I haven't seen anyone remarking on the line in Willow Farm: 'the fox on the rocks and the musical box'. That inspired Paul Whitehead's most memorable cover image (the idea of a 'foxy lady') and choice of album title, and in turn for Gabriel to appear dressed accordingly in fox head and his wife's dress during a performance of 'The Musical Box'. The word 'FOX' is the number of the beast (Revelation 13) in numerological systems, F=6, O=15=6(0), X=24=6(00). Peter Gabriel says in the 2007 DVD that was indeed his intention.
The use of Christian symbolism and mythology is obvious elsewhere. The title is of the song is from Revelation 19, resolved by Word of God arriving and taking charge on his White Horse, 'King of King and Lord of Lords'. 'Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.'
I don't see Christian myth in the other songs of the album, but whether by serendipity or design, they contribute other themes in preparation for Supper's Ready: humans ascending from the Earth in 'Watcher of the Skies' (Arthur C Clarke references); metempsychosis or transfer of faces and consciousness between different times in 'Time Table'; tyranny and abuse of power and reshaping humanity in 'Get Em Out By Friday'; and false prophecy and the power of time and tide over kings in 'Can-Utility and the Coastliners'.
I haven't seen anyone remarking on the line in Willow Farm: 'the fox on the rocks and the musical box'. That inspired Paul Whitehead's most memorable cover image (the idea of a 'foxy lady') and choice of album title, and in turn for Gabriel to appear dressed accordingly in fox head and his wife's dress during a performance of 'The Musical Box'. The word 'FOX' is the number of the beast (Revelation 13) in numerological systems, F=6, O=15=6(0), X=24=6(00). Peter Gabriel says in the 2007 DVD that was indeed his intention.
The use of Christian symbolism and mythology is obvious elsewhere. The title is of the song is from Revelation 19, resolved by Word of God arriving and taking charge on his White Horse, 'King of King and Lord of Lords'. 'Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.'
I don't see Christian myth in the other songs of the album, but whether by serendipity or design, they contribute other themes in preparation for Supper's Ready: humans ascending from the Earth in 'Watcher of the Skies' (Arthur C Clarke references); metempsychosis or transfer of faces and consciousness between different times in 'Time Table'; tyranny and abuse of power and reshaping humanity in 'Get Em Out By Friday'; and false prophecy and the power of time and tide over kings in 'Can-Utility and the Coastliners'.