Sky Blue

this is one of the most fabulous, moving, upsetting song I've ever listened to...

I believe this song was written for the movie "Rabbit Proof Fence", which follows the true story of three aborigine girls escaping government kidnapping in 1930's Austrailia. They make a long trek home following a rabbit fence cutting across the outback.

Gabriel wrote the score for the film, (released as Long Walk Home) and while the tune for Sky Blue is on it, the lyrics aren't. Can't recall if the song is actually in the film or not.

All that said, there's many songs about being on the road...but this is one of the few I've heard that actually captures that sad, empty feeling of either being away from home or wandering looking for a place to call home...be it a dwelling or person.

The lyric-less tune is on the Rabbit Proof Fence soundtrack, called "Cloudless." (Which also appears on his 2CD "Hit", but "Sky Blue" doesn't.) Great song!

.it still stands firm on my favorite list.

.. so tired of all this travelling so many miles away from home i keep moving to be stable free to wander, free to roam ...

On the Growing Up concert tour DVD, Peter Gabriel mentions that some songs develop quickly, but that was not the case for this song. He gives the impression that he had been working on this song for a long time. He mentions that it wasn't until the addition of the choral voices at the end that it sent a chill down his spine and he realized he had it. Watching the performance on the DVD is equally chilling... it is haunting and conjurs up pictures of a chain gang sitting on death row dreaming of release.

The Blind Boys of Alabama are the vocals at the end of the song

I saw he Growing Tour, and he did say that.

This song reminds me of those times when you look up in the sky and it is that deep royal blue color that you just totally get lost in, while you are walking or just starring up...

I think the line "i keep moving to be stable" is a bit ironic as well, he cannot be stable where he is, so he moves on, yet the mere thought of 'moving' represents a transitory image, one that isn't stable.

Most of this song is fairly straightforward, but the line that still has me fairly stumped is "those two blue eyes light your face in sky blue."

I'm not entirely sure who this is supposed to be talking about. If we imagine the song is some sort of metaphor for Aboriginal Australians and the Stolen Generation (I think while you could make some sort of parallel to American Indians and all indigenous peoples, the use in Rabbit Proof Fence and the image of the train evokes the specific Stolen Generation), then it makes the most sense that the narrator is an Aboriginal person of some sort.

That being the case, two options:

1. The person being spoken to in the first verse is European.
2. The person being spoken to in the first verse is Aboriginal.

I can't really see the first option making sense because the reference seems too positive - If you're an Aboriginal person in the context of the Stolen Generation, why would you associate the eyes of a European almost wistfully with the wide, expansive sky?

The second option, while not clear, is more interesting thematically, and seems to resonante with RPF. The whole reason for the SG was basically to try and 'breed out' aboriginality, teaching Indigenous people white ways, and intermarrying with white people. This could result in children with fairly pronounced aboriginal features, but with paler skin, blonder hair, and blue eyes.

At around the time RPF came out (and incidentally, when UP was released), there was an ongoing discussion in Australia about whether people with blue eyes and fair skin could be considered 'Aboriginal', particularly in Tasmania, where the indigenous population had either died out or intermarried, mostly for reasons of government compensation and land ownership. I wonder whether this lyric is somehow an accepting of that, of an acknowledgement of that 'white indigenous' person still having a connection to that ancestry, and the land?

Of course the whole interpretation is thrown a little out of whack by the fact that this song was basically written as far back as Us in '92 - I'm not sure how much of the above was a live issue back then. It actually seems more likely to me that it is a line that is either throwaway, (the imagery just works well), or otherwise has some other personal meaning not related to RPF. The fact that Peter put the tune without the lyrics on the film (even though he had the lyrics) would seem to support that.

Anyway, I thought my interpretation had some merit, even if it wasn't PG's intent. The line still puzzles me, though.

I\'ve been a fan of Peter Gabriel ever since he went solo...this is one of the most haunting songs he\'s ever written.

I believe this song was written for the movie "Rabbit Proof Fence", which follows the true story of three aborigine girls escaping government kidnapping in 1930's Austrailia. They make a long trek home following a rabbit fence cutting across the outback.

Gabriel wrote the score for the film, (released as Long Walk Home) and while the tune for Sky Blue is on it, the lyrics aren't. Can't recall if the song is actually in the film or not.

All that said, there's many songs about being on the road...but this is one of the few I've heard that actually captures that sad, empty feeling of either being away from home or wandering looking for a place to call home...be it a dwelling or person.