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1986- red rain – peter Gabriel
Each song I’ve chosen has personal meaning to me, in one way or another. 1986′s choice is no different.
Red Rain is the opening track from Gabriel’s classic So album. Produced by Daniel Lanois, it charted at number one in the UK album chart. The track is full of intricate musical details from the very start. Each sound creates an additional layer giving the track a dream-like surreal atmosphere. You can also hear the world music influences that show up in so many of his songs. The lyrics elude to many things. Gabriel himself has said a lot of his inspiration for the song came to him in a dream.
The sign of good writing, whether through a lyric or a novel, is that it can touch each listener or reader in a different way, giving us a chance to interpret what we have heard or read in our own way and this is definitely an excellent example of that. For me, the lyrics touch a part of me who knows only too well about the struggles we encounter and how they make us feel, and when Gabriel sings ‘It’s so hard to lay down in all of this’ I know exactly what he means…
Alannah Murphy is a former rock musician turned writer, currently working on a rock'n'roll novel set in London. 
