In Your Eyes (under a beautiful bright rainbow)

Yesterday I went to see Peter Gabriel in concert in the Westerpark in Amsterdam. PB took me. It’s not going to be on top of my concerts-of-the-year-list in December, but it was nice to see Gabriel again.

It must have been some 12 or 13 years ago that I saw him. With M., in The Hague! That was a pretty expensive and long evening, as I remember. M. and I missed our last train back to Haarlem by just one minute or so. There were still trains going to Utrecht where she lived (and still lives), but her dog Lucky was at my place. So there was not much else we could do than to just wait for, I think, an hour to get a train to Schiphol and from there take a taxi home.
To be honest: after all those years I don’t remember much of the concert, but I do recall our long ride home…

Peter Gabriel was in town to play a few fan favorites. It was a bit boring in the beginning to be honest. The evening hadn’t fallen in, we already had some rain and the show wasn't the least overwhelming.
In fact the beautiful, complete, and very bright rainbow (there was even a double rainbow at one point) that hang over the field for almost half an hour was much more impressive than Peter Gabriel and his band.

But still, as the last sunlight slowly disappeared, leaving only that typical Dutch dark cloudy and magnificent sky behind as a perfect stage for a couple of the very best of PG’s songs, there was enough to be thankful for.
Solsbury Hill is a song I could have placed in my list of happy songs a few days ago on this blog.
And although this year it’s 30 years ago already that the South African political activist Steve Biko was killed, the monumental protest song that Gabriel wrote shortly after that hasn’t lost any of it’s power, as I know now. A bit to my surprise, honestly, but I hadn’t heard the song in ages. It must be the bagpipes in this song, they’re the strongest weapon on earth as my friend L. used to say. When Gabriel played Biko yesterday, there were even some fists raised in the air as token of solidarity. Pretty cool, come to think of it.

There was In Your Eyes to truly be grateful for. Not a song you need to hear every day. Once a year will do just fine. And if you want to skip a year, it’s even better. Because then, when you hear it again…Oh, go play it…! (But do take the special mix version, please!)





I want to stand and stare again…