Lyrics to
On The Air

This version of On The Air was released by Peter Gabriel in 1978.

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Built in the belly of junk by the river, my cabin stands;
Made from the trash I dug off the heap with my own bare hands.
Every night I’m back at the shack, I’m sure no one is there,
I’m putting the aerial up, so I can go out on the air…

On the air
On the air
On the air

Every morning I’m out at dawn with the dwarfs and tramps
For a silent communion lit from above by the sodium lamps.
Everyone I meet on the street acts as if I wasn’t there,
But they’re all going to know who I am, ‘cos I can go out on the air.

(On the air…)

Leaving the car down the leafy lane,
Turning out Tarzan for my Jungle Jane.
Anyone at all, from Captain Zero
And his band of superheroes standing by on call.
Oh it’s not easy,
No it’s not easy making real friends…

Don’t give me your steak-reared milkboys, milkboys,
Half alive on empty white noise, white noise,
I’ve got power, I’m proud to be loud, my signal goes out clear,
I want everybody to know that Mozo is here!

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Peter Gabriel has released many songs over the years besides On The Air. Peter Gabriel released songs from 1977 to 2002 spanning across albums like Car, Scratch, Melt, Security, So, Us, and Up. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Peter Gabriel.

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About Lyrics and On The Air by Peter Gabriel

The lyrics to On The Air are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Peter Gabriel used when the song was created in 1978. The lyrics to On The Air have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Peter Gabriel and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to On The Air by Peter Gabriel. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to On The Air" means the words set to the music of On The Air, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Peter Gabriel. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to On The Air and the lyrics to On The Air are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Peter Gabriel who came here looking just for the lyrics to On The Air, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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