Gabriel, Peter - Mercy Street Lyrics






Looking down on empty streets, all she can see
Are the dreams all made solid
Are the dreams all made real

All of the buildings, all of those cars
Were once just a dream
In somebody's head

She pictures the broken glass, she pictures the steam
She pictures a soul
With no leak at the seams

Let's take the boat out
Wait until darkness
Let's take the boat out
Wait until darkness comes

Nowhere in the corridors of pale green and grey
Nowhere in the suburbs
In the cold light of day

There in the midst of it so alive and alone
Words support like bone

Dreaming of mercy street
Wear your inside out
Dreaming of mercy
In your daddy's arms again
Dreaming of mercy street
'Swear they moved that sign
Dreaming of mercy
In your daddy's arms

Pulling out the papers from the drawers that slide smooth
Tugging at the darkness, word upon word

Confessing all the secret things in the warm velvet box
To the priest, he's the doctor
He can handle the shocks

Dreaming of the tenderness, the tremble in the hips
Of kissing Mary's lips

Dreaming of mercy street
Wear your insides out
Dreaming of mercy
In your daddy's arms again
Dreaming of mercy street
I 'swear they moved that sign
Looking for mercy
In your daddy's arms

Mercy, mercy, looking for mercy
Mercy, mercy, looking for mercy

Anne, with her father is out in the boat
Riding the water
Riding the waves on the sea





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Gabriel, Peter Mercy Street Comments
  1. M.... H....

    Obra prima do Peter Gabriel. Toca nossa alma gentilmente.

  2. V.... s....

    Gabriel genius! The man is pure genius!! Thanks Peter!! You got me thru the 80s!!

  3. B.... ....

    Looking down on empty streets, all she can see
    Are the dreams all made solid
    Are the dreams all made real
    All of the buildings, all of those cars
    Were once just a dream
    In somebody's head
    She pictures the broken glass, she pictures the steam
    She pictures a soul
    With no leak at the seam
    Lets take the boat out
    Wait until darkness
    Let's take the boat out
    Wait until darkness comes
    Nowhere in the corridors of pale green and grey
    Nowhere in the suburbs
    In the cold light of day
    There in the midst of it so alive and alone
    Words support like bone
    Dreaming of mercy street
    Wear your inside out
    Dreaming of mercy
    In your daddy's arms again
    Dreaming of mercy street
    Swear they moved that sign
    Dreaming of mercy
    In your daddy's arms
    Pulling out the papers from the drawers that slide smooth
    Tugging at the darkness , word upon word
    Confessing all the secret things in the warm velvet box
    To the priest-he's the doctor
    He can handle the shocks
    Dreaming of the tenderness-the tremble in the hips
    Of kissing Mary's lips
    Dreaming of mercy street
    Wear your insides out
    Dreaming of mercy
    In your daddy's arms again
    Dreaming of mercy street
    Swear they moved that sign
    Looking for mercy
    In your daddy's arms
    Mercy , mercy , looking for mercy
    Mercy , mercy , looking for mercy
    Anne , with her father is out in the boat
    Riding the water
    Riding the waves , on the sea.
    TRADUIRE EN FRANÇAIS

  4. P.... D....

    Haunting, dark yet compelling.

  5. F.... R....

    This song just popped up on my end.
    Sunday January, 5th 2020
    Praying for
    *mercy* .
    In the *street* s of Iran.
    😔🙏
    Families are precious.
    Love from 💕
    Michigan
    USA 🇺🇸
    Peace 🕊

  6. r.... n....

    Three words:
    James....
    Sonny....
    Crockett!!!!

  7. W.... M....

    Baião , é mesmo

  8. e.... ....

    Mogę zapętlić na cały wieczór i nigdy się nie znudzi. I can loop for the whole evening and I will never get bored.

  9. �.... �....

    you are beautiful

  10. E.... H....

    A melodia dele é muito boa

  11. s.... k....

    ❤😍🤘🎉

  12. D.... L....

    Masterpiece

  13. d.... ....

    Beautiful, but sad....

  14. D.... K....

    Still here..love this song..respect from Croatia..

  15. M.... A....

    How can someone dislike this??? There's something wrong with humanity

  16. J.... J....

    An indescribaby beautiful song.

  17. L.... A....

    Love this sound ..............💜

  18. K.... R....

    Of all the people to spend a day with, YOU Peter, are my choice for a couple decades past and future.

  19. C.... R....

    Nascer no meiado dos anos 70 foi um privilégio para poucos obrigado meu Deus

  20. U.... D....

    Why someone, everyone, is choosing to listen/watch something (we all have the possibility to choose before, :-) ...) and after, TO DO "DISLIKE" ? I still don't understand ... OK, personal taste in music, I can understand that! But, again, why choosing something to listen/watch and after just "DISLIKE" ? Try google-ling first PETER GABRIEL on WIKIPEDIA ...

  21. F.... D....

    Mister Peter.G ❣

  22. S.... B....

    J'adore ❤❤❤❤

  23. F.... R....

    Somebody is listening this wonderful in 2019 ? I am ! 💚💙

    F.... R....

    @Flavio R. Santos I'm listening to Peter Gabriel Mercy Street December 20th 2019!

  24. W.... M....

    Are you listening? Do you hear?

  25. T.... D....

    Always stunning.

  26. j.... a....

    Brasil 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷

  27. E.... C....

    Adorei. .Simplesmente linda. ..😃😃😃

  28. C.... D....

    The end 🖤

  29. S.... R....

    Ouvindo dá uma tristeza misturada com saudades ,nessa época perdi tanto entes queridos💔

  30. L.... M....

    Peter Gabriel make a masterpiece with this song. 🙏😍❤️🍀 God bless him. His voice is so softly its killing me.

  31. �.... �....

    Black slumber

  32. J.... R....

    Never quiet sure If Peter was talking about Jim's mom...

  33. S.... ....

    I went to high school with Anne's daughters. She did a poetry reading at school and I had to leave the assembly. That was unheard of in the 60s and I caught hell for it. The words she spoke were like knives cutting into my flesh, so sharp and morbid!

    It was an awakening for me & not a pleasant one. I had been raped by my father from 5 years old & up. I didn't understand the ramifications that this would have on my entire life. I put those memories into the back of my mind, totally forgotten, until I was in my 40s, when I met a little 4 year old who had the same thing done to her. I had never understood how "suppressed" memories could be a real thing. I was *wrong!*

    I wanted to find Anne's daughter, who was a year younger than me, to ask how her Mother's mental illness had affected her. My life had been a nightmare. Linda had written an autobiography. She had a horrific life, due to Anne's illnesses, an unspeakable life. I was grateful for my miserable life in comparison & that my daughter's life had only been touched in small ways. Ways that still come up in discussions to this day!

    Mental illness is something very real. Most people are only harmful to themselves. But, if severe enough, there is much harm done to everyone in the orbit. I am 69, now, and am finally free of the guilt *I had for what happened to me!* That is a long lifetime of sadness.

  34. A.... C....

    Sorriso do Lagarto

  35. M.... D....

    Une des plus belles chansons que j'ai jamais entendue

  36. R.... C....

    Muitas lembranças...

  37. J.... A....

    "Mercy Street"

    Looking down on empty streets, all she can see
    Are the dreams all made solid
    Are the dreams all made real

    All of the buildings, all of those cars
    Were once just a dream
    In somebody's head

    She pictures the broken glass, she pictures the steam
    She pictures a soul
    With no leak at the seams

    Let's take the boat out
    Wait until darkness
    Let's take the boat out
    Wait until darkness comes

    Nowhere in the corridors of pale green and grey
    Nowhere in the suburbs
    In the cold light of day

    There in the midst of it so alive and alone
    Words support like bone

    Dreaming of mercy street
    Wear your inside out
    Dreaming of mercy
    In your daddy's arms again
    Dreaming of mercy street
    'Swear they moved that sign
    Dreaming of mercy
    In your daddy's arms

    Pulling out the papers from the drawers that slide smooth
    Tugging at the darkness, word upon word

    Confessing all the secret things in the warm velvet box
    To the priest, he's the doctor
    He can handle the shocks

    Dreaming of the tenderness, the tremble in the hips
    Of kissing Mary's lips

    Dreaming of mercy street
    Wear your insides out
    Dreaming of mercy
    In your daddy's arms again
    Dreaming of mercy street
    I 'swear they moved that sign
    Looking for mercy
    In your daddy's arms

    Mercy, mercy, looking for mercy
    Mercy, mercy, looking for mercy

    Anne, with her father is out in the boat
    Riding the water
    Riding the waves on the sea

  38. O.... Z....

    Моя лучшая лирика 80-х!

  39. A.... D....

    Thank you Peter for your passion

  40. k.... ....

    exelente

  41. G.... ....

    Sublime <3

  42. M.... K....

    Genious..Mr.Gabriel

  43. E.... D....

    You tube needs a ‘♥️’ to click.

  44. t.... ....

    This song always inspires me after all these years. I thank you so much my friend.

  45. F.... J....

    That beginning is so African and mystical . love the music in this. Wish I could hear it without the vocals

  46. C.... H....

    This makes me think of Joey Diaz and Cuba......

  47. P.... G....

    Looking down on empty streets, all she can see
    Are the dreams all made solid
    Are the dreams all made real

    All of the buildings, all of those cars
    Were once just a dream
    In somebody's head

    She pictures the broken glass, she pictures the steam
    She pictures a soul
    With no leak at the seam

    Lets take the boat out
    Wait until darkness
    Let's take the boat out
    Wait until darkness comes

    Nowhere in the corridors of pale green and grey
    Nowhere in the suburbs
    In the cold light of day

    There in the midst of it so alive and alone
    Words support like bone

    Dreaming of mercy st.
    Wear your inside out
    Dreaming of mercy
    In your daddy('s arms again
    Dreaming of mercy st.
    'Swear they moved that sign
    Dreaming of mercy
    In your daddy's arms

    Pulling out…

  48. a.... f....

    ♥️❤️♥️🌹🙏🏻🤘🏻❤️♥️❤️

  49. D.... S....

    One of my absolute favourite albums ever, although I'm not a massive fan of 'sledgehammer' or 'big time' being on this record! not that they're bad songs, they just stand out like a saw thumb and I don't think fit with the general feel of the album, the rest of the songs are very ambient, melancholic and full of atmosphere then those two tracks come on and they almost sound like comedy! Love this song and might be my fave on the record.

  50. R.... F....

    God Damn... so utterly fantastic.

  51. D.... A....

    Amo 💘💘💘💘

  52. a.... ....

    Essa música é muito diferente, muito linda. Amo!

  53. D.... w....

    This is like having the biggest hug in the world.

  54. S.... A....

    The flow in Deezer show me this music. I'm brazilian and the percussion sounds very similiar like our music. This rhythm we call baião or forró.

  55. F.... W....

    Très bon souvenir quand j'étais plus jeune ❤❤❤❤❤

  56. G.... A....

    What a masterpiece... What a song... What a lyrics...What a music...

  57. A.... B....

    Linda musica , umas das mais linda que já escutei.

  58. E.... M....

    Sensational! For non-Brazilians, the percussion instrument in the background is called: triangle and the rhythm is Baião. Search the rhythm and fall in love ...

  59. M.... C....

    Time ~ Warbles On: Peter Gabriel - Mercy St, gets a mention: https://amzn.to/2QBGrSr
    The old Carpe Diem strikes again!

  60. A.... Y....

    Looking down on empty streets, all she can see
    Are the dreams all made solid
    Are the dreams all made real
    All of the buildings, all of those cars
    Were once just a dream
    In somebody's head
    She pictures the broken glass, she pictures the steam
    She pictures a soul
    With no leak at the seam
    Lets take the boat out
    Wait until darkness
    Let's take the boat out
    Wait until darkness comes
    Nowhere in the corridors of pale green and grey
    Nowhere in the suburbs
    In the cold light of day
    There in the midst of it so alive and alone
    Words support like bone
    Dreaming of mercy st.
    Wear your inside out
    Dreaming of mercy
    In your daddy('s arms again
    Dreaming of mercy st.
    'Swear they moved that sign
    Dreaming of mercy
    In your daddy's arms
    Pulling out the papers from the drawers that slide smooth
    Tugging at the darkness, word upon word
    Confessing all the secret things in the warm velvet box
    To the priest-he's the doctor
    He can handle the shocks
    Dreaming of the tenderness-the tremble in the hips
    Of kissing Mary's lips
    Dreaming of mercy st.
    Wear your insides out
    Dreaming of mercy
    In your daddy's arms again
    Dreaming of mercy st.
    'Swear they moved that sign
    Looking for mercy
    In your daddy's arms
    Mercy, mercy, looking for mercy
    Mercy, mercy, looking for mercy
    Anne, with her father is out in the boat
    Riding the water
    Riding the waves on the sea

  61. S.... S....

    Pure magic!

  62. n.... ....

    This so is so moving and beautiful. Its beyond pop culture and society.

  63. S.... A....

    they still sink we are the the ones lookin for mercy tho....

  64. D.... ....

    Peter Gabriel dedicated his song "Mercy Street", from his 1986 album So, to Sexton.

    Anne Sexton (November 9, 1928 – October 4, 1974) was an American poet known for her highly personal, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for her book Live or Die. Her poetry details her long battle with depression, suicidal tendencies, and intimate details from her private life, including relationships with her husband and children, whom it was later revealed she physically and sexually assaulted. Anne Sexton was born Anne Gray Harvey in Newton, Massachusetts to Mary Gray (Staples) Harvey (1901–1959) and Ralph Churchill Harvey (1900–1959). She had two older sisters, Jane Elizabeth (Harvey) Jealous (1923–1983) and Blanche Dingley (Harvey) Taylor (1925–2011). She spent most of her childhood in Boston. In 1945 she enrolled at Rogers Hall boarding school, Lowell, Massachusetts, later spending a year at Garland School. For a time she modeled for Boston's Hart Agency. On August 16, 1948, she married Alfred Muller Sexton II and they remained together until 1973. Sexton had her first child, Linda Gray Sexton, in 1953. Her second child, Joyce Ladd Sexton, was born two years later. Sexton suffered from severe bipolar disorder for much of her life, her first manic episode taking place in 1954. After a second episode in 1955 she met Dr. Martin Orne, who became her long-term therapist at the Glenside Hospital. It was Orne who encouraged her to write poetry.

    The first poetry workshop she attended was led by John Holmes. Sexton felt great trepidation about registering for the class, asking a friend to make the phone call and accompany her to the first session. She found early acclaim with her poetry; a number were accepted by The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine and the Saturday Review. Sexton later studied with Robert Lowell at Boston University alongside distinguished poets Sylvia Plath and George Starbuck. Sexton later paid homage to her friendship with Plath within 1966 poem "Sylvia's Death". Her first volume of poetry, To Bedlam and Part Way Back, was published in 1960, and included the poem "Her Kind," which uses the persecution of witches as an analogy for the oppression of women in a patriarchal society.

    Sexton's poetic career was encouraged by her mentor W.D. Snodgrass, whom she met at the Antioch Writer's Conference in 1957. His poem "Heart's Needle" proved inspirational for her in its theme of separation from his three-year-old daughter.[8] Sexton first read the poem at a time when her own young daughter was living with her mother-in-law. She, in turn, wrote "The Double Image", a poem which explores the multi-generational relationship between mother and daughter. Sexton began writing letters to Snodgrass and they became friends.

    While working with John Holmes, Sexton encountered Maxine Kumin. They became good friends and remained so for the rest of Sexton's life. Kumin and Sexton rigorously critiqued each other's work and wrote four children's books together. In the late 1960s, the manic elements of Sexton's illness began to affect her career, though she still wrote and published work and gave readings of her poetry. She collaborated with musicians, forming a jazz-rock group called Her Kind that added music to her poetry. Her play Mercy Street, starring Marian Seldes, was produced in 1969, after several years of revisions.[9] Sexton also collaborated with the artist Barbara Swan, who illustrated several of her books.

    Within 12 years of writing her first sonnet, she was among the most honored poets in the U.S.: a Pulitzer Prize winner, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the first female member of the Harvard chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.
    On October 4, 1974, Sexton had lunch with Kumin to revise galleys for Sexton's manuscript of The Awful Rowing Toward God, scheduled for publication in March 1975 (Middlebrook 396). On returning home she put on her mother's old fur coat, removed all her rings, poured herself a glass of vodka, locked herself in her garage, and started the engine of her car, ending her life by carbon monoxide poisoning.[13]

    In an interview over a year before her death, she explained she had written the first drafts of The Awful Rowing Toward God in 20 days with "two days out for despair and three days out in a mental hospital." She went on to say that she would not allow the poems to be published before her death. She is buried at Forest Hills Cemetery & Crematory in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts.

  65. J.... A....

    Is in pieces like this that one discovers a great artist and composer and not only a good musician. Peter belongs to the Olympus of the brilliant ones.

  66. V.... s....

    Mercy Street. In the 80s I was homeless! This song got me thru it! Thank you Peter Gabriel! You saved my life. Your a genius!!

    V.... s....

    I was homeless in 1986, too. I would around the Royal Victoria Park in Bath at night with the album 'So' playing on my Sony Walkman. I ended being homeless on four other occasions over a twenty eight year period. This album certainly got me through some tough times.

  67. S.... D....

    I wake up to this or "We Do What We're Told" almost every morning as my alarm. Love the 'So' album, got it CD from Goodwill thrift store, about $2. God I love thrifting.

  68. S.... A....

    Masterpiece..

  69. D.... w....

    I'm with the father, ride with Jesus. He will save us all.

  70. n.... v....

    I love that little section from 0:10 to about 0:27. I wish that was on the album version

  71. r.... e....

    i am 55 years old, i am in ADHS, i know the pictures are spirituell. my voice are going still.

  72. H.... H....

    The voice of Peter Gabriel is just awsome. No one sings like him.

  73. R.... Z....

    where is this music in 2 days songsx

  74. R.... ....

    Is there someone in the comment section that is actually crying because he or she understand the lyrics?

  75. S.... L....

    Peter Gabriel é um compositor da chamada World Music, movimento que agrega ritmos, sonoridades e outros elementos de diversas culturas, em diversas partes do mundo. Daí ele ter composto essa canção em ritmo de baião, mas com outros elementos, como teclados, sintetizadores, etc.

  76. �.... �....

    Bravo!!!

  77. R.... M....

    wait until darkness comes.

  78. D.... P....

    Baião do bom !💚💛😉

  79. W.... J....

    Beautiful and Sad.

  80. I.... L....

    Calmaria pura!!!onde tudo começou!!!

  81. A.... C....

    Love Love Love

  82. m.... ....

    This brazilian rythm its call "baião". The percussionist of this track is Djalma Correa. The flute is similar to the Pifano, original of Northest of Brazil.

  83. S.... F....

    Muchos hablan aquí de una serie brasilera que llevaba este tema pero yo quiero recomendarles una película con una gran actriz Jennifer Connelly llamada Waking the Dead, cuenta la historia de una pareja en dnd el muchacho aspira a ser presidente y ella muy ocupada en misiones solidarias, sus mundos completamente diferentes pero el amor todo lo puede y por supuesto esta canción incluida en la misma, saludos!

  84. T.... L....

    SORRISO DO LARGATO !!!

  85. P.... G....

    Halt and Catch Fire?

  86. N.... A....

    Ouvindo em 14/07/19 esse som marcou minha adolescência demais...Saudades de pessoas que já se foram e que a música nos faz retornar há uma época e até sentir cheiros e paladares ....Obrigado Deus por poder conhecer tantas músicas maravilhosas. (Nenê Amaral)

  87. R.... A....

    Love Brasil

  88. S.... V....

    TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND CALM DOWN

  89. K.... C....

    Saudades da minha infância...

    K.... C....

    Try my channel kenia...

  90. 3.... B....

    This song catches me like no other!!! If had a favourite song it is this!!!

  91. A.... C....

    Ao ouvir essa música só consigo pensar no meu pai que morreu há seis dias e desde então minha alma foi tomada pelas trevas de tristeza e melancolia que não me abandonam.

  92. D.... R....

    we are all looking for mercy. When I hear this song I am taken away. Taken by the simple triangle pulsing. By the beat flowing. But most of all taken to a place of vulnerability. To a place where I can admit that I need mercy, from my Dad, from my brothers, from my kids, from my wife. I reflect on y weakness, on my hopes, on my childhood. It's a balm, a gift from the artist to those who can feel its waters wash over them. This song will help me until I die. Speaking as a lapsed Peter Gabriel fan, (nothing after Us does anything for me) I can say that I love this song perhaps more dearly than any other and I hope it plays at my funeral.

  93. A.... W....

    My dad died of cancer, when I was 15. I'm an only child, and it was just mother and I in the state. My life turned to sh%t, after he died. I'm almost 54 now. I still listen to this. If only he was around, those things would not have happened.

    A.... W....

    Try my channel andrea

  94. s.... ....

    LOVE. just love.

  95. G.... B....

    Looking down on empty streets, all she can see
    Are the dreams all made solid
    Are the dreams all made real
    All of the buildings, all of those cars
    Were once just a dream
    In somebody's head
    She pictures the broken glass, she pictures the steam
    She pictures a soul
    With no leak at the seam
    Lets take the boat out
    Wait until darkness
    Let's take the boat out
    Wait until darkness comes
    Nowhere in the corridors of pale green and grey
    Nowhere in the suburbs
    In the cold light of day
    There in the midst of it so alive and alone
    Words support like bone
    Dreaming of mercy st.
    Wear your inside out
    Dreaming of mercy
    In your daddy('s arms again
    Dreaming of mercy st.
    'Swear they moved that sign
    Dreaming of mercy
    In your daddy's arms
    Pulling out the papers from the drawers that slide smooth
    Tugging at the darkness, word upon word
    Confessing all the secret things in the warm velvet box
    To the priest-he's the doctor
    He can handle the shocks
    Dreaming of the tenderness-the tremble in the hips
    Of kissing Mary's lips
    Dreaming of mercy st.
    Wear your insides out
    Dreaming of mercy
    In your daddy's arms again
    Dreaming of mercy st.
    'Swear they moved that sign
    Looking for mercy
    In your daddy's arms
    Mercy, mercy, looking for mercy
    Mercy, mercy, looking for mercy
    Anne, with her father is out in the boat
    Riding the water
    Riding the waves on the sea

  96. F.... S....

    O Sorriso do Lagarto

  97. C.... R....

    Nossa viajo nesta música!!
    Parece que estou voando de olhos bem fechados por um deserto do grand canion nos estados unidos ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

  98. R.... O....

    Listening in 2019.Brings back memories of being in my 20s when life was so much easier...Lot's of my friends...family..and brothers are gone...But the good memories last forever.Some of you know what I'm talking about..

  99. O.... ....

    I had just got this cassette tape before my trip, it was loaded in my walkman sport. I had never listened to the entire tape at that point. It was 1988, I was on small bus going up to Mont Orford in Quebec to a ski lodge at the top. It started snowing with blizzard like conditions. When we got there it was late in the day. I didn't feel like going in after being stuck on a bus for so many hours. I spotted a path leading up a tall hill that stood high above the lodge area. It had cable like railing that was along side of the path. I put my head phones in and started to climb. When I got to the top there was an area that had rocks blocking the blowing wind and snow. I cleared a dug out in the snow and sat to take in the scenery. It was getting dark and I could see the lights of the town far below in the valley at the base of the mountain. This song started to play, I was mesmerized. With snow coming down it felt like I was sitting inside a giant snow globe.... And almost if it was on cue with the music, there was break in the clouds above...through it I could see the light of the setting sun mixed with gray sky and white out snow fall. This song brings me back to that moment...

  100. A.... G....

    Nice song!