Monday, May 30, 2022

"Cascade" by Peter Murphy

I really love the 1995 Peter Murphy album "Cascade"--after his prior albums "Love Hysteria" (1988) with the amazing track "Indigo Eyes", and "Deep" (1989) that featured the even more amazing tracks "Crystal Wrists" and "Cuts You Up" (as well as the incredible sleeper track "Marlene Dietrich's Favourite Poem"), it seemed that the former Bauhaus lead signer could not top himself but then here is "Cascade." Both lyrics and music deepened on this collection of mood songs. All tracks are marvelous but it is the closing track, "Cascade" with Murphy's otherworldly harmonies that seems to encapsulate the experience of the whole mystical creation.


We have no image
We're just called the good friends
We call the madmen back
As they fly to the ant hills

We never know, we never know
We sleep in satin nights
Throwing energy like bluebirds
In twilight

We call to stillness
As we kiss the water king's hand
We hear the one same name
As the darker the land gets

We never know, we never know
We're fueling for the light
Cascading like the rain
In twilight

Waiting for you, you look so close, we walk
A thousand stairs
Aching for your hand, our love a distant
Voice, we have no image we are light

We are not asking
No favors from the dead
We wash with moonlit hands
On the shores of our island

We never know, we never know
We sleep in satin nights
Throwing energy in silver curves
In twilight

Peter Murphy with Bauhaus, May 2022--Photo by Steve Rapport

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