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Peter Gabriel: Songs
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Peter Gabriel is 53 now, and the fact that he's getting a bit soft around the middle is difficult to disguise. Aside from a black, physique-concealing waistcoat, he doesn't try, and his between-songs monologue included the smattering of cracks about advancing age and receding hairlines that is typical for performers entering this stage of their careers. Unlike his contemporaries, though, his self-deprecation doesn't feel like an apology for getting old, and his behavior on stage was that of a man who is very comfortable in his skin. Gabriel's performance was a clinic in showmanship: he danced, goose-stepped and even pelvic-thrusted his way through the set list, implying to the mixed-generation crowd that it was okay to gyrate along with him, even if they hadn't brought their waistcoats.
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The first and last Peter Gabriel hit for quite a while, many critics have considered Solsbury Hill to be Peter's finest moment. While this view clearly fails to take into account many subsequent successes in the catalogue, it does indicate the unusual and extraordinary appeal of this track. Built around a 7/4 time signature in a sprightly B major, the song's sunny disposition is largely thanks to the acoustic guitar riff, an instrument which has rarely been used in Gabriel's arrangements since the 1970s. Lyrically the song takes the stress and uncertainty of a future without his former bandmates and twists it into a positively electric excitement (eg. his heart's "boom boom boom"). The track's pace quickens as new instruments are added with each additional verse, the final cathartic moment occuring at the last "home" as the crash cymbal darts across the stereo spectrum (a technique applied to many of the songs insturments, so much so that listening to Solsbury Hill in audiophile headphones can create a sense of motion sickness) and the electric guitars groan down to the tonic chord over bristling shouts and odd-ball squeals.
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Peter Gabriel left the rock band Genesis in 1976 and took a very different musical direction; interested in the beats of African music, Gabriel began adding a world music flavor to his arty pop music. This concert, filmed live in 1994, captures this interest and incorporates instruments such as the doudouk and African drums. It ... features chart hits such as "Sledgehammer" and the love song from the movie Say Anything, "In Your Eyes."
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The muted drum sound of this song is precisely what Gabriel will avoid at all costs on the following Peter Gabriel record. More than just a product of its time, Perspective is frankly annoying in its existing form. That's not to say that there are good elements to the song, only that the elements focused on here are the most irritating. The muffled soul-style backing vocals seem totally out of place in Perspective. Timmy Capello's sax solo deserves no mention. The piano's rock and roll style plinking ... results in some serious contempt.
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As frontman for the British progressive-rock band Genesis [see entry], Peter Gabriel cowrote, sang, and acted out elaborate story songs, wearing masks and costumes. Since leaving Genesis in 1975 to begin a solo career, Gabriel has revealed a new array of guises, including soundtrack composer, social activist, world-music aficionado and benefactor, music-video innovator, and multimedia artist.
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In 2005, Peter began offering early demoes of a number of songs as free downloads from the Moon Club. He ... appeared at another 46664 concert in Norway. In setting up the Eden Project, his own Live 8 concert, as it were, he also left his mark on the Live 8 concerts. The successor for Up, however, will not be released in 2005. Instead Peter will put out another Live DVD of the 2004 festival tour, Still Growing Up - Live And Unwrapped.
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