J'écoute Enya depuis que j'ai quatre ans, cette chanson en particulier m'a beaucoup marqué! Je dansais sur cette chanson tout les matins dans le salon, elle me mettait de bonne humeur et me faisais rêver, rêver de partir loin la ou j'étais et voyager le monde entier sans craint. Les paroles de cette chanson on beaucoup de signification. Avez-vous, déjà rêvée de prendre un bateau et naviguer loin? Oubliez qui vous êtes, ce que vous faites et tous vos problèmes? Orinoco Flow est une chanson douce, sereine et spacieuse.
Le fleuve Orénoque (Orinoco river) se situe en Amérique du Sud. Il fait environ 1300 miles de long et passe par la Venezuela, la Colombie et le Brésil. Le titre de la chanson fait référence à l'Orinoco Studios à Londres, dans laquelle le reste de l'album Watermark a été enregistré. On ne sait pas si c'était une double référence à la rivière en Amérique du Sud. Cette chanson fut le premier succès d’ Enya. Cette chanson a beaucoup été exposée et a été publié comme un single après avoir été en direct sur The Steve Wright Show sur BBC Radio One au Royaume-Uni.
Les mots « We can steer, we can near, with Rob Dickens at the wheel » se réfèrent à Rob Dickins, la tête de son label WEA. Dickins est répertorié en tant que producteur sur l'album. Dans un article publié le 13 Décembre 2008, Dickins dit « When I signed Enya, her manager/producer Nicky Ryan said, 'You're not going to push us for singles, are you?' It wasn't that kind of music. After we'd made the Watermark album, I said as a joke, 'Nicky, where's the single?' A week later Nicky rang up and said, 'We've got it!' Got what? 'We've got the single!'
He sent over what became 'Orinoco Flow.' There was no middle eight, and 'Sail away' was after every line - it drove me crazy, but there was something there that could be worked on. Orinoco was the name of the studio and I think they saw me as the captain of the ship. The whole thing was a metaphor for a journey for all of us.
I was in charge of the record company for the UK and Ireland, but we never had any Irish music. Someone said, 'You like Clannad, you'd like this soundtrack album this ex-Clannad member has done.' She'd done the music for the BBC series The Celts. I loved it and played it every night. We met at an Irish awards ceremony and I said, 'You must do a vocal record.' The record company thought I was mad, but I said what became a famous quote - 'Sometimes you sign acts to make money and sometimes you sign acts to make music.' In the week of release, Tower Records phoned up to say that when they played the album in the shop they sold 45 copies - almost everyone in the shop had bought the record. It was unheard of. It went from 29 to five, then to #1 and we sold bucketloads of albums. It was totally rags to riches.
It's one of the things I'm most proud of. Funnily enough, I hadn't even noticed the lyric until they printed the album. It was embarrassing. But when it went to #1 I thought, 'I'm in the lyric of a number one song, how fabulous.' All these years later, if I hear that line 'Rob Dickins at the wheel' I can't help smiling. »
