I love this song but reckon it would have sounded much better if Peter Gabriel had sung it. I guess Tony Banks was inspired to write this as a result of his experiences during the long hot UK summer drought of 1976. The song expertly sums up the tremendous lethargy one feels in a heatwave; 'Nothing must be done' as well as illustrating the distressed state of the trees and how they will loose their leaves early that year, The smokey, tarry roads with their orange sodium lamps, the getting to the end of the day without having done anything (wasting another day), taking a sleeping pill (perfumed Poison) betrayed by it's aftertaste in order to be able to sleep through the heat. Of course, in the last line the futility of the obstinate fisherman who's gone mad beside the dried up river..............Feed the ducks instead, easier that way, but he won't listen....................Brilliant bit of vivid writing from Mr Banks.
I love this song but reckon it would have sounded much better if Peter Gabriel had sung it. I guess Tony Banks was inspired to write this as a result of his experiences during the long hot UK summer drought of 1976. The song expertly sums up the tremendous lethargy one feels in a heatwave; 'Nothing must be done' as well as illustrating the distressed state of the trees and how they will loose their leaves early that year, The smokey, tarry roads with their orange sodium lamps, the getting to the end of the day without having done anything (wasting another day), taking a sleeping pill (perfumed Poison) betrayed by it's aftertaste in order to be able to sleep through the heat. Of course, in the last line the futility of the obstinate fisherman who's gone mad beside the dried up river..............Feed the ducks instead, easier that way, but he won't listen....................Brilliant bit of vivid writing from Mr Banks.