Pete

I almost always like songs first out of an audible attraction that rarely has anything to do with meaning. Only later does meaning add to (or detract from) my opinion of music.

This was the case with Peter Gabriel's "Family Snapshot". Great song.

I was listening to it last week on my way home from work when it dawned on me: It's written from the perspective of an assasin in the moments just prior to an actual assasination. Immediately, as I drove accross the threshold of Charlestown, images of the Kennedy assasination [footage] flashed through my head.

It was really cool because on some level I found the whole thing shocking. Obscene almost. I kept thinking in between verses, "Holy shit! Holy shit!" as I turned up the volume. Then I called my dad to ask him if he knew about this.....He didn't either.

I've since discovered that Peter Gabriel wrote the song after having read the diary of Arthur Bremmer who shot the Governor of Alabama in 1972. The song seems to set Bremmer's/ the narrator's intentions on a grander scale, however, on someone more important......Nixon perhaps.

If you don't listen to Peter Gabriel; stop it.


Family Snapshot

The streets are lined with camera crews
Everywhere he goes is news
Today is different
Today is not the same
Today I make the action
Take snapshot into the light, snapshot into the light
I'm shooting into the light
Four miles down the cavalcade moves on
Driving into the sun
If I worked it out right
They won't see me or the gun
Two miles to go, they're clearing the road
The cheering has really begun
I've got my radioI can hear what's going on
I've been waiting for this
I have been waiting for thisAll you people in TV land
I will wake up your empty shellsPeak-time viewing blown in a flash
As I burn into your memory cells
'Cos I'm alive
They're coming 'round the corner with the bikers at the front
I'm wiping the sweat from my eyes-It's a matter of time-It's a matter of will
And the governor's car is not far behind
He's not the one I've got in mind
'Cos there he is-the man of the hour, standing in the limousine"
I don't really hate you-I don't care what you do
We were made for each other-Me and you
I want to be somebody-You were like that too
If you don't get given you learn to take
And I will take you.
"Holding my breath
Release the catch
And I let the bullet fly
All turned quiet-I have been here before
Lonely boy hiding behind the front door
Friends have all gone home
There's my toy gun on the floor
Come back Mum and Dad
You're growing apart
You know that I'm growing up sad
I need some attention
I shoot into the light