About The Song
Patty Loveless released “Like Water Into Wine” in October 1998 as the fourth single from her album Long Stretch of Lonesome. The album had come out on September 30, 1997, on Epic Records, produced by her husband Emory Gordy Jr. Gretchen Peters wrote the song. It was the follow-up to “High on Love,” which had reached the top 20 earlier that year.
The track sits on an album that already carried three stronger chart performers: the George Jones duet “You Don’t Seem to Miss Me,” “To Have You Back Again,” and “High on Love.” “Like Water Into Wine” peaked at number 57 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, the first of Loveless’s solo singles since 1986 to miss the top 40. In Canada it reached number 54 on the RPM Country Tracks list. The album itself peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and number 68 on the Billboard 200, later earning a gold certification for more than 500,000 copies shipped.
The song opens with a quiet invitation. The singer asks her partner to open a bottle and lie down beside her. There is an ache inside, words already spoken that she wants to forget, inhibitions she wants to drop. She wants to hold him, look into his eyes, and watch broken dreams turn into memories. The chorus repeats the image of water turning into wine. Later she admits both have been ungrateful or unkind. All the pain, sorrow, and bitter tears become just water into wine. By the end she cannot think of one good reason they should not be satisfied.
Peters had written a fuller version. One verse referenced Jesus walking on water, healing the sick and the blind, then shifted into the idea that people themselves are miracles of science and accidents divine. During the session Loveless found that verse difficult to connect with. Sony approved cutting it without consulting Peters. The two women later worked it out themselves. The recorded version leaves the verse out, but the full lyrics appear in the CD booklet so listeners who want the complete picture can find it.
Deaton-Flanigen directed the music video. The single arrived late in the album cycle, after the stronger radio tracks had already done their work. Still, it remains one of the quieter, more intimate cuts on Long Stretch of Lonesome, a record built on material from writers such as Jim Lauderdale, Kostas, and Jeff Hanna of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Peters herself later recorded her own version with the missing verse restored.
The song fits the stretch of Loveless’s career when she was recording thoughtful, adult material that did not always chase the top of the charts. It sits between the bigger radio moments of the late 1990s and the more traditional and bluegrass-leaning work that followed in the next decade.
Video
Lyric
Baby open up that bottle
Come and lay down by my side
I don’t have no special reason
Just this ache I feel inside
I want to lose my inhibitions
I want to lose those words we said
I want to drink my fill of you babe
Let it go right to my head
Tonight I want to hold you
I want to look into your eyes
I want to watch these broken dreams
Turn into memories
Just like water baby
Just like water into wine
Don’t want to think about tomorrow
Don’t want to count my last regrets
I can’t hate you anymore babe
I can’t love you any less
Sometimes I’ve been ungrateful
Sometimes you’ve been unkind
But all the pain and sorrow
And all the bitter tears
They’re just water baby
Just water into wine
So baby open up that bottle
Come and lay down by my side
I can’t think of one good reason
We should not be satisfied
Jesus walked upon the water
Healed the sick, the lame the blind
We are miracles of science
We are accidents divine
We’re just like water baby
Like water into wine