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Downside Up Lyrics
I looked up at the tallest building.
Felt it falling down.
I could feel my balance shifting.
Everything was moving around.
These streets so fixed and solid.
Ah, shimmering haze.
And everything I relied on disappeared.
Downside up, upside down.
Take my weight from the ground.
Falling deep in the sky.
Slipping in the unknown.
All the strangers look like family.
All the family look so strange.
The only constant, I am sure of.
Is this accelerating rate of change.
Downside up, upside down.
Take my weight off the ground.
Falling deep in the sky.
Slipping in the unknown.
I stand here, watch you spinning.
Until I am drawn in.
A centripetal force.
You pull me in.
Pull me in. (etc)
OVO (etc)
Downside up, upside down.
Take my weight off the ground.
Falling deep in the sky.
Slipping in the unknown.
Felt it falling down.
Everything was moving around.
Ah, shimmering haze.
Take my weight from the ground.
Falling deep in the sky.
Slipping in the unknown.
All the family look so strange.
Is this accelerating rate of change.
Take my weight off the ground.
Falling deep in the sky.
Slipping in the unknown.
Until I am drawn in.
A centripetal force.
You pull me in.
Take my weight off the ground.
Falling deep in the sky.
Slipping in the unknown.
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Obviously, it's a story where the world falls upside down/downside up....
I first heard this song when I saw the "Growing Up Live" DVD. It was spectacular to watch him perform with his daughter. And it was absolutely amazing the stage stunt they performed for it. I highly recommend seeing this live.
Life changing event turns your life upside down.
There's a lot of physics in this song, no? Acceleration, and centripetal force...I mean, it's a metaphor, but still...
Based on how Peter Gabriel desribes this song in his DVD Growing Up, I think its a play on how much we rely on our own physical laws here on our tiny planet. Perhaps after death or within some type of metaphysical self-discovery we can truly understand that there's more powers that be and that love can exsist throughout the Universe.
If I remember, In the DVD PG imagines laying on the ground gazing at the stars and imagining everything flipped.
I think you got it cooses. You articulated what was swirling around in my head. Love, as hard as it is to define, certainly defies our known laws of nature, thus it can exist throughout the universe and beyond. What we relate to as up or down, in the world of love, can be juxtaposed, in an orgy of up and down, in and out, back and forth, never and forever.
I think you got it cooses. You articulated what was swirling around in my head. Love, as hard as it is to define, certainly defies our known laws of nature, thus it can exist throughout the universe and beyond. What we relate to as up or down, in the world of love, can be juxtaposed, in an orgy of up and down, in and out, back and forth, never and forever.
I love this song. Peter Gabriel in a duet with Liz Fraser? Yes, please! To me, the lyrics describe the process of dying and going toward an afterlife. The physical laws that hold us down on this planet no longer apply, moving toward infinite love where “all the strangers look like family”. I’ve always thought of Solsbury Hill as having a similar theme, too.
This song is about life changing events but I don’t think it’s death. I first heard this when I found out I was pregnant; I definitely associate it with pregnancy and childbirth. It’s on my Labour playlist and I think it’s lovely!