Essential? Peter Gabriel
Courtesy of Carsten Petersen – a grumpy and strange music geek
I am reviewing Peter Gabriel on this site. You thought that the upcoming World Cup is the biggest story of the year? You are wrong! Or maybe I am just frustrated that one of my favourite players just got badly hurt yesterday and will not be able to join for Brazil. Get well, Marco!
Let me start this review by introducing the founder of this site, Alejandro De Luna. He is cool. A ladies´ guy everywhere he goes. Wears sunglasses. Has the coolness factor of Stephen Segal. He likes punk music. He likes punks. He IS punk.
I am not. I am the opposite. The ladies don’t outright hate me anymore. This phase, fortunately, has been a part of the past 8 years now, and thats fine. Still, it could be better. I watch cartoons. I like to listen to music from video games of the 90s. I know absolutely everything about the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles – Michelangelo is the youngest by the way. I watch playthrough videos from old videogames. Other people play Play Station, I still play Sega Genesis. I listen to Progressive Rock. I am a geek.
And I like Peter Gabriel…
Peter Gabriel, to me, has been a total hero since I listened to him on the Genesis record, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Hard to get used to it at first, his voice was just something special. And the lyrics? strange weird, cryptic, twisted…Just something special. One and a half year later, I listened to Peter´s Shaking The Tree Best Of compilation, and needless to say, I was drawn in. His songs were mostly dark but with the same wonderful knack and atmosphere of “The Lamb.” Peter is mostly a storyteller. His songs – very often – tell stories from the first person perspective. I love that. He actually describes the surroundings from the view of the spectator step by step; it simply draws you into his world. He actually tells stories, he does not stick to mere metaphors, calling it a deep experience. This guy has something to say that you and me might not understand it, but I am pretty sure he does.
Peter´s first four albums did not have titles, simply sticking to “Peter Gabriel” as the title for all four. His fourth album was therefore called “Peter Gabriel”, or Peter Gabriel IV (1982). Apparently, though, the American side of the music business got kinda sick of Pete´s eccentricities and decided – if not for that damn pussy called “Europe” – that if he wanted to stick to the market of glorious, World War II winning, stars and stripes sprinkled market of the U.S.A. (hell yeah!) he would just need a name. Therefore, the title, Security, was chosen. I don’t know why they used that name and I doubt, anyone, including Peter, did.
Now finally to the album, to the music. Peter Gabriel had helped introducing a new sound with his preceding album, Peter Gabriel III or Melt. Along with Phil Collins, he introduced the Gated reverb sound – the kind of sound that makes this really loud, loud, crashing drum sound. Dark synths, minimalistic approach to the songs, dark lyrics, marimbas, piano, strange sound effects, you know the deal. With a song like “Biko”, Peter first showed his interests in African influences and rhythms – this is important to describe Peter Gabriel IV.
In order to go deeper in the new sound for the new album, Peter worked with the then new, so called Fairlight System or Fairlight CMI. This was a keyboard which could record all kinds of sounds. And to record as many sounds as possible, Peter would go out to places recording all kind of different sounds – including going the dumping ground. Yes, honestly…Say what you want about Peter, but when someone is willing to pour through garbage like a starving racoon all day, you just know, that he is gotta be passionate about music. He also hired a lot of African guest musicians to help deepen the foreign influences of the last record.
The albums theme? Isolation. All songs provide the feeling of being not quite part of this world, something that Peter Gabriel could always handle. The result? A strange, extremely dark, yet deeply exotic and colourful album.
To be honest, I am in a pretty bad mood now. I honestly do not know how to keep going in this review. Its funny, Gabriel is my hero, but..I don’t know how to finish this friggin review! So, looking back on my first writing experience with that fancy Zappa article, I will do a song by song description, cause really, I do not know how else to do the album justice. Relax, it is just 8 tracks, it ain’t no Trout Mask Replica!
“Rhythm Of The Heat”: Ominous Intro, Gabriel´s scream. The introduction to the album, and like in the friggin record, it ain’t your normal everyday eighties bullshit. Weird rhythms, Gabriel whispering and screaming out his lungs, brooding synths, terrifying atmospheres. It all explodes with a drum fiesta at the end.
“San Jacinto”: Written from the point of view of an old Native American, seeing how his own culture detoriates little by little under the hands and culture of the white man. Ringing, tinkling synth patter, with intensity rising more and more until Gabriel delivers one more great final. Ends very ominous with what sound like old African pipes…It is getting dark, the protagonist of the story is all alone, no light in a thousand miles around. Just the man alone with his thoughts and that is not positive…
“I Have The Touch”: The first pop song. Dominated by gated reverb drums – just a crazy rhythm. This song gives you the feeling of a bustling city, being in the middle of the traffic, without a single way out of the modern civilization. However, the hero of this track thoroughly enjoys this as he is completely desperate for, well, contact. He enjoys the company of people, no matter how many, no matter how anonymous, he is desperate for anything that will cause any form of interaction. Might seem weird, but then again, seeing that Pete always speaks from the point of the view of the isolated, this desperate need for any goddamn touch seems pretty logical.
“Family And The Fishing Net”: Creepy, just creepy. Gabriel describes a wedding ceremony in the song, but the sounds of this track just paint the picture of a dark hut dominated by buzzing flies, blood, raw meat, the feel of suspense and the smell of death. Hear this track and you will never complain about being single again…
“Shock The Monkey”: The hit single. But this is Gabriel. He´s sick. Great synth riff and Gabriel doing the vocal performance of his life. Crashing drums, cutting guitar riffs, a driving rhythm pushing the track forward while the intensity and speed of the track increases and only coming to a close with Pete´s incredible falsettos. “I Have The Touch” was the city, this track paints the picture of a dark jungle.
“Lay Your Hands On Me”: The track where the theme of isolation is at its most obvious. This powerful plea once again features a dense atmosphere that for me, somehow always evoked images of the movie, I Am Legend. Seriously, it is easy to listen the song and have this protagonist in mind standing on the top of a building overviewing an empty New York City with no single other person but him in sight.
“Wallflower”: As with “Biko”, Peter gets serious with real topics. The song describes the life of a political prisoner in South America. Living in a cell, no light, no food, no contact, no future, no life. Gabriel talks directly to the prisoner in this song, ending in a powerful promise that the prisoner will not be forgotten. It is probably the saddest track, Gabriel has ever written. Those goddamn piano notes in the chorus honestly bring me close to tears everytime I hear them. Along with Gabriel´s promise in the final, this is probably one of the most outright touching moments I have ever heard in music. No kidding…And as much as I actually love Phil Collins (probably the right time to tell you that this might be my very last article for the blog…), when this guy tried to sing about serious topics, they really did not hold a handle to moments like this. Stick with Phil´s “Sussudio” that is in the air tonight.
“Kiss Of Life”: Have you ever had a wonderful sleep, only to be surprised by your dog´s wet tongue? Have you ever talked to a great, wonderful, perfect girl and suddenly she tells you that she used to be a guy? Have you ever jumped into a pool, happily awaiting the wonderful water, only to find out that the pool is empty? Have you ever wanted to watch all Rocky movies, only to find out they only got Rocky 5 at the video store? If so, then you know what listening to this song at the end of this album feels like. Honestly, that damn track at the end totally goes against the feeling of the rest of the album. A samba track? A happy samba track? And that without being catchy? Come on, just skip that last piece of rubbish and you got yourself a wonderful record.
Well, I can’t shake the feeling, that I haven’t had my best day in writing today. What I wanna say is that Gabriel is a key artist in my musical understanding. You see, this guy really has been a central figure in my taste of music ever since I first listened to him and the other four guys back then in 2006. This was my time, this was the time of Genesis, this was Peter Gabriel’s time. He was a weird guy, he was strange, he told weird stories, he was awkward. He lived in a different world, he did not seem to be a part of us, earth people. I am neither. So please Peter, live long and do a lot more music. Live to be a fucking 100. You deserved it.
Best wishes,
