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

Def Leppard Quiz

Def Leppard QuizMusic Quiz

Can you name Def Leppard's only #1 hit in America? Get rocked with this adrenalized quiz.

Paul Stanley of Kiss, Soul Station

Paul Stanley of Kiss, Soul StationSongwriter Interviews

Paul Stanley on his soul music project, the Kiss songs with the biggest soul influence, and the non-make-up era of the band.

Stan Ridgway

Stan RidgwaySongwriter Interviews

Go beyond the Wall of Voodoo with this cinematic songwriter.

Carl Sturken

Carl SturkenSongwriter Interviews

Hitmaker Carl Sturken on writing and producing for Rihanna, 'N Sync, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, Donny Osmond, Shakira and Karyn White.

David Bowie Leads the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men

David Bowie Leads the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired MenSong Writing

Bowie's "activist" days of 1964 led to Ziggy Stardust.

Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks

Ron and Russell Mael of SparksSongwriter Interviews

The men of Sparks on their album Hippopotamus, and how Morrissey handled it when they suggested he lighten up.