This song to me is clear: the singer just had a call from an old lover, and the call was very painful.
The words describe how he is trying very hard to stop thinking about it, and to think instead about water, about how it can calm, and heal, and lift and buoy...but then he re-triggers himself when he sings about the water reaching him "like she reached me tonight." And then, the 'floodgates' open, as he tells the truth about letting the relationship go, and the music crescendoes to coincide with the story of this massive pain he feels.
After that, the music calms back down again, but now he's a little more honest and less metaphorical: he asks the water to bring him something to help him sleep, and finally, and most honestly of all, he asks the water, as it washes, to take away his pain.
Mr. Gabriel says in the liner notes to the song's album, "Us," that every song on the album is about relationships. This one is no exception.
One of my top five favorite songs of all time. Whenever I decide to give this a listen, I end up pushing 'repeat' on my car CD player as a kneejerk reaction, over and over, without even thinking about it.
This song to me is clear: the singer just had a call from an old lover, and the call was very painful.
The words describe how he is trying very hard to stop thinking about it, and to think instead about water, about how it can calm, and heal, and lift and buoy...but then he re-triggers himself when he sings about the water reaching him "like she reached me tonight." And then, the 'floodgates' open, as he tells the truth about letting the relationship go, and the music crescendoes to coincide with the story of this massive pain he feels.
After that, the music calms back down again, but now he's a little more honest and less metaphorical: he asks the water to bring him something to help him sleep, and finally, and most honestly of all, he asks the water, as it washes, to take away his pain.
Mr. Gabriel says in the liner notes to the song's album, "Us," that every song on the album is about relationships. This one is no exception.
One of my top five favorite songs of all time. Whenever I decide to give this a listen, I end up pushing 'repeat' on my car CD player as a kneejerk reaction, over and over, without even thinking about it.
reach: verb /rēCH/
reach: verb /rēCH/
start="10">
Make contact or communicate with (someone) by telephone or other means
start="10">
Make contact or communicate with (someone) by telephone or other means
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That was an excellent explanation that I fully agree with. Good job!
That was an excellent explanation that I fully agree with. Good job!
(And, I couldn't help noticing, the date you posted that comment was the same day I went to my first rock concert. Very random, but there you go.)
(And, I couldn't help noticing, the date you posted that comment was the same day I went to my first rock concert. Very random, but there you go.)