Greasy Lake was written by T. Coraghessan Boyle in 1985. Seven years later in 1992, a band by the name of Seven Mary Three was formed and the song "Water's Edge" was recorded. There are many similarities between the short story by Boyle and the song by the alternative "grunge" group. While there is no solid proof that Greasy Lake was the inspiration for their song, the band members have admitted that their college studies contributed to a lot of the material in their songs. Jason Ross, the group's lead singer and songwriter, was an English major in college with a minor in Creative Writing. Most of the songs that he has written for the albums were essays or poems done for college credit. (I have included a copy of the song lyrics so you may follow along if you are unfamiliar with the song),
             The song opens by describing, in detail, a dead body floating down by the water's edge. While Ross uses different actual words to describe the scene, the description is nevertheless similar to the protagonist's description of the dead body in Greasy Lake. He "stumbled back in horror and revulsion" upon discovering the dead body floating in the water. The second line from the song claims that "you can't stomach what you're going to see", which holds a parallel to the quote from the story.
             The second verse of the song is similar as well because it implies that whoever discovered the body was not there when the person died. "No sound of fury, no shot of pain" is an implication that if there was a shot of pain or sound of fury, nobody was around to hear it. The protagonist in Greasy Lake has come to the conclusion on his own that the dead man floating in the water next to him was a bad character, shot in a drug deal or drowned in the lake because he was drunk. Either way, "there was no real reason" for him to be dead.
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