What is Here Comes the Flood about?

**Baribrotzer** · 06-14-2015

Originally Posted by bob_32_116

I know I've read that Watcher of the Skies was specifically inspired by "Childhood's End".

Here Comes the Flood however does not seem to have any particular relation to that novel, "Childhood's End" is not about an apocalypse as such, it is about the arrival of an alien race forcing humankind to "come of age."

Not forcing us to "come of age", so much as giving us time to do so. And some of the later scenes, as and after the children of the new race start appearing - the boy saved from a tsunami by the Overlords, the murderously violent sports indulged in by the remnants of Humanity 1.0, the island of artists blowing themselves up rather than sink into savagery, and the final union of humanity with the Overmind - can be seen or intuited in the song.

**MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER** · 06-16-2015

Originally Posted by rael74

I've always thought climate change, based on the speech on Fripp's version.
Quite advanced to be referencing this in 1978.

"forty years at the most, but maybe even quicker."

we got 3 left

**proggy_jazzer** · 06-16-2015

Originally Posted by BravadoNJ

whatever it's about, my favorite by PG. one of the best songs he ever wrote.

Yep.

**JKL2000** · 06-16-2015

Originally Posted by proggy_jazzer

Yep.

My fave too.

**Spiral** · 06-16-2015

At first I never realized how great this song could be since I initially learned it from PG1. I can sort of see what Bob Ezrin was thinking in making it a big epic closer to the album, but that was just the wrong way to go. It felt a little too close to a prog cliche. It's in that slower quiet setting that the piece really thrives.

Originally Posted by JKL2000

My fave too.

I don't know if I could pick one, but this would be a top choice if I had to narrow it down. It'd have some seriously stiff competition with "Secret World," "Mercy Street" or "The Family and the Fishing Net."

**trurl** · 06-16-2015

I always thought Here come the flood was about peeing while you were asleep.

**Dave (in MA)** · 06-16-2015

It's about 5 and a half minutes.

**Halmyre** · 06-16-2015

Originally Posted by bob_32_116

I know I've read that Watcher of the Skies was specifically inspired by "Childhood's End".

Here Comes the Flood however does not seem to have any particular relation to that novel, "Childhood's End" is not about an apocalypse as such, it is about the arrival of an alien race forcing humankind to "come of age."

If PG was obsessed with short-wave radio, it's possible that the lyrics were inspired by the short story "The Waveries" by Frederick Brown - although again the connection is rather tenuous. It's more likely that the lyrics are a collage of impressions from various things Gabriel had seen and read.

I've read somewhere that Childhood's End in turn borrows something from William Blake - but I can't remember where or when I read it - it might even have been in PE.