So the new Peter Gabriel album, Scratch My Back, is sounding more and more intriguing. It's all cover songs, all orchestral arrangements, and two leaks, versions of Arcade Fire's "My Body is a Cage" and Bon Iver's "Flume," are both excellent.
Gabriel has said that he intends the album to start a "dialogue" with the artists he covers, in hopes that they might cover songs of his in return. Pretty cool. (Also: a clever way for lazy musicians to not have to write new songs.)
Here's the tracklist:
"Heroes" (David Bowie)
"The Boy in the Bubble" (Paul Simon)
"Mirrorball" (Elbow)
"Flume" (Bon Iver)
"Listening Wind" (Talking Heads)
"The Power of the Heart" (Lou Reed)
"My Body Is a Cage" (Arcade Fire)
"The Book of Love" (The Magnetic Fields)
"I Think It's Going to Rain Today" (Randy Newman)
"Après moi" (Regina Spektor)
"Philadelphia" (Neil Young)
"Street Spirit (Fade Out)" (Radiohead)
And here are the Peter Gabriel songs I'd like to hear each covered artist cover in return:
David Bowie: "I Have the Touch"
Paul Simon: "Solsbury Hill"
Elbow: "D.I.Y."
Bon Iver: "Sledgehammer"
Talking Heads: "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway"
Lou Reed: "Family Snapshot"
Arcade Fire: "Games Without Frontiers"
The Magnetic Fields: "Don't Give Up"
Randy Newman: "Big Time"
Regina Spektor: "Shock the Monkey"
Neil Young: "Back in NYC"
Radiohead: "In Your Eyes"
Okay, guys. Now, get to work!
While we're on Peter Gabriel, it's a good time to remember how, first of all, he was the good part of Genesis, back in the early '70s, when Genesis was actually good. (Hard to believe, I know. But check out "Back In NYC" from the The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway album.) And he got even better as a solo artist, really sort of defining the charms of straight-faced 1980s avant garde weirdness. He always seemed like the short-haired guy in a suit who'd politely excuse himself to get a glass of white wine during a performance-art piece in Soho. The the next thing you know, he's, like, crouching in the middle of a circle of fire wearing face-paint and an Apache-chief headdress.
And for all the i'm-a-serious-artist-who-takes-the-problems-of-the-world-seriously stuff, he always had the goods to back to it up. If "Biko" doesn't make the hair on your arms stand up, you must not have any hair on your arms. (And you're a racist.)
Lastly, here's a very sweaty live version of "Family Snapshot" from 1986. Man, what a great song. Phil Collins can suck it forever.
The Magnetic Fields covered "Not One Of Us." It's available on iTunes!
http://houseoftomorrow.com/
Who should cover I Grieve? I ask seriously because I really love that song. That might be one of those things you're not supposed to admit; I have no idea?
I'd say no one should cover that song....but I'm trying to imagine an Elvis Costello version.
Totally dead on re: Gabriel in late 70s/early 80s - he managed to be avant garde without looking like he was trying too hard.
The first solo album is pert near perfect. And the third not far behind.
Car, Scratch, and Melt are all pretty awesome. His quality/filler ratio was one of the highest.
"Lead A Normal Life" from Melt is still on heavy rotation in my mixes 25 years after I first got the record.
SO TRUE. About Genesis, too, all you say is so right. They were so witty and just fun, early on. Lamb Lies Down is also my favorite, but Nursery Cryme and Selling England By the Pound also amazing. The records got weaker and it was all ?! and then that first solo record came out, and you could see quite clearly that he hadn't been on the same path at all. It was really an explosive change of direction, so inventive, so literary you could say.
His first US solo tour I saw in San Jose of all places, we had to drive for ages to get there, and the venue was all full of these big hair prog rock kind of headbangerish guys, and Peter Gabriel had totally shaved his head (you've no IDEA, this simply was not done) and he came out to the edge of the stage and sat down with just one acoustic guitar and whispered, "let's get regressive."
I always think Elbow sounds uncannily like Peter Gabriel, which makes mutual covers ... more fun? Less fun? I can't tell, actually.
I agree with everything in this post and suggest it all be made factual.
Seconded.
Don't forget Up, his last album. "I Grieve" might be the best mourning song ever written.
The Coal Chamber and Ozzy Osbourne vrs. of "Shock the Monkey."
The Coal Chamber and Ozzy Osbourne vrs. of "Shock the Monkey."
The Faster Times says that i shouldn't give this record the time of day. But, you say otherwise. I hate it when people I like have conflicting opinions. Y'all should really just hug it out...then, rub it out.
You haven't really experienced Family Snapshot until you've seen him do it in a real-life ancient Greek amphitheater in Athens.