For the past several days, with every weather report and TV news story that mentions the name “Sandy,” the voice of Bruce Springsteen singing his song “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” has gone through my mind.
But today, another singer and song has been pushing Bruce aside.
“Wasn’t that a mighty storm, wasn’t that a mighty storm in the morning.”
That’s the first line of the chorus of a song called “Galveston Flood” as recorded by Tom Rush in 1966 on his Take A Little Walk With Me LP. I first heard it on the 1971 compilation Classic Rush.
I decided to look around on YouTube for a video with the song to post and I found something rather incredible.
On September 8, 1900, a hurricane boasting 145 mph winds slammed into the town of Galveston, Texas, leaving somewhere between 6,000 to 12,000 people dead in its wake.
On September 24, Thomas A. Edison sent a film crew to document the destruction.
The following video uses Tom Rush’s recording of “Galveston Flood” as the soundtrack to some of Edison’s film.
The song/video is a bit more than five minutes long. I highly recommend that you take the time to listen and watch.