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During my last one, I really thought I was about out of time periods and/or genres to consider. But then I had an idea that has really taken hold of me. And when ideas take hold, I have to act on them.
So in March, I will be doing my first ever deep-dive into a single artist. So get ready for
A MONTH OF PETER GABRIEL
Most people know at least a few things he’s done, and they may recognize more than they think, but I want to really expand people’s knowledge of his amazing body of work. With that in mind, here are the categories I’ll be exploring:
The Genesis of Peter – A short look at his pre-solo days and his origins as a prog-rock icon
3 or 4 Untitled Albums – The early days of Peter’s solo career, covering all the albums through Peter Gabriel 4 (aka Security)
The Secret World of So and Us – A shortish look at the height of Peter’s popularity in the late 80s/early 90s
A Passion for Collaboration – Movie soundtracks, guest appearances, video games, and an epic (but mostly unknown) rock opera to ring in the new millenium
Raising Up the New Blood – The late era, including orchestral work, reflective introspection, and exchanges of covers with other artists
The Nest that Sailed the Sky – Closing songs and thoughts
As I work through this, I’m going to be focusing on songs and images that may not be his most well-known. As part of that, I will be incorporating a number of his live performances from across the decades. In particular:
– Rockpalast 1978
– Athens 1987
– Secret World Live 1994
– Growing Up Live 2003
– New Blood Live 2011
– Back to Front Live 2014
If you have a chance to watch any of these concerts straight through (many of them are available on disc), I highly recommend it.
Part 1 – The Genesis of Peter
“Watcher of the Skies”
Genesis went through a number of personnel changes throughout their first few albums. They were young, just out of school, and working to overcome inexperience with sheer passion. They had finally settled on a lineup in 1971 that included Phil Collins on drums, and then they released Foxtrot, their fourth album.
“Watcher of the Skies” was one of the key highlights of that work, and it helped place Genesis as an important part of the prog-rock movement. They were still a bit rough around the edges compared to bands like The Moody Blues, but you can hear some really excellent long-form songwriting in this piece. Interestingly, the opening came out of a problem with finding chords that sounded good on the hard-to-tune Mellotron.
With Peter as frontman, Genesis had something many other prog bands did not: a theatricality that, in many ways, anticipated the later glam movement. Peter wore flowing, eccentric outfits on stage, including the fox-head/red dress combo from the album art, and of course the iconic Watcher of the Skies outfit seen in this video.
“I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)”
Selling England by the Pound is the album that really started to break Genesis into the North American awareness. Ironically, it is probably the most British of the early Genesis albums – filled with pastoral themes and anti-commercialism (a major issue with the Labour Party at the time). But the fact that this single charted in the UK helped it reach more people around the world. The album went Gold in both the UK and US, and platinum in Canada. (Ironic commercial success.)
In this performance, you can see more of Peter’s physical and vocal character work. You can also get a good look at the strange shaved forehead strip that was part of his image at the time. And while Peter was mostly a vocalist for Genesis, we can begin to get hints of his multi-instrumental talents as he picks up the flute. (The flute, of course, was a signature of prog due to the influence of both Jethro Tull and The Moody Blues.)
This is the moment when the band had really seemed to settle into their sound and style, which of course meant it couldn’t last much longer…
“The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”
After Selling England by the Pound, Genesis started work on a concept album. Much of the idea for the story was Peter’s, and he insisted on writing all of the lyrics, which was not the norm for the group. Further tension came about when he was frequently absent from sessions because he was working on other projects as well.
On tour, resentment from the other band members only grew because Peter had become the public focal point, with fans often ignoring the rest of the band. Peter told the band that he would depart at the end of the tour. Peter immediately began working on solo material, and Genesis went their own way with Phil Collins as the new lead vocalist.
Because of all this, there isn’t much live footage from this era of Genesis. So I’ve included a moment from Peter’s solo show at the Rockpalast in 1978 where he plays the title track, “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” with a backing band rather than with Genesis. This version is a bit faster and harder than the original, but both show the kind of musical direction Peter was moving.
(Side note – The Lamb Lies Down tour was supposed to open on October 29th, 1974, two days before I was due to be born. It ended up being delayed – much like me – and the first date was November 20th, the day I was actually born.)
Part 2 – Three or Four Self-titled Albums
“Modern Love”
Peter Gabriel’s first solo album was released in 1977, accompanied by two singles: “Solsbury Hill” and “Modern Love.” Peter also filmed videos for both of these songs in an era where that was still fairly unusual. This would not be the last time Peter looked for new methods for presenting his music.
This first album, like several that would follow it, was untitled, so is often referred to as Peter Gabriel I or simply, “Car.” (It shows Peter sitting in the passenger seat of car in the rain.) Musically, it was a bit of a departure from Peter’s prog origins, and especially from the concept album he had most recently worked on. Instead, it was a collection of disparate songs all ready for radio – several in the 3-minute range and almost none over 5 minutes long.
Some of them, like “Modern Love,” seem especially ready for the post-punk era. However, even with the shorter length, many of them still carry the more complex structures that Genesis had been known for. It’s hard to call Peter’s solo work prog, but it has those influences, and I’ll talk more about them tomorrow.
(Side note – The original video for “Solsbury Hill” is wild and absolutely worth checking out if you’ve never seen it. Not to spoil things too much, but that song will be appearing much later in this list, so I won’t be sharing the video here.)
“Humdrum”
There are a couple of slower, more orchestrated songs on the first solo album, and these really show how Peter was already starting to pack a lot of variety and structure into a shorter piece. The album ends with “Here Comes the Flood,” though a version most people are unfamiliar with. (Peter felt it was overproduced so he rereleased it as something more like he wanted on the Shaking the Tree compilation.) But the first side ends with this song that I would really like more people to get to know.
One thing about Peter’s personas as frontman for Genesis is that they didn’t always show off his vocal range and flexibility. “Humdrum” is an introduction to the kind of songwriter and performer he was maturing into. Also, as part of Genesis, he never really got to sit down and take a piano solo. This image would become an important element in his live appearances moving forward.
Although I didn’t have space for “Here Comes the Flood,” it factors in as one of the many notable moments in the Growing Up Live concert. That show begins with an almost empty stage – Peter on piano and Tony Levin on upright bass. And they OPEN with “Here Comes the Flood” before moving into full-band raucousness. It was so bold, and I was absolutely floored when I saw it in person. Peter’s live performances are all amazing.
“On the Air”
Peter’s second untitled album (often referred to as “Scratch,” or by my friend Paul as “Tearing Through the Fabric of the Universe”) is the one I really only recommend for completionists. It has a lot of potential and a few real bangers like “On the Air,” but it’s just not as strong as his other albums. Notably, it is the only album from his first five that did not get any songs featured on the Shaking the Tree compilation album.
In putting together this list, I thought really hard about why that is, and I came up with an idea – at least for me. I think the writing is generally good, but the sound as a whole is actually underproduced. Perhaps this was a reaction to Peter’s concerns about the first album, but whatever the reason, every song on the second album ends up sounding a bit weak. This is especially noticeable with Peter’s vocals, which always sound muffled or far away. But it also means that songs that I think could be amazing end up falling flat. (I think “A Wonderful Day in a One-Way World” is the biggest song I really want to like more than I do.)
Because of this, I would actually steer people towards the live versions of as many of these songs as they can find. Again, Peter didn’t tend to do many of them live in later years, but if you can find the Plays Live double CD you can hear several of them in what I think is their best form. And of course the Rockpalast show has a couple of them, so that’s where I’m pulling this one from.
“Games Without Frontiers”
And so we move right along to Peter’s third untitled album, usually referred to as “Melt.” While the previous two albums had some great pieces, there was definitely a sense of Peter still trying to find his style and voice as a solo performer. By his third album, it became clear that he had found it.
Ironically, he found it at least partially by bringing in one of his old bandmates, Phil Collins. Collins played drums on several songs on the album, and this album became a testing ground for his iconic “gated drum” sound. And of course “Games Without Frontiers” includes the first guest appearance by Kate Bush, who had brought Peter onto her 1979 television special.
I’m moving pretty quickly through the albums, so I have to lament that this is one where I’m just not going to get to play everything I want. (I will do another tomorrow, but that’s it.) If you’ve never listened all the way through Peter Gabriel’s third solo album, I strongly recommend it. It is filled with fantastic songs that are both personal and political. It is also a great collection holistically, flowing very clearly through its themes to a powerful conclusion.
“Family Snapshot”
I want to take a moment to talk about Peter’s live performances and how they have evolved into profound and powerful spectacles.
The Back to Front tour was primarily billed as the 25th anniversary tour of So, and that was the centerpiece of the show. But there was more to it than that. The show was divided into three parts:
1) Acoustic and studio-style renditions of songs in a plain setting where the main lighting was house lights
2) More traditional concert setting for a variety of songs from other albums – lighting was dynamic but the color scheme was designed to present as black and white
3) The entirety of So (plus a few other things) with full-color lighting and effects
I knew this going into the concert. I had read interviews about the planning of the tour, and I was interested to see what he did with the three parts. What I was not prepared for was the transition from part 1 to part 2 in the middle of a song. For someone who really pays attention to lighting, this was an extremely powerful moment.
“Shock the Monkey”
And finally we arrive at the reason for the name of this section. Peter Gabriel’s fourth untitled album actually has a title in the US, so most of us got to know it as Security. But it was still untitled elsewhere. Peter’s star was beginning to rise, and “Shock the Monkey” had a great New Wave sound for the early MTV era.
Not many of the other songs made it very high on the charts, though. This percussion-heavy album has many things going for it, but instant pop appeal is not one of them. Peter’s writing continued to mature, but it’s nice to know that he hadn’t lost his theatricality. The cover of the Plays Live compilation is a closeup of the “monkey” makeup he wore on that tour, and I was hoping to find a live video that showed that. The closest I could get is this amusing lip-synced guest performance at the 1983 Sanremo Music Festival.
Which I guess gives me a good opportunity to talk about Italy. Peter Gabriel has always been big there. Genesis toured there more than any other European country, and he has gone back numerous times. Secret World Live was filmed in Modena, and that show features one of the most engaged audiences of any of his live videos. It is fitting that Peter showed up as a guest on Italy’s most popular festival of new music. (Sanremo is used to choose Italy’s Eurovision entry.)
“San Jacinto”
While “Biko” may have signaled Peter’s initial musical awakening into greater global awareness, his fourth album marked a noticeable swerve into the stories and sounds of World Music. The release of Security followed closely on the heels of the very first WOMAD (World of Music, Arts, and Dance) festival, and Peter worked on developing both at basically the same time. The influence of his musical exploration is all over that album.
“San Jacinto” is an extremely powerful song, and one that I’d like to take a moment to unpack. On the one hand, it’s an important message reflecting on white people’s commercialization of a culture that still exists literally in sight of its appropriated symbols. On the other, Peter is taking on the persona and voice of someone else – a real living Apache man whose stories Peter is now interpreting for us secondhand.
This may have been progress in 1982, but 40 years later we should know that raising up actual marginalized voices is more important than telling someone else’s story for them. Peter learned that lesson pretty quickly, and he was doing exactly that by the following decade. For others, it has taken longer, but it’s a lesson we all need to remember.
“I Have the Touch”
I’d like to end this section with a short reflection on the past year. You see, it was only about two years ago that I started to wrap my head around the fact that I’m not an introvert after all, but rather a socially awkward and anxious extrovert.
I was starting to get used to that idea and working on ways to deal with it when the quarantine hit. So I have spent the last year in a holding pattern – dealing with other important things, but not really focusing on the area of growth I’d like to be making.
I can patiently wait for my turn to get vaccinated, because I want to make sure the people who most need it get theirs first. Right now I’m just celebrating every vaccination post I see, because each one is a friend that I can look forward to seeing again in person.
This Peter Gabriel song is a sort of theme for the past year. May it comfort all those of us who need contact.
Part 3 – The Secret World of So and Us
“Red Rain”
After increasing frustration from record companies, Peter finally consented and gave his fifth album an actual official title. However, he decided he wanted to do a title that would be more of a graphic design than a written expression. That album ended up being his most popular of all-time, with big video hits tailor-made for the height of MTV, and an iconic movie moment that everyone would forever associate with him.
But I’m not going to talk about those things. You won’t see “Sledgehammer” or “Big Time” on this list, and I’m saving Peter’s most well-known song for later. Instead, I want to take this opportunity to talk about some other important elements that make So a great album.
“Red Rain” is a perfect opening song and an amazing song live, and one of the biggest reasons for that is Peter’s longest and most consistent collaborator, Tony Levin. Tony’s bass lines drive so much of Peter’s music. He is an amazing musician and songwriter in his own right, and he has even innovated bass playing in ways that have revolutionized the industry. One of his most important came about during the recording of So and can be seen here in live performance – the Funk Fingers. These are basically miniature drum sticks attached to a bassist’s fingers that they can then use to play percussive but wide open notes.
Tony Levin is the not-so-secret ingredient that makes Peter’s music so much better.
“We Do What We’re Told (Milgram’s 37)”
Of the 8 songs on vinyl and 9 on CD/cassette, this album had a good six songs that got recognition and repeated airplay. (I’m including “Mercy Street” in that list.) That’s pretty good, but honestly the ones that didn’t are just as deserving as the ones that did. “That Voice Again” is actually quite complex, with some fantastic key and tonal changes. “This is the Picture (Excellent Birds)” is an underrated work of minimalist poetry co-written by the inimitable Laurie Anderson.
But my favorite of the mostly-ignored songs on So has to be “We Do What We’re Told (Milgram’s 37).” For an album with an otherwise Pop-leaning sound, this is quite a dark piece of music. The lyrics are sparse and repetitive to drive the point home, and the orchestration is broad and sinister. And of course the subject matter was much more obscure at the time – nowadays more people are aware of Stanley Milgram’s theories about submission to authority because we discussed them in college. They were somewhat less well known in the late 80s. I love this performance during the Back to Front show where the light cranes really become their own characters, and the crew forms an intimidating wall of faceless figures.
I cannot confirm this, but I also have a theory that the song and its placement are a subtle but deliberate middle finger to the record execs that told Peter he couldn’t put “In Your Eyes” at the end of the album. Without the extra track (“This is the Picture”), this is the song that ends side 2 on vinyl.
“Shaking the Tree”
Peter’s work with WOMAD was a major undercurrent in his music throughout the 80s, and it came more to the forefront with the founding of Real World Records in 1989. That same year, Senegalese superstar Youssou N’Dour released an album (The Lion) with a song that featured Peter Gabriel. N’Dour had worked with Peter on So, providing the iconic backing vocals for “In Your Eyes.”
Peter then included the song on his compilation album and even named the compilation after it. Unfortunately, most European and North American listeners think this song is a Peter Gabriel song that features Youssou N’Dour, but really it’s the other way around. This is a Youssou N’Dour song featuring Peter Gabriel.
Shaking the Tree: Sixteen Golden Greats was the last release by Peter Gabriel on a label that was not Real World Records. I’ll talk more about Real World in the next section, but suffice to say that this collaboration was very reflective of the direction Peter was headed.
“Come Talk to Me”
Overall, Us was not as popular as So, but it did quite well. However, it didn’t quite connect with the pop sounds of the time, and much of its tone was darker than people who mostly knew “In Your Eyes” were looking for. Other circumstances didn’t help, like Sinead O’Connor’s SNL controversy which took place only a month after the album’s release. (Sinead was featured prominently in the video for “Blood of Eden.”)
While the album has a few weak points, it also has some very strong ones, and one of those is its opening. “Come Talk to Me” rivals “Red Rain” for best starting track, and the live version is an absolute slam dunk. Manu Katche’s drum fills and solo stand out for me, but the whole band – including Paula Cole on backing vocals – just kills this one.
But the other thing that makes this live performance amazing is the stagecraft. Peter had always been a theatrical performer, way back to his Genesis days, but here you can see him doing the kinds of things he really wanted to do with a live stage. Starting with this tour, Peter Gabriel live shows would become absolute masterpieces of technical theater.
One other note – this song was written as a plea to then-teenager Melanie Gabriel, Peter’s daughter. Melanie would end up taking that backing vocals slot a decade later.
“Secret World”
Not only does Us have a fantastic opening, but it has a fantastic closing. “Secret World” is a perfect example of the ways that Peter Gabriel’s Prog Rock background comes into play even with somewhat shorter songs (although it is a bit longer than the average pop song). The structure, the shifts in tone and intensity, the uses of motif – all of this shows how Peter uses more orchestral forms to create a broader sound. That’s a big part of why I love his music.
This video is from the Growing Up Live tour, the first Peter Gabriel concert I saw. I mentioned that he started that concert with a quiet rendition of “Here Comes the Flood” on a plain arena stage. With the way that opening contrasted with what I knew of the Secret World Live tour, I initially thought that it was bold of him to back up and do a more simple staging.
I could not have been more wrong.
This song features one of the first major changes that the stage goes through during the course of the show, and there are many more that follow. (I really really recommend watching the full concerts.)
This video also highlights another cool thing he did in filming the movie version of the concert. For the show, you’ll notice that the band is in black and the crew is in orange. Peter made a point early on in the show thanking the “men and women in orange,” because he wanted the audience to recognize the work happening back (and below) stage. The movie goes a step further and follows their work in cuts and split screen so you can really get a sense of how they fit into the show.
Part 4 – A Passion for Collaboration
“Zaar”
Although Peter initially went solo to create his own music, the greater effect of that move would be the freedom to work with a wide variety of musicians and other artists throughout his career. Without the constraint of an established band, he was able to pursue whatever musical direction struck him at the time. In this section, I will look at just a few of the many forms that took.
Peter Gabriel’s first movie score was for the 1984 movie Birdy. That soundtrack included some original pieces but a lot of instrumental reworks of his existing songs. Then, a few years later, Peter wrote his first entirely original soundtrack for Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ. Peter continued to write more music to fill out the gaps in his musical story until he had the completed album, Passion.
Passion marks an extremely important turning point in Peter’s musical growth. I’ve talked a little bit about Real World studios and his deepening explorations of world music, but Passion was the moment where that all came to the forefront. I could spend an entire month just talking about each of the master musicians Peter brought in for this album – from Shankar to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, from Doudou N’Diaye Rose to Vache Hovsepyan, and so many more.
This is definitely an album I recommend diving into if you’ve never listened to it. Far from being a simple soundtrack, it is absolutely a work of art in its own right.
“When You’re Falling” (Afro-Celt Sound System)
I’m jumping around just a bit in time here, but this is an appropriate point to talk about how Peter tended to work with the various Real World Records artists. For the most part, he stepped back and took on the role of booster/promoter. Sometimes he would produce a record, but he was simply packaging and releasing material that the artists themselves prepared.
Afro Celt Sound System occasionally brought in guest vocalists, but it wasn’t until their third album for Real World that they brought in Peter himself. (I have previously shared the collaboration with Sinead O’Connor from their second album.) As you can hear, the resulting song is definitely strongly influenced by Peter’s vocals. It’s a fantastic song, but I’m glad that the band had established themselves prior to this.
If you’re interested in some of the other sounds of Real World, I am particularly fond of Sheila Chandra, Ayub Ogada, Geoffrey Oryema, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
“Lovetown”
In addition to writing whole soundtracks, Peter began contributing occasional singles written specifically for movies. One of the most notable of these was “Lovetown,” which is on the Philadelphia soundtrack. It’s also probably the most blues-influenced song Peter ever wrote, helped (of course) by Tony Levin’s thundering bass line.
I need to talk about the video itself as well, because while it seems like an interesting stand-alone bit of 90s computer effects, it actually leads directly into something most people don’t even know existed: Peter Gabriel’s interactive CD-ROM game, EVE (1996).
EVE was less a game and more an interactive art piece, with explorational puzzles that were more about moving things around in an artistic way than about “solving.” It also had visual, player-controlled music mixing that was way ahead of its time. Many of the images and ideas that Peter developed for EVE were then incorporated into the story of OVO, which I will talk about tomorrow…
“The Tower That Ate People”
Peter Gabriel’s other full soundtrack project is probably one of his least-known works, at least in the US. He co-wrote a show with legendary stage designer Mark Fisher that would premiere at the Millennium Dome in London to celebrate the turn of the millennium.
They composed a complex star-crossed lovers story involving the earth people and the sky people, and quite a bit of strangeness happens. This was matched with highly-choreographed aerial and acrobatic acts and Fisher’s signature stage magic. The tower described in this song was a major set piece that rose from the floor.
In the middle of 2000, Peter released the soundtrack for this show as the album “OVO.” Although the show was reasonably well-received in its own right, the overall impact was low because of its association with the publicly-derided Millennium Experience. This is a shame, because the music is quite good. Much of the writing anticipates the directions Peter was moving for his next full studio album, and this song in particular could easily fit onto Up.
“Sky Blue”
With the soundtrack for Birdy, Peter had started with existing songs and converted them into instrumentals. Then he did an entirely instrumental soundtrack that became Passion. Finally, he came full circle by creating an instrumental soundtrack and then converting into a song.
Peter did the instrumental soundtrack for Rabbit-Proof Fence, and part of that later became “Sky Blue,” which he then recorded for Up with The Blind Boys of Alabama. The lyrics of the album version still keep the sense of story from Rabbit-Proof Fence, but with the added voices and all of the additional orchestration it grows into something more broad and perhaps even more powerful.
This is a great example of where Peter Gabriel’s participation opened me up to several things that I might not have otherwise experienced. I fell in love with The Blind Boys of Alabama after seeing them live. (They had a full opening act for Peter during this tour.) And I sought out Rabbit-Proof Fence, which I might otherwise have missed because it wasn’t heavily marketed in the US. It’s an important movie that everyone should see.
“Down to Earth”
Not much to say today. I just wanted to end this section by pointing out that Wall-E is already a great movie and then you get to the closing credits and it manages to get BETTER.
Peter co-wrote this with Thomas Newman, who did the score for the whole film, and brought in the Soweto Gospel Choir to do additional vocals. It’s a perfect song. That is all.
Part 5 – Raising Up the New Blood
“Darkness”
After his longest gap between studio albums, Peter finally released Up in 2002. This album marks the beginning of what I think of as the late period of his career. It is both brooding and reflective, discussing topics of isolation and loss. And those who know me well may realize that these elements make it one of the most personally important Peter Gabriel albums for me.
This song also illustrates one of the key musical elements of Peter’s writing that draws me in. I have very eclectic tastes, so I like to consider what there is in common among all my diverse musical interests. The answer that I have come up with is contrast. I love contrast, whether in tone, rhythm, meter, pitch, or whatever. I am generally turned off by music that sounds too self-similar throughout the piece, which is why I am very picky when it comes to things like Metal, A Cappella, and Mozart.
Peter Gabriel’s music is full of contrasts. His tendency to incorporate World Music and other disparate influences helps with that, but it’s also built into his writing from his Prog days. “Darkness” is a perfect illustration of this, with its dramatic shifts in tone, the changes in orchestration, and the way his voice jumps to different registers in the various sections. I love the structure of this song.
You may note at the beginning that the band is just entering (including the drum set under the scrim house). I have previously mentioned that this concert began with Tony and Peter alone doing “Here Comes the Flood.” This is the second song of the show.
“Growing Up”
Because Up had such a long writing period, it ended up being a very refined album. It has clear themes that carry across multiple songs, and the songs themselves are very finished. “Growing Up” is a good example of this – you can really see the time and care put into both the music and the lyrics.
This was a song where I was really torn between showing the video or the live version, because the live version is one of the absolute iconic moments of the Growing Up Live tour. He gets in a giant Zorb ball and walks/bounces around the edge of the stage while singing this song. It’s amazing. But I wanted to show the video because it feels like the culmination of all the things Peter had been doing with graphics and visual effects for the previous 20 years.
“More Than This”
I love so many of the songs from Up, but by far my favorite is “More Than This.” The music is amazing, and the lyrics connect to me so strongly. This is Peter at his best.
And that’s part of why I really needed to do this list – because as good as 80s Peter may have been, I want people to realize that that’s not all there is. There is, to quote the song, so much more than this.
One of the cool things that Peter did for promoting Up was to record the rehearsals the live band did at Real World Studios before going on tour. I think it’s a neat behind-the-scenes look to see the band getting used to performing the full song in real time.
“Mercy Street”
After a couple of tours in support of Up, Peter started on a side project that became pretty massive. It began as a plan to do a double album, with the first to be called Scratch My Back and the second to be And I’ll Scratch Yours. In the first, Peter planned to do a bunch of orchestral covers/reworkings of songs by other artists, and the second would be those artists covering/reworking Peter’s music.
It turned out that Peter’s enthusiasm and timeline for this project was a bit more aggressive than that of some of his collaborators. As a result, what was supposed to be a double album was actually two albums separated by three years, with Scratch My Back being released in 2010 and And I’ll Scratch Yours in 2013.
Peter took that intervening time to record and then tour with the orchestra, which he named the New Blood Orchestra. As part of that tour, he also arranged (with John Metcalfe) and recorded his own orchestral versions of some of his past songs. “Mercy Street” is one of those, and this is a song that I absolutely believe to be vastly improved by the full orchestra.
“Boy In the Bubble” (Paul Simon)
Many people know at least one of the songs off of Scratch My Back, because it was featured on Stranger Things. Peter’s version of “Heroes” became a bit of a phenomenon for a few months. Of course, some people were upset that it seemed to be a more sad and introspective version of that song.
Those people ain’t heard nothing yet.
The things Peter did to Paul Simon’s “Boy in the Bubble” are quite dramatic. The song is no longer a wistful tour of whimsy but rather a morose descent into frustration. I really like this version for its contrast (ahem), but I can’t say that I necessarily like it BETTER than the original.
But I’ll let Peter explain.
“The Book of Love” (Magnetic Fields)
One of my favorite pieces from Scratch My Back is this rendition of a Magnetic Fields song. Peter takes a somewhat sarcastic song and makes it silly but sweet. Both the orchestration and Melanie Gabriel’s backing vocals add to the sentimentality in a way that just feels right.
In the years since the New Blood project, Peter has done some individual songs, some soundtracks, and a couple of tours (including the Rock/Paper/Scissors tour with Sting). He has also been working for almost 20 years on an album that is expected to be called I/O. This album began as a planned quick turnaround after Up, but has been anything but quick. Peter has released occasional news about the recording process, and some of them seem to suggest the album could be ready any time. Here’s hoping.
And that closes off this last full section. I have a few songs that I want to highlight as my closing thoughts, so that’s what I’ll do over the final three days.
Part 6 – The Nest That Sailed the Sky
“Downside Up”
As part of my closing thoughts, I want to talk a little bit about Peter’s personal life. He keeps pretty quiet about many aspects of his family and relationships, but some of his life milestones have had serious impacts on his career.
His first marriage – to Jill Moore – lasted for 16 years. That’s already fairly impressive for a rock star marriage in the 70s and 80s. But what isn’t talked about much is the fact that the reason Peter was not as present as the band might have liked for the recording of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was that he was helping to take care of his first daughter, Anna-Marie, who had been born breech and struggled for the first six months of her life. It’s very easy to see the breakup of Genesis as the fault of Peter’s ego, but this is missing important information. Peter’s second daughter, Melanie, was born two years later – just as Peter was beginning his solo career. Peter later started dating Meabh Flynn in 1995, about 8 years after his divorce. They married in 2002 and have had two sons.
Peter’s thoughts about family certainly impacted much of the writing of OVO, especially with the very personal “Father Son” (which has a video directed by Anna Gabriel). I wanted to share this song from that album partially because Melanie sings it with him live, but also to point out yet another amazing stage transformation from the Growing Up tour.
“Solsbury Hill”
“Solsbury Hill” was Peter’s first single, the song he wrote encapsulating his feelings after leaving Genesis. It is a song about cutting yourself loose and looking forward to the unknown, and so it is deeply personal for me. So much of my life has been defined by such moments of transition. It is a feeling I know well, one I understand down to my soul.
This video came out just a few years ago and immediately became one of my favorites. It blends live footage from six different eras (which just happen to be the six different shows I’ve been referencing) into an amazing montage of joy. I love how it not only highlights Peter’s energy but also his lifelong friendship with Tony Levin and David Rhodes.
This certainly would have been a perfect ending to the month, but of course I must close with the song Peter always wanted at the end…
“In Your Eyes”
Although there was a fair bit of label and producer pressure on Peter during the production of So, the main reason he couldn’t end the album with the song he wanted was technological. It turned out that bass-heavy songs fit better at the beginning of a vinyl record, because there’s more room for the needle to move. Thus, “In Your Eyes” had to be placed at the beginning of Side 2.
This was later corrected in the 2002 CD Remaster, and then on vinyl in the 2012 reissue (which also added “Excellent Birds” for the first time on vinyl). Peter always wanted to end with “In Your Eyes,” so here we go.
Interestingly, the only tour he ever ended with this song was Secret World Live, which is also my favorite live performance of it. It is fitting that we end in Italy, the country that loved Genesis before almost anyone else. And you can see how incredibly in sync the audience is. The lighters at the beginning are frankly amazing. This is also one of the best gatherings of musicians for this song – I love what each of them add to it, but special shout-outs to Papa Wemba and Paula Cole.
I hope that this month has been at least a little bit enlightening. I hope that you’ll go back and check out more, especially if anything was new and surprising to you. And if nothing else, I hope that you’ve learned that there’s quite a bit more to Peter Gabriel than you thought.
Eric the Unabridged 