Case File: KC03

Like its two compatriots in this EP, "The Handshake" once bore a different name -- when it belonged to the side project Column, it was referred to as "Sentinel."

Significant lyrical rewrites came after Column disbanded, and once Waters had lined the song up as a Circa 1996 release, it featured a new outro section and even more explicit religious imagery.

Unlike many of his other songs which remain surrounded by thematic questions, Waters has been, for once, quite enlightening in what this song covers. According to his descriptions, "The Handshake" came from an emotional conversation with an ex-girlfriend's father, who expressed a sense of shame for how his life had turned out and the way his children treated people. Waters would eventually refer to the moment as, "looking at another version of myself, and him telling me to run."

An acoustic demo of a song called "Gary Gave Me Some Advice" appears to depict the same incident in greater detail, but it has been difficult to obtain this recording in high-enough quality to share on this archive.

Unlike other songs, such as "Loving the Leech," the word "father" remains uncapitalized, whereas lyrical nods to God retain their proper capitalization, which reinforces the idea that the father figure in this song is not metaphysical in some way.

Status: Canonical

Origin: "Sentinel" by Column, 7 February 2026

See also: No files yet

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