River, show me how to float...

Yeah, we're on a music kick. Still.

Early in my relationship with the ex, Peter Gabriel was a pretty big part of my listening experience. "In Your Eyes" -- that was our song, just like it was for so many other people. That came off "So", the album Peter filled with songs about his love for Rosanna Arquette. The same woman who broke his heart and prompted him to write the songs on "Us" several years later.

I liked the songs on "So", but it wasn't until the ex left that I understood the songs on "Us." This one in particular hit home.

Washing Of The Water
Peter Gabriel

River, river carry me on
Living river carry me on
River, river carry me on
To the place where I come from

So deep, so wide, will you take me on your back for a ride
If I should fall, would you swallow me deep inside

River, show me how to float
I feel like I'm sinking down
Thought that I could get along
But here in this water
My feet won't touch the ground
I need something to turn myself around

Going away, away towards the sea
River deep, can you lift up and carry me
Oh roll on though the heartland
'Til the sun has left the sky
River, river carry me high
'Til the washing of the water make it all alright
Let your waters reach me like she reached me tonight

Letting go, it's so hard
The way it's hurting now
To get this love untied
So tough to stay with thing
'Cause if I follow through
I face what I denied
I get those hooks out of me
And I take out the hooks that I sunk deep in your side
Kill that fear of emptiness, loneliness I hide

River, oh river, river running deep
Bring me something that will let me get to sleep
In the washing of the water will you take it all away
Bring me something to take this pain away

I dismissed this song when I got the CD. I was in it for "Sledgehammer" and "Kiss that Frog." But in 2004, well, these were the songs that got me through a lot of shit.

There's still a lot of emotion tied to PG's music for me. Happy, sad... the one song I can't listen to is "I Grieve" but only because I played it constantly the day after the ex told me he was done. It was pretty pathetic, but it did help me sort through the wreckage.

The song up there... it's good at getting me grounded and centered. "Letting go, it's so hard/the way it's hurting now/to get this love untied." Yeah. I can relate to that. I've been there. It could be a bit of a downer... it's a somber song, but it works for me.

And with that bit of blabbering, I'm gonna pick up the guitar before I go to bed and see if I can massacre "Solsbury Hill." Again.