Lyrics to
Waiting For The Big One

This version of Waiting For The Big One was released by Peter Gabriel in 1977.

Our Peter Gabriel Songs profile has Waiting For The Big One lyrics from 1977 and most if not all of the lyrics by Peter Gabriel that we have here at Decade Lyrics.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Peter Gabriel or about the 1970s in general.

The wine’s all drunk and so am I
Here with the hoi-poloi, don’t ask me why
We’re celebratin’ anticipatin’; end of the year
everybody come, everybody here
– well more or less
Some already in a mess
I guess they’re waiting for the big one.

Wonder why I’m cold. How did I get this far?
Had no money, had no car
I pray the snow goes, be bad if it settles
‘cos I follow my nose and the dried up rose petals
– like the man says,
Sure hope Moses knows his roses
Or we’ll all be waiting for the big one.

Once I was the credit to my credit card
spent what I hadn’t got, (it) wasn’t hard
No trust in judgement no trust in money
Someday I’ll find myself like a bee finding honey
But in the meantime
I’m gonna have me some fun
Waiting for the big one.

One too many, where ego I go too
Looking for the real thing
It don’t come from what I do
No real communication moves out of my face
I’m beginning to think I’m just out of place
Won’t get in too deep, I want to get some sleep
To be ready for the big one
To be ready for the big one

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Peter Gabriel has released many songs over the years besides Waiting For The Big One. 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 Waiting For The Big One by Peter Gabriel

The lyrics to Waiting For The Big One are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Peter Gabriel used when the song was created in 1977. The lyrics to Waiting For The Big One 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 Waiting For The Big One 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 Waiting For The Big One" means the words set to the music of Waiting For The Big One, 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 Waiting For The Big One and the lyrics to Waiting For The Big One 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 Waiting For The Big One, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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