One's spirituality needs love in God as the body needs water to live. The argument of this short song discusses the strength of God's love to individuals. The power of God's love encompasses everything on earth in the lines "all over you, all over me/ the sun, the fields, the sky." "All Over You"s refrain makes the connection between water and religion that many of Live's songs continue.
Through the metaphor of water, religion becomes the cure for the problems of society. "Pain Lies on The Riverside"s argument is a discussion of actively pursuing religion. The lines "you've got to learn to live until no end but first you must learn to swim all over again" is a call to take on religion. The quest of life is to "live until no end" but an after-life cannot be achieved without first learning to swimming. Learning to swim is the process of taking religion into life. The pain present on the riverbank will be washed away in the water that represents God's love. The metaphor of learning to swim has the context of a parent and child. The individual must trust in God as the child does his parent. Jumping into the river is having faith that God will be there. The advice of the song is to have this faith in the lines "and to wait for a flood, is to wait for life." Individuals cannot wait for a flood to force them into learning to swim. The ones with pain can be cured in the river if they have faith to learn to swim. The faith a child has in his parents while learning to swimming is parallel to faith in God in religion. .
The song's use of the image of baptism is a strong connection between God and the individual. Traditionally water baptism requires the immersion of the body totally under water (Miller 3). As an adult, one who repents his sins in a water baptism will have God's love wash away his sins (Miller 3). The adult must accept God before going through a water baptism. The narrator of "Pain Lies On The Riverside" has turned to baptism in the line "I have forever, always tried to stay clean and constantly baptized.