1
There's a killer version of "In Your Eyes," but what I needed to hear most and am most satisfied with is another rendition of "Secret World."
Do you know this new Peter Gabriel live package is out?
I had no idea until dyed-in-the-wool Gabriel/Genesis fan Jake texted me about it. Took me a couple of days to pull it up and I was stunned, because it was totally in the pocket, great, and I was going to write about it but then I got diverted.
By time Peter Gabriel left Genesis most people had no idea who he was. And although "Solsbury Hill" ultimately became an AOR staple most people were still unfamiliar with the man and his history, even though his best album, his third solo, released on Mercury after Atco passed, came out in 1980.
Bob Ezrin created a solo debut that was pure statement, Robert Fripp brought his cred to the second LP, but it was the wet behind the ears Steve Lillywhite who truly captured Gabriel's essence on the third disc entitled "Peter Gabriel."
Based on the artistic success of that album Gabriel was signed to Geffen where he promptly shocked the monkey and ultimately sledgehammered his way into the public consciousness, with an indelible song with a boundary-pushing video.
"In Your Eyes" brought Diane Court to Lloyd Dobler, Gabriel steamed up the stage at the Grammys and then...as the centuries flipped he was no longer primary in public perception, after all he wasn't a rapper, he didn't make pop records and he wasn't a fit on Active Rock. Unlike his progressive brethren Gabriel was still pushing the envelope, refusing to rest on his laurels, diverting his attention to tech all the while, after all tech was much more interesting than music twenty five years ago, to a degree still is.
But tech is not music.
So Gabriel continued to release music, however sporadically, playing to the diehards, of which there are many, but not everybody. Gabriel has become a niche, part of the endless sideshow, and either you're paying attention or you're not.
Furthermore, Gabriel's albums require repeated plays to ingest and digest, to fully understand and embrace, and that's not how people listen anymore. They cherry-pick tracks and oftentimes don't even listen to most of an LP.
Now Gabriel is not happy with me, because he released his last album over a series of months, a few tracks at a time, and I thought he lost marketing value, as that paradigm worked a decade or so ago, but not anymore, today it's so hard to reach everybody that you have to bang them over the head with shall I say...A SLEDGEHAMMER!
2
Now if you want to hear the definitive Gabriel live work, you must partake of the 1994 double album "Secret World Live," which was accompanied by a purchasable video of Gabriel's unique live show, with the extended telephone cord and...
What made "Secret World Live" so great was not only the opening "Come Talk to Me," imploring listeners to pay attention, but the extended side ending versions of "Secret World" and "In Your Eyes." They are utter tours-de-force. Especially the former, it makes the "Us" closer truly come alive. Which is why I needed to hear this new version.
It's the intro that grabs you, akin to a bagpipe, even though it's not.
And then Gabriel's nearly whispered vocal. In an era where everybody's banging you over the head Gabriel sees no need for this, the music suffices, and it's best if it sneaks up on you, if you come to it as opposed to vice versa.
"Down by the railway side
In our secret world we were colliding
In all the places we were holding love
What was it we were thinking of"
This is where Gabriel starts to put the pedal to the metal, he's on the straightaway engaging DRS. And then he takes it up a notch and nearly caterwauling he sings:
"In this house of make believe
Divided in two like Adam and Eve
You put out and I receive"
And now it's a completely different track, no longer nearly sotto voce, but in-your-face. It's like Gabriel has spread his arms wide and lifted the entire audience up into a levitating position, where they're stunned, amazed and focused, there's no room for random thoughts, you're engaged.
And the bombast continues until the entire track quiets down and simple notes akin to those played on a toy piano are played. This is the genius of the long take on "Secret World Live," it's what I was waiting for here, it was why I played the track.
It's nearly quiet. You're reveling in the sound.
Then Gabriel comes in like an angel:
"Seeing things that were not there
On a wing on a prayer
In this state of disrepair"
And then the intensity returns. At first solely percussion. Then crazy guitar, like someone plugged their body into an electrical outlet. And then it's like some bizarre carnival, the kind that got us all hooked back in the day, when music was more than entertainment, you're listening to the music, not worried about chart position, merch numbers, if you're listening you can't resist. And it's not bad on earbuds, but if you've got an old school stereo turn it up and it fills the complete room.
"Shaking it up
Breaking it up
Making it up in our secret world"
That's what it was, a secret world. You couldn't read about it in the newspaper, you just had to know...you found out from the radio, in the case of Gabriel more print and your friends, and it made you feel so GOOD! This a not mindless drivel, these were thinking people appealing to your intellect as well as your genitalia.
3
"Accepting all I've done and said
I want to stand and stare again
'Til there's nothing left, whoa
It remains there in your eyes
Whatever comes and goes
Oh, it's in your eyes"
Unlike the studio version of "Secret World" the studio take of "In Your Eyes" is not behind tempered glass, it's right in front of your eyes, it's like watching a movie in the sky.
That's not how the version on "Secret World Live" sounds, the live take is a celebration.
But the version on "In the Big Room" is PERSONAL. Not only is it live, you don't feel like you're in the arena, but up close and personal. You can feel the humanity.
And those initial accents akin to treble cowbells is much more prominent in this take than the "Secret World Live" version.
The "In the Big Room" version is less composed, more relaxed, it evidences confidence, Gabriel is not trying to prove anything, he knows what he's got, and you know it too.
It's a 39 year old song kids. It's not unknown. But here it doesn't sound calcified, but purely alive, as if Gabriel is doing his first shows after the release of "So."
4
Is "In the Big Room" a revelation? A pushing of the envelope, a great leap forward?
No. But it will satisfy more than fans. Because of the energy, the life. This is not someone playing to hard drive, there might be electronic sounds, but there's definitely humanity.
In the middle of "In Your Eyes" it sounds like you're in the middle of the jungle, music's power was always its ability to take you away.
You've got to dream big to create big. But it costs money and time to execute on this level, and today no one wants to give this kind of free rein to an artist. The label not only wants you to make it cheap, they want input, they want to steer it to commercial success.
But that's not the way it used to be.
Sure, not every expensive record was an artistic breakthrough, never mind an exploration. But we were regularly wowed with what people came up in the pre-complaint era.
That's all anyone can do anymore, complain. The system is against them, streaming doesn't pay, when in truth if you're a successful artist you're making more bread in adjusted dollars than you ever have, although you might have to go on the road to earn those bucks, then again it was a very brief period that music went from a live to a recorded medium, the emphasis has switched back again.
But there was a moment in time...
"I want to stand and stare again
Oh, it's in your eyes"
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