peter gabriel - the humdrum

i’m sure that i’m not alone in this but songs appear in my head and then stick there for a while. sometimes they leave after i’ve sourced them out in either my vinyl or cd collection but other times they stick and need lots of plays and lots of listens before whatever their need or purpose is has been served. today i was biking home and a lovely old peter gabriel song entered my head entitled “humdrum”. this song appeared on gabriel's first solo album, recorded in toronto after his departure from genesis.

i saw the man at j.f.k.
he took your ticket yesterday
in the humdrum

i ride tandem with the random
things don't run the way i planned them
in the humdrum

hey valentina, do you want me to beg?
you got me cookin’ - i'm a hard boiled egg
in the humdrum

empty my mind - i find it hard to cope
listen to my heart - don't need no stethoscope

(it) seem' to me that television
she come to cut me a deep incision
in the humdrum

empty my mind - i find it hard to cope
listen to my heart - don't need no stethoscope

out of woman come the man
spend the rest of his life getting back where he can
as a bow, so a dove
as below, so above
from the black hole
come the tadpole
with the dark soul
in coal she burn, she burn

as i drove into the sun
didn't dare look where i had begun
lost among echoes of things not there
watching the sound forming shapes in the air
from the white star
comes the bright car
our amobae
my little liebe schoen


there’s a line in there that sits well with me . . . “i ride tandem with the random”. i also have always loved the big moog orchestral wash that breaks the melancholy and drives the whole into the mystical final two verses that make this song anything but humdrum.....


here’s a lovely and impassioned live version from a show thirty years ago . . .