"Boat on the River" is a 1979 song by Styx, from their album Cornerstone. It was released as a single in 1980 in various countries, but not in the band's native United States, where "Borrowed Time" was released instead.
It was popular in several European countries, becoming a top-five hit on the German, Austrian and Swiss charts (reaching number one on the latter).[1][2]
It came about after I bought a mandolin. I thought to myself, "Well, I can play this." But when I got home, it was like, "Oh… no I can’t!" So, if you can’t really play something, you have to make something up… which is what I did...I made up the little progression. I had a four-channel, reel-to-reel tape deck, so I recorded the mandolin part, then added guitar, bass and a vocal, which was enough to make it sound like a little group. But I just did it for myself, thinking, "There’s no way the band’s going to do this."[4]
But Shaw decided to demonstrate the composition to the band and, according to Shaw, "Dennis liked it enough and said, 'Let’s put it on the album.' That’s one thing I like about being a band that’s been so daring over the years: you get to try stuff like that!"[4]
Reception
Allmusic reviewer Mike DeGagne praised both "Boat on the River" and fellow Cornerstone single "Lights" for their "silky harmonies and welcoming choruses".[5] Canadian Press critic Michael Lawson said it has a "Russian folksong flavor" and called it a "showcase for Shaw's balalaika-like mandolin work"[6]The Pittsburgh Press critic Pete Bishop called it a "zippy Mediterranean-style dance on which Tommy Shaw stars on mandolin" and "a fine novelty number."[7] Eric Hegedus of The Morning Call said that the song "charts a new course for Styx" and that "the mandolin and autoharp, both played by Shaw, lend a tranquil Venetian air to the song; you can actually picture yourself floating down a canal in a gondola."[8] On the other hand, Wichita Beacon reviewer Terre Johnson felt that Styx should not have tried a folk song, saying that "it muddles about with a folksy sound without building into anything close to the magnitude, intensity or emotion in the other songs [on Cornerstone].[9]
Classic Rock critic Malcolm Dome rated "Boat on the River" as Styx 8th greatest song, saying that Shaw's mandolin and DeYoung's accordion give the song a "somewhat expressive European flavour, which makes it more than just another power ballad."[10]PopMatters critic David Pike rated it one of the "41 essential pop/rock songs with accordion."[11]
The 1994 Slovenian song "Mlinar na Muri", which immediately became hit and eventually evergreen, with new lyrics by Tomaž Domicelj, sampled the melody of this tune.[12][13]
In 2023, American artist Joe Vitullo covered the song on his album "Non Noto" [14]
Track listings
7" Single
Boat on the River – 3:10
Borrowed Time – 4:58
Personnel
Tommy Shaw - lead vocals, mandolin, acoustic guitar, autoharp
