For one expert music sociologist’s interpretation of “Backwater”, see pp. 212-215 of The Meat Puppets and the Lyrics of Curt Kirkwood by Matthew Smith-Lahrman.

In an interview with Songfacts Meat Puppets bassist Curt Kirkwood stated,

I’ve always liked Elvis' gospel albums, and gospel in general. So I thought it would be cool to write a gospel, or try to. It wasn’t really supposed to be religious, like gospel, but it was real slow. I pretty much started out with the organ, the demo was based mostly around the organ, and it was a lot slower. It was hymnal slow.