Peter Gabriel

Certain Songs #1544: Peter Gabriel – “Red Rain”

May 21, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: So
Year: 1986

. . .

After putting out four albums in five years — Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel and Peter Gabriel, cos this is the last time I get to make this joke — Peter Gabriel slowed it down a bit, and his next studio album didn’t come out until 1986.

Of course, he didn’t disappear: a lot of folks loved his 1983 double live album as well as his all-instrumental soundtrack for the film Birdy, but I’m sure people wondered if he was going to keep the momentum he’d built up in the U.S. when “Shock The Monkey” — driven by massive MTV play — became a top 30 hit, because back then, four years between albums was a long time.

Certain Songs #1543: Peter Gabriel – “No More Apartheid”

May 20, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Sun City
Year: 1985

. . .

The final song on Peter Gabriel was a long, haunting dirge entitled “Biko,” which was all about the death of anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko in police custody in 1977.

And while it’s just a bit long and dirgy for me to love it as much as I loved other songs on that album, I didn’t really know what it was all about until I went back into it in the wake of a whole album that it directly inspired, Artists United Against Apartheid’s Sun City.

Certain Songs #1542: Peter Gabriel – “Games Without Frontiers”

May 19, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Peter Gabriel
Year: 1980

. . .

It probably goes to my age that two of the running subplots of Certain Songs are 1960s/1970s songs about SPACE! and 1980s songs about nuclear destruction, the latter of which “Games Without Frontiers” is an absolutely stellar example.

Featuring spooky guitar and synth noises, a disjointed but steady drum beat, “Games Without Frontiers” opens with a Kate Bush-sung hook that I misheard for, well, decades really. I can’t remember if there was a lyric sheet on my copy of Peter Gabriel, but what I’ve heard her sing was:

Certain Songs #1541: Peter Gabriel – “And Through The Wire”

May 18, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Peter Gabriel
Year: 1980

. . .

I find it extremely weird that I’m doing so many Peter Gabriel songs, because I really don’t consider myself that big of a Peter Gabriel fan. And I think that’s because — unlike Peters Case & Yorn — he never made an album that I loved start-to-finish, but rather, it was always individual songs of his that always slayed me. That said, the closest he came for me was his third album, 1980’s Peter Gabriel, the follow-up to 1978’s Peter Gabriel.

As he crashed into the 1980s, Peter Gabriel decided to augment his third album with younger musicians who mixed with the expected older guard. So while you still had Robert Fripp & Tony Levin show up, as well a guy named Phil Collins on the drums, he also had Kate Bush singing, and Dave Gregory from XTC — who were also recording Drums and Wires with producer Steve Lillywhite — play some guitar.

Oh, and weirdest of all, Paul Weller playing guitar on my favorite track from the album, “And Through The Wire,” another of those songs where Gabriel leads with the chorus.

Certain Songs #1540: Peter Gabriel – “D.I.Y.”

May 17, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Peter Gabriel
Year: 1978

. . .

While Peter Gabriel’s second album, 1978’s Peter Gabriel wasn’t quite as commercially or critically successful as his debut, Peter Gabriel, or one that came next, 1980’s Peter Gabriel, it started incredibly well.

The opener, “On The Air,” featured the roaring guitar of producer Robert Fripp battling against the keyboards of E-Streeter Roy Bittan, but was instantly topped by one of my all-time fave Gabriel tracks, the statement of purpose “D.I.Y,” which featured neither of those people.

Certain Songs #1539: Peter Gabriel – “Solsbury Hill”

May 16, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Peter Gabriel
Year: 1977

. . .

First, a little housekeeping. As you probably know, Peter Gabriel out Led Zeppelined Led Zeppelin by naming all four of his first solo albums Peter Gabriel, only finally acquiescing to Geffen in the U.S. to allow the fourth one to be sub-titled Security, which no doubt helped the album sales when “Shock The Monkey” became a big MTV song in 1982.

And since then, fans have retconned the album titles of the albums as I, II, II and IV or — based on the album covers (and Geffen’s Geffening) — Car, Scratch, Melt and Security.

As a casual fan of Mr. Gabriel, I’m having none of that bullshit. The first four Peter Gabriel albums — from which three will have posts in the next few days — are as follows: Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel and Peter Gabriel.

Medialoper Bebop Episode 21: Harry Potter and the Naked Grab For Cash

October 26, 2011 by Jim Connelly

This week, Jim, Kirk & Tim are not quite as organized as in previous weeks, which is really saying something (really saying something) (bop bop shoobie do wah).

First off, Kirk’s impending trip to San Francisco sparks a discussion about what having the San Francisco Giants being the MLB champions for a year meant to Tim & Jim, and how the Rapture could have kept the Giants champions forever. (3:45 – 7:10)

Then, we discuss the decision by Warner Bros to put the Harry Potter DVDs on moratorium at the end of the year, and wonder what it might mean for the future of digital media vs. physical media. (7:14 – 19:56)

We look at the first world problem of how iPads are affecting bandwidth in hotel rooms, and Kirk’s PROTIP for solving the problem. (19:57 – 25:45)

After that, another voicemail from Medialoper Bebop Commissioner Gordon Loper. Yep, we’re still in trouble over that whole “Hitler” thing. (25:46 – 28:10)

This week, it was Tim’s turn to do “In The Mix,” however, he’d had a busy week, and tried to discuss albums he hadn’t even heard, and we had to bring in the Commissioner to find out if he could even do that. Tim’s controversial and theoretical mix might include Tom Waits, Noel Gallagher and Coldplay. And Peter Gabriel. (28:12 – 33:50)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:18 — 59.5MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Subscribe to us in the iTunes, yo!