The Elder Statesman – Peter Gabriel
In my opinion, no survey of spirituality on popular music is complete without mentioning Peter Gabriel. Listed in the prestigious Time magazine's 2008 list of the world's most influential people, Peter Gabriel has been described as the musician who keeps finding new ways to bring justice to the world.
Now a gray-bearded elder statesman of rock, Peter Gabriel is a true visionary. His songs explore darker, more cerebral territory, incorporating avant-garde, electronic, and worldbeat influences. He is a critically acclaimed artist and has deservedly earned a worldwide reputation for his innovative work as a musician, writer and groundbreaking videos.
So many of his songs are spiritual in nature it was difficult to decide which to choose. More of his songs are listed in the Other-Recommended-Songs link at the end.
- Not One Of Us, Don't Give Up and In Your Eyes
Not One Of Us - Peter Gabriel
Not One Of Us is a scalding sarcastic summation of prejudice and exclusion. The chorus, written in the first person, mocks an outsider but the verses reveal the sorrow of the excluded (‘It's only water / In a stranger's tear’) and the hatred and ignorance of the excluder (‘A foreign body /And a foreign mind / Never welcome / In the land of the blind’).
Don't Give Up - Peter Gabriel
This song was inspired by the Depression-era photographs of Dorothea Lange, showing poverty-stricken Americans in dust bowl conditions. The lyrics deal with how unemployment and poverty causes stress in a couple's domestic relationship. The verses, sung by Peter Gabriel, describe the man's feelings of isolation and despair while the choruses, sung by Kate Bush, offer words of hope and encouragement.
In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel
According to Peter Gabriel, the lyrics could refer to either the love between a man and woman or the relationship between a person and God. Gabriel writes metaphorically and there are many levels of interpretation.
On one level it could be a very beautiful love song (Peter wrote it during his long romance with actress Rosanna Arquette) and loving that someone so deeply that it becomes spiritual — finally finding that one special person “who makes us complete, and who we complete.”
On another level it could be a song is about God. Perhaps only in God's eyes are we complete and Peter is acknowledging that (‘I want to run away… / But whichever way I go / I come back to the place you are.’). He is proclaiming his resolution and restoration of his faith in the creator (‘Without a noise, without my pride / I reach out from the inside’ and ‘I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive’).
Not only is In Your Eyes a very beautiful song - it has been covered by numerous artists including an iconic scene in the 1989 film 'Say Anything'.