The Family And The Fishing Net

Album: Security (1982)
Play Video
  • Suffocated by mirrors, stained by dreams
    Her honey belly pulls the seams
    Curves are still upon the hinge
    Pale zeros tinge the tiger skin

    Moist as grass, ripe and heavy as the night
    The sponge is full, well out of sight
    All around the conversations
    Icing on the warm flesh cake

    Light creeps through her secret tunnels
    Sucked into the open spaces
    Burning out in sudden flashes
    Draining blood from well-fed faces

    Desires form in subtle whispers
    Flex the muscles in denial
    Up and down its pristine cage
    So the music, so the trial

    Vows of sacrifice, headless chickens
    Dance in circles, they the blessed
    Man and wife, undressed by all
    Their grafted trunks in heat possessed

    Even as the soft skins tingle
    They mingle with the homeless mother
    Who loves the day but lives another
    That once was hers

    The worried father, long lost lover
    Brushes ashes with his broom
    Rehearses jokes to fly and hover
    Bursting over the bride and groom

    And the talk goes on

    Memories crash on tireless waves
    The lifeguards whom the winter saves

    Silence falls the guillotine
    All the doors are shut
    Nervous hands grip tight the knife
    In the darkness, till the cake is cut
    Passed around, in little pieces
    The body and the flesh
    The family and the fishing-net
    And another in the mesh

    The body and the flesh Writer/s: PETER GABRIEL
    Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 1

  • Montgomery from Florence, KyPrimus covered this song on their 1998 E.P. Rhinoplasty
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Graduation Songs

Graduation SongsFact or Fiction

Have you got the smarts to know which of these graduation song stories are real?

Gary Brooker of Procol Harum

Gary Brooker of Procol HarumSongwriter Interviews

The lead singer and pianist for Procol Harum, Gary talks about finding the musical ideas to match the words.

Director Nick Morris ("The Final Countdown")

Director Nick Morris ("The Final Countdown")Song Writing

Nick made some of the biggest videos on MTV, including "The Final Countdown," "Heaven" and "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)."

Dan Reed

Dan ReedSongwriter Interviews

Dan cracked the Top 40 with "Ritual," then went to India and spent 2 hours with the Dalai Lama.

Julian Lennon

Julian LennonSongwriter Interviews

Julian tells the stories behind his hits "Valotte" and "Too Late for Goodbyes," and fills us in on his many non-musical pursuits. Also: what MTV meant to his career.

Matt Sorum

Matt SorumSongwriter Interviews

When he joined Guns N' Roses in 1990, Matt helped them craft an orchestral sound; his mezzo fortes and pianissimos are all over "November Rain."