That Voice Again: Peter Gabriel - Album by Album

Didn't Gabriel spend a lot of time creating or being involved in computer gaming/graphics etc.? he seems to be interested in so much technology, when you listen to his monthly updates on his website, he's always talking about stuff I've never heard of until he mentions it then and there that he's now involved in.

I'd sure love to work at Real World and see what he's really up to most days...he comes off as a mighty busy cat though...like he's living a full and busy life...i too wish for more music though...but I've got over 200 of his tracks, some tracks duplicated in a live or remix version...in my ipod at the moment....not to mention his Genesis output, so he's got Kate beat....and thats not a tiny legacy in a way...still where is I/O already....you gotta believe its all but done at this point.

and now he's thinking of cover songs to cover and he's doing something for a forthcoming Pixar movie....so more of the same...another collaboration album like Ovo was in big blue ball and another tune or two on a soundtrack, that seems like 2008 in a nutshell.

Has anyone besides Ere and I gotten one of his many 2007 live releases? there's 20+ live albums to choose from....

 

No, it's not that he doesn't work. He seems to be constantly working on things. But to me it's a big problem for an artist to be unable to finish anything.

 

True, true, but Nathan East does the song 'It is Accomplished' justice in spades.

So, no one's guessing an answer to win that promo CD?

 

i've been researching it but so far, nada....any hints/????

 

and to be honest, a lot of what he has finished post-US has been disappointing...I think OVO is, father son aside, pretty dire and uninspired; there are good things on UP but most of it doesn't progress relentlessly the way I'd hoped (the drop and my head sounds like that are my favorites on here, because they sound genuinely different...but many of the other tracks sound like they could have been on US; barry williams show is NOT good; neither is growing up; and thank god burn you up/burn you down got cut, because it's bad too). I'd like him to maybe just do more soundtrack work, Long Walk Home is pretty great.

 

I'm gonna take a wild guess on this one,the picture was taken in 1983 somewhere in Africa.No matter what happens ,it's still a good picture!

 

akmonday, without getting too far ahead of the thread, I'd agree with your general point <"a lot of what he has finished post-US has been disappointing"> but the exceptions in standout tracks more than compensate. One of those to me is the aforementioned 'Burn You Up/Burn You Down.' The version of this that was deleted from Up before its release is simply outstanding; it has the hooks, the lyric, the performances and the 'breath of life' to it that make it one of his best tracks ever. Inexplicably, the one song that could have been a hit was deleted from the album.

Well, maybe not so inexplicable, given our discussion here about "why doesn't he produce more" "why doesn't he make his albums easier to market by giving them catchy titles" etc. This is the guy who left Genesis because it was getting to be too much of a machine, even with signs of "suc cess" breaking out all around them. This is the guy who writes good music he can respect first, and if we like it, that's a bonus but not the end.

OK, since a lot of you perhaps have only heard the heavily compressed and techno version of this latter track only on Hit,
here's the version that never got released:

Burn You Up/Burn You Down - deleted UK Up promo version

Thanks for guessing, butch, but I don't think it was.
I should have added to the WTF post, the photography credit belongs to Adrian Peacock.
Here's a hint: About this same time, he actually abandons language and words altogether in favor of pure vocalization.

 

Nathan East is a good bass player BUT TL is the Emperor of the bass!TL's absence was felt no doubt. Levin and Rhodes are very much intrinsically part of the fabric of Gabriel's music,without him(and Rhodes) it's not and wouldn't be the same .Nathan did a decent job though!

 

I was thrown by the weird drum sound and other changes on the Hit version, but now I've gotten used to it actually. It makes the song a little more quirky than the straighter version that was cut from Up.

 

I liked most of what Peter put out in 2000-2002, but the Rabbit Proof Fence soundtrack wasn't interesting at all to me -- just ambient drone soundtrack music that was fine in the movie but not compelling as a record. It was no Passion, that's for sure (and the only really striking part of it was reused in "Sky Blue" anyway).

 

Out Out

'Out Out'
October 1984
Gremlins – Music from the Original Motion Picture Sound Track (Geffen GHSP 24044Y).
December 1984
12” Geffen A12-4953: ‘Out Out’/’Gizmo’ [by Jerry Goldsmith]
Co-produced by Nile Rodgers and Peter Gabriel

“I thought maybe this is a good chance to try it out [taking up Rodgers on his invitation to collaborate]. The trouble is I’m used to working at such a slow pace and experimenting, and I hadn’t actually got the song ready when I went over there. So it cost a fortune in American studio bills and really wasn’t a very good song. There were some sections in it I liked, but it didn’t work a hundred per cent. It’s a bit of a disappointment when you think, ‘This is it! Films! Hollywood!’ And then you get smothered by some gremlin throwing up!” Quoted in Spencer Bright, op cit, pp. 138-139.

 

I bought this soundtrack to get this song, and then had people asking me for years "Why do you have the Gremlins soundtrack"?

 

I freaking hate this song. the only Gabriel track I can't stomach....i threw it Out Out...

 

Yep, just listening to this again now for the first time in years and it's no wonder it never makes the cut for compilations or the iPod. I'd agree with PG that there are some good parts (and I like a lot of the lyric)* but I'm glad that Daniel Lanois came into the picture shortly after this release.

What's kind of amusing is that this song was for years much sought after, mainly because it was never been issued on CD.

*It does feature one interesting recurring theme in Gabriel solo lyrics: dogs.
They turn up here, the b-side to 'Shock the Monkey', WOMAD, 'Steam', 'Burn You Up/Burn You Down'...
I can even hear a dog bark faintly in the studio version of 'Rhythm of the Heat' ....

 

It just doesn't really go anywhere, and the sounds are thin and dated. I guess Peter's right, you can't make him work too quickly.

 

I really wonder where this cover photo of Peter was taken

 

i'm gonna throw a dart and guess Stonehenge...

 

I wonder if "Out Out" was peter giving the finger to the powers that be at Geffen for naming his album "Security"? Certainly plausible after listening to that "dog" again just now...for the last time in my entire life...woof...

 

OK, here's another.... On the set of...

 

The South Bank Show?

 

...on the set of The Last temptation of Christ?

by the way I believe that's Adrian Belew on Out Out. I remember thinking that when it came out, but didnt have any comfirmation. I believe I've seen it mentioned since then that he is indeed the guitarist on that one. .

 

On the set of the music video shoot for 'I Don't Remember' - specifically, he's wearing the same outfit and sitting on the couch in the room where the lady rebuffs his move.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reKN53JUpfo

 

Good guesses, though.
I'll do another another contest question further on in the thread,
for the same or maybe come up with an even better prize.

Stay tuned

 

If you remember the name of the record let us know. I haven't heard of it.


Here's my next guess for the cover of Walk Through the Fire: on the set of Against All Odds?

..........oops too late!

 

Raindrops Pattering On Banana Leaves is the title, I've never come across one all these years... I'd like to hear that song though, on the third album it's one of my favorites, would be interesting to hear how it came over live. I have a live version of 'Milgram's 37' from ca. 1980, a similarly minimalist song, that is very spacey indeed and got quite a reaction from the crowd.