Peter Gabriel and his emotional toolbox for grieving

"I Grieve":

it was only one hour ago 
it was all so different then 
there's nothing yet has really sunk in 
looks like it always did 
this flesh and bone 
it's just the way that you would tied in 
now there's no-one home 

i grieve for you 
you leave me 
'so hard to move on 
still loving what's gone 
they say life carries on 
carries on and on and on and on 

the news that truly shocks is the empty empty page 
while the final rattle rocks its empty empty cage 
and i can't handle this 

i grieve for you 
you leave me 
let it out and move on 
missing what's gone 
they say life carries on 
they say life carries on and on and on 

life carries on 
in the people i meet 
in everyone that's out on the street 
in all the dogs and cats 
in the flies and rats 
in the rot and the rust 
in the ashes and the dust 
life carries on and on and on and on 
life carries on and on and on 

it's just the car that we ride in 
a home we reside in 
the face that we hide in 
the way we are tied in 
and life carries on and on and on and on 
life carries on and on and on 

did I dream this belief? 
or did i believe this dream? 
now i can find relief 
i grieve

I hate to disagree with
 
Peter Gabriel:

"I Grieve" was conceived after Gabriel looked over his catalogue of music as if it were a catalogue of emotional tools. He found one major missing tool to be one to cope with death and therefore "I Grieve" was born.  
"I Grieve" wiki (hear him say this on the 9/11 video below)

I think Gabriel's canon/cannon  (including his songs with Genesis ) is full of tools to help him/us grieve/lament/deal with death.. ("With only one colour, dead"  etc etc)


One of my favorites (though not officially about death, but death of a relationship):

This old familiar craving/I've been here before/ this way of behaving/Don't know who the hell I'm saving anymore/Let it pass let it go let it leave/From the deepest place I grieve/This time I believe....
Peter Gabriel - Love to be loved from Al Ex on Vimeo.

Also, note..he quoted himself (from the song above) to the song at hand ("I Grieve").

"I grieve"
Two  naked words we don't say enough in/as church.
I grieve not grieving.

Of course, any song dealing with grief/death is transferrable to new contexts,concerts, and Sitz Im Leben situations  ("U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday is a classic example; see this):

Gabriel performed the song live on the television show "Larry King Weekend" on the one-year anniversary of 9/11, during which Gabriel said that his two daughters were living in New York City on 9/11 and he could not contact them for a while, and that this song was for people who didn't hear anything from their

relatives then.^[8] It was not, however, written specifically for 9/11, having appeared on the City of Angels soundtrack in 1998 (in an earlier version) and

performed live

prior to 9/11.  "I Grieve" wiki