Robert Fripp & Peter Gabriel - Water Music I - Here Comes the Flood

[@Hartwig111]

I am very happy that my time on this planet has been framed by such beautiful pieces of art, of taste, of love!

[@douggillian6555]

By far the best version. This is found on the Exposure album by Robert Fripp. Perfection.

[@bohdandouglas8929]

One of the most unbelievably beautiful and thought provoking songs written, and performed with Peter Gabriel. Shows the beautiful passion of Peter Gabriel's voice and brings deep emotional and poignant realities to what this song is about. Brings me to the deep truths of what sort of world we now have, how far we've come, and how wrong our direction has been for far too long. I have absolutely loved the music of Robert Fripp (nearly all of it speaks to me), and Peter Gabriel (especially the 1st 5-6 albums), are some of their most wonderful and creative endeavors of these artists. Both of them are very creative and imaginative individuals with lyrical poetry and magnificent musical mindscapes.

[@russelldriver1954]

What he said....

[@Hartwig111]

Word!

[@lefkytheshin]

When two artists of this caliber get together, it almost frightens me.

[@TheLlywelyn]

"When I wrote this song [Here Comes The Flood] I had an obsession with short-wave radio and I was always amazed at the way in which the radio signals would become stronger as daylight faded. I felt as if psychic energy levels would also increase in the night. I had had an apocalyptic dream in which the psychic barriers which normally prevent us from seeing into each others' thoughts had been completely eroded producing a mental flood. Those that had been used to having their innermost thoughts exposed would handle this torrent and those inclined to concealment would drown in it." ('Peter Gabriel' by Armando Gallo, Omnibus Press, 1986.) "I see it, it’s a sort of flood of the mind, a telepathic flood, which some people are able to swim, and others not. The situation where those people, who cut themselves off as islands, not being honest with themselves or with other people, will be bombarded by other people’s thoughts and other people reading their own minds, and the people who have been open and straight forward would be no different.” 1977 ‘Night at 11’ program on CHUM-FM “The Solo Album Debut of Peter Gabriel”

[@TheLlywelyn]

As with all art the thoughts and emotions captured in the lyrics evocatively apply to other life contexts. An explanation of (some aspects of) an artist's original inspiration shouldn't at all diminish what we've read beyond.

[@vendimias1]

I feel so much related, thanks a lot, because of my adhd and my oversharing tendencies whose often are just caused by an strong need to reduce my social isolation and be there among others, being just me. But others are not always brothers.

[@joseph-ow1hf]

I had to wipe away a tear, just because this was so damn beautiful. I bought this album the day it was released and have always loved. But this version is amazing.

[@tinfoilhatter]

who knew, he was only singing a song for his pack of hunting dogs!

[@tinfoilhatter]

there's nuthin' like a huntsman's pack!

[@ScottGodin]

This is a far more poignant version than the original and I much prefer it.

[@asolarasolarasolar]

A hug to you, man.

[@pacocastillo550]

The best ever

[@paulspendelow9985]

This is beyond words.this is music,no genre, just love,light,peace.its heaven,it's here and there.it is,this is, FOREVER.thank you Robert and peter.this doesn't happen anymore.

[@mofumofu9139]

暗くて重い。無常感漂う心に染み渡る作品だ。 Dark and heavy. A work of impermanence. It is a work that touches my heart.

[@gumse666]

Amazing. My GF never heard this song before. She started to cry.

[@SuperBd62]

The first time I heard the Album Exposure, I thought no music needs to be made. And still it ranks high on my favourite albums

[@johnrekall8410]

It's been many long years since I've heard this, but this is it. The best track Peter ever released, in my opinion. It's the B side of a 12-inch single. The A side was probably I Don't Remember. It made me cry many times. My legs are tingling hearing it now some twenty years later. It was released on Peter Gabriel 2 but the later single was much better. Peter Gabriel 3 was the first album I heard, and it blew me away. He never did anything better. I saw him perform it in a small theatre in Chicago. They got on stage by walking through the theatre down the aisles through the audience, he and everyone else in the band had bald shaved heads. They all carried large hand held spotlights. There were minimal colored lights on the stage for the light show. It was a superb show and had a massive impact on my musical taste. I became a hardcore fan, but nothing he ever did after (or before) touched the artistry of Peter Gabriel 3. Security was good, as was the Birdy soundtrack, and Peter Gabriel Plays live. Then he decided to go for fame and money, possibly after seeing the huge popularity Phil Collins was enjoying, and released So. He wanted mainstream success and succeeded. Big Time! He left his dark genius behind and became merely a damn good pop star. I was so disappointed. Peter Gabriel 3 and this associated track are his masterworks. I later read Peter's shaved head was in remorse over cheating on his wife.

[@beekay5914]

Actually it was on PG 1, which I love. I never got into 2, and I liked most of SO, but nothing after that. I like Security the best, then 3, and Birdy is wonderful. Here Comes the Flood brings me to the edge of tears every time.

[@bollocksithas]

I loved the Afrikaans version on the flip of his Biko 7"

[@BassGoBomb]

@@beekay5914 PG's 1,2,3 & 4 for me .. British names of the albums .. 'So', also, is good, imo.

[@julesohrin-greipp3517]

When I attended Peter's first solo tour, he started the concert with a solo piano version. At the end, it was the full band!!!

[@jeffreytemkin818]

I was at his second ever solo concert-Rochester, NY, 1977

[@juanpallautapulido200]

Peter....always reading the signs before everybody else, wrote this marvelous song in 1977, when the flood still was not reaching all us....

[@KirkMeighooChannel]

He was talking about a global ice age, the exact opposite of what they are saying today. And he said in 40 years it would happen. But it is a powerful, powerful song nevertheless. The emotion of his voice, the music, transcend the serious factual mistake. In retrospect, it would have been safer to write about something personal. And surely it would have been more powerful. It may have even become more popular and widely-known, as this beautiful song rightly should be.

[@johnreeves6286]

@@KirkMeighooChannel The climate-change speech at the outset is a recording of J.G. Bennett (John Godolphin Bennett), English scientist and intellectual, whose works were an influence on Robert Fripp, that the latter went to Sherborne in Dorset during 1974-1975 and stayed at the research institute/retreat founded by Bennett, with Fripp effectively taking a year out from being fully involved with music. If so inclined, search on the names of Fripp and Bennett together for more information.

[@KirkMeighooChannel]

@@johnreeves6286 yeah I know all about that. I've been a massive Fripp fan since the early 80s. I understand the good nature and faith in which you share the info, though. And I do recommend that others who don't know about it look it up, cuz this is very crucial to the spiritual dimension of Fripp's work. Cheers.

[@linneasaoirse]

However, hasn't it been said many times that the climate change we talk of today can potentially result in a global ice age since the glaciers are melting?

[@klausbednarz3068]

Best version ever.

[@tinfoilhatter]

yes, it was the first one i ever heard, and now that i've heard several, i still think this one's the best!

[@wendyowen1925]

How anyone cannot like this, LOVE this, is just beyond me.

[@polypx]

The best thing Robert Fripp ever did ;-)

[@ScottGodin]

This is my personal favorite version of this song - more plaintive and less bombastic than the original, it resonates deeply with me.

[@oscarbrittingham-detxemend396]

i thought this version from Exposure came out before Gabriel’s album?

[@ScottGodin]

@@oscarbrittingham-detxemend396 Exposure was released in '79 two years after Gabriel's album

[@cgbunks]

perfection...thank you PG

[@gregorykingsley6179]

this is the best version , to me, of many out there. by far the best version

[@ataaah]

I hadn't heard quite this version before. The lecture at the beginning just gives it a harder kick to the solar plexus

[@joshshuffman]

goddamn-- gabriel could write a song like noone else. and robert fripp's ability to put music on tape is legend--for good reason.

[@tinfoilhatter]

it was a joke! he was tryin' to be funny! it's like, try again, gabe!

[@antherhepa8732]

Dos verdaderos genios musicales!!

[@rooannaroo446]

According to PG the song is not about nuclear or environmental apocalypse but what happens when for whatever reason everyone can suddenly read each others minds and how overwhelming that is....

[@peterikarlstad]

I have always loved this version. Fripp contributes hauntingly beautiful ambiance and color to the song. The lyrics could be about flooding but also about nuclear war, which was very much on people's minds back then and also today, I'm sad to say.

[@edwinbarnes7232]

When I wrote this song [Here Comes The Flood] I had an obsession with short-wave radio and I was always amazed at the way in which the radio signals would become stronger as daylight faded. I felt as if psychic energy levels would also increase in the night. I had had an apocalyptic dream in which the psychic barriers which normally prevent us from seeing into each others' thoughts had been completely eroded producing a mental flood. Those that had been used to having their innermost thoughts exposed would handle this torrent and those inclined to concealment would drown in it." ('Peter Gabriel' by Armando Gallo, Omnibus Press, 1986.)

[@cloudhand-taichi-berlin]

That's the beauty and genius of true poetry. It can be about, can mean, different things and at the same time it resonates simply for what it is. It has a clarity and an ambiguity. For me, it's about nuclear war, any other cataclysmic disaster, simply about death. About the pain of saying goodbye to what you love, what is worthwhile, what would be really worth saving (some aspects of humanity) but which ultimately can't be saved.

[@blankyfrank]

@@cloudhand-taichi-berlin Nicely put.

[@philand1957]

Absolutely brilliant, i always get a shiver when i hear it.

[@marcchambers7140]

The definitive version / arrangement: voice and piano without any unneeded instrumentation heightens the immediacy of the words and performance. To me, the Water Music I introduction makes an already tremendous song complete. I cannot imagine it now without it.

[@anthorzeitgeist8162]

Beautiful- A Great Piece from two Masters. RÄ.

[@t2ljw]

Nicely done combining the two tracks. That's the way to listen to this. I have this album on vinyl and some people might not know the flow from one track to the next.

[@lmwilliamsjr1]

"About 40 years at the most, but maybe quicker." How prophetic, but I guess too many people were entranced by the music

[@BassBusMusic]

The comment that the 'scientist' made just goes to show that human kind has been very successful at one thing, namely failing to predict what nature will do in the future. I'm still waiting for that prediction to come true considering it was made many more than 40 years ago.

[@papa_gummybear]

Sounds a bit like Bertrand Russel

[@KirkMeighooChannel]

He was talking about a global ice age, the exact opposite of what they are saying today. And he said in 40 years it would happen. But it is a powerful, powerful song nevertheless. The emotion of his voice, the music, transcend the serious factual mistake. In retrospect, it would have been safer to write about something personal. And surely it would have been more powerful. It may have even become more popular and widely-known, as this beautiful song rightly should be.

[@stephenmccue2793]

Excellent

[@paolomarinelli2294]

Great!

[@eileannach4350]

Great to hear this beautiful version of a stunning song. Maybe i'm biased as i heard the PG1 version first so i still find it more powerful and moving!

[@maynardmoleman]

Haunting version, amazing

[@jean-pierrev4189]

Amazing

[@wrenfroo]

This version is not the one released on "Exposure." Many Robert Fripp's guitar effects are missing from "Here Comes the Flood." The synth flute is a new addition. It seems to be some kind of remix, with some skips and bumps. Buy the record folks.

[@no-defun-allowed]

The start sounds like part of the Heavenly Music Corporation kinda. Edit: RF put Exposure on KZbin, with the remasters first and then the original mixes. The remaster for Here Comes the Flood has those changes.

[@brushuk]

i bought the record in 1979.. still love it..

[@timneff1928]

Actually the Gabriel release was not on the Exposure album, his second solo album. It was on his first solo album, the one that also has "Solsbury Hill". I agree that version was a bit over-produced. He also made a third version, lesser then the other two on his greatest hits album, "Shaking the Tree".

[@michaelpacker561]

I had NEVER thought of this song as being about nuclear war, but now it makes perfect sense. Thanks to the many who pointed it out here!

[@VoluntaristJAM]

In the 70's it was believed by some that the earth was soon to enter an ice age - naturally (as Fripp's teacher says here) - actually it's the same old ice age Earth has been in for a few hundred thousand years, which we're just enjoying an interglacial warming period of now...

[@bollocksithas]

@@VoluntaristJAM Ironically, the speech at the beginning talks of sea level rise, which fits the song, but is the opposite of what a new ice-age would bring

[@martinfilas]

dos genios unidos en una gran obra, excelente

[@splv21]

Two legends....

[@coreykeer5218]

Wow! That was amazing!! Thanks for this one!! And such a haunting tune in this world climate!!!

[@reginascogins8649]

1:17 im here cuz of future sound of london

[@marcbollansee270]

exquisite version of one of pg's greatest songs.it did not do so well because it is was overblown on the well-known record version.it is about the flooding of the subconscious mind, but can be freely interpreted by the audience to be about future disasters. thks so much for uploading.

[@mictli001]

La escucho mientras llueve en mi ciudad.

[@peterstickler6492]

Absolutely beautiful!! Hard to say which version I prefer.

[@garycitro1674]

I actually prefer *this* version, which most have not heard!: mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#sent?projector=1

[@andremdesouza]

Shaking The Tree version: just a piano and a synth.

[@carolsnook4659]

Try the one on Kate Bush Christmas Special 1979 if you haven't already. .that to me is his most passionate. .

[@johnruffner8637]

Fripp and Gabriel predicting the future.

[@KirkMeighooChannel]

He was talking about a global ice age, the exact opposite of what they are saying today. And he said in 40 years it would happen. But it is a powerful, powerful song nevertheless. The emotion of his voice, the music, transcend the serious factual mistake. In retrospect, it would have been safer to write about something personal. And surely it would have been more powerful. It may have even become more popular and widely-known, as this beautiful song rightly should be.

[@blankyfrank]

Heard ya first time Kirk.

[@soi-luna3087]

Well, the flooding does already happen. And a global ice-age: 1 super strong vulcano eruption and we shall have an ice-age instead of global warming.

[@lanakorvin2445]

a true MASTERPIECE IN THE MAKING BY THE EXPERTS !!

[@raymondcox3163]

Beautiful Version!!!

[@61guitbox]

wish they would’ve written more songs together

[@ogma11]

thank you so much for leaving this on the web. i was telling friends about it and i could show them thx u =}

[@TimothySweeney]

drink up dreamers you're running dry - the roots and perhaps best of frippertronics

[@matiasgeneyro8175]

Great versión

[@ThePipemiker]

In 1993 I saw him perform this live, in much the same spare and simple way, during his Secret World tour. Historic floods inundated the Midwest at that time. The timing proved too poignant, even for him, and he stopped half way through the song. He eventually moved on to something less emotionally raw and gut wrenching. I’m wondering what he thinks of those prophetic words in the seemingly even more cataclysmic times we live in today.

[@KirkMeighooChannel]

He was talking about a global ice age, the exact opposite of what they are saying today. And he said in 40 years it would happen. But it is a powerful, powerful song nevertheless. The emotion of his voice, the music, transcend the serious factual mistake. In retrospect, it would have been safer to write about something personal. And surely it would have been more powerful. It may have even become more popular and widely-known, as this beautiful song rightly should be.

[@daviderosa2852]

Quite prophetic...

[@shamirkeren3954]

seeing through the concepts of ''normality'',gave us a view of the results of maintaining that normality,when we were all sleepwalking. as a teenager at 1982,first hearing it.the reading at the begining,was only experienced,as an esoteric art form. only in the last 2 years i got the message. its painfull to me.

[@wolfhamato3042]

amazing😍

[@timothymccarthan5465]

How soon can ya'll make here comes the fire.

[@mjamesharding]

Thank you for the lovely quality of this!

[@robinrouter2059]

Stranded starfish have no place to "hide".....

[@JacobGorny]

The water music loop can be found in the raw on Fripp's Expsoures boxset - Major Loops III is the track it is a part of - other great loops as well, and some... well... not so great.

[@MrUnidyne]

Peter Gabriel ends his concerts with two songs: This, followed by "Biko".

[@johndoan5676]

Oh. I forgot to tell you my name. Tom laprovidenza from Glendale my. Peace out.

[@antoniobento7538]

I guess this is not the version from exposure's Robert Fripp album. Like the intro

[@FrenchToasted1995]

i wish they put this one on car and called the other one a reprise

[@Mark-wp4lw]

The thumbs down to this song had to be Steve Hackett creating 17 accounts and voting. This version is sooooo damn good.

[@squonkharold9251]

Hackett is agood guy

[@MOUBARRET]

👁El ojo

[@williammoraes948]

Covardia! Dois gênios do progressivo juntos!

[@andremdesouza]

William Moraes Covardia é gente chorando a morte do cara que compôs “O nome dela é Jeniffer”. 😩

[@crimsonwolf9099]

Prophetic, Mr Gabriel! With the global weather changes we have already had, there have been several inhabited islands that have already have had to be evacuated because of the rising oceans. They are submerged and gone. Global warming will create all kinds of chaos; some places will become hotter and hotter and as the ocean currents and air currents (like the Gulf Stream) change they will bring frigid climates to areas that have been moderate. A big swirl of weather chaos and changes.

[@briteness]

Good Lord, I think you are correct! It seems like John G. Bennett may have gotten it right. I remember listening to this in the early 80s, and thinking it was kind of interesting as a sort of preamble to Gabriel's song, but that it seemed a little incoherent, with Bennett predicting first a new ice age, then flooding from rising ocean levels. They seemed incompatible, but with climate change theory, maybe they really are not so incompatible. I don't know. Bennett cites "scientists". I wonder if these were the forerunners of today's climate change scientists. Seems like they probably were.

[@ThelSuperlKing]

Gabriel did not mean this song as a literal flood but rather a mental flood. The song is metaphorical and some people attribute it to the rapture but I guess you could interpret it as a literal flood as a consequence of climate change but bear in mind interpreting it this way will render the "prophesy" unintentional. Gabriel said: "I was referring to a mental flood... a release, a wash over the mind." He claims it "wrote itself" after a moment of inspiration when he ran along a hillside near his house with his eyes closed with a vision where he saw people could see each other's thoughts, producing a psychic flood. This presents an image of a society where people can read each other's minds. Those who are honest and open will thrive while those who are not will be exposed for who they really are.

[@neilcreamer8207]

@@ThelSuperlKing Wow! I didn't know the story behind this beautiful song. Thank you. To someone like me who loves mythology his vision sounds like an undoing of the curse which is supposed to have followed the fall of the Tower of Babel. There is a conjecture that this might be interpreted as an event which led to humans losing a telepathic ability they once had :)

[@tinfoilhatter]

@@briteness climate science is nuthin' but propaganda and it's anything but scientific, yo!

[@stefanotoccafondi8093]

@@tinfoilhatter climate is too complicated a thing to simply put it down to co2,only for the sake of selling the electric powered car,whose electricity would come from gas fueled power plants,at best....climate is influenced by sunspots,planets changes in orbits,ocean jetstreams,clouds themselves,both lowclouds and high clouds,and we still do not have the math equations to put all these factors together...not forgetting vulcan eruptions....."climastrofists" as i call them are just shrewd propaganda mongers,climate changed even before mankind had gone industrial and even before man existed

[@jeffn1384]

Poor starfish 😥

[@stevengwynne4365]

This version is sooooo much better than the version Gabriel selected for his solo album. One has to wonder...why did he choose to publish a forgettable pop rock version when THIS version is so much truer to his own aesthetic?

[@arogue469]

He had the wrong producer - didn't do him or his music justice.

[@strangetalkwithdoc3141]

3.02

[@alexmorrison9156]

And Eno

[@lorrainepelletier2761]

Excuse my ignorance, but who is speaking at the beginning, please?

[@observadorbinario]

J.G. Bennett is the narrator.

[@pacocastillo550]

The voice at the begining, who was?

[@jonathanlevine8497]

J.G. Bennett. Fripp was a student of his - look it up.

[@markharwood7573]

Nerdy comment alert. The climate prediction in Water Music makes no sense at all. During an ice age, the seas go down as the ice caps expand. The seas are rising now because the ice is melting. Oh yes, Here Comes the Flood is a visionary work and a very special song indeed.

[@johnsteinman4462]

He says we will have another ice age, and the oceans will rise. isn't it the opposite ?

[@floorticket]

Yes. Smart guy, but not really his field. But a lot of what he said in this lecture seems to be coming true. That was recorded sometime between 1971-'74 or even earlier. Fripp got the tapes from Bennett's wife after he passed. Wife or sister perhaps. www.jgbennett.org/jg-bennett-audioabout/

[@tinfoilhatter]

@@floorticket they thought they were sooo smart, and so did i, for such a long time! only in the last decade have i realised, how scientism is anti-science, man! the white coat of credibilty, impresses me no more!

[@iLikeTheUDK]

In the 80s a global warming began to be seen overwhelmingly as the truth. At the time this was released this wasn't yet quite the case.

[@blankyfrank]

@@tinfoilhatter Very deep...

[@soi-luna3087]

None of those two thougth they were so smart, quite the opposite. Both of them during that time already had been involved in objective science.

[@monkeyhighlord4412]

The Americans brought me here

[@daniels7568]

well we got 2 years left

[@Eleventhearlofmars]

Wrong

[@roast_possum]

Just using logic would show an ice age would lower the sea level not raise it. Even 40 years ago that should've been obvious.

[@johnrekall8410]

What's the logic? Water expands when frozen.

[@roast_possum]

@@johnrekall8410 Ice in the sea doesn't make any difference, it still displaces exactly the same amount of water as it contains as ice. That's not the issue. But rain also comes out of the ocean (as evaporation). As water it flows back into the ocean via the rivers, but as snow it doesn't. It just sits up there on the land, compressing itself into ice sheets and just staying put. And all that water (that is now an ice sheet) came out of the ocean. And so the sea level is going to go down.

[@beekay5914]

He has stated in an interview what the song is about, it is not about a new ice, or even a conventional flood. Look it up, it isn't about the weather.

[@flamindigo]

hasn't happened yet

[@tinfoilhatter]

pseudo-science! pappy-cack!

[@iLikeTheUDK]

This was from 40 years ago. Already several years later the overwhelming scientific consensus turned around and it's been observed that we're going to face a global _warming_ at this rate, not a cooling.

[@tinfoilhatter]

@@iLikeTheUDK poppycock!

[@blankyfrank]

Science evolves as evidence is presented.

[@tinfoilhatter]

@@blankyfrank geoengineering, is yer man-made global weather manipulation, lit'rally

[@blankyfrank]

@@tinfoilhatter please elaborate.

[@1lightheaded]

Out of all the versions of this song this is my favorite and so relevent

[@1lightheaded]

This is weird A couple of years ago we had in Vancouver a really unusual fall that was bone dry . I put this song on and it pissed hammers for about twenty minutes and stopped . It didn't rain again for a month really odd