That Voice Again: Peter Gabriel - Album by Album

Yes, this is the point at which you simply can't be unaware that the singles (12" or CD-5's) are worth hunting down if you're a fan at all...

 

that's a beautiful photo there Ere....you'd think a few more hoffmanites would have something to say about SO....

SO...

 

The Rolling Stone Review of SO

When Peter Gabriel announced his departure from Genesis in 1975, a two-part prognosis seemed reasonable. Without the flamboyant antics of its frontman – who might perform dressed as a gigantic sunflower one night and a pyramid-headed psychedelic druid the next – Genesis would founder, while Gabriel would soar toward glam-rock status of Bowie-esque proportions.

Of course, in those days, nobody was banking on Phil Collins's emerging from behind the skins to become the multiplatinum teddy bear of Eighties pop. Under the influence of Collins's mainstream sensibility, Genesis wound up selling better than ever, while Peter Gabriel enjoyed cult status and the occasional hit – "Salisbury Hill," "D.I.Y.," "Shock the Monkey" – though his string of albums, often named Peter Gabriel, endeared him primarily to critics and connoisseurs. So, as So does a sleek power glide to the top of the charts, one is not so much shocked as pleasantly surprised, and somewhat relieved, if only because the popularity of the record indicates a taste for elegance and intelligence in the sterile corridors of AOR.



Like its title, So seems initially unprepossessing – ideally, though not cynically, suited to lite airwaves. The first layer of the record – flawless high-tech production by Gabriel and U2 producer Daniel Lanois (who also plays guitar and tambourine on some of the album); insinuating melodic songcraft; bittersweet, dreamlike ambiance – is admirable, like a gem with all its edges beveled to a fine sheen. It is precisely this seamless quality that makes So so easy to listen to and yet initially obscures the fact that the album is illuminated by an inner light of subversion, an acknowledgment of the emotional tug of war lying beneath the surface of day-to-day reality.

So opens with Gabriel standing in a shower of "Red Rain." A descending melody line acts as a soothing metaphor for an apocalyptic image. "I come to you with defenses down," he confesses, "with the trust of a child." He moves from this position of vulnerability to a posture of sexual aggrandizement on the swaggering "Sledgehammer," an irresistible dance number made all the more remarkable for its tempo: it moves with a becalmed stride, more of a relaxed canter than the gallop of the stud. This clip-clop effect acts as an ingenious counterpoint to the arrogant stance of the song's protagonist.

The bravado of "Sledgehammer" is undercut by the solemnity of "Don't Give Up," in which Gabriel outlines the despair of "a man whose dreams have all deserted." In this one, Gabriel is haunted and defeated, acknowledging his frailty. A mournful melody is interrupted when a ray of hope – embodied by Kate Bush – penetrates the gloom. "Don't give up," she breathes with the voice of life itself, "'cos you have friends." Every time Gabriel proffers a reason for surrender, Bush answers him back with a litany of comfort. "Rest your head," comes her simple advice, "you worry too much."

He seems to find what he's looking for "In Your Eyes," perhaps the closest thing to a conventional love ballad Gabriel has ever recorded, though what he sees in her eyes is symbolic and Graillike in the extreme: "In your eyes/I see the doorway to a thousand churches/In your eyes/The resolution of all the fruitless searches." The pomp and pretentiousness of such a sentiment might collapse under its own weight were Gabriel not shrewd enough to underscore the song with a roiling pancultural jamboree of scat featuring guest vocalist Youssou N'dour.

Gabriel dedicates the wistful and melancholy "Mercy Street," in which he draws parallels between religion and sex, to the late poet Anne Sexton. On "Big Time," which with "Sledgehammer" provides comic relief to balance the LP's moody ruminations, Gabriel lays down one of the funniest brags in pop history. Everything about the song is larger than life, larger than myth even. It possesses the cocky self-assurance of the hick on his way to the big city where he's gonna be somebody:

The place where I come from is a small town

They think so small

They use small words –

But not me

I'm smarter than that

I worked it out

I've been stretching my mouth

To let those big words come right out.

Here the tone is carnivallike, the music a pumped-up hurdy-gurdy of excess. Everything in Gabriel's universe inflates in this one: his house gets bigger, his belly gets bigger, his bank account gets bigger, and of course, "the bulge in his big, big, big ..." gets bigger.

Gabriel sums everything up with a note of humble resignation on "We Do What We're Told." The song is a brief sigh at the realization that we are programmed by forces outside our control and that this is what ultimately unites us and separates us from each other.

So is a record of considerable emotional complexity and musical sophistication. Beneath its disarming simplicity and accessibility is the voice of an artist who does what his heart tells him to do. That So would finally bring Peter Gabriel commercial success is an extremely positive sign for the acceptability of intelligence on the airwaves and in pop music in general. (RS 480)



TIM HOLMES

 

One of the interesting themes that is touched on here is what people thought would become of Genesis and Gabriel after the split in 1975. In almost every interview beginning with Security and through So, Gabriel referenced his desire to "prove" himself to be a serious, confident, songwriter and performer was finally getting satisfied. When he was with Genesis, he said, many assumed he was responsible for the collective genius of the music, since he was the frontman (and believe it, when the rest of the band preferred to play seated with no lights on them, he had to step out front). He knew this was an unfair characterization of the band, since it was, at least until the Lamb, truly a collective. When Genesis remained so popular after his departure, people started assuming that he must not have had much to do with the quality of the music before then, which was equally frustrating to him.

So, in his solo work he purposefully stripped everything like showmanship and flamboyance down, consciously leaving behind the costumes and ornate stage presentations, the arty album titles, and even many of the trademark instrumental trappings that would serve to be a reminder of the Genesis paradigm. He specifically makes reference to this issue in regard to using the twelve-string guitars on 'That Voice Again.' And even more recently, he said in regard to the string sections on 'Signal to Noise' that his concern about being associated with a Genesis-like production would have prevented him from even attempting such an approach to a song - but it seems he is finally making more peace with his past and is willing to venture back into some of the atmospherics and textures that first so endeared him to many.

And 'Don't Give Up' is a good example of the progress he'd made - like 'Dance with the Moonlit Knight' and 'Get 'Em Out By Friday' it was occasioned by sadness over an England fast receding into the past and the cruelties of "progress." But the delivery is so much more direct, timeless, and lacking in pretension. He'd really honed the craft by now and the results were very powerful and melodic at the same time.

I guess they never heard 'Me and My Teddy Bear'!

 

I don't think So is one of his better albums. Even though they were big hits I've never been a big fan of "Big time" and "Sledgehammer". For me "That voice again" (why wasn't that released as a single instead?), "Mercy street", "In your eyes" and "This is the picture (excellent birds)" are the only songs that give some credibility to the album's overblown success.

 

Overblown? when Gabriel accepted his second win of the night at the 1987 British Phonographic Industry's awards,*
in front of a live television audience of 400 million, all he said was,

"Now I have two of these, I'll investigate the mating potential."



*Best British Male Artist and Best British Music Promo Video

 

can success be overblown? I can see praise, via the press, or in forums like this being overblown perhaps....but success of an album usually measured in fans buying the music, maybe an artist winning two awards to "mate" (great quote there Ere!)...I don't see how that can be overblown...

 

this was a really important album to me when it came out. note that I was a kid and pretentious and already knew 'foxtrot' and 'lamb' by this time...this seemed like a justification of my tastes to other 13 year olds! I really adored this record for years; it introduced me to anne sexton's poetry, which I obsessed over as a teenager; 'big time' aside, it struck me as the perfect album, a balance of the artsy and the accessible. I cooled on it over the years but in the past two have returned to it more than the others. I think Gabriel topped it with Passion but for traditional "song" albums he hasn't beaten it yet and probably never will.

 

The only major gripe I have with this album is that Tony Levin had to share the bass stage with Larry Klein in a limited capacity.In addition,Manu Katche' came on board and I love his contributions to the album but Jerry Marotta was pushed to the wayside.Both Levin and Marotta are such important collaborators with Gabriel that I sensed a bit of a change in the work of Gabriel at this point.Levin ,Marotta,Rhodes and Fast along with PG formed a very intelligent musical unit and I loved their work together and it was sad to see Marotta and Fast not contributing enough and eventually leaving or being shown the door!

 

Gabriel had pretty much taken over doing all the keyboards by this time apart from things that were beyond his abilities, like the piano on "Don't Give Up." So there wasn't really any need for Larry Fast anymore. Jerry Marotta made some cool contributions to his music, particularly on Security, but it's hard to argue with Manu Katche --- maybe Gabriel wanted someone with a lighter touch. I think it would have been cool to hear him do some more work with Stewart Copeland, though.

This was the start of Gabriel's amusing tradition of crediting people whose parts were wiped from the album, a list that would get longer with every record as he spent more and more time reworking the songs.

 

It's tempting to nitpick So's weaknesses, but it always comes back with a counterpunch.

The somewhat distasteful "hits" (Sledge, Big Time) are countered by exceptionally thoughtful, arty, atmospheric works (Excellent, We Do).

I really cringe at the dreaded 80s-Euro-Synth-Depeche-Mode production deployed, particularly on the glorious Red Rain, which even I couldn't ruin if I was in the studio... the good news is that there is a variety of atmospheres throughout So... and to be fair, it seems everyone in the 80s dialed up the echo on the snare – heck, even King Crimson went 'tinny' for a while in this decade.

And how can you disregard an album that contains a track-for-the-ages with Kate Bush?... I'd kill for a girlfriend like the one portrayed in Don't Give Up.

I guess I like to criticize So... but I'm wrong to do so.

 

Gabriel's "breakthrough" album...

In spite of deadly overplaying on FM radio back in the day, I can't criticize this album. Even the more "commercial" tracks just sound...right. I guess you could say it's an album of its time, more so than the previous four...which, to my ears, have a "timelessness" about them.

So came out at a tough time in my life...separation, then divorce the following year. A tough listen, but an epic album.

 

we like 'tinny crimson'...

surprised still by the so few comments from members about the album SO.

i thought SO many more would have an opinIOn...

 

Okay, I'll play...

I think too many people confuse "over-exposure" for "commercial".

I see nothing here that would feel out-of-place compositionally in earlier albums; they still ring true as characters that would come out of Peter's head. These so-called "distasteful" hits are also creative statements that give undeserved depth and flavor to radio playlists of the time, and their produced recordings deserve their place in current "oldies"/"classic rock" playlists because they are comfortable and familiar to anybody who lived through the era. They're meaty, beaty, big and bouncy; in the words of our esteemed Vice President, "SO WHAT".

Lookit the themes of these "distasteful" hits: greed and meglomania with a self-aware, swaggering groove you can dance to; Stax-label rhythm as courting ritual; a nurturing partner giving her mate the strength to persevere through poverty. Where else at the time are you getting that breadth of pop material? Debbie Gibson? Rick James? Don't think so...!

 

Well put!

My reaction at the time was actually feeling proud that "my" Gabriel was getting so much positive attention for his quality efforts.

And then there is the great playing on each song. Levin's bass on 'Sledgehammer' is still a thing to behold. On 'Big Time' I tend to skip the album version for the extended "dance" mix where Levin's playing is revealed even more.

 

My favorite PG album. I got into him because of "Say Anything".....and the famous "In your eyes" scene.
But I had heard Sledgehammer and Big Time on the radio.

From beginning to end, I think its one of my favorite albums period.

 

I totally agree. Even his "over-exposed" tracks from this album pretty much blew away anything else on the radio at the time. Maybe not my fave tracks on the album, but classic PG nonetheless.

 

ah, if only I could have been as big a man as Ere here was with the release of SO..I definately tuned out for a year or two with this one. I could not take my hero being all over mtv and hit radio...still, with US, i stepped back to SO too and it was back to living in lovetown...where I reside to this day.....

 

As much as I love the third album and the fourth album..."So" had an emotional directness that allowed many people to connect with it. There's nothing wrong with that either. If great art can be popular art (it's rare), it's quite an achievement.

I feel that "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time" was both his attempt to reach a broader audience but also a thank you to the R&B artists that inspired him at one time much like his cover of "Ain't That Peculair" during the tour for 1 and 2.

"Mercy Street" was the secret weapon on that album to me (along with "Red Rain")--a brilliant ballad that captured the poetry and state of mind of Anne Sexton so well.

I didn't like the fact that on the remaster "In Your Eyes" was put at the conclusion. Yes, I understand that was his original intent but the album closed perfectly with "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)". I'd also love to see the music video that Gabriel made with Laurie Anderson for "This Is The Picture" to finally be released...

 

I was studying hard for my doctoral comprehensive oral exam when So was current. I remember taking study breaks at home and just cranking the 12" Geffen promo-only single to 'Red Rain.' It really had a way of clearing out the fog from hours of reviewing history notes. The big day of the exam I timed my walk over to school so the last thing I did before leaving the house was to play it one more time, then turn off the stereo, walk over the Elmwood Ave bridge and right up to the exam room, the power of the song filling my head to the opening question. And I aced the exam.

Moving 'In Your Eyes' to the end on the remaster bothered me, also.
On the original CD, it segues perfectly from the last note of 'That Voice Again'
and on the LP made a great opener to side 2.

Did he move it on the Classic Records vinyl?

 

'Red Rain' - opening night of the So tour - Nov. 7, 1986


© All rights reserved.
A little dark, I know. Gabriel himself thought so, but that's a story for another post...

 

So is the only Gabriel album I own. (Not interested at all in his Genesis stuff either.) I was originally drawn to it by Sledgehammer (or maybe by the fact some of my peers were rating it), and didn't like the album at all when I first heard it. Strangely though This Is The Picture was the first track that I really liked on the album and it grew from there to liking the whole album. My cassette version was very bassy and sounded great - the CD remaster doesn't have the same feel and I wonder if the original was more bottom heavy. I feel like This Is The Picture is part of the album as a whole and don't understand why it wasn't put on the vinyl as it would have fit. The original UK vinyl does not sound great by the way.

 

"The politics of love is the only politics we preach" - Bono, 1986

With So only just arrived at the shops, entering the U.S. charts at No. 35, and 'Sledgehammer' headed for the top 10, Gabriel did something that would come to characterize his career up to the present: he put the promotion of his own music aside in favor of humanitarian causes. In May 1986 he accepted Bono's invitation to take place in the Conspiracy of Hope tour, six concerts that took place across the United States in June of that year to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary and current work of Amnesty International. Gabriel was in the middle of promoting So in Europe, and canceled gigs in Spain, Portugal, and his first visit to Japan, to participate.

Gabriel joined U2, Sting (and for the final show, The Police), Joan Baez, Lou Reed, The Neville Brothers, and Bryan Adams, and others including Miles Davis, in the series of concerts promoted by the legendary Bill Graham. The goal was not to raise money for Amnesty, but to raise the awareness of young people to its campaign of letter writing on behalf of prisoners of conscience across the world. "The goal is 25,000 new signees out of a country that holds 250 million," said Graham. "In the '60s there was idealism, but it wasn't anchored or very practical," added Gabriel. "In the '80s it's very different, particularly after Live Aid, when suddenly Bob Geldof showed that an individual could motivate large numbers of individuals who could, by sheer weight of numbers, bypass the huge inadequacies of governments and actually make a difference.

"Even if only one person in 10 is moved, that's still 10 percent that weren't involved at the beginning. A certain amount of burnout and switch-off is inevitable, but if there is a hard, active core left behind that didn't exist before, then it will have achieved a great deal."

Gabriel enlisted a band on short notice so not all of his regulars were present: David Rhodes (guitar) and Manu Katche (drums) made it, and Larry Klein, Joni Mitchell's bass player, and Ian Stanley of Tears for Fears on keyboards, provided exemplary support. His set list was just half an hour, but packed a punch and got the audiences' full attention:

Red Rain, Shock The Monkey, Family Snapshot, Sledgehammer, San Jacinto, Biko

"All the artists are giving amazing performances," said Bill Graham on MTV after the first show of the tour in San Francisco, "but the one who knocked me out was Peter Gabriel."

Gabriel's performance at the final concert of the Conspiracy of Hope tour, from Giants Stadium, June 15, 1986, was simulcast widely on FM radio and on MTV, and no doubt brought him many new fans as much as it made his old ones proud. SPIN Magazine:

Gabriel's solo presence has long since been stripped of all theatrical trappings and artifice, as was made apparent by his electrifying performance of 'Biko' .... He stood sentinel-like in high-collared, drab-blue shirt and midnight slacks, sweating profusely as his singing cut the still night with the skin-tingling elegy to the slain South African poet-activist Steve Biko. 'This is a song for a man of peace,' Gabriel prefaced, as his new band pounded out a solemn cadence, 'and it's dedicated to all the people of South Africa who've just been imprisoned in the last weekend.

The 55,000 in the stadium were left dumbstruck by the profoundly moving rendition.

For Gabriel, the other artists on the tour, and many in the audience, the message was both communitive and personal. The Conspiracy of Hope highlighted prisoners of conscience who either had been or were currently being persecuted for doing the same things those on the stage were doing, expressing themselves in song and word.

"As we meet some of the political prisoners who have been inside prison and tortured for many months, and you have their hand in your hand and you see tears in their eyes," he said, "suddenly the thing seems to have a whole lot more purpose."

Gabriel's tour promoting So resumed in the United States that autumn.


Quotes from Richard Harrington, "Rock for Rights - The Megaconcert for Amnesty International," Washington Post, June 15, 1986, B1
Timothy White, "Peter Gabriel - Under the Mask," Spin Magazine (September 1986), 53
Armando Gallo, Peter Gabriel (London, 1987)
photo:Armando Gallo, printed in Peter Gabriel, MIDEM Personality of the Year (January 2008), p. 13.

 

I thought the Police played all the dates on that tour?

 

No. But feel free to read about Sting here.