For me, the time is right. There has been some discussion in one of the threads about this song, and I've just finished watching a documentary on the making of the album, so have a little inside information to put into this article. In another way though, the time is perhaps not right, as I was so bitterly disappointed, not only with Gabriel's latest album, the reworking of his standards set to orchestral arrangement in “New Blood”, but with the heinous --- as I saw it --- butchery of this song by another singer duetting with him, who completely ruined the song for me. I suppose in some ways you could say that there was only ever one artiste who would have, and did, fit the bill for this amazing song, but then again, you might be surprised to learn that she was not the first choice.
Don't give up --- Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush
Yeah, turns out that due to the country roots of the song, with it being based essentially around the idea of the Great Depression and the Dustbowl of America, Gabriel wanted a country singer to share the vocal duties with him and went for ... Crystal Gayle? No. Emmylou? No. Shania then? No. Dolly Parton, would you believe? Can you imagine it? Hey, she did a good job with Kenny Rogers, but I just couldn't have seen her handling the gentle nuances and translating across the fragility and at the same time indomitable spirit and strength that's conveyed through Kate's stellar performance. Of course, it's easy to say that now, when she's inextricably linked with the song, but apart from perhaps Stevie Nicks I can't really think of anyone else who might have fit that role.
The song you surely know: it's a gentle, rolling drumbeat that carries it, with soft keyboard, whistles and horns, a lot of ethnic-sounding instruments, but the most important instrument, and the one that stands out the most, is the voice, both of Gabriel and of Bush. She takes the reassuring role, as the documentary pointed out, rather interestingly soloing on the chorus, while he sings the verses. It's a song of despair and hope, impotence in the face of an uncaring world coloured by the support of a loved one, who assures the man that all will be right in the end, he will find work, he will regain his self-respect. Perhaps in today's world of job losses and lengthening dole queues, with no real hope of change in sight, this song resonates even more than it did when it was penned over a quarter of a century ago now.
There can be few messages so potent and so reassuring, so determined and so understanding, and perhaps in some ways those three little words could be more important than, or at least as important as, the three we most love and need to hear. In writing this song, Gabriel captured a mood that unfortunately is timeless and repeats throughout history, but added in the unquenchable, indestructible determination of humanity not to stay on the ground too long. As Steve Hogarth of Marillion once wrote: “Failure isn't about falling down, failure is staying down.” This song proves that you may be able to hurt the spirit of man, or woman; you may be able to make it bleed and fall to its knees, but it won't remain there forever. At some point, we all struggle to our feet like the wounded boxer everyone has counted out, and we come back, stronger than before.
A tribute to the human spirit, and a song for the ages, with a timeless message.