Here Comes the Flood (song) explained

Here Comes in the Flood
Artist:Peter Gabriel
Album:Peter Gabriel (Car)
Released:1977
Recorded:1976
Genre:
Length:5:38
Label:
Producer:Bob Ezrin

"Here Comes the Flood" is a song by British rock musician Peter Gabriel from 1977. It first appeared on his debut solo album, Peter Gabriel (Car).

The song has been played on several Peter Gabriel tours, often forgoing the orchestral arrangement found on his 1977 eponymous release in favor of a more stripped down arrangement. Sparser re-recordings of Here Comes the Flood have been included on Robert Fripp’s 1979 Exposure album and Gabriel’s 1990 compilation album, . Gabriel has performed the song in both English and German both live and in the studio. A German recording of Here Comes the Flood was included on the 12" single of "Biko".

Background

Gabriel wrote "Here Comes the Flood" soon after his departure from Genesis in 1975.[1] He recalled that the song was written during a warm summer evening while on the hillside above his cottage. As an experiment, Gabriel made a habit of running down the hillside one hundred paces with his eyes closed. During one of those excursions, Gabriel recalled that he felt "an energy point on the hillside and after a burst of meditation stormed down the hill to write."

The song centered around a fictional character conceived by Gabriel known as Mozo, an individual loosely based on Moses and the alchemical treatise Aurora consurgens. Gabriel dispersed several songs related to Mozo on his albums up through So in 1986, with "Here Comes the Flood" and "Down the Dolce Vita" being the first to reference the character.[1] He considered the idea of using "Here Comes the Flood" in a multi-media rock opera based on the character of Mozo, but the idea never came to fruition.[2]

Gabriel’s interest in shortwave radio served as a catalyst for the creation of "Here Comes the Flood".[3] He observed that radio signals were stronger as daylight faded and believed that this correlated with an increase in psychic energy at night. During one of his dreams, Gabriel envisioned a scenario where the psychic barriers that safeguard one's thoughts would erode and thus manifest in a collective consciousness. In an interview with Sounds magazine, he said that the lyrics pertained to the concept of a mental flood where the collective thoughts of other individuals would be made publicly available and accessible through telepathy. He posited that extroverted people would tolerate the situation but believed that those who wished to conceal their thoughts would be unable to adapt.[3]

Gabriel rehearsed "Here Comes the Flood" on a few occasions with Anthony Phillips, Mike Rutherford, and Phil Collins, all of whom were former bandmates from Genesis.[2] During his first meeting with producer Bob Ezrin, Gabriel presented him with a demo of "Here Comes the Flood" in the producer's living room. Ezrin approved of the song and went to bed singing its melody, later commenting that "there's not many songs I've heard fresh from the artist's mouth that are that great".[4] Rutherford recalled that the version used on Gabriel's first studio album was hardly recognizable from his original sessions with Gabriel.[2]

Other versions

Prior to its official release, the song appeared on an entertainment show on Thames Television in the summer of 1976.[5]

Gabriel believed that the recording found on his 1977 eponymous release was overproduced and not faithful to his original demo.[6] In March 1978, Gabriel reworked the song with Robert Fripp on his 1979 Exposure album. Unlike the original recording found on Gabriel’s 1977 eponymous release, this version only featured vocals, piano, a synthesiser played by Brian Eno, and Frippertronics, a recording technique developed by Fripp using two reel-to-reel tape machines.[7] [2] Gabriel commented that this version was more in-line with the arrangement he originally intended.[6] That same year, Gabriel performed the song on a BBC Two TV special, which was prefaced by a choir trio featuring Kate Bush. A German recording, titled "Jetzt Kommt Die Flut", was included on the 12" single of "Biko".[5] Gabriel performed "Jetzt Kommt Die Flut" during the German and Switzerland shows of his i/o tour.[8]

In 1990, Gabriel re-recorded "Here Comes the Flood" for his 1990 compilation album, . Gabriel commented that it gave him "another chance to do another version. We'd done one on the first album, which was a grand thing with an orchestra, which I think had some beautiful textures in the verse that I liked a lot, but the chorus ended up a little too bombastic. I'd done a demo prior to that with Robert Fripp, and he then did a version which was more like the demo. I wanted to take a simpler, more emotional sketch version of it and do it with voice and piano."[5]

Personnel

Critical reception

Classic Rock Review complimented the instrumentation and lyrics of "Here Comes the Flood" and said that Dick Wagner’s lead guitar work cemented the song as an effective album closer.[9] Stewart Mason of AllMusic wrote that the song's lyrics "are the most depressing and paranoid ones on this relatively upbeat album, foreshadowing the increasing darkness of the next two albums. This is also the only song on the album that explicitly sounds like Genesis, right down to Steve Hunter's Steve Hackett-like guitar solos and the orchestral arrangement."[10] NME remarked that the song "ended the album in triumphant style", and further noted the song's "doomy strings" and "searing guitars" that bolstered Gabriel's vocals.[11]

Alan Jones of Melody Maker thought that the acoustic guitars and orchestration aptly underpinned the conviction in Gabriel's vocal delivery, adding that the lyrics were articulate enough to convey a sense of hope in enduring an apocalyptic future.[12] They further stated that the lyrics surrounding apocalypticism were unpretentious and demonstrated admirable restraint.[13] Winnipeg Free Press identified "Here Comes the Flood" as "one of several splendid songs with hit-single possibilities."[14] Uncut believed that "Here Comes the Flood" sounded "a little overcooked" in its studio form, but said that Gabriel would later effectively incorporate the song into his live performances.[15]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Bright, Spencer . Peter Gabriel: An Authorized Biography . Sidgwick & Jackson . 1988 . 0-283-99498-3 . London, UK . 6, 126-127.
  2. Book: Easlea, Daryl . Without Frontiers: The Life and Music of Peter Gabriel . . 2014 . 978-1-4683-0964-5 . London, UK . 154-155, 157-158, 186.
  3. News: Geoff. Barton . 19 February 1977 . Geoff Baron Interviews Peter Gabriel . Sounds . unfit . https://web.archive.org/web/20240331155247/https://thegenesisarchive.co.uk/sounds-february-19th-geoff-barton-interviews-peter/. 31 March 2024 . 22. 19 April 2024 . The Genesis Archive.
  4. News: Barbara. Charone. 2 October 1976 . Peter Gabriel: Toronto Tales of the Overkill Kid. Sounds . 24 . unfit . https://web.archive.org/web/20231008102814/https://thegenesisarchive.co.uk/interview-pg-toronto-tales-of-the-overkill-kid-2nd-october/. 8 October 2023. 19 April 2024 . The Genesis Archive.
  5. Book: Scarfe, Graeme . Peter Gabriel: Every Album, Every Song . SonicBond . 2021 . 978-1-78952-138-2 . United Kingdom . 14, 122, 132.
  6. Book: Gallo, Armando. Peter Gabriel . SonicBond . 1986 . 0-7119-0783-8 . United Kingdom . 16-17.
  7. Web site: Kopp . Bill . 21 June 2019 . The Drive to 1981 Begins: Robert Fripp's Masterful 'Exposure' at 40 . 30 March 2024 . Rock and Roll Globe . en-US.
  8. Web site: Genesis News Com [it]

    Peter Gabriel - i/o The Tour: Europe and North America 2023 - tour review ]

    . 31 March 2024. www.genesis-news.com.
  9. Web site: 26 February 2017. Peter Gabriel 1977 debut album – Classic Rock Review . 29 March 2024. en-US.
  10. Web site: Mason . Stewart . Here Comes the Flood by Peter Gabriel . AllMusic . 29 March 2024 . en.
  11. News: Humpries . Patrick . 26 February 1977 . Master Gabriel and the Priestly Egg . . unfit . https://web.archive.org/web/20211027040744/https://thegenesisarchive.co.uk/review-pg-debut-album-review-nme-26th-february/ . 27 October 2021 . 19 April 2024 . Genesis Archive.
  12. News: Jones . Allan . 26 February 1979 . Gabriel: On the Sides of the Angels. unfit . https://web.archive.org/web/20240331155247/https://thegenesisarchive.co.uk/melody-maker-1977-allan-jones-review/. 31 March 2024. 19 April 2024 . . The Genesis Archive.
  13. News: Jones . Allan . 12 February 1979 . Gabriel: How I Escaped the Success Trap. unfit . https://web.archive.org/web/20240331155911/https://thegenesisarchive.co.uk/peter-gabriel-interview-melody-maker-12th-february/. 31 March 2024. 19 April 2024 . . 30 . The Genesis Archive.
  14. News: Mellen . Andy . 2 April 1977 . Genesis Started His Rise But Gabriel Keeps it Up . unfit . https://web.archive.org/web/20211008214713/https://thegenesisarchive.co.uk/review-pg-and-ap-first-solo-albums-winnipeg-2nd-april/ . 8 October 2021 . 14 April 2024 . . 2 . The Genesis Archive.
  15. Web site: Thomson . Graeme . 30 October 2015 . Peter Gabriel - the first four solo albums remastered . 29 March 2024 . UNCUT . en-GB.