Here Comes the Flood
In recent days, and particularly today, I have been thinking of a song called Here Comes the Flood, by Peter Gabriel. The song closes Gabriels eponymous debut album from 1977. He performed it once more for Robert Fripp’s “Exposure” album a couple years later.
The concept behind the song is intriguing, and a dash below the surface. I remember, some time back, reading that Gabriel based the song off a dream he had, in which, in a flash of energy, everyone in the world could read each other’s thoughts. In the song, this event is painted as a biblical flood – a physical event that wipes away our façades of pretense and secrets, and makes us all equally cerebrally naked, adverbially speaking.
“If again the seas are silent, and any still alive, it’ll be those who gave their island to survive” sings the chorus. Survivors of this flood then are those that are willing to let go of this steadfastness to manifest falsehood – a fortress from truth’s consequences.
Today I found an interesting article on the song and its background (linked below), which includes some links to video performances of the song; thus, I don’t have to include any here. Speaking of steadfast, I stand by the relatively unpopular opinion that the bombastic, heavily produced version on PG’s 1977 album to be the best – subsequent performances are much scaled down. I think the layered recorders at the intro evoke a foggy nautical nocturnal feel. The later orchestral soundscape, and reverb-saturated chorus vocals, drums, and guitar solo bring home the tumult perfectly, and the album subsequently ends on a crest of energy. But that’s not my point! Gabriel states “I had had an apocalyptic dream in which the psychic barriers which normally prevent us from seeing into each other’s thoughts had been completely eroded producing a mental flood. Those that had been used to having their innermost thoughts exposed would handle this torrent and those inclined to concealment would drown in it.”
There you have it. It is not too difficult to ponder how opening the book, lifting the vale, and having the innermost things bubble to the surface can be compared to the apocalypse. Whether the apocalypse is in 9/8 matters not, unless you understand that reference to the 23-minute-long Genesis 1972 hit “Supper’s Ready”.
Here’s that article: https://musicaficionado.blog/2016/01/24/here-comes-the-flood-by-robert-fripp-and-peter-gabriel/
Murmurationz 