2nd one btw!)

[baron-chan]

This song to me... Feels like childhood wonder, but pain because we can't have that again.. feels like the past is Going Down By the River

[Superdazzu]

One of the best theme songs ever, full stop.
It fits perfecty, a new adventure, it will feel like a dream, but has the potential to become a nightmare, all of this in an unknown world.
It's a work of art as the other OST's in the game
"the Power" is the counterpart to "down by the river", you should cover it

[scrollkeeper]

This is an utterly beautiful song, Borislav Slavov never fails to hit me in the feels.

[henrikh]

I've spent so many hours in character creation, good thing it's such a nice tune 😅

[Bobby-lssk]

It's funny that this is the first time I actually listen to the original, I always listened to Nerissa's cover. Her version is really beautiful too and it sounds a bit more melancholic, which fits the song perfectly

[zebraforceone]

Apparently it is about slowly losing your mind, or at least agency of your own mind, down by the river

[mistared]

Listened to this right after marco covered it, larian seems to have a habit of putting these absolutely beautiful but calm(either solemn or serene is more accurate but idk) songs during the character creation phase, but i think this is the first one with lyrics.