For those of you out there who don’t know who Peter Gabriel is here is a short history. He was born in London in 1950 on the thirteenth of February he started his musical career with the progressive rock band Genesis their first release was called “From Genesis to Revelations” in 1969, this album was produced by the now infamous Jonathan King and is the only album in their back catalogue that isn’t available form the bands website remember this album was made when all the band members had just left public school and had never played the music live so for all you followers of Genesis be warned, as I write this the collection is about to be re-issued by the label “Edsel” with a bonus disc of outtakes, for those of you lucky enough not to have heard this Gabriel’s lyrics are as follows “God created Womankind, the vessel of Satan’s hold” on the portentous “The Serpent” I am cringing just writing it so what it must be like hear yourself singing those lines must be horrendous, after this false start Genesis when on to build-up and record a catalogue of albums with Gabriel as the lead singer and front man, his association ended in 1976 with the writing and touring of the album “The Lamb lies Down on Broadway” fans of the band refer to it simply as “The lamb”.
The following year Peter Gabriel released the first of his eponymous titled solo albums, for his first 4 albums all have the same name, just “Peter Gabriel” but over the years these recordings have acquired un-official names for example the first album is called “car” the second is “scratch” the third is “melt” and the final one is “security”. These recordings are where Gabriel explores the darker side, making the subject matter more cerebral, set against a background of the avant – grade, electronic and worldbeats into the mix of the music.
The writing of the follow-up to his 1982 album “Peter Gabriel 4” was taking an age, for Gabriel is notorious for taking a long time to get any new material together. He had began working on the album in 1984 and at the same time he had just got together back together with his wife Jill and his 2 daughters, his landlord at the time was pressing him to move out of their home “Ashcombe House” this is where he had set up the first incarnation of the Real World Studio (90% of So was recorded there) at the same time he was trying to establish the new complex at Box in Wiltshire and if that wasn’t keeping him busy enough he also accepted film director Alan Parker’s invitation
to record a soundtrack for his film “Birdy” Deadlines to finish his follow-up where ignored because he took 3 months to complete the soundtrack so by the end of the year with the soundtrack complete he re-started the recording of his own album the positive outcome from the soundtrack work was that his co-producer from that job joined him for the recording of own album. Daniel Lanois now famous for his work with U2 and others was signed to do the same job for the recording of “So”. Back in the studio ideas where not the problem Gabriel had the basic outlines for 20 songs, but that was only the beginning of an infinite process of building tracks and whittling them away again.
Even before a single lyric was written there was the process of constructing the percussion tracks, Gabriel’s quoted as saying that “as a failed drummer, I focus heavily on the grooves” and as if to prove the point he recorded different versions of several tracks with 3 of the world’s top drummers, Gabriel band regular Jerry Marrotta (has played for Steely Dan, Suzanne Vega, and Robbie Robertson to name a few of his credits) Stewart Copeland from The Police and Afro-Frenchman Manu Katche he then chose which one he liked best very time consuming and wasteful. While forlorn deadlines from July 31 1985 passed onwards unheeded, Gabriel had started to put some important musical milestones behind him, for the song “Sledgehammer” he flew to New York to record Wayne Jackson the trumpeter he’d seen backing Otis Redding in 1967 at the Ram jam club in Brixton, the experience had made him want to be a soul singer. For the chorus for the track “In your Eyes”, he called in the Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour who was to play such a key role in the music of Peter Gabriel for years to come. Then in a stoke of genius he gave Kate Bush the chance to deliver one of the most memorable vocal performances of her life, for when Kate duetted on the song “Don’t Give Up” the lyrics are on the edge of cornball cliché, but the way Kate sang it came across as believable. Gabriel wrote the song in response to a famous photograph from the American Depression called “This Proud Land” which reflected his feelings about unemployment in Britain, Gabriel recalls that Kate sung in the control room with himself the producer and the engineer he says he always does this, because if you are a singer and you see everyone laughing behind the glass you don’t know what the joke is you get kind of paranoid and with a track like “Don’t Give Up” you everyone to be on your side.
“So” was released on May 19th 1986, with the single “SledgeHammer” catalogue number Virgin PGS1 riding high in the charts which was released the month before, it got to number 4 in the UK single charts and was an American number 1 of course the big selling tool was the accompanying video which cost £120,000 pounds to make and took 100 hours to make using “claymation” this is still his career high and within the year the album “So” had sold 5 million copies worldwide.
The album opens with the song “Red Rain” which has the sound of Stewart Copeland playing the Hi-hat with Tony Levin adding the punch of the track with his stick bass filling the gap between the drums played by Jerry Marotta and Gabriel pounding the piano, which gives the opening cry of “Red rain is coming down Red rain is pouring down Pouring all over me” the extra drama to get the listener’s attention. Now that he has your attention he holds it for the next track is the single
“Sledgehammer” which is Gabriel’s homage to the “Stax” and “Motown” sound he had loved in his youth, the song has a quiet fairlight intro, this is then followed by Wayne Jackson’s trumpet sound which along with the constant stick bass sound of Tony Levin is the backbone for the track which the rest is of the song is hung on.
As the sound of Stick bass comes into earshot with a cute little run on the keyboard Gabriel begins one of my personal favourites from this album, “Don’t give up” which with its accompanying video which has Gabriel and Bush locked in an embrace for the length of the song with the camera panning round, (like most males who saw the video I was thinking “wish it was me”) I love everything about this song a simple arrangement which at it’s heart is the wonderful sounding vocal performances from both singers that make you believe the lyrics, truly a hairs standing on the back of the neck song. When this song was released as a single catalogue number Virgin PGS2 it reached number 9 in the UK chart
The mood is broken with the groove drenched “That Voice Again” which is another economical sounding song where simple keyboard riffs are played against several rhythm tracks hi-hats and the signature stick bass sound of Tony Levin look out for the line “Only Love can make Love” and Peter holds a note on that line. This track has co-written lyrics by one of the guitarists on the album David Rhodes.
“Mercy Street” again begins with a quiet keyboard sound that is then given depth and substance by the sound of bass that along with the sound of a triangle, this simple groove gives the words the perfect background, “Looking down on Empty streets all she can see are the dreams made solid” look out for Jim Kerr from the Simple Minds in the chorus of this track and Joni Mitchell’s ex plays the bass guitar Larry Klein plays the fretless bass so this song has a slightly different sound to the previous tracks and song ends with the words “her father is out on in the boat riding the water Riding the waves on the sea” and as quietly it began the song ends with a bass note that fades into the distance.
The following track begins with simply with Gabriel exclaiming “Hi There” crash the sound of snare drum and more of Larry Klein funky fretless bass sound to herald the start of “Big time” which is the closest to a simple pop song on the album with it’s chorus of “Big Time” which has Jill Gabriel singing backing vocals Peter’s now ex-wife, this track was released as a single in March 1987 catalogue number Charisma PGS3 and it reached number 13 in the UK chart. The following song is my least favourite track on the collection “We do what we are told” is a song build around that one line in chorus and it sounds to my ears unfinished. The penultimate song, which is more of an experiment built round a single line just like the previous track. “This is the Pictures (excellent birds) which originally was only available on the CD version and not on the vinyl it has Gabriel duetting with performance artist Laurie Anderson. Anyone remember the song “O’Superman”, which was released as a single in October 1981 it reached number 2 well that was she.
To round off the album is the excellent “In your Eyes” which is a welcome return to form and just like the better tracks here is a song built around rhythm tracks interlaced with catchy keyboard licks with a superb chorus “ In your eyes I see the doorways of a thousand churches In your eyes the resolution, in your eyes, all the fruitless searches Oh I see the light and the heat oh I want to be that complete” I love this line, wish I could find someone that made me feel that way. This version of “So” was re-mastered by Tony Cousins who did a similar excellent renovation to whole of Peter Gabriel’s solo back catalogue in 2002. The following year the whole collection was re-issued again in SACD form I can’t comment on that issue, as I have not heard any of them. For me this is still Peter Gabriel’s most complete album, with the release of this version he has put out the album as he originally wanted too because of the limits of vinyl the running had to be changed to the following: -
Vinyl Side 1 Red rain Sledgehammer Don’t Give Up That voice Again
Side 2 In your eyes Mercy Street Big Time We Do what we’re Told (Milgram’s 37) And on CD only This is The Pictures (excellent birds)
The running order is now how Gabriel wanted it all along. Red Rain Sledgehammer Don’t Give UP That Voice Again Mercy Street Big time We Do what we’re Told (Milgram’s 37) This is the picture (excellent birds) In your eyes An outstanding album from the 80’s which along with Paul Simon’s “Graceland” made 1986 a landmark year in music. The first re-issue of this album in 2002 along with the others in collection came in miniature card recreations of the original Record sleeves, which are now highly collectable the only difference in the catalogue numbers is an “x” for example the number for “So” card sleeve is PGCDX5 and the jewel case is PGCD5 and yes I have both sets, you have to have a set to play! The jewel case versions came out a couple of weeks after the card incarnation.
If you are a fan of Peter Gabriel’s work and haven’t bothered with these because you have the CD’s from before take it form me you are missing a whole lot of music these re-issues sound warmer, clearer, more musical and in some cases longer by several seconds, but like everything “you pays your money you make your choices” for me the music junkie it was a no brianier, I love these albums and want to hear them as intended.
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Great review detailing one of the best albums ever released.
darkangelwing 13.07.2006 21:08
There are only 2 Gabriel reviews on ciao it's so shocking i'll bet Collins has a huge ciao following, a great review always nice to see a fellow Gabriel fan here,
n13roy 06.05.2005 12:08
Excellent music review from start to finish. So much useful information and detail, plus some background history as well...Great Stuff Indeed.....Roy
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