The Peter Gabriel song inspired by his “extremely vivid dreams”
When looking for song material, inspiration can come from virtually anywhere. No matter how many times it seems like songwriting has become stale, there are always subtle ways to twist the usual formula until things start to sound different whenever an artist picks up their instrument of choice. Some may go through different sonic reinventions, but Peter Gabriel found his calling writing about the images in his dreams.
Then again, Gabriel has never been short on exciting topics to discuss throughout his songs. When starting with Genesis, Gabriel had an idea to write in unconventional song structures, following his bandmates’ lead by writing flowery prose, while Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks made intricate songs in odd time signatures to keep listeners on their toes.
Once Gabriel moved on to a solo career after The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, though, his penchant for unconventional songs came with him, turning a 7/4 single into one of his biggest hits on ‘Solsbury Hill’. As he started to toy with what made him an artist, Gabriel started to move towards poppier fare, having massive hits with experimental songs like ‘Games Without Frontiers’.
When working on what would become the album So, Gabriel had picked Daniel Lanois to helm the production, having worked on U2’s The Joshua Tree around the same time. Although Lanois knew how to make great sonic records that everyone loved to hear, Gabriel came to him with a surrealistic song to kick off the album.
Although not cut out as a single initially, ‘Red Rain’ quickly became adopted as a fan-favourite amongst Gabriel’s fanbase, building off its moody instrumentation. While the imagery of blood-like rain pouring down over Gabriel is horrifying enough, the singer detailed the vivid dream that triggered the song.
Speaking to Mojo, Gabriel talked about the song’s macabre origins, saying: “’Red Rain’ was written after a dream I’d had about the sea being parted by two walls. There were these glass-like figures that would screw themselves into each wall, fill up with red blood and then be lowered across the sand, as it were to the next wall, where they’d unload the blood on the other side. I used to have these extremely vivid dreams that scared the hell out of me.”
While the lyrics remain sinister throughout the entire piece, what saves it from being too gruesome is the massive amount of music around it. Featuring performances from the likes of Stewart Copeland playing hi-hat and the virtuosic playing of bassist Tony Levin, the whole track feels like a symphony from the future as Gabriel comes back to warn his audience about the oncoming doom.
Despite the morose subject matter of the first track, the album would quickly pick up, with Gabriel writing some of his most heartfelt material on songs like ‘Don’t Give Up’ and ‘In Your Eyes’. Although it might be hard to separate both styles of songs on the same album, Gabriel knew that his audience needed to appreciate the rougher side of his sound before getting to the pop marvels.
