Peter Gabriel Album

Built in the belly of junk by the river my cabin stands
Made from the trash I dug out 'the heap, with my own fair hands
Every night, I'm back at the shack and I'm sure no one is there
I'm putting the aerial up, so I can go out on the air

On the air
On the air
On the air

Every morning I'm out at dawn with the dwarfs and the tramp
For a silent communion lit from above by the sodium lamps
Everyone I meet on the street acts as if I wasn't there
But they're all going to know who I am 'cos I can go out on the air

On the air
On the air
On the air

Leaving the car down leafy lane
Turning out Tarzan for my Jungle Jane
anyone at all
From Captain Zero and his brand of superhero
standing by a call
Oh it's not easy
No it's not easy
Making real friends

Don't give me your steak-reared milkboys, milkboys
Half alive on empty white noise, white noise
I got power, I'm proud to be loud; my signal goes out clear
I want everybody to know that Mozo is here

On the air
On the air
On the air

Hey, I’m feeling so dirty, you’re looking so clean
All you can give is a spin in your washing machine
I fly off to rome to my prima bella
She leaves me in the rain with telescopic umbrella
Ooh the pain -- modern love can be a strain

I trusted my venus was untouched in her shell
But the pearls in her oyster were as tacky as hell
For lady godiva I came incognito
But her driver had stolen her red hot magneto
Ooh the pain -- modern love can be a strain

I don’t know why they leave me in the lurch
To carry on the search
It’s driving me up the wall
Pity when I have so much passion
Romance is out of fashion
Can’t handle modern love at all

So I worship diana by the light of the moon
When I pull out my pipe she screams out of tune
In paris my heart sinks when I see the mona lisa
She gives me the wink, then she shows me the freezer
Ooh the pain
Modern love can be a strain

It's too late
This model's out of date
Got every spare part
But there ain't much heart inside here
Not like the start
I was good at the art of survival
I've always tried
To keep my troubles deep inside
Where I can hide them
now I'm open wide

When it ends
Again I'll see my friends
They'll give me a lift
I've been running adrift, so easy
Shifting the gear
I got nothing to fear from the showdown
I'll go down quiet
And kids downstairs making a hell of a din
I'm all alone
Getting a quote for the wages of sin

Beyond the indigo, indigo
Where the chilly winds, winds will blow
My time is running low
Going to cross the dark dark river
Going to see my good life-giver
Better cover my yellow liver

Alright,
I'm giving up the fight
I didn't know when
I'd be a stranger again
In my own land
The days are O.K.
But oh how I hate those long nights
You understand
Darling please, just hold my hand
You feel so warm
In the eye of the storm
I'm going away, I'm going away, I'm going away
See you again someday
Darling, I'm going away
Feel like I'm going away, this time I'm going away

Climbing up on Solsbury Hill
I could see the city light
Wind was blowing, time stood still
Eagle flew out of the night
He was something to observe
Came in close, I heard a voice
Standing stretching every nerve
Had to listen had no choice
I did not believe the information
I just had to trust imagination
My heart going boom boom boom
"Son," he said "Grab your things,
I've come to take you home."

To keepin' silence I resigned
My friends would think I was a nut
Turning water into wine
Open doors would soon be shut
So I went from day to day
Tho' my life was in a rut
"Till I thought of what I'd say
Which connection I should cut
I was feeling part of the scenery
I walked right out of the machinery
My heart going boom boom boom
"Hey" he said "Grab your things
I've come to take you home."

When illusion spin her net
I'm never where I want to be
And liberty she pirouette
When I think that I am free
Watched by empty silhouettes
Who close their eyes but still can see
No one taught them etiquette
I will show another me
Today I don't need a replacement
I'll tell them what the smile on my face meant
My heart going boom boom boom
"Hey" I said "You can keep my things,
they've come to take me home."

I need perspective 'cos I'm facing the wall
I need perspective 'cos I'm not that tall
I need perspective heard the trumpet call
Don't trust my eyes want to know where things fall

I need perspective party time for the newly wed
I need perspective colours ran as the images bled
I need perspective like confetti on the flower bed
Don't trust my eyes priest crying he's got fire in his head

Oh Gaia, if that's your name
treat you like dirt, but I don't want to blame
Oh Gaia, the wind heats the fire and blows the ash away

I need perspective sitting in a long long hall
I need perspective staring at the white white wall
I need perspective waiting for the phone to call
Don't trust my eyes there's one thing I've got to tell you all

I need perspective to see through red red skies
I need perspective to carry merchandise
I need perspective I don't trust my eyes
Don't trust my eyes and I don't like surprise

Oh Gaia, etc

I used to be industrial giant
sitting in a garden full of chemical plant
trying very hard to get you off my mind
acting like any man
taking you for everything I can
just the same, the same as all my kind
-- so blind

I need perspective

The wine's all drunk and so am I
Here with the hoi-poloi, don't ask me why
We're celebratin' anticipatin'; end of the year
everybody come, everybody here
-- well more or less
Some already in a mess
I guess they're waiting for the big one.

Wonder why I'm cold. How did I get this far?
Had no money, had no car
I pray the snow goes, be bad if it settles
'cos I follow my nose and the dried up rose petals
-- like the man says,
Sure hope Moses knows his roses
Or we'll all be waiting for the big one.

Once I was a credit to my credit card
spent what I hadn't got, it wasn't hard
No trust in judgements no trust in money
Someday I'll find myself like a bee finding honey
But in the meantime, I'm gonna have me some fun
Waiting for the big one.

One too many, where ego I go too
Looking for the real thing
It don't come from what I do
No real communication moves out of my face
I'm beginning to think I'm just out of place
Won't get in too deep, I want to get some sleep
To be ready for the big one
-- waiting for the big one.

What did you mean when you opened your mouth
and let all our secrets out
You told him what I was about
my cover was completely blown
I tell you darlin', I've been watching the war film
I got a few ideas of my own
'cos after teh film had ended the call for recruits was shown

And I'm joining the professionals
I want to be a man
with all that animal magic
I'll do anything you can
I'm joining the professionals
'cos I want to be a man
look! I wave my wand, watch the rabbit disappear
Join the professionals and learn to fight

I bet the two of you still laugh at me
for being as timid as a lamb
That may be still the way I look
it's no longer what I am
Been across to Northern Ireland
I came home with a new kind of charge
I learned to hunt in the night
I learned about camouflage

Been joining the professionals
and now that I'm a man
with all that animal magic
I'll match anything you can
I'm joining the professionals
this time I'll understand
There's no way you'll get by me
With the slightest sleight of hand.
I'm joining the professionals
I want to be a man
look! I wave my wand
watch the rabbit disappear
Join the professionals and learn to fight

Animal magic

I saw the man at j.f.k.
He took your ticket yesterday
In the humdrum

I ride tandem with a random
Things don’t run the way I planned them
In the humdrum

Hey valentina, do you want me to beg?
You got me cooking I’m a hard boiled egg
In the humdrum

Empty my mind -- I find it hard to cope
Listen to my heart -- don’t need no stethoscope

Seem’ to me that television
She come to cut me a deep incision
In the humdrum

Empty my mind -- I find it hard to cope
Listen to my heart -- don’t need no stethoscope

Out of woman come the man
Spend the rest of his life gettin back where he can
As a bow, so a dove
As below, so above
From the black hole
Come the tadpole
With the dark soul
In coal she burn, she burn

As I drove into the sun
Didn’t dare look where I had begun
Lost among echoes of things not there
Watching the sound forming shapes in the air
From the white star
Came the bright scar
Our amoeba
My little liebe schon

Don't tell me what I will do, 'cos I won't
Don't tell me to believe in you, 'cos I don't
Be on your guard, better hostile and ha
--don't risk affection
Like flesh to the bone in the no-go zone
you're still waiting for teh resurrection
Come up to me with your "What did you say?"
and I'll tell you straight in the eye

D.I.Y. D.I.Y. D.I.Y. D.I.Y. D.I.Y. D.I.Y. D.I.Y. D.I.Y.
do it yourself

Everyone want to be what he not, what he not
Nobody happy with what he got, what he got
You function like a dummy with a new ventriloquist
do you say nothing yourself?
Hanging like a thriller on the final twist
--you know you're getting stuck on the shelf
Come up to me with your "What did you say?"
and I'll tell you straight in the eye

D.I.Y. D.I.Y. D.I.Y. D.I.Y.

When things get so big, I don't trust them at all
You want some control -- you've got to keep it small

D.I.Y. D.I.Y. D.I.Y. D.I.Y.
do it yourself

Walking the street with her naked feet
So full of rhythm but I can't find the beat
Snapping her heels clicking her toes
Everybody knows just where she goes

Fear, fear -- she's the mother of violence
making me tense to watch the way she breed
Fear, she's the mother of violence
you know self-defense is all you need
it's getting hard to breathe
It's getting so hard to believe
to believe in anything at all

Mouth all dry eyes blood shot
data stored in microdot
Kicking the cloud with my moccasin shoes
T.V. dinner, T.V. news

Fear, fear -- she's the mother of violence
don't make any sense to watch the way she breed
Fear, she's the mother of violence
making me tense to watch the way she feed
The only way you know she's there
Is the subtle flavour in the air
Getting hard to breathe
hard to believe in anything at all
but fear

We’re character actors from the tower of babel
Bewildered, burnt out, hardly able
To sit astride the high wire cable
It’s hard to balance, a little unstable.

Through broken eyes and contact lenses
’watched you draw your future tenses
See kisses of flame blow out of your lips
You’re back telling me your apocalypse.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be strong
When the slowburn sunset come along
You’ve gotta stay the night
I gotta think that you might.

We’ve tried a hanful of bills and a handful of pills
We’ve tried making movies from a volume of stills
But the words fell like hailstones,
Bouncing at our feet
Covering our feelings with a frozen sheet.

A chance to move, I take a shot
I get cold -- you get hot
We look outside, lyin’ awake
See birds breaking surface on a silent lake.

But don’t get me wrong, I’ll be strong
When I’m back on the isle of avalon
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be strong
When the slow burn sunset come along
You’ve got to stay the night
I’ve got to think that you might.

Don’t try to make it easy, it’ll cut you down to size
Darlin’ we’ve got to trust in something
We’re shooting down our skies
Shooting down our skies.

Exposure
Exposure
Exposure
Exposure
Exposure
Exposure
Exposure

Space is what I need it's what I feed on

Exposure
Exposure
Exposure
Exposure
Exposure

Out in the open

Exposure

Caught the chaos in the market square
I don't know what, I don't know why, but something's wrong down there
Their bodies twistin' and turnin' in a thousand ways
The eyes all rollin' round and round into a distant gaze
Ah, look at that crowd!

Some are jumping up in the air - say, "we're drowning in a torrent of blood"
Others going down on their knees, seen a saviour coming out of the mud
Oh, Mother it's eating out my soul
Destroying law and order, I'm gonna lose control
What can I do to stop this plague spread by sight alone
Just a glimpse and then a quiver, then they shiver to the bone
Ah, look at them go!

Bunderschaft, you going daft? Better seal off the castle grounds
"This is Moribund, the Burgermeister, I'm going to keep this monster down,
Somebody sent the subversive element; going to chase it out of town"
No-one will tell what all this is about

But I will find out
I will find out
I will find out

This thing's outrageous, I tell you on the level
It's really so contagious, must be the work of the devil
You better go now, pick up the pipers, and tell them to play
Seems the music keeps them quiet, there is no other way
Ah, close the doors!

"We've tried potions and waxen dolls, but none of us could find any cures,"
Mother please, is it just a disease that has them breaking all my laws
Check if you can disconnect the effect and I'll go after the cause
No-one will tell what all this is about
But I will find out
I will find out
I will find out
Mother you know your son
When I say I will, I will
They’ll be sorry
I’ll make sure they’re sorry

Doing nothing stuck in the mud
Just pumping the blood
The water level's getting low
Something ugly's going to show

If I could only touch you
I guess you'd be alarmed
If only I could touch you
I don't mean you no harm

If only I could touch you
like the wind can touch the sail
If only I could touch you, darling
now that words have failed
Oh, Flotsam still afloat
Oh, Jetsam thrown out of the boat

Oh love, my love
nothing here is what it seems

We both know it
Christ! you show it
Oh, oh my love

When the night shows
The signals grow on radios
All the strange things
They come and go, as early warnings
Stranded starfish have no place to hide
Still waiting for the swollen Eastern tide
There's no point in direction we cannot
Even choose a side.

I took the old track
The hollow shoulder, across the waters
On the tall cliffs
They were getting older, sons and daughters
The jaded underworld was riding high
Waves of steel hurled metal at the sky
And as the nail sunk in the cloud, the rain
Was warm and soaked the crowd.

Lord, here comes the flood
Here we'll say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again the seas are silent
In any still alive
It'll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you're running dry.

When the flood calls
You have no home, you have no walls
In the thunder crash
You're a thousand minds, within a flash
Don't be afraid to cry at what you see
The actors gone, there's only you and me
If we break before the dawn
They'll use up what we used to be.

Lord, here comes the flood
We'll say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again the seas are silent
In any still alive
It'll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up, dreamers, you're running dry.